And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25)
I came across the verse on accident yesterday. A verse-of-the-day that pops up on my phone led me to Hebrews 10, but not this verse. As it turns out, there are a lot of great verses in Hebrews 10. I'll need to spend more time here in the near future. So, I sort of happenstansically fell into this verse (though I doubt that much with God is ever true happenstance), and it's been on my heart since I found it.
Tonight, as I sat in a Greek Council meeting with representatives from most of the fraternities and sororities on campus, the conversation turned to an upcoming event that has been an (albeit less than stellar) historic tradition on campus. For the last few years, I've watched them come together, formulate some sort of lack luster plan, and then haphazardly attempt to execute it during Homecoming Week. This year, the leadership took a different approach. They came to the meeting pumped for the event, with a few crazy ideas that they'd love to see. And a funny thing happened. The room came alive. Students were talking over each other, laughing, coming up with crazy ideas, asking how far they could push the limits of possibility... They had become stirred up. They began encouraging one another, pushing each other to produce a better event. And they ended up more excited than I had seen any of them yet this year.
The other day, I started talking with my boss about long term plans and the new building being built on campus and my place in it all. I later apologized for getting so tied up in possibilities or limitations, but my boss thanked me. In my strange combination of frustration and excitement for the future, he noted that he had felt a renewed sense of urgency and passion for projects that he had maybe not been pushing hard enough on yet this year. His heart was stirred up, encouraged to action, by my passion.
This weekend, Derrick and I got in a stupid tiff about nothing, but in it's own way, it stirred us both up and got us communicating in a way that we really needed to.
When things get stirred up, they aren't left the same. They can't be left the same. The trajectory is changed. The storyline is altered. There are lots of ways that people get stirred up. Stirred up to anger, to passion, to excitement, to action. Attitudes are contagious, for good and bad. Hebrews 10:24-25 reminds us that we need to stir each other up every now and again, stir each other toward love and good works. We are to encourage each other. We're not supposed to just let the story lie there on its own. No, we're supposed to change the trajectory, jolt people back to life through passion and gifts and action, stirring them up. This week has been a great reminder of all of the ways we get stirred up and all of the ways that I want to intentionally stir up the people around me. And I look forward to being stirred up all the more by those around me, encouraging me toward good and love.
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