Encouragement: Adrenaline for the Soul

As a somewhat casual Minnesota Vikings fan, I should have watched the entire recent NFC Wild Card playoff game between the Vikings and the New Orleans Saints. If I were a die-hard fan, I would have. But, I figured the Saints would get revenge on the game a couple years ago and didn’t really think the Vikings had much of a chance—especially playing in New Orleans. Nevertheless, I did follow the scoring on my phone and saw that the Vikings were ahead in the 4th quarter! So thought it’d be a good idea to see the end of the game, just in case they actually pulled it off.

At the end of regulation, the game was tied. Overtime. Vikings got the ball to start. If they scored a touchdown, game over. I watched intently as the drive began. Felt my heart rate increase…my pulse was pounding…. A couple of good runs…a couple good catches…a couple first downs. Then a great 43-yard pass to Adam Thielen taking the Vikings to 1st and goal at the 2 yard line. Then 2nd and goal at the 1. Another run attempt, but a loss of three yards. 3rd and 4. I could feel my heart racing, my temples pulsating. Will they choke? Cousins backs up to pass…to the corner…to Kyle Rudolph…TOUCHDOWN!

It took quite a while for my body to settle down after that one! Adrenaline!

Adrenaline is a powerful and generally helpful hormone in the human body. In his book, Encouragement: Adrenaline for the Soul, Mark Chanksi uses this critical hormone and its impact on the body as a metaphor for the effect that encouragement has on the soul.

What adrenaline is able to chemically and physiologically do for the body, encouragement is able to emotionally and psychologically do for the soul. Encouragement can transform a person’s spirit. (p. 5)

In his opening chapter, he suggests five soul-benefiting effects of encouragement. First, encouragement strengthens the weary. Personally, I’ve found this to be true. A dear lady in our church passed away last year, and one of the many things I sorely miss with her passing is the frequent notes she would leave on my desk, encouraging me by recounting how some recent message or two was so helpful. Often her notes arrived at just the moment I was feeling discouraged, and they strengthened me to carry on.

Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad. — Proverbs 12:25

Encouragement gladdens those whose hearts are heavy with the weight of fear and uncertainty. Just today I read the account of a man who, as a child, was detained in Auschwitz—and should have been executed with the thousands of other children in the Nazi death camps. Yet he was one of 58 children who survived. From his family, only his mother and grandmother survived as well, even though his mother was moved to a different camp. As I read, I tried to imagine the overwhelming gladness welling up within with the encouraging word of Germany’s collapse and the prisoners’ imminent release!

Third, Chanski keys on Proverbs 15:30 (“The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and a good report makes the bones healthy [literally, put fat on the bones]”), and suggests that encouragement fattens, or “put fat on the bones.” In other words, it helps produce “a heart at peace and full of joy.” At one point in my ministry career, after I had only been at a new charge for about a year, I expressed an anxious heart and lack of joy to an older, wiser pastor. He offered encouraging counsel that brought a sense of peace to my heart and joy in serving in that locale for several more years.

Fourth, as Solomon discovered and recorded, “Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24), encouragement sweetens. An otherwise drab routine or difficult challenge can be sweetened by a word spoken at just the right time and in the right tone.

Again referring to one of the proverbs—“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (18:21)—Chanksi offers the fifth positive effect: encouragement enlivens. We all can probably remember feeling the sting of verbal death from somewhere in our past. Even as I write, the cutting remarks of a girl sitting behind me in my 10th grade German class percolated to the surface of my memory. I still recall the searing humiliation I felt from her caustic words. On the other hand, “You can do this!” from loving spouse has on numerous occasions restored a nearly dead dream to life.

After discussing the positive impact of encouragement, Pastor Chanski relates several of the Bible’s exhortations to Christians to encourage others (chapter 2). Nice that he didn’t leave us just with the exhortations. The following chapters suggest many ways encouragement can be expressed, some finding examples in Scripture: commendation…boasting…approval…report…name recognition…cheering on. And then there are some more subtle expressions: saying thank you…body language…humor and irony…your presence…and empathy. I found it disconcerting to reflect on that list; I employ too few of them, too infrequently. I need to be a better encourager.

Perhaps easily overlooked is the fact that the gospel is the ultimate encouragement. In the good news message of the New Testament, the sinner discovers that God in Christ saves for eternity! All the fear and anxiety about death and eternity are abolished with that message. More, the gospel provides acceptance with God—something one is never sure of otherwise—and provides the antidote for worry. In fact, Chanski concludes, the gospel is a cure-all for every spiritual ailment. An encouraging message, indeed!

After addressing some of the reasons why we don’t encourage others more (chapters 6-7), the next several chapters of this little book explore the implications of encouragement in a few key areas: marriage, parenting, and the church. Consider these thought-provoking quotations:

• A famine of encouragement can bring a marriage to cardiac arrest. (p. 89)
• As my own scarred, blemished, odd-looking, flawed body naturally gets daily pampering and primping from me, my precious bride deserves the same royal, tender treatment. (p. 91)
• A husband needs his wife to be the reviving corner in the fight of life. (p. 95)
• It takes a woman to get the song out of a man! (p. 97)
• In training our children to strive for excellence, we can become abrasive, white-glove reprimanding drill sergeants hypercritically evaluating. (p. 104)
• A sour tone that is provoking and exasperating is relationally corrosive. (p. 105)
• Parents should…cloak their sons with respect in childhood, and their sons will seek to grow into it in their manhood.… Daughters need to feel important, loved, accepted, needed, wanted, and appreciated. (pp. 110-111)
• Grandparents are not the heavies.…[they] are assigned more to be gracious and blessing benefactors than stern and disciplining rebukers. (p. 112)
• The church of Christ…should be a mutually encouraging people. (p. 116) Note: Chanski helpfully cites another author’s suggested list of “20 Ways to Be Refreshing in the Local Church” (pp. 121-122).
• A refresher draws people to him or her like an air-conditioned lobby pulls overheated people from a blistering sidewalk. (p. 122)

A battery has two terminals, positive and negative. Likewise, encouragement. While the vast majority of our efforts to encourage must be of the positive variety, sometimes we need to encourage with a bit of loving criticism—the theme of chapter 12. Chanski cites numerous examples from Scripture of those who offered strong, forceful, but loving, criticism. The following chapter—The Disposition of Encouragement—balances this emphasis with the challenge to “find the good.” He concludes the chapter,

So as our heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus habitually find the good and accordingly speak words of commending encouragement, we are solemnly obligated to imitate them by doing the same. (p. 161)

The final chapter applies all that’s been written to four other areas of modern life: school, the marketplace, social media, and the workplace. By the way, when it comes to school, teachers can be powerful encouragers—or not. My eighth-grade English teacher’s encouragement led to my taking an honors English course the next year; on the other hand, my Science teacher’s sour, critical, caustic spirit literally destroyed the passion I had for science in earlier years. So, Chanski’s point of application is well-taken.

In sum, this practical volume would be of benefit for personal study, or perhaps for couples to read together. I would recommend engaged couples read the chapter on marriage implications! This would also be a good resource for church small groups or adult Sunday School/Bible study classes. I will likely schedule it as an upcoming series in the class I teach.

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Mark Chanski has labored as a full-time Pastor since 1986 in churches in Ohio and Michigan. He has been Pastor of the Harbor Reformed Baptist Church of Holland, Michigan, since 1994. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Cornerstone University, and a Master of Divinity degree from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. He teaches Hermeneutics for the Reformed Baptist Seminary in Taylors, SC. Mark is married to his wife Dianne (his babe), and has fathered their four sons and one daughter.