Spurs

          And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25)

          We’ve leaped over a bunch of verses that all say “love one another” and “encourage one another” to reach this pair of verses that also say “encourage one another.” We’ve already talked about loving and encouraging, but the author of Hebrews adds a term that is worth considering: “spurring.” When I think of a spur, one notion is a bone spur. They hurt! The other is the blunted star-shaped piece of metal that the cowboy put on his boots to use to get their horse to move.

          Some folks will insist that the spurs were terrible things the inflict on an animal and possible that we shouldn’t have ridden them in the first place. There might be something to that argument, but that doesn’t change our understanding of the analogy. If you have ever tried to get a large herbivore to do what you want it to, especially something like hurrying after the run away wagon with your kids on it, you’ll probably understand the need for spurs. And, having tried to get large herbivores to do what I wanted them to, I can assure you that they are not always cooperative. There are times when I doubt they even noticed the pressure I exerted.

          I have no doubt that being hit between the ribs and the hips with one of those things isn’t comfortable. But that’s what the author of Hebrews tells us to do: spur one another. That means that sometimes, we have to inflict discomfort, or maybe even pain. Since we are to be gentle, we’re to inflict as little as possible of either of those, but if and when someone isn’t loving or doing good deeds, and if a hint isn’t enough, we may need to apply a little more pressure.

There are a couple questions we should consider as we seek to spur one another on to good deeds. The first is what good deeds we want the other to do. I hate arbitrary decisions. Someone telling me, “Get up and do good deeds,” isn’t likely to get a positive response. Not telling someone what good deeds you have in mind is also dishonest, because while you say “anything,” you probably have something in mind.

          The second question deals with the other that we want to do the good deeds. Do they recognize the opportunity? Don’t assume they’ve noticed. That’s called “mind-reading” and it’s not fair. If they recognize it, why do they need to be spurred? Years ago, motivational speakers liked to say that “you can’t steer a parked car.” The implication was that if a car actually wanted to move, it could just do so – and if we wanted to act, we could.

          Sometimes, that’s not the case. Sometimes, the car doesn’t move because it’s out of gas, the battery is dead, the head gasket is cracked, the spark plugs aren’t sparking. Another possibility is that the steering wheel is missing, or there are flat tires. With people, sometimes the good deeds aren’t done because the person who isn’t doing them doesn’t know how, or is afraid, or has some other issue that prevents him/her from doing what needs to be done. Our spurring them may have more to do with kicking away an impediment or fixing something that’s broken. This is something we should not only ask ourselves about others but about ourselves as well.

          One last question for us to consider. Is the other person really the person who should be doing a specific good deed, or are we trying to delegate what we should be doing ourselves?