Encourage Each Other

As you know, I’m a sports fan.  I love to go to the local games.  And when I go, I like to cheer.  I like to holler.  I try to keep it positive.  I do slip once in a while--I’m human, and I get emotional about the games sometimes.  That’s not an excuse, it’s just the truth.  But I do try to keep it positive and just yell encouragement for my team.

I didn’t always do that.  I used to sit fairly quietly, and just enjoy the game for what it is.  There’s a story behind why I changed, and I thought I’d share it with you because I think there might be something to learn from it.

For four years during my time in Wessington Springs, I kept stats for the boys basketball team.  Our first year, we had a terrible team.  Things got better, but that first year, the only way to put it is that we were bad.  We lost our first two games by about forty points each, to teams that really weren’t even all that good.  Then came the third game, our first home game.  About midway through the second quarter, we were behind 33-11.  The coach was frustrated, slammed his clipboard on the floor (something that was quite out of character for him) and called timeout.  The boys were walking slowly toward the coach, heads down, totally dispirited.  It wasn’t that they didn’t want to win.  They simply thought they had no chance to win.  They had accepted it as their lot in life that they would lose every game by forty points.  That was just the way it was.

I thought to myself, “Someone has to get these boys fired up.”  I looked at the coach, and he was clearly too upset to do it.  I looked around at the crowd, such as it was, and everyone was just leaning back, watching what they assumed would be another blowout loss.  

So, I said to myself, “Well, then, I guess it’s up to you.”  And as they came out of the timeout, I started hollering encouragement to the team.  It was nothing technical, because I don’t understand the technical aspects of basketball very well.  It was just generic stuff:  “Everybody hustle!  Get after it!  Tough defense!  Good passes!  Take care of the ball!  Get a good shot!  You can do it!”  And on and on.

And wouldn’t you know, the team started to play a little better.  A friend of mine was sitting next to me, and he picked up on what I was doing and started hollering encouragement, too.  The boys played a little better.  A few more fans picked up on it.  Eventually, quite a few more.  The boys on the bench even started cheering their teammates on.  And after a while, we had players running all over the court, diving after every loose ball, and believing that they could actually get something accomplished on the basketball court.

Now, it would be a better story if I could report that we came back to win the game.  Honesty, however, compels me to say that we lost by fifteen points.  But fifteen is a lot fewer than forty, and more importantly, the players started to believe in themselves.  All because somebody decided to give them some encouragement and cheer them on.

The point here is not to pat myself on the back.  The point is that we all have times when it seems like everything is going against us.  It’s not that we don’t want things to be better.  We just get discouraged and dispirited.  We don’t think things can get any better.  We start to think it’s our lot in life that things are going to go against us.  That’s just the way it is.

When that happens, we need to have someone on our side.  We need to have someone to encourage us.  We need to have someone say, “Keep working.  Keep trying.  Get after it!  You can do it!”

How much better would the world be if we all did that for each other?  If we looked for people who were going through a tough time, and gave them some encouragement?  If every time we saw someone struggling, we went up to them and said, “Don’t give up.  Keep trying.  You can do this!”  We’d all feel better.  And more than that, we’d all do better.  We’d do better because we’d believe in ourselves.  And we’d believe in each other.  Think what God could do with a group of people like that.  A group of people who encouraged each other and believed in each other.  I think God could do all kinds of things with a group of people like that.

So let’s all try to do that.  Let’s look for someone who’s struggling, who’s going through a tough time.  Let’s find a way to be there for them.  Let’s find a way to show them we believe in them.  Let’s find a way to show them that they don’t need to give up, that things can get better.  Let’s be that group of people who encourage each other and believe in each other.

Who knows?  Some amazing things just might happen.