Fans

I am a firm believer that encouragement is one of the single greatest motivators that we as people have and can offer each other. Encouragement is the act of empowering others with hope, it is willing participation in situations and circumstances that we could, for all practical purposes, merely observe. Having fans and being a fan of others builds a bond through true challenges and struggles, and allows our lives to intermingle at times and places where we can cease to understand the circumstances and situations that loom over each other. Encouragement does not necessarily require that we understand or fully grasp the gravity of any particular event or undertaking, but rather it only requires that we make choices to step outside of our own circumstances to acknowledge the gravity and importance of the circumstances of others.

As is the case with any action where we invest time, resources, and emotions, encouragement and the act of encouraging others changes our perspective and produces a state-of-heart that opens the door to allow us to love each other in real and deep ways. When we make choices to cheer and to cheer loudly for people around us we not only plant seeds of hope and optimism in dismal and hopeless times, but we ourselves also will find that the way we view those we encourage also changes. Encouragement facilitates the shift from outcome to input orientation I wrote of a few weeks ago (Input vs. Outcome) and it helps us to love in a non-results-oriented way.

If we encourage only as a function of undertakings and actions that are successful, we aren’t really encouraging at all, we are simply rewarding results that we deem to have merit. By conditioning encouragement on when a particular outcome is achieved we commoditize relationships and we take on the role of fair-weather fans. Who in life needs support and encouragement only when they’re winning? The moments where we are lost, hopeless, and struggling seem to be much better candidates for us as spectators to cheer.

I believe that we all identify with what it means to overcome adversity, so it is no wonder that we cheer for the underdog and we love to hear stories time and again about those who overcome (not necessarily achieve) in spite of enormous obstacles. We all understand what it means to face big challenges, and when we see times and places where darkness does not prevail it resonates deep in our souls and reminds us to keep fighting. The will to overcome is something we all seek but don’t always find in ourselves and others, but when we engage in acts of encouragement we reinforce the fact that above the clouds the sun still shines, and that while times may be hard they too shall pass.

Think for a minute of a proud parent. Whether it’s a finger painting or their child’s first soccer game, it is clear that when you see a parent cheer for a child that their encouragement is a derivative of their love. Even if you have not experienced it in your life first hand, I’m confident you’ve seen it somewhere. Love and encouragement are intertwined, each one invoking the other. The more we love the more we encourage, the more we encourage the more we love…it is a beautiful cycle, and this is the heart of what I am talking about, encouragement is not only a result of love, but it makes love more deep, more real and in turn less performance based (or more unconditional)

By encouraging others we foster a sense of openheartedness to the people who grace our lives on a daily basis. When we cheer, we get in on the race and when it is our time to run, we run well. Encouragement is a great tradition of adversity.

When we are encouraged, we too as the recipients see great benefits and change in our lives. The field which adversity plows gives way for encouragement to plant seeds of hope. While seeds may take time to sprout, and may require replanting, once they are in the soil of our lives, there they stay. If we accept encouragement we become believers in hope, believers in our ability to change, our ability to overcome, our ability to stay the course and carry on when times are hard. And when it is harvest season, we too have seeds that we can plant in others.

I have been afforded many great fans in my life. My parents, my friends, sometimes even total strangers, but all of them cheer me on in some many arenas of my life. For this I am deeply grateful. I have found myself on both sides of the coin, both giving and receiving and I know that my greatest joy is not overcoming adversity, but knowing that there are people sincerely pulling for me in this life. Both those who encourage me and those I encourage inspire me towards greatness, while I have not by any means achieved it and nor may I ever, I know and believe that the hope and love of Christ is both the means and the end of that which I seek. Those who encourage me keep me rooted in this every day, and keep me moving on pushing forward towards Christ.

A life of cheering and being cheered is rich, so I implore you to not only cheer on the races being run around you, but I also cheer you to run well.

"If you're going through hell, keep going" - Winston Churchill

Cheering and being Cheered,
CP