I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong - that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.
- Romans 1:11-12
It was a slight criticism, insignificant enough to cause uneasy embarrassment by my senseless exaggeration if I were to write it out on paper for others to read, laughing the words away, word for worthless word. Still, the biting criticism stung my pride, pretense, and, yes, respectability I assumed was due to me.
I was bearing wrongs with a self-assured sense of rightness - my pettiness only punctuated by my clients constant questions, "Dallas, I've done a good job, haven't I?" I looked down at his craft project and realized that the paint was running down the glass surface, pooling into a mess on the table. "Yes" I mechanically replied, "You're doing a great job", while wiping up the mess feverishly, as if I could wipe the lingering, fault-finding memory right out of my mind.
I looked up at the clock reminding me that it was time for my other client to complete his garbage collection routine. We picked up our garbage bags and went rummaging for garbage in our facility, as I continued to dwell on the garbage-in-garbage-out remains running through my mind. My client promptly handed me the garbage bag and dumped another waste basket of its contents, when he spilled out the question:
"I did a good job today, didn't I Dallas?"
I looked at him foggily, "what did you do today?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know."
"You know what, you did a great job today!"
I returned to my other client's murky pool of mixed paint, still feeling the dogged heaviness of negativity. After cleanup we changed tasks, working on some small-change accounting. We rolled out the coins on the table and counted together; "10...20...21...oops...30!" Balancing the account ledger, he turned to me and beamed lightly; joyfully; "With all this money I'm making, I'm going to be a millionaire!" I caught my breath - at that moment the cloud lifted and every loose ray of the sun shone through; "Yes, you're richer than you'll ever know", so very rich in faith!
There is a spiritual richness in the poverty of spirit they inhabit and fill with affirmation, changing a hostile atmosphere into one of grace, supporting and boosting heavy spirits. There's no place for false humility with my clients, they just freely invite us into the spirit of encouragement - ready or not - and by doing so vulnerably open themselves up to rejection and ridicule.
Regrettably, many of the clients I've worked with over the years have been fed a steady diet of rejection, and so they hunger for affirmation. It's difficult for me to appreciate just how under--appreciated my clients are. If they're not being ridiculed then they're being ignored by the world; tolerated; but "tolerance" is often another word for indifference. Yet, it's out of that deep spiritual hunger, and not shallow self-satisfaction, that gives them the readiness to share the gift of encouragement with those who could use some spiritual uplift.
To be sure, as we grow and mature we lose our dependency on others flattery, but I hope I never outgrow the place of genuine encouragement. I guess it's for that very reason that I long to see them each day, as each day the gift is imparted, stirring my sluggish spirit with the magnetism of encouragement.
The craft project doesn't need to be neat and tidy, the work may be as unglamorous as picking up other's garbage, the money no more than a scattered roll of coins - all of it diminishes when we're mutually encouraged by a faith lifting us above ourselves.
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