“Superfood” is a made-up marketing term describing foods that are exceptional in nutrient density for relatively few calories.  It has emerged from the 1990s to push food sales and drive tends.  Foodies are all over super foods. 

Recently, I was at a birthday party whose one prerequisite was a covered dish.  A clean eating foodie, who apparently with her husband aspires to a long life, brought a beet salad.  Opposite the foodie, I am usually driven by another super food calculus.  I find all food “super” and have a caloric intake problem.  It usually crosses a line into the area of too much super food.  But, back to the beet salad.  Going through the line, I tried the beet salad.  Yes, later I went back for a smallish second portion (I remember it as “smallish”; ok, a relative concept).  I was reminded of that cold salad with a mixture of greens of some sort (I did not ask.  It tastes better sometimes not to know) later the next week when I saw a headline for an article about a shortage of beets…because all of the foodies are really leaning into this superfood staple.  Heretofore, beyond pickled beets in a used jar of sweet pickles, we have not delved too deeply into beet world.  But it got me thinking.

I love Barnabas.  Let me explain why.  I am convinced encouragement is super food for the soul and spirit.  Barnabas leaves this incredible reputation for encouragement in the New Testament.  He is dubbed by the apostles in Acta 4:36 “the son of consolation.”  He sold some land he had and gave the money to the apostles as fuel to resource the impoverished believers in Christ.  This resulted in a pacesetting influence on how others shared. The apostles had a sense that this man was born to be destined for encouragement.  He vouched for the apostle Paul after his conversion when everyone was afraid of this former persecutor of the church (Acts 9:27).    He famously sought to restore John Mark back to ministry.  He gave John Mark a second chance when he had quit the first missionary journey, much to the apostle Paul’s consternation.  Paul would have none of the idea that John Mark should accompany their second journey out to share the good news about Jesus (Acts 15:37-39).    Barnabas knew of the power of encouragement to keep us going.  He even threatened, momentarily, his partnership with Paul in his commitment to be an encouragement to John Mark.  By the way, that encouragement paid off big!  Barnabas’ default mode was right all along.  Encourage, encourage, encourage!  A little of it goes a long way.  The apostle Paul would later, and near the end of his life, note that John Mark was “useful for ministry” 2 Timothy 4:11.  And what about the Gospel of (John) Mark?  Can an argument be made that we would not have the treasure of the second book in the New Testament were it not for the encouragement of Barnabas?

Barnabas could see it.  Encouragement is the superfood of the soul.  He reasoned that the more generous the encouragement, the more health and healing he could promote in the spirit and heart of his fellow colleague following Jesus.

So that brings me to Wednesday night.  I had invested three good days in this good week and was departing from a small group that just finished up a trek through a six-week muse on living well in our age with its ideas which would seduce us to give up and get off track.  I was tired and headed to the car.  I encountered a few saints on the way to the car, greeting them and seeking to be, well, an encouragement.  Now, in the name of full disclosure and this is not a good trait, I have always been drawn to smart people who are thoughtful.  I respect their thoughts and find their probing mind a challenge to minister to, in the best kind of challenging way.  So, there she was in the parking lot headed to her car with me.  We chatted.  Then it hit.  It hit with force.  She offered a word of encouragement.  It was a page out of Barnabas’ play book.  It was cogent, and right on the spot, specific; precise.  It had two ends.  One, was the substance of the encouragement.  She offered her opinion.  It encouraged me.  I hope it is the judgment of heaven.  But the other end of the exchange was that she had offered it.  She cared enough to reach for the moment and encourage me.   

On Thursday, I became conscious of my lifted spirit.  I sought to inventory the matter and discern what was going on.  I can be dour and always identifying what is wrong and what we need to address and what was done with a measure of excellence that did not exalt Christ as we ought.  I am hardest on myself.  But not Thursday, and I was trying to figure out why.  I rang out the singing in my heart and found its referent.  Of course!  It was in that word of encouragement I received the night before.  I have been running on those fumes the last few days.  Thank you, sister.

By the way, if we all assembled with God’s people on Sundays carrying in covered dishes of such super food, it would reshape our disposition of being together.  Critiques of worship, the preaching, someone’s attire, a seeming slight to us pass into the shadows as our eagerness to encourage others takes central stage.  Let’s have one of those Sundays the next time we are together.  Beet salad for the soul!  A lifting up of the spirit!  An encouragement on to love and good works (Hebrews 10:23-25).   Barnabas, may your tribe increase more and more and more.  We cannot get enough of that super food.