A Call to Advocacy

Advocate- person who pleads for or in behalf of another

We all desire to be loved. Many people experience that love through words of encouragement, someone telling us that we are awesome. Although, for me personally, words of encouragement never did much. I sometimes wonder, why is that? I don't think I hate myself and I want to believe it but for some reason I still struggle with it. While reflecting on this thought today I thought back to the scene in Mean Girls when Regina tells a girl in the hallway how good her skirt looks but the second the girl walks away, Regina says how awful it really looks. I then thought to myself maybe that is why words of encouragement don't mean that much to me. At times I think I do have a hard time trusting that people truly mean what they say. On the other hand, we shouldn't matter what people think of us.

Although we should never measure our value by what others think of us, that doesn't necessarily mean that we are not obligated to do more to show how much we care about how much we value one another. Regina tells the girl she is pretty but she never boasts to another person about how beautiful this girl is.

I think that sharing with others is the key difference between being just being kind and truly loving something about someone. Our faith should be no different. If we go to church, youth group, praise and worship events and tell God how awesome he is but we never tell a soul, do we really think he is that awesome?

How about I say it another way. If God truly is all of the things we say that he is, how could we praise him but not tell others? If God is truly all of the things we say that he is, how can we talk with our church friends all day about the things he has done for us but not tell someone who has never known God?

Mark 16:19-20 

Then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.

We are called to be advocates for both God and one another. If a person truly is the good that we say they are, we should be feel obligated to ourselves to tell others. I'll admit, although I feel happy when people say kind things to me I still doubt if they really feel that way or not. However, when people tell others what they think of me I KNOW it's true.

If I were to look at all of the people in my life and pick one person who did this more than anyone in my life it would be my mom. I've Mom's are the best advocates there are because they not only do they tell us how awesome we are, they brag about us to every single person they ever meet. My mom, second only to Jesus, is the best advocate I've got because no matter what I say or do she still believes in me. When I am hard on myself she is the one to speak up and say that I can do it. During a fight her exact word's were, "Stop giving yourself a pity party and do something". It sounds harsh but the fact is even when she is mad at me she still believes in me.

I want to close with one final thought. It is because of my mom that I can fully understand the complexity of the Wedding at Cana and what it means to advocate for someone.

John 2:1-5 

The Wedding at Cana.
1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 [And] Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”

I think another way to translate what Jesus tells his mother would be, "Why should I? I can't do that yet." At which point Mary ignores his statement and puts Jesus in a position where he can't say no.