3 Simple Forms Of Support
Imagine you were to write a book of who you're becoming, made up of the absolute most important learnings of your life and waypoints of achievement and loss. Somehow, you have become who you are today. And if you were to capture it in a book, whose names would go in the acknowledgments? In other words, who are the people, without whom your book would not come to be?
When you think about who you're becoming, you want to keep a list of those people and who end up on the lists of others! All of this boils down to a simple idea - support.
Paul is an apostle, or a disciple, follower of Jesus. He had traveled much of the known world, extending the Gospel well beyond what was expected to both Jews and Gentiles. He planted churches all over Asian Minor and Greece. His calling was to reach far and wide to invite people alive in Jesus and establish groups of followers everywhere he went. Must of the New Testament is letters he wrote to these churches. However, he had not become this person on his own.
Read Romans 16:1-16, his own sort of "acknowledgments." Do you see the gratitude, feel the connection? What are you noticing about support? Support is mutual; it thrives in interdependence!
Here are 3 simple forms of support modeled by Paul that anyone can grow in:
Support is presence. Showing up with help, encouragement, and the Holy Spirit matters. It’s holding one another up in challenging moments and championing one another in celebratory moments, standing before and besides. Who is showing up with you? Who are you showing up with?
Support is practical. This is when presence becomes tangible. Like a home to meet in, a letter written, a text sent, a meal delivered. Who is giving to you? Who are you giving to?
Support is prayer. Paul wrote all his letters prayerfully, both offering prayer and asking for prayer. Paul learned this from Jesus. Who is on your prayer team? Whose prayer team are you on?
If Paul modeled offering and receiving proximate support, then this invitation to live with support is for everyone looking to step in Jesus' direction alongside others.