5 Forms of Encouragement - Part 2

Transcript of a Sage Hill Live Fully Podcast conversation with Dr. Chip Dodd. Lightly edited for readability; speaker labels omitted.

This podcast is brought to you by Sage Hill, a social impact organization. Our mission is to help people be who they're made to be so that they can do what they're made to do. Find more resources to live fully, love deeply, and lead well at sagehillresources.com. We talked last week about five forms of encouragement, and they weren't, in my opinion, the classic steps in terms of, like, you do this, you tell people that, you do this. But actually encouragement requires that you be the first receiver and that you be open to receiving the very things you're going to give. So encouraging people have been encouraged. The reason we need encouragement is because we get discouraged. We end up lacking the courage to become who we're made to be, to step in the risk we're made to do, to walk in the faith that we're called to have, to take a risk with living our lives from standpoint of saying something to someone we could see is troubled or taking a risk of challenging something we know is wrong or simply taking a step into one of the dreams we have. Remember, courage is full hearted participation in your own life. Full hearted participation with our desires, our longings, our hungers, our needs, our wishes, our hopes, our thirst to fully step into the lives we're made. So to keep heart, we have to have people in our lives who give us that which we have to have the fuel to keep going. And then we need to become the very people who are able to give to people when they can't when they're struggling, when they're having a hard time, when they're having to, what I call, wait hard. Courageous people have two gears. They have forward and neutral, but no reverse. Because courageous people have found out there's no such place to go to escape life. So what I mean by forward and neutral, when a person's sick in the hospital, experienced a loss, struggling with a disappointment, wondering when something's going to arrive that hasn't, when a person is in a position of doubt, wondering if what they're continuing to want is crazy, when the world and the people in it and the people we love will not see what they could have, we wind up being in a place of having to stop. Even a warrior has to put his or her shield down sword and shield down and grieve. Because in war and then being a warrior, there are great hopes and there are great losses because of those great hopes. They have to see and experience the reality that is attempting to overcome the truth of how we're made and what we're made to be like. So even a warrior has to put his or her shield and sword down and cry. Now that's neutral. Neutral is when we stop and have to wait hard, quote, unquote, wait hard. Waiting means you're pierced in the place. There's no way to go because you know there's no way to get away from how you're made and who you're made to be. And the god that made you and the god that doesn't seem to be really present. You have to stop, drop, and wait until the presence or the encouragement or the help or the succor or the nurturing or something comes without which you cannot keep going. You need to rest. You need to replenish. You need somebody to relate to you. You need somebody to recreate you, to be with you, to red redeem the moment. So neutral means waiting hard. And then there are those people who have the courage because they're not in the position of having to put their sword and shield down. They're not in a place of being emptied. They're in a place of fullness, and those people are made to stop, give, offer, and then go forward again. The people who are living in courage are going forward. And along the way, they're gonna be meeting people that are waiting hard. Those who are going forward who have something to offer, they stop and trust that they're offering because they have something to give. You cannot give what you do not have. People who are courageous, who know how to wait hard to receive are rich people who have plenty to give when they're not in a place of discouragement themselves. And it seems to work out really nicely. That's what the beauty of the potential beauty of the Christian community really is. We need to be caring for and taking care of each other, intruding into each other's lives from the standpoint of saying, do you need help? Are you okay? Is there something I can offer you? And then we as Christians need to become really experts at being needy. I see that as one of our biggest prideful problems, that faith means if you're trusting God that you don't have needs. And really, we use a God who wants us to be needy to defend ourselves from other people talking about us if we're in need ourselves. Because people can be mean. I mean, the moment you have a problem in the name of prayer, they're talking about your problem and people forgetting to pray. It's kinda like, yeah, worst thing I wanna do is have a problem around people that know me. You know, I need to go some strangers that that care about me. That's that's insanity. Because that prayer that gets forgotten becomes a judgment on the other person. And a lot of times people's people's problems scare us. So we go straight from, uh-oh, why is that happening? How can I keep it from happening to me? Well, I gotta figure out some some reason that happened to that person, and we always come up with they must have done something wrong. And therefore, god's having to do something to them. Well, we end up putting people in the position of Job. The very people he needed were the people who didn't give him anything. Do you know? They continue to figure out why god was doing this to him. So you see that we have need and need of courage, and courageous people are going forward and willing to stop to meet those people who are waiting hard. And you, as a courageous person, need to know when you are discouraged, you're losing heart, and stop and drop and say help me, which is very difficult to do. Because in our position of waiting, we're in a position to receive more, the most, but we're also in a position of not having something. And that puts us in a position of wondering when god will show up or someone will come to help us. It's a scary place. So to be encouraged, and we talked about last week, there are five ways of being encouraging just briefly, but to be somebody who can relate to other people, being somebody who knows what it's like to struggle. In other words, a person who can relate is a person who's familiar with pain. They don't look at the person who is waiting hard and say, I know what it's like. They look at the person who's waiting hard and says, I know what pain is. And I'm not in pain today. Can I do something to help you with yours? Something along those lines. But relating is a form of empathy. Kinda like, god. I I can recognize this person, and I know what that was like for me, and I know what happened to to me, and I know who helped me. I wanna offer what I received. So a person who can relate also has a story. The second form of encouragement is your story. The story of where you were, what happened, and where you are now. And then the third one is being a person who can live life on life's terms, which means that you're an attracting force. You live between the full continuum of life between grief that is inevitable and celebration that is likewise inevitable if you're courageous. So the willingness to celebrate and the willingness to grieve is the full expansive continuum of being human. The less a person lives in the middle, but still goes in the middle, has in the middle, the more attractive they are because the more people see you can relate to what it's like to be fully alive. You must know something that I could have. People who are self promoting are telling you about how they have control of life. People who are attractive found out they don't, but they know who does. So they've got a story, and they can you can relate to them, and they can relate to you. So suddenly, you're not alone. And as soon as a person's not alone, they are encouraged. Even if they have to walk on their own, they're still not alone when they do it. That's the beauty when Jesus' name is Emmanuel, which means God with us. No matter where you go, you're not alone. The Psalms are so full. We'll go to Psalm one forty six. I mean, the Psalms are so full of no matter where you go, there I am. No no dark is dark. No no light is too bright. No fire is too too hot. No cold is too frozen for me. It's like there's no place that you can go I can't get to. In fact, there's no place you can go I can't find you. It's not find you as I'm gonna find you and I'm gonna make you pay. It's like when a person is so far away that they don't think they can be found, they're it's they're lost. They they they don't know the way back, so they need to be found whether they know it or not because we're made a certain way. So a person is attractive. And then fourthly, a person has acceptance. They have a long range view of life. In other words, the older they get, the more they recognize that we are all works in progress. Almost every 20 year old has this idea that somewhere in their lives, they're gonna get it right and not be like other folks. You know? I still remember reading a book twenty years ago, and this guy was talking about being in his fifties and how he still struggled with something that that I thought was just like, that's ridiculous. You know? It's like, good gosh. Are you 50? You don't have that right yet? Seriously. But I didn't tell anybody that because I knew I was smart enough to know not to say that out loud because they'd be like judging. I just did it inside where we do most of our judging. Right? That's how we don't talk to each other much because of as we're so afraid of what people really thinking that they're not gonna say. So, anyway, it turns out here I am 50 something going, oh, okay. I get it. We're all works in progress. We're not gonna finish here. We're not gonna get it right. The question becomes, are we willing to do whatever it takes to keep loving knowing that we're gonna walk in imperfection until the day we stop? We, the ones who know that we really are works in progress, have more empathy to give or wisdom to share, more understanding when a person's practicing perfection. Like, well, I'll be with you when, you get tired, or I'll be right here when things fall apart. And then we don't necessarily say it to them to discourage them. We can just tell them stories Because people don't listen to warnings. Do y'all know that? Preventative care is just simply almost impossible. Jesus walked around offering it all the time and got turned down left and right. But when the person was in the ditch and they're stuck and they can't get out, then Jesus becomes relevant and so will we, who are works in progress. Because at that time, somebody really needs to relate to somebody who knows what it's like to fail. People in a ditch need to know somebody who knows what it's like to be stuck, not an expert of somebody who can watch. He said, let me see if you can figure it out. I did. K. I don't wanna be around people who have life figured out. In fact, even Tennyson had, said, well, this I've got some answers. He said, dad, you know, honestly, I appreciate that, but that's not what you do well. Your answers are not really what you do well. What you do well, I see, is that you live the questions well. You are someone who stays in the questions. Doesn't mean I haven't made decisions, but it means that I don't think I know everything. Sometimes I think I don't know everything. I don't know everything. And it's scary not to know everything. So I need to know somebody that does. Oh, yeah. That's where I I comment sometimes. I think it's so funny when I talk about how smart God is. It's like he's so smart. I mean, like, I'm just amazed at, like, how smart god is. He got us figured out. He knows that when we get into need, we're gonna get vulnerable, and then we're gonna say, god, and we're gonna say somebody's name or, you know, Pam, Saya, you know, it's like, Jimmy, you know, Jesse, help. Because god knows that when a human being cries out, the world that tries to take us from our cry out, god shows up with his presence when he hears us. God raises us up. God walks us out. So we cry out. God shows up. And many of us in this room have many stories about it was in the cry out where I found him. And when we find him, he raises us up. And when he raises us up, he steps us out. We walk out into our lives going forward looking for people who are waiting hard, who we may have gifts to help them, or know somebody who does. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Only broken people can really understand that, who are being healed. So fourth form of encouragement is having an accepting view of life. And it means it's not okay, and that's okay, but it's not okay, and that's okay. That's what acceptance means. Say, like, what? What what is that exactly? Well, it's not okay, but that's okay. And it's still not okay, and that's okay. And that's a relational neediness place. The only way we can get it okay in a place that's not okay is to be okay with having people in our lives who can help and be okay when it's not okay. Okay. So the fifth form of encouragement is to live in trust. Now what that means is, I just titled it just keep swimming. You live in trust. It is we're walking in faith. We are people who just keep swimming. And I use the example of Nemo, the cartoon, Dory, can't remember anything. You talk about a a creature of waste, but she was quite courageous. She just kept swimming. I guess because she forgot what had just happened, so she just did what she was made to do. Gosh. Forgetting what lies behind, pressing on toward what's ahead sounds like Saint Paul. So Dory and Saint Paul? I don't know. But she's saying just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. That's one part of continue to walk in, trust. Two, we gotta remember that the world and life itself is not our job. In the movie War Room, the lady who was the mentor for Priscilla Shire, who played a real estate person, She told her when Priscilla kept saying, god's not doing this. Why didn't he fix that? He could do this. My husband's that, and all these series of appropriate complaints. But the lady said to her, it's not your job. Your job is to go to God and others, trust God, and love that man. Okay? Make decisions out of that. It's not your job. It's not our job to play god. We're not god. And then the third thing is another song. It's really, I think, possibly one of the hardest songs we'll ever live. And for Mary Poppins, it's when mister Banks or whatever his name was finally awakened to what Mary Poppins had brought him. You have children. You have an opportunity. You have a marriage. You have a life. There is sun. There is possibility. There is celebration. There is love. There is hope. There is faith. So he awakened and stepped into the life that he was made to have, and it was so, therefore, let's go fly a kite. And it's it's a beautiful song. It's childlike, and it's even childish. But let's go fly a kite. And it's I'm not gonna do it. I'd love to sing it, but it's like, let's go fly let's go fly a kite. Plant seeds, grow things, do the little things, follow what you enjoy because following what you enjoy cannot help but be something that's gonna produce beauty. And if you produce beauty, you literally have shown that there's growth and acceptance in the life that can be dreary and dark. You've actually shown that there is something for people to see, which means they're attracted. You've actually shown that somebody's telling something to someone, and also is something people can relate to because everybody has a hunger to grow something. Do you see? Even planting seeds and flowers. There's a lady on the corner of Northfield, and I don't know the side street. In a world that's dreary and dark, she planted flowers. All she did was make some beauty. She followed her own heart. She did what she was made to do. I mean, like, what a waste. What are you doing? Get a job. Make some money. Pay your tithe. That's kind of thing. You know, help the church, so so to speak. But she is helping the church. She is drawing people in a dark place to things that are light. It's amazing how much when we live in the needing courage and having courage, when we face our discouragement, waiting hard, and we go forward when we have been given something and we're we're walking in the story, there's something happening that is full. Community, communion, rich, and so on. When you become a person who's encouraging, you are a person who five things, you remain sensitive, which means that your feelings are still present, and you listen to them, and you tell the truth about them, and you give them to God. Because remember Jesus said, unless you change and become like one of these, referring to a child, and the one characteristic of a child that is consistent, that we're always saying we need to grow up and quit doing, is that they feel. And they can't hide their feelings until they become harmed enough and dissociated and traumatized that they finally get up and go along with the way the world works. In other words, they take their hurts and they cover them. Isn't that amazing? So a person who's encouraging remains sensitive. Now what that means is I know it's a metaphor, but they they you don't wear your heart on your sleeve and you don't carry your heart on your shoulders like a heavy burden. You carry your heart in your chest up against your sternum, which means you walk in sensitivity. You walk in feelings. Now Susan's recovering in remission from cancer, from breast cancer. I have prostate cancer. Susan had, based on probabilities and so on, a much more dangerous cancer. But Susan didn't get her recovery and say, that's done. I'm over it. She got her recovery and said, I've been through something mighty. And so who am I gonna go to who knows that she's been through something mighty, that she was taken to places she would not volunteer to go necessarily, having to face losses and things that many people don't have to do. And she had to lean into the possibility that love became temporary when it came to vision, when it became to daily life, like this could end. And then the people around her who loved her were feeling and facing the same things, and she didn't avoid it. Where am I gonna go when I'm having to wait hard? Because I know that somebody knows what it's like. Now because my cancer doesn't have the same potential for results that are as deadly simply, because it it is one of the more curable cancers. Would I hesitate to go to Susan? I would have a little fear that she would say, hey, Chip. Really? You Chip, when you get some real cancer, come to me. Do you know? Season of death. Yeah. But see, and I may have that fear, and I may need to state that fear. Can you relate to this even though it's not as bad on the surface as yours? Because I'm just as scared. So it's like, I'm going to her. I'm not going to somebody who can't relate, doesn't have a story, isn't attracting, isn't accepting, and and isn't still swimming. You know, if you're scared of life, you avoid Susan. If you're in need of living, you go to Susan. Ain't that something? So that's sensitive. And as a person who's still sensitive, probably more sensitive than ever because what she thought was gonna happen didn't, and what did happen, she's still here going something's deeper and richer, and I understand people want to avoid. So you are touchable. If you're sensitive, you're also touchable. Now I want you to know touchable from the standpoint that can be known, that the person who's with them knows that the person that they're talking to has courage is just like them. In other words, we're made out of the same material, which means if we're made out of the same material, then I can get back what I've lost. Do you remember when the bleeding woman came up to Jesus, she reached out and she touched him. And Jesus stopped because Jesus was touchable. And he said, somebody touched me. And the disciples that were around him said, Jesus, everybody's touching you. What do you mean who touched you? He said, no. Somebody really touched me because I felt my power go out of me. In other words, it became a heart to heart experience, but somebody was reaching for his heart. Not just trying to take what he would could carry in his hands or what he could do with his capacities for miracles. Somebody was reaching for him and what he could do and offer. But when he met a heart, he became touchable, and it withdrew his power. It withdrew from him. So touchable people can be withdrawn from, which means that because we're limited, we gotta go get some more somewhere. So we need people who are touchable around us. And two, now I do not question any level Jesus' divinity, but he sure spent a lot of time in self care. I mean, takes half a day to walk from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. He's hanging out with his buddies and then, you know, getting wheat and sitting right eating pita bread and stuff, talking. So I would call it a real hard day. You know, I I know I'm being ridiculous. And then they look around. Where'd Jesus go? He's up there praying again. Up there sitting around, They're hanging out with God. He needs his solitude time. So it's like, leave Jesus alone. You know? It's like the it's like he he's taking a nap. It's that kind of thing. Do you see what I'm saying? So it's like, this is crazy sounding, but Jesus was so surrendered to god, he knew it wasn't his job. It was god's. Isn't that wild? If if you could take this cup from me, then take it. But you know what, god? I trust you. Even in this time of discouragement, I'm waiting hard. And then things got rougher, and then he went home. So people who are encouraging or touchable, sensitive, people who are encouraging are also alive, not just living, but they are alive, which means that maybe they're a little bit scary possibly because they're where they are. They may say, you know what? I'm in too much pain today to offer you much. So if you don't mind calling somebody else. They're not always on, but they're always alive. Two, the truth of what's happening in their lives. And it doesn't mean that that they're they're moody. It means that they're truthful about what they have to offer and what they don't. Do you know where where they can and where they can't? Where they are able to and where they're not? They're good referrals, but they're always attracting for people who are looking for life, because they're attracting, because they're truthful. So they're alive. And people who are encouraging are prosperous people, which means it doesn't matter how poor they are, they're still alive because they're still walking in some kind of faith, hope, and love. I don't know. I can't explain it. I'm just saying it's so. And then finally, two more things. People who are encouraging are persevering. They don't quit. First Corinthians 13, love love always protects, always remains present, but always perseveres. It doesn't stop. Now perseverance means that your heart is always in. This is what god does with our surrender. This is not something we make ourselves. And I would say that everybody in this room I don't think anybody in this room would be here unless you were a persevering person. I just don't think you would. And I don't think you'd be in this room unless you knew what I was talking about. And you wouldn't be you wouldn't know what I was talking about unless you knew unless you knew what heartache was, or you're with somebody who knows it. And you're attracted. And you're looking for something because you're attractive because you wanna offer something, and you do. And you came to get some more so you could give some more. Now that's amazing to me. A bunch of encouragers in one room. And because we're encourages directly related because we know what discouragement feels like. We know what it's like. We know what it's like to be alone. I don't believe there's anybody in this room that doesn't know what that means, no matter what age. And I think a lot of people spend their lives doing everything they can to avoid having to have courage. And then the last characteristic of a person who's encouraging, we're sensitive, touchable, alive. We are prosperous, which means, like, we're always planting seeds. We're persevering, which means our hearts are always in it, in it even in the discouragement times of needing. And then finally, we're joyful. Now by joyful, what I mean is that we're fully participating in our lives and we're willing to experience what well, whatever life has to offer because we're seeking life, trusting love, and leading. We're we're all in. We have a passion to live. A willingness to be in pain for something that matters more than pain. I don't like when my sons bring their problems to me. But, guys, my sons bring their problems to me. I wish they didn't have pain. I wish they just knew the answers. I wish that, you know, I did not need to have to see them go through the very things that I went through, go through, thought, have to grow up in. It's like, they start talking. I'm just glad I'm not 20. I don't wanna do my life over again because it means you know, it is it's like, sometimes I I used to think, I guess, I would wanna do my life over again. It's like, I don't want to. I wouldn't mind having more than one life, like, to do a bunch more stuff before it gets too late. You know? Like, if I have four people, I could do all these other things I've thought of. But I just got one. But I would rather my sons come to me and have them than not come to me and be problem free. That's what I mean by joy. It's a deeper region of connection in love, which means pain. Now joyful people, if you've read The Voice of the Heart, joyful people are people who are good at the other seven feelings. Remember? There's anger in life. There's hurt. There's sadness. There's loneliness. There's fear. There's healthy shame, which means we know we're needy. There's guilt, which means we know we can do things that are wrong. And then there's gladness. People who are good at what we've always called the negative feelings, if you're good at hurt with my sons, I'm willing to hurt. If you're good at sadness, I'm willing to carry sadness to have sadness. If you're willing to be afraid, oh, I'm willing to be afraid because I'm afraid. If I'm lonely, I miss them. I'm willing to be lonely. If I'm angry, it's like, son, guys, listen, you can have. Stay with it. It's okay. If I'm angry, if I have a desire for them, a desire for them to have wishing, and hungering, I'm angry. Shame. It's like, I don't have the answers. I got what I can give them, but I don't have everything. Guilty. I'm so sorry I messed this up because I don't believe you'd be sitting in that chair where you are right now if I had done this. I kept you from recognizing your sense of trusting your feelings or something by being too hard about athletics or something like that. Guilt. See, those what we think of seven negative feelings allow me to be fully sensitive, touchable, relational. You see, all those things with them. I get to have them versus getting pretend with them. And we're like little trains on tracks that can't join because you can't get off track. So joy comes from being good at the seven feelings we don't want to have. I don't know anybody in this room who wakes up in the morning and says, now I can't wait to get hurt. Gotta get out there and get some hurt going. Or, god, man, you know, loneliness is gonna be so sweet later on the day. Or, like, boy, I hope something really, really awful happens so I can just be so sad. Like, that's insane. We're not insane. We live in an insane place. So that the feelings that, we think of as bad are actually tools that god gave us to stay whole in a place that's tragic. Those aren't bad things. They're good things that bring us to good things called joy. So joy is a byproduct of willing to do whatever it takes to love, to be loved and loved. And so now with that said, let's go over to Psalm one forty six and see what god does. Psalm one forty six is a, I think, a good Psalm. It's a go to Psalm of courage, a promise. Starts out with god is faithful. It says praise the lord, oh my soul. I will praise the lord all my life. I will sing praise to my god as long as I live. And it's talking about the god who is faithful forever, remains faithful forever. Now do you know if god says and the psalmist says, I remain faithful forever, you know good and well, right at that point, you've got some suspicion. Is that correct? God is faithful forever. Now look at your life and look at that statement, and do you have any questions? Okay. So right there, you have identified your relationship with god. Like, I've got problems with what that says, and god goes, and I wanna hear what you have to say. Now that's our god because I get it. I get that you live in reality and I'm the truth. I get that only by you being present with this can you have my power. I get from the standpoint that that your only independence is gonna be walking in the courage that I give you, that you can't stand alone because you're never alone. Do you see? So the moment we hear in praise of god, that is not something you should do. It's something that you get to come to through the struggle of being able to praise somebody who won't go away no matter what you say. That do you see the irony of that? I emphasize this because I wasn't taught that. Mhmm. I didn't know that. I read it as, okay. Okay. This is something you should think or should be like, not someone who's gonna be there no matter where you are, where you go, or what you've done, or what you do. He wants to hear what you've got to say. That's what I mean by confession, complaint, will bring us to celebration. But more than anything, stay in communication. So this is what the psalmist says god is like. If you go to verse seven, the god who is faithful forever, this god does one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine things. All courage oriented. God, verse seven, upholds oppressed. And when you're oppressed, you're pressed down. K? You're tied up. You're imprisoned. And god says, I am going to uphold you and rescue you from the oppression if you will let go and trust me. So god upholds. God gives, actually feeds the hungry. Guys, it doesn't matter a lot of times how many many hobbies we eat or potato chips we eat, so to speak. We're still hungry afterwards, though we're oddly temporarily comforted. He feeds us with relationship. And also, he'd actually provide sustenance, no doubt. He provides for us, but he actually gives to us. He gives us food. God sets us or releases us. He sets the prisoners free, that we don't have to walk in the bondage of people approval seeking. It's not up to us. It's not our job. It's his job. And he better be really smart, better be good at it because it's job. And, frankly, it's great tragedy in this life is that we can fire him, but we don't like the job he's doing. Now that sounds crazy, and it sounds like it's against theology. But is it we can quit trusting and offering our hearts to god even though it'll almost kill us because we imprison ourselves when we do it. God does a good job. He is absolutely releasing us free. He's he let us be free if we would tell the truth about what's happening within us. God actually gives sight to the blind. Well, there's still a lot of blind people around. Could it be that indeed true, the miracle of that? Could it be also the miracle of medicine? Could it also be the the metaphorical miracle of being able to see through the eyes of our hearts that Paul talks about in Ephesians one eighteen and nineteen? He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart will be enlightened so that you know the power, the glory, and the hope. Like, oh, so that you got it in your chest. And remember, I'm talking to me. I'm 58. I'm still learning this. Remember I said, I want this to be the year where I really get a real deep grasp of being loved. What a a chip. Oh, oh, you're on your selfishness year. No. I wanna get a real deep grasp of how much I'm loved. Is is that bad? Am I guilty? A little ashamed. Like, what's wrong with you, Chip? Well, I kinda found out that being loved comes kinda nice. It's kinda feels good. It's kinda like receiving what god has and what others have too. Like, it'll make me stronger, more loving, all those things. God lifts up to bow down. God loves the righteous. Now, guys, righteous are people who are hungry to have more of what he's giving. Righteous isn't they're so good at acting a certain way as they're good at receiving. And then finally, god watches over the alien, which means the wanderer, the foreigner. He oversees. He sustains the fatherless and the will. He sustains the orphans. Are we not all orphans, adoptive? And he also will and does frustrate the ways of the wicked. In other words, they will live in more misery than we ever will because they can't get what we're getting without surrendering like we have. So our God upholds, gives, releases, heals, lifts, loves, watches, sustains, and defends us. He defends us. We are his children. He is our father. How can we not be courageous and reach out for our needs to be met, so we can keep giving to others what has been given to us.