Have you ever felt a compulsion to encourage someone, especially someone you don’t know?

This happens to me sometimes. A few months ago I felt compelled to encourage someone. It was a person I don’t know well but she is a percussionist in the “Big Church” worship band and I remembered at that service thinking that she had played really well. Percussionists aren’t often noticed and I felt like God wanted me to say something to her about how well she played. So I did.

Tonight she reminded me of that. We probably haven’t spoken to each other from that day months ago till now, but she mentioned to me tonight how encouraged she was that day to have someone compliment her playing. I would not have thought that a few words spoken months ago would be remembered, but she said that it meant a lot to her to be encouraged like that.

I say this not to pat myself on the back. Encouragement is easy to do. It took no special effort, really, on my part. In addition, what I said to her was the truth; encouragement should always be based on the truth. And speaking the truth, when it’s encouraging, is easy. What I did was a very small thing.

But I write this because it is an illustration to me of how so much in our lives rises and falls on the small things. We make thousands of choices every day, and it’s mind-boggling to think of how many choices might have spun the other way if spurred on by a kind word or a loving exhortation.

People are dying for encouragement. A word spoken truly and kindly to another is often embued with power beyond what we can guess. Encouraging words are rare, and thus are treasured in the hearts of those who hear them, where they sparkle like jewels in a dimly lit cave.

For this is the way we are made. Wanting encouragment and even praise is not necessarily a bad thing; children naturally want the attention and praise of their Father. Our hearts long for the day when we will hear the words “well done” spoken by the One who loves us, who gave himself for us, and who does all things well.

In the meantime, we should be generous in the “well done”s that we give others. For we never can know the impact our words might have.

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

– 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (ESV)