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Someone once said that “we need attitude to get to the altitude of greatness; but without gratitude, greatness may be too far to be reached.” And that is why it is said that “history has no known record of successful ingrates”. Success not only builds on hard work; it also builds on gratitude, encouragement and consolation. 

Often, we have been given a pat on the back for job(s) well done. Most people have hardly hidden their sentiments of thanks at those times they were inspired or uplifted by great words or actions. Many have been inspired to become a better version of “their-selves” just because of some kind words or gestures of appreciation or commendation they heard or received for something they did well.      

We are celebrating a man whose name simply means “a son of consolation”. Originally called Joseph before he was converted to faith but later given the name “Barnabas” which means “a son of encouragement or consolation” because of his helpful and optimistic spirit. Just imagine how good he must have been at consoling, commending, exhorting, encouraging and appreciating people for good things well done or challenging and correcting people for things not well done as the case may be! For him to have merited such a special name and title (“son of consolation”) which seemed to have overshadowed and drowned out his real name “Joseph”, he must have been very good at doing what he knew best. 

The Bible describes him as “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith” (Acts 11:24). It is said that goodness begets goodness. Faith begets faith. As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another (Proverb 27:17)! For us to build a community of good and kind people, each of us must be good and kind enough. For us to inspire and uplift, we must be people of robust faith: faith in God, faith in ourselves and faith in others. If I don’t believe in people, if I don’t believe that they can grow and become better, I may not make any lasting positive impacts in their lives. 

When St Barnabas saw the grace of God at work in the Christian community of Antioch, he EXHORTED them all to REMAIN faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. He EXHORTED and ENCOURAGED THEM TO REMAIN FAITHFUL. Who else could do such but someone filled with APPRECIATION for what is good and praiseworthy! After that beautiful statement about what he did when he got to Antioch, what we have next as the scripture recounts is that “A LARGE COMPANY OF PEOPLE WAS ADDED TO THE LORD” (Acts 11:24b). Certainly, few words of encouragement, exhortation and appreciation must have boosted the morale of many persons who must have committed themselves m


ore and more to the cause of the good news. And such commitment came with a reward: SUCCESS which came as a boost of membership in that Christian community.

Someone somewhere may need just few kind words of encouragement, appreciation and exhortation in order to move higher up the ladder. It won’t cost us much to do that; let us learn how to appreciate, encourage and exhort anyone who is doing something good no matter how little it may be. Encouragement can also come as a gentle and fraternal rebuke for things that are not done well. It can also come in the form of forgiveness for a wrong done. Whichever way we may want to express it, the point is that we should not hesitate to encourage, exhort and appreciate. That is one amongst other things that we can learn from St Barnabas.         

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