Thursday marks 50 days in Ecuador, and if I’ve learned anything in that time, it’s the importance of choosing joy. Every circumstance, no matter how chaotic, hard, or draining, is made a million times more valuable when you choose to see the joy in it. And once you start looking for the joy in every moment, it’s hard to miss it going forward.
Last week my entire squad worked at one ministry site. Usually each team has their own ministry they work with each day, but that week we were all together. We stayed at a ministry called Dunamis, an organization that works with girls who have been rescued from sex trafficking. Our job all week was to move bricks to help in the building of a wall surrounding the property.
You might think that standing in an assembly line, walking up and down a hill, and moving bricks, would be a hard situation to find the joy in, but you’re wrong. All it takes is one person to choose joyfulness, and the whole group’s attitude changes. Maybe someone decides to start a giant game of telephone down the assembly line, and soon everyone laughs when the silly phrase is sent by walkie talkie back up to the top. Maybe someone decides to start naming every brick that goes by, and soon everyone’s chanting “Good ole Greg”, “Natasha” or “Kayla with a K” while they pass the bricks. Maybe someone decides to blast some music, and soon everyone’s singing along. Maybe someone decides to pick a cow that represents themself from the field up the hill, and soon everyone’s watching to see what their spirit cow is doing each day. Maybe someone decides to lay in a pile of gravel and make a snow angle, and soon we’re pretending the cloud covering us is snow. Maybe someone decides to try scooting down the hill on their butt with a brick in their lap, and soon we’re laughing harder than we’ve ever laughed before at a pair of pants ripped to shreds. Maybe someone decides to lay back on the rock pile and close their eyes to squint at the sun, and soon we’re pretending we’re at the beach. Maybe two people decide to sit on a brick in the rain while everyone else goes inside, and soon we’re laughing and learning so much more about each other than we ever knew before. Maybe someone decides to stop and look over the hills, and soon we’re all awestruck by the beauty our Lord has created. There’s something joyful to be found in every moment. You just have to choose to look for it.
I’m not saying it’s always easy. It can be hard to look for joy. There were times last week when it was really difficult to choose joy, especially when it seemed like the thousands of bricks we were moving wasn’t amounting to anything. Sometimes it felt like I couldn’t see the purpose behind what we were doing. I couldn’t see the bigger picture. Then Boris, one of the founders of Dunamis, told me something. He said that sometimes when we can’t see the bigger picture, it’s because we aren’t meant to see the bigger picture. That God put us here to do this little part in helping Dunamis. That God puts each of us on this earth to help with a little part of his story, even when we can’t see what it will amount to. A lot of times we think that to choose joy we have to look for the bigger picture of what we’re doing. But that’s not always true. Sometimes we just need to be okay with the fact that the point it to not see the bigger picture. The point is to give all we have right now in this moment. And if you decide on doing that, often times God will end up revealing a bigger part of his plan anyway.
After we had been working for a few days moving bricks, I got the chance to spend a morning with the girls who are in the Dunamis program right now. God chose this moment to reveal some of his bigger picture. When the girls were at Dunamis, they had the chance to be kids again. They were able to feel safe again, and play and laugh like any 13, 14, or 15 year old should. We played soccer and laughed because I’m really bad at it. We talked in Spanish and laughed because I pronounced things wrong. We talked about our favorite things and sat in the grass looking at the flowers. We drew pictures and wrote notes for each other. These girls have every reason not to be joyful after what they’ve been through, yet they still choose it. Their smiles and laughter showed me how important something as little as moving some bricks could be. The wall those bricks will build protects these girls, and makes them feel safe.
So I chose joy. I laughed when we came inside covered head to toe in black dust. I embraced the chaos of 40 girls sleeping in one room. I smiled when it started raining. I chose to think of 50 people to 2 bathrooms as a hilarious adventure. I cracked up when my friends got head butted by the sheep. I spent my days talking about my favorite places back home and hearing about others favorite places, all the while making imaginary plans for our futures and talking about our dreams.
And let me tell you, choosing joy made moving bricks go a hundred times faster.
And choosing to understand that moving bricks was building God’s kingdom made me want to work harder.
And choosing joy is something I want to choose the rest of my life.
You can learn more about Dunamis by heading to their website at dunamisfoundation.com, be sure to check out the beautiful jewelry that the girls make to sell.
Also check out this awesome video my squad leader Aly Badinger made from our week there: https://vimeo.com/296534837
Pic Creds: Aly Badinger
