Who's Your Barnabas?

I remember hearing someone speak on this topic at church camp one year.
"Who's Your Barnabas?"- as in, who encourages you.

Barnabas has to be pretty important to make the Bible. God saw him worthy to tell us about. Encouragement must be something we as Christians need that we may not have realized had He not showed us such a firm example. (of course I'm just guessing here)
You'll find his story beginning in Acts 4:36. He's mentioned often in the book of Acts. And yet people often don't know his given name. Why? Because he lived to serve others. His given name was Joseph, but the Christians nicknamed him "Barnabas" because it meant "son of encouragement". Barnabas came alongside people in times of challenge and helped them. ( Acts 9:10-28, Acts 15:36-39)
If it wasn't for Barnabas, Saul may never have made his transition to Paul.

I have a lot of people who have encouraged me over my young (no snickering!)lifetime. I remember Sheila Childers as one. She seemed to be so focused on the Lord & have her spiritual life VERY together. In college, she found out she had a brain tumor & almost died. But she's very much alive & healthy today. God saw her through her brain tumor. I remember her telling me it wasn't something she could face & had no idea how to deal with. This floored me. I mean, she was really IN the Word & I thought had a lot of answers to life I hadn't even begun to glean yet. This is when I started to realize everyone's Christian walks are in essence the same. No matter what we see in each other's walks, we all ebb & flow like a tide. No one Christian has all the answers & no one Christian can ever obtain ALL the answers. We all live to devour the Word of God & strive to be as close to Jesus & perfect we can. And I personally believe when faced with TRUE struggles of life, you either (as a Christian) grow closer to God or push him further away.


But back to my point. Barnabas was an encourager.
I've had a couple through college. Wendall my roomate was one. Most people didn't know her like I did. She helped me through a lot of growing up times, but more importantly were the talks about our spritual lives, the devos, & the prayer group meetings. We had a wonderful bunch of encouragers in that group. Val Bunner & Melody San Juan being two huge ones. And our other roomate Tracy Rimer. Tracy encouraged anyone she was around. There was no end to the countless encouragement I got from Tracy & Wendall.

Everyone KNOWS a person with an encouraging personality. They are those happy people we all love to hate.:)LOL But I'm talking about people who give you pause. People who don't even KNOW what they give others. There is something to be said for the happy people of the world, but the encouragers are in a category ALL to themselves.

I have had a rough month & look forward to Febuary being OVER. I am looking VERY forward to March & the new beginings it holds. My best friend Kim has given me plenty of encouragement & just listened to me talk through everything the past couple of weeks. My sister-in-laws are two of the best encouragers I have ever known. They know just what to say & when to say it. Sometimes that is priceless because you don't have words for yourself.

My most recent Barnabas came into my life about 8 yrs back. He's a pretty strong person & we've weathered A LOT together. I can't even begin to tell you what all. But it made us stronger, better people. One of the reasons I could move on & go on with life after all these set backs & hurdles we've had, is because he's been there being my Barnabas. I think part of the secret to being a Barnabas, is that you never see yourself as one.