I had the privilege to write for an online evangelical journal. Because the editing process was so intense, the articles finally published often bore little resemblance to the pieces originally submitted. Week after week, as “my” work was dramatically changed or, sometimes, cut altogether, I learned the importance of humility. I also learned a valuable lesson in encouragement.

First, let me explain the process. Several editors and writers gathered around a table. Someone read an article aloud. Then it began. We scratched words. We cut paragraphs. We changed the tone. We dug deeper into Scripture. We worked harder at application. Silence was usually reserved for pieces either so good they were ready for publication or so bad they didn’t deserve the dignity of a trial before execution. Most articles wound up in the middle. They were made ready for publication only after an extended conversation. Editors suggested change after change, working on each piece with the intensity of a sculptor leaning over a piece of carved wood.

What does this have to do with encouragement? 

Sometimes I struggled seeing my work put to an early death or edited to the point that I could not, in good conscience, call it my own. Discouragement easily erupted. The critique was always public and sometimes brutal. My limitations became a matter of general knowledge.

As I reflect upon these years of writing and editing I learned a valuable lesson: it is easier to hear criticism when it is served with a healthy dose of encouragement. The editors had confidence in my ability. This made it so much easier to hear their complaints. My work could be ripped to shreds without my confidence following along if I trusted the editor was on my side, if I believed he or she genuinely wanted me to succeed. Lacking such confidence, criticism is hard to bear.

This same lesson holds true as I look back not just over a few years of writing but the entirety of my life. Those who influenced me the most offered sound and harsh criticism in the context of real and repeated encouragement. As I look back on their words, I see how they followed in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul—a master encourager. More than one student of the Bible has made the magnificent observation that Paul rebuked the Christians in Corinth in the context of profound encouragement. He could write of their arrogance (1 Cor. 4:18) while he called them his “dear children” (1 Cor. 4:14). He wrote to shame them (1 Cor. 6:5) while he built them up in the faith, “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11).

I want to be able to speak the truth into people’s lives and correct them where correction is necessary. Even more than that, I want to be an encourager. I want my wife and my kids, my friends, and the members of the church I serve to know how much they mean to me, how much I value their presence, and how much I give thanks for the grace of God in their lives and the goodness of God in making me a part of their lives. I am not yet a master encourager, but I long to be.

Those interested in thinking more about encouragement should consider listening to Sovereign Grace’s leader, C. J. Mahaney, speak on this very topic in a sermon entitled “Grace and the Adventure of Leadership.” I have also been helped by Larry Crabb and Dan Allender who wrote Encouragement (Zondervan, 1984). More recently, Gordon Cheng’s book, Encouragement: How Words Change Lives (Matthias Media, 2006), is a worthy meditation on the role of the gospel in encouragement.