Here's an amazing story of encouragement.  Be forewarned, you'll probably shed a tear before the end.

High school football is big in America.

But I suppose there is no place where it is bigger than in Texas. Friday nights there are legend. The fans scream; the stands are packed; cheerleaders with pom-poms jump and sway to the beat of the school band; parents yell encouragement (mostly); mom’s turn their eyes away when their little boys are crunched by the “bullies on the other team who didn’t really have to hit him that hard, did he?” and everybody joins in the chants and stomps their feet on the metal stands until you are sure they will collapse.

This is the frenzy of Texas high school football.

However, there is a football team in Texas that is a little different. When they play on Friday night, their stands are pretty much empty, no band, no cheerleaders, no mass of parents or townsfolk wearing the school colors and waving banners and flags. They take the field without anyone cheering them on. When they get a first down, there is no deafening surge from the stands. When they score a touchdown, which rarely happens, there is no wild celebration behind them…only the individual shouts of satisfaction that come from the 14 players and their coach and the 20 or so people that are sitting on their side of the field. All of it seems hollow and muffled in contrast to the tidal wave of roars and drums and chants that come from the opposing side. . . .

I love the example of thinking outside the box... of considering what can be done to be an encouragement to someone else who really needs it.  What's even more noteworthy is the fact that not only did they have nothing to gain by encouraging the others, in fact, they had a lot to lose by encouraging them.

Question: Who can I (or you) encourage this week?  Who do I (you) know who may have lost or never had reason to have much hope?  Am I (are you) willing to encourage someone who needs it, even if it's not to my (your) apparent benefit?  How can we give someone else hope?  What (specifically) can we do?

For further reading about this story, check this link out.