The diarrhea of the brain that I contracted on our trip to Wichita must be ongoing because pastor's sermon Sunday actually inspired two blogs. The first one was about prepping, this one is about Barnabas. I was pondering how brave it was for Barnabas to seek out Saul when so many believers suspected his "conversion" was a trick to infiltrate and persecute the church. But not Barnabas, son of encouragement. Of course he was brave, the core of the word encouragement is courage. It took great courage to trust Saul, whose persecution roadshow had caused so much suffering to the early church. But it also takes courage to give encouragement when circumstances seem bleak. It takes courage to believe God has really changed a heart. It takes courage to see the spiritual potential in struggling saints, and to help them see it. We cannot give out encouragement if the courage it comes from is not inside us.
If Barnabas was wrong about some of the people he believed in, the Bible does not see fit to record it, and that in itself is significant. But it does record that he was right about Paul, and he was right about John Mark, even when Paul was not. It also takes courage to be willing to be wrong about believing in someone. Courage can be given out, but there is no guarantee it will be taken in. Still, I would rather give encouragement to a Christian whose faith falters than to withhold it until I am sure they will succeed. The Bible contains, among other things, biographies of flawed individuals appointed by the Lord to play a part in His infallible plans. At least our failures will not show up in the pages of the Bible. And that should be an encouragement for all of us.
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