Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. – 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Good morning, friends. Today I would like to drill down a little into the idea I have selected to guide my thinking, my writing, and my speaking during 2025. I’m talking about “encouragement” and I want it to serve as a kind of lens through which I look at everything else.

It’s not going to be my exclusive focus (what happens day by day and then how I respond is much too random for that) but encouragement will, or should, be always in evidence in the background.

Encouragement means the sharing of courage – to imbue others with heart. Interestingly, if you think about the Wizard of Oz, both the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion were looking for the same thing. “Take heart,” Jesus says (have courage), “I have overcome the world.”

To be an encourager is to be the exact opposite of the bully. Those who bully are weak – those with courage inspire

I believe it takes heart to do what is right. Courageous people, people with heart, lean naturally toward following Jesus, they don’t just show up but they reach out, they speak out against injustice, they put others ahead of themselves. Courage – having heart – allows us to admit when we are wrong; people who never own their mistakes are not strong, they are fearful; this is why humility is one of the strongest ideas in human community.

This is why humility is one of the strongest ideas in human community…

Being courageous does not mean to be unafraid. Courage is doing the right thing even when we are afraid. Courage acknowledges the fear and then faces it.

So what I want to do is to live in such a way, and communicate in such a way that people feel empowered to live into the Good News story – that their hearts are built up.

Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. – Ephesians 6:13

This is courage, this is encouragement: to stand with Jesus, to stand for Jesus, to stand because of Jesus. “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand” – Edward Mote (1834).

Encouragement is about knowing who stands with us. And if I am going to offer you courage then it has to be the real thing; the real thing is Jesus – DEREK