Life is good

We don’t go through life alone or we don’t have to, not if we open our eyes and look around—we are surrounded by encouragement. The book of Hebrews calls that circle encouragement “a great cloud of witnesses.” Life is hard, but not nearly so hard when we walk surrounded by encouragement. And we have encouragement because God gives it to us, God gives everyone one of us “a cloud of witnesses,” a circle of encouragement so that we don’t just “get by,” we flourish. We can live with joy.
God puts people in our lives to help us stay the course, people who are our encouragement.

All of us have encouragers—some of them living, some dead—but we all have people who by their example, by their friendship, by their faith, inspire us to faithfulness, to endurance, to perseverance.

When you go through a rough patch it’s easy to feel that you are all alone. It’s easy to think you are the only one, but the truth is we’re not alone. When we face trouble or hardship or difficult tasks, we need to remember those witnesses, the living and the dead, who are our encouragers, the greatest of whom is Jesus himself—“the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” Hebrews said Jesus “endured the cross” for the “sake of the joy that was set before him.”

Life is good. And it is good not just when it’s easy or absent of hardship. It’s good because God intends it for joy. And whatever God intends God will achieve which is why Jesus sits at God’s right hand. The “enthronement” of Jesus testifies to the certainty of God’s victory—suffering and sorrow are not the last word. Life is not full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Life is God’s gift to us and while not without adversity, it ultimately brings joy. That’s what encourager help us to see. They help us see God’s joy. You may not believe it, but you are someone’s encourager. And what’s more, you may not know it, but you are someone’s champion. And there’s not a doubt in my mind that you are someone’s champion—your life, what they see in you is their example. Your friendship is their encouragement. And that’s what it takes to “run with perseverance,” it takes courage inspired by champions.
Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the presence of God made real by champions whose encouragement inspires us to finish, whose encouragement inspires us to endure the cross for the sake of joy and take our seat in the kingdom of God. Amen.