You have got to buck up, man. You cannot drag this negative energy in to the tournament!

Sometimes folks are not a part of the solution, but part of the problem.

Is church a place where we can encourage one another or merely criticize to make ourselves feel better? It can often be easy to see the problems of others, but harder to see ourselves as part of the problem and not the solution, wreckers instead of builders.

I shared this with our church not too long ago and thought we might all benefit from it. My hope is that we all either are or at least strive to be builders in the church, building up one another and the body, as opposed to wreckers.

As I watched them tear a building down
A gang of men in a busy town
With a ho-heave-ho, and a lusty yell
They swung a beam and the side wall fell.

I asked the foreman, “Are these men skilled,
And the men you’d hire if you wanted to build?”
He gave a laugh and said, “No, indeed,
Just common labor is all I need.”

“I can easily wreck in a day or two,
What builders have taken years to do.”
And I thought to myself, as I went my way
Which of these roles have I tried to play?

Am I a builder who works with care,
Measuring life by rule and square?
Am I shaping my work to a well-made plan
Patiently doing the best I can?

Or am I a wrecker who walks to town
Content with the labor of tearing down?
“O Lord let my life and my labors be
That which will build for eternity!”

Some folks are just negative and their negativity spreads like a cancer, tearing down and wrecking the lives of others. But the fruit of the Spirit entails, among other things, joy and joy is encouraging and contagious.

Do you spread the joy of the Lord, by which others are built up? Or does your negativity and bitterness beat others down? Do you build up or tear down? Who or what will you build up today?