Hindsight

Jeff Link told a story in the Traditional Service at GateWay a couple of Sunday’s ago that stuck with me.  He cited a San Francisco Chronicle newspaper story that included a suicide note from a young man who jumped to his death off the Golden Gate Bridge.  The note was found in his apartment the day after he jumped.  The suicide note said, “If someone notices my distress and talks to me on my walk to the bridge I won’t jump.”  No one noticed and no one talked to him.

This sad story drives home the point I made on Sunday about encouragement.  There are times when all of us need the crutch of encouragement.  There’s pain, discomfort and injury in our lives and we need somebody, anybody to come alongside and prop us up with a little crutch of encouragement.  A kind or thoughtful word is helpful. 

Proverbs 25:11 says, “Like apples of gold in settings of silver (a great combination to make an expensive piece of jewelry), Is a word spoken in right circumstances (a great combination to make an encouraging statement.”

I  like the Irish fable:

         There were four people in the world, Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.  Now, there was a very important task that was Everybody’s job, but Everybody thought that Somebody was going to do it. But Somebody didn’t do it. Anybody could have done it but Nobody did it. Everybody thought that Somebody was going to do it but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. So, it ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody because Nobody did what Anybody could have done.”

Encouragement is a choice that anybody can make.