{"id":46377,"date":"2007-01-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/max-lucado-prefers-encouragement-to-complaining\/"},"modified":"2007-01-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-22T00:00:00","slug":"max-lucado-prefers-encouragement-to-complaining","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/max-lucado-prefers-encouragement-to-complaining\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Lucado Prefers Encouragement to Complaining"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I discovered the importance of healthy counsel in a half-Ironman triathlon. After the 1.2 mile swim and the 56 mile bike ride, I didn&#39;t have much energy left for the 13.1 mile run. Neither did the fellow jogging next to me. I asked him how he was doing and soon regretted posing the question.<\/p>\n\n<p>&quot;This stinks. This race is the dumbest decision I&#39;ve ever made.&quot; He had more complaints than a taxpayer at the IRS. My response to him? &quot;Goodbye.&quot; I know if I listened too long, I&#39;d start agreeing with him.<\/p>\n\n<p>I caught up with a 66-year-old grandmother. Her tone was just the opposite. &quot;You&#39;ll finish this,&quot; she encouraged. &quot;It&#39;s hot, but at least it&#39;s not raining. One step at a time&hellip;don&#39;t forget to hydrate&hellip;stay in there.&quot; I ran next to her until my heart was lifted and my legs were aching. I finally had to slow down. &quot;No problem.&quot; She waved and kept going.<\/p>\n\n<p>Which of these two describes the counsel you seek?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3391,3454,3499,3652,3697,3729,3797,3844,3862,4109,4140,4245,4498,4570,4637,4792,5031,5171,5292],"tax_ctp_topics":[378,384],"class_list":["post-46377","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-advice","tax_ctp_tags-attitude","tax_ctp_tags-bitterness","tax_ctp_tags-complaining","tax_ctp_tags-counsel","tax_ctp_tags-cynicism","tax_ctp_tags-discouragement","tax_ctp_tags-edification","tax_ctp_tags-encouragement","tax_ctp_tags-guidance","tax_ctp_tags-help","tax_ctp_tags-influence","tax_ctp_tags-motivation","tax_ctp_tags-optimism","tax_ctp_tags-pessimism","tax_ctp_tags-relationship","tax_ctp_tags-speech","tax_ctp_tags-tongue","tax_ctp_tags-words"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Max Lucado Prefers Encouragement to Complaining - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/max-lucado-prefers-encouragement-to-complaining\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Max Lucado Prefers Encouragement to Complaining - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I discovered the importance of healthy counsel in a half-Ironman triathlon. 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