Big Kids

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
-1 Thessalonians 5:11

I was walking back to my car from my daughter’s middle school soccer game last week. It was at her school, so there was a lot going on around us. One of the other events was the elementary school running club practicing laps around the building. I took notice because in just a few short years, I will probably be coaching many of them.

I was struck by how small these kids looked. My goodness, they were so tiny! Having apparently left their coordination over with their backpacks, they sort of galloped/limped around the school on little toothpicks with feet. They stopped regularly because they were tired—or possibly because they just forgot what they were doing altogether.

They finished their practice and put their backpacks on, meandering back to the pavilion for pickup. As they walked by, I remember thinking to myself, These little kids will learn and grow so much in the coming years. It's cool. 

Interestingly, I was walking past the school playground at the same time, where siblings had been hanging out on the swings to pass the time and pretending they were defending a castle as if their lives depended on it.

So I’m walking by on one side, and the little running club kids are walking on the sidewalk on the other side. And one of the playground 5-year-olds points at them and yells, full of wonder, to no one in particular:
“LOOK! The big kids are going bye-bye!”

I love it when kids just randomly state normal stuff that they’re seeing, for no reason.

But it was the “big kids” wording that caught my ear. I smiled. Those are not big kids, my dude. Those are 4th graders wearing backpacks that weigh more than they do.

But my response was incorrect. Those absolutely were big kids. To the playgrounders, they were independent, capable, tall, and they had their own cool backpacks. They had years of lived experience that a 5-year-old could only dream of. They had seen things. They were allowed to walk alone across the parking lot.

And to the running club kids, the middle school soccer players were big. And to the middle schoolers, high schoolers are confident and mature. And to the high schoolers, college students have arrived. That’s how it works, isn’t it?

Each one of us is in that continuum of influence, and it goes far beyond age. You are the “big kid” to someone. Maybe you’ve walked through a difficult divorce and are finally thriving on the other side of it. There’s someone watching you saying, “I don’t know if I’ll ever heal like that.” Perhaps you’re struggling in your faith, and you see someone whose faith seems deep and steady, and the love of Jesus tangibly emerges from them. They’re a big kid for you in that moment. Maybe you moved into the region years ago, and a new friend at church is just trying to get settled in after a work transition. That's an opportunity to be a big sister or a big brother. Or, maybe you’re reading this as a teenager and you have a little sibling. Literally, you’re the big kid.

It’s often been said that “we all could use a Paul and a Timothy” in our lives. We all need those who can offer encouragement to us from their growth and life experience, and we all need to be looking around to see how we can be an encouragement to others who might be earlier in the journey in one way or another. I could look across my church and find in every single person something I can learn from their life experience—and hopefully, somewhere that I could be an encouragement to them (in genuine humility, not arrogance).

It doesn't matter how weak or small you may feel when you look at some people who look "bigger" to you. We all have big-kid-power that can influence people for good. 

As followers of Jesus, let’s understand the power that we have if we extend our hands to those we can encourage. And let’s never lose the humility to notice that God’s encouragement is available in all sorts of ways from people around us who have hard-earned wisdom through their own faith and life experiences.

Jesus, help me see where my own experiences and faith journey can be an encouragement to someone else today.

Peace,
Keith