Topic: Public National

Encouragement from a Founding Father !

Aug 21, 2009 — David Boncler Founding Father and Brother of Alpha class Alpha Chapter shares with us some encourage

I was blessed earlier this week by being requested to write an encouragement for the brothers of Kappa Upsilon Chi. Typically, we think of those who are actives. Of course, we know there will be pledges. There are also alumni out there. As I wrestled with what to write, I began with simply asking God to give me faces. Faces of the brothers. Faces of those who I walked alongside of. Memories rushed back. Of course, now I can only imagine what some of them are up to. Life happens. Careers. Career changes. Marriages. Children. More career changes. Life. I see faces of those I was blessed to come into contact with over the leadership challenge weekend in earlier this month. Men who will be leading out on their campuses as Kappa Upsilon Chi opens its doors to new pledges, and continues to encourage and strengthen the brothers already within. Who knows, other than God, what they will encounter this year? The joys, the trials, the blessings, the struggles, and the opportunities to show their faith and trust in the One True God. I also saw the faces of the unknown. Stay with me here. I saw faces like the ones I saw back in the beginning. I remembered praying for the ones God would bring into the fraternity in the very beginning. I did not see specific faces. I did, however, see what appeared to be nameless faces of young men, much as what I picture the disciples to appear to look like in my mind. I saw a face with hunger, desire for direction and purpose, and leadership. I saw a face of a young man who did not want to settle for second best. Those same faces began to come back to me as I prayed again. These young men will be gathering again on college campuses. There is a passage of Scripture that would serve us all well to remember...whether on a Campus, at a workplace, in our families, wherever...and I hope it not only encourages you, but also challenges you in your daily walk over these next few days, weeks, and months. Colossians 4:2-6 "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." Few things here Paul challenges and encourages here. First: Devote. Devote to prayer---watching, being thankful, and for the message, really in our times, which we are proclaiming. Be devoted. Often, we randomly throw up a prayer here and there. Be serious about the times of prayer you have. Take time with it. MAKE time for it. Look for things to lift up. Be thankful in your prayers. In today’s day and age, it can be easy to have a critical spirit. Do you find yourself, in prayer or otherwise, speaking words of criticism or thankfulness? Sometimes you have to dig to find the reason to be thankful. No problem. Dig away to find it. It is worth it to have a thankful heart over a critical heart. As for being devoted to praying for the message…well, we all need that! We need to make sure our words are clear, and that are words are of Christ. Not of our religious tradition, or moral background. Of Christ. Of HIS teaching. Of His grace and peace, and life and truth. Not watered down, but not stiffened to something they are not either. This is the prayer I desire before I ever speak. It is more important that the words remembered are words from the Father over my words all day long. Not just from preaching and teaching, but from conversations in a hallway, or moments in a random encounter. Which sets me up for the second encouragement from Paul here: He tells us to be WISE in the way we act towards outside and let our conversation ALWAYS be full of grace. Watch how we act and be careful in how we speak in ALL circumstances. We love to make excuses for why we don’t act right. Maybe someone didn’t deserve our better behavior, or maybe we were simply having a bad day, and we just didn’t feel like saying the right thing. Notice how there is not an “excuse clause” in the passage here? It is hard to always be “on our guard”, “on go” if you will. Praise God that we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. He understands completely. No, we are not Him. Yet we are called to be holy as He is holy, which can only be done as we allow Him to be lifted up in our lives. Each day, take time. Be still. Remember that He KNOWS how hard it is to be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. He knows how hard it is to let your conversation always be full of grace. He also has the strength to help you do it though. Allow Him to give you that strength to do it though. If you blow it, okay. Receive His grace, then get up, and try again. Stay devoted. There are so many out there longing to see if anyone is for real. My brothers, as we keep our lives under Christ, I am confident, they will see we are. Not because we want to make a statement about our fraternity. Because we are sincere about the faith we profess. If that makes a statement about who we are as a fraternity, well, “let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips.” Proverbs 27:2 Taking Up His Cross Clinging To His Love David Boncler