En or Dis? That is the question.

After class yesterday, Rodney came up and mentioned a few thoughts on our discussion about Encouragement. After hearing them, I thought it would be something good for the entire class to hear so I asked Rodney to put together a post for this site. Following is his post. Thanks Rodney!

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As I sat in the Driven class this morning and listened to Freddy talk about encouragement, I noticed a couple of things about the word encourage. First, it ends with the word “rage.” What, you might ask, does this have to do with anything? Well, one of the definitions of the word rage is “violence of feeling.” If we consistently lack words of encouragement in our lives, the result can be anger, disillusionment, and turbulence (a synonym of rage).

The second thing I noticed was that the root word of encourage is “courage.” Courage is what we must have to continue to walk a daily life with Christ. Courage is what we must have to get out of bed when we feel like we cannot face the world another day. Courage is what we must have when the pressures and stress of life are more that we think we can bear. The prefix en- literally means to “cause a person or thing to be or in” the place, condition or state of the stem word. Conversely, the prefix dis- means to “deprive of or remove.” This lets me know that my words will cause the hearer to either be in a place of courage or be deprived of courage. This is why God has commanded us to “encourage (not discourage) one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you are hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Hebrews 3:13-14).

I know this was way more of an English lesson than you wanted, but I believe that we must realize how this encouragement thing works. We get so busy doing our own thing that we forget that one important component of the Christian walk is uplifting our brothers and sisters in Christ. As we saw in the scene from Facing the Giants, our words can mean success or failure in the lives of others. As you reflect on the things you heard in class (or if you missed class, what you are reading here), remember that you will be either an “en-“ or a “dis-“. God has already placed the courage in our lives. The words we say can and most certainly will help develop the courage or steal it. What do you want to be?