day 810: High Five

"Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds."

In the business world when we have a success it just doesn't seem appropriate to do the up in the air hip or chest bumps. (I don't think they have a name, so let's call them "Air Bumps"). Nor do we do celebratory end-zone dances. About the best we get is a high five, a hug, a slap on the back, or maybe a fist bump. But, we want to, and we need to have a way to celebrate our successes and let the excitement out. Even just a little bit of encouragement can go a long way. I was running on Saturday and about 7 miles into my 9.5 mile run I ran by a gentleman at least 25 years my senior. As I was approaching him he held out his hand to give me a high five as I passed him. I responded with a gentle tap and a "Thank you". He turned it around and said, "Go get 'em". I was encouraged and I found a burst of energy from that small gesture. We all need it and in business we need it often. Consider when the last time was you gave a high five to someone on the team?

In Hebrews we are challenged to encourage our brothers and sisters in the Lord to bring forward "outbursts of love and good deeds". This verse is so good because it reminds us how hard it is to stay in the zone of encouragement and focus on love and our good deeds. We need others around us who can keep us propped up and recognizing the things that we are doing and vice-verse. We can also encourage those around us as we see them doing those things that are upright in the Lord. Let's today work on where our high-fives can be best put to use and see if we can't make a difference in how we encourage others. I suspect that the better we get at this the more we might see those high fives coming back our way too.

Reference: Hebrews 10:24 (New Living Testament)