It was in the 1970s that Baylor University in Waco, Texas hired a new football coach named Grant Teaff. Baylor had a long history of failure and it seemed they could not win their conference or even really compete. Grant Teaff took over a team that had not won a conference championship in 50 years. He hit town and so did the folks who were ready to tell him how to run things. The story goes that he listened to the critics and then told them that he did not respond to criticism and worked a lot better with encouragement. He was right and within two years he took that pitiful program and won the conference championship.
Like Grant Teaff, we all work better with encouragement. I like to call those that encourage “the balcony people.” At a successful Broadway play, when the play is over the balcony people stand and cheer. Everyone needs balcony people in their life. We need people who bless us and give us courage and encouragement.
We need our family and close friends to be our “balcony people.” They know our strengths and weaknesses. They could easily boo our flops, but we need them to clap at our successes. Knowing us as well as they do, they can find something to clap about. If your family never claps for you it hurts. If your spouse never claps for you, consider counseling. If your friends never clap for you, maybe they aren’t really your friends.
We need our church family to be our balcony people. All week long we live in a world that is not friendly to our Christian values. When we walk through the church doors we need to be lifted up by the people there. We need to leave with encouragement that will help us go back and face the world. When Paul wrote to his Christian family he almost always started with words of encouragement.
We need God to be in our balcony. Thankfully, He is always there for us. When God spoke to Jeremiah He promised him, “’I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 29:10-14).
The promise God made to Jeremiah is like the promise made to us found in the words of Jesus, “I am with you always”” (Matt 28:20).
~Lonnie Davis
HeartWord – Revelation 3:20
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”