She probably thought she was being obedient. She probably thought she was saying something kind and then moving on with her day.
Instead, I carried those words for years.
Looking back, what strikes me isn’t simply that her words encouraged me. It’s how ordinary the whole thing was. No sermon. No position of authority. No dramatic moment. Just one person paying attention long enough to speak courage into someone else’s uncertainty.
Maybe that’s why this has stayed with me.
I spent years assuming impact came from doing something big. A title. A position. A platform. Something people could point to and say, “Look what they accomplished.”
Yet one of the most significant moments in my life came from a conversation that lasted less than a minute.
Reading 1 Thessalonians 3, I keep seeing the same pattern. God strengthens His people through His people. He encourages His church through His church. He matures us together rather than in isolation.
If I’m honest, I find that a little frustrating.
I’d much rather God give me a book. Or a conference. Or a podcast. Or some kind of five-step plan. I like plans. Plans feel controllable.
People don’t. Instead, God keeps handing me people.
- People who encourage me.
- People who challenge me.
- People who occasionally annoy me.
- People who see things in me that I can’t see in myself.
Apparently one of God’s favorite tools for shaping us is other human beings.
Paul told the Galatians,
“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2
The older I get, the more surprising that verse feels. I tend to think of spiritual growth as something between me and God. Yet Scripture keeps dragging other people into the picture.
Apparently carrying one another’s burdens isn’t an optional part of discipleship. It’s one of the ways discipleship actually happens.
The same thing is true in Proverbs:
“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17
Which sounds inspiring until you remember that sharpening usually involves friction. Maybe that’s why growth is so often uncomfortable. Maybe that’s why God so often chooses people instead of formulas. Maybe that’s why the conversations we assume are insignificant aren’t insignificant at all.
The writer of Hebrews says, “Encourage one another daily…” Hebrews 3:13
Daily.
Which tells me two things:
- First, people need encouragement far more often than I realize.
- Second, God knew that long before I did.
I don’t know if that woman remembers what she said to me.
But I do.
And that’s what I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. How many opportunities have I missed because I assumed something small couldn’t possibly matter? How many encouraging thoughts have I kept to myself? How many times has God nudged me to say something and I’ve decided it probably wasn’t important enough?
Maybe that’s one of the lies we tell ourselves.
- That impact has to be dramatic.
- That significance has to be visible.
- That if we can’t see the results, nothing meaningful happened.
But what if some of the most important things we ever do are things we’ll never know we did? What if the conversation you barely remember becomes the conversation someone else never forgets?
I don’t know… But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
Please help me share the good news of Jesus and how He can change your life, and our world!
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