Think back with me, for just a second, to the last half of our time in Nepal. Our squad was split in half; one half went to the mountains, and the other half went to the jungle. I was on the “jungle” team, and we quickly realized that the definition of “jungle” is just a small village that contains more trees than the city. We were working with a man named Bipin. Bipin is a devoted father and husband, loves the Lord with all his heart, and often yells “FIRE!” as a way to signal that the Holy Spirit is moving (and sometimes yells “FIRE!” to wake everyone else up at 5:00 a.m. because he wants to read the Bible together). At one point, I was struggling with the our ministry for the weeks (which mostly consisted of prayer walks, house visits, and praying for healing for the local villagers) and was just plain exhausted, and I asked Bipin to pray for me and see if the Lord was saying anything that I was too tired and out of it to comprehend. Bipin prayed, told me some things that I have yet to forget, yelled “FIRE!”, and sent me out to continue to serve the Lord.
One of the things that Bipin encouraged me to think about after he had finished praying was the idea of corporate joy. I knew that “corporate” basically means “communal”, but the only thing I could really think of when I thought of corporate joy was the verse that mentions mourning when others mourn and laughing when others laugh (Romans 12:15). I more or less forgot about this idea until the first day of LDW, which is a Leadership Development Weekend that Racers get to experience once every 3 months. The first night of LDW, our squad leaders asked one or two people from each team to stand up and give a run-down of their month and the cool things that God did. Everyone was talking about the ways that they got to share the gospel with people and lead people to Christ and the whole time, I was thinking, “Man. This sucks. I don’t feel like our team did anything. I feel like we just held conversations with people, and I don’t feel like we got to be a part of helping bring anyone closer to the Lord. I don’t feel like our team even got that close; Vietnam was one of our harder months as far as choosing each other and choosing to step into vulnerability. I feel like we’re the only team that didn’t really do a whole lot for the Kingdom, and I only got to share my story with one girl, and she was already a believer, and I feel like we were just really ineffective in the grand scheme of spreading the Gospel and making disciples.” Woof. How depressing. When I thought about it, I felt our team (read: I felt like I) pretty much ranked last in the list of “Teams and People Who Effectively Brought Kingdom in Vietnam.”
Isn’t God SO good to remind of us of the Truth even when we can’t see it? The second day of LDW, I was having a lady-date with one of my dear friends, and without knowing what I was doing, I began verbally processing the past month with her, and God snuck this idea of corporate joy back into my mind. Those ideas sounded and came out something like this:
You know something? I didn’t get to stand at a pulpit and share my testimony with anyone this past month. My team didn’t do any preaching, and while I hope we were able to plant seeds that will lead to people coming to know the Lord, I don’t know for sure what that looked like this past month. But you know the cool thing? Because of our Squad, because of my fellow Racers, we have new brothers and sisters in Christ! Because of my fellow Racers, people came to know the Lord this month. Because of my fellow racers, lives were changed ALL OVER Vietnam! And I don’t need to intrinsically feel successful to know the Truth of what happened this month and the Truth that lives have been forever changed and forever saved. When I look at the grand scheme, focusing on the way that I felt about a month or the things accomplished that month is incredibly selfish. No one is going to get together and say, “Ok, well Joanna struggled this month and felt like she didn’t really do a whole lot, so we should just sum this month up by saying that it was a bust.” NO! The Truth of this month is that it was an awesome, life-changing month and the Gospel was carried all throughout Vietnam, which is a closed country to boot. And I want to take joy in those successes. I want to take, and I can take, joy in my brothers’ and sisters’ joy. I can choose, regardless of the way the I feel, to believe the Truth of the way that God’s followers totally rocked it in Vietnam.
I believe that this is at least a small bit of the idea behind corporate joy; being so bought into what other people are doing for the Kingdom that you take joy in their victories right alongside them. I was thinking to myself later, and wondered why I don’t take joy each day because some missionary in Africa has led another person to the Lord. But I think it’s because I don’t have buy-in with that missionary. I don’t know a name or a face, I don’t know a vision, and I don’t support them with my time, energy, or funds. Simply put, I’m not bought in to what that missionary is doing, because I don’t know them and I don’t know what they’re doing. But this is why we support missionaries that we know, right? (Shameless plug/slogan that I stole from a t-shirt: Make the World Suck Less… Support a Missionary!!) This is why we support the churches we go to. This is why we give our money, our time, and our energy to supporting people who are bringing Kingdom across the globe; it’s so we can fully support the ways that God is moving around the world, and one of the awesome outcomes of this buy-in and support is that we get to take joy in what these people/organizations/etc. are doing. And in this way, I have buy-in with my Squad and the things that our different teams are doing; I have put in my time, my money (and your money!), my energy, and my plans for the near future to fully say YES to the ways that God moves throughout the different members of our Squad… even if it doesn’t always feel like I can tell one of those stories of God moving at any given time.
Joy is a sweet thing. It’s a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), and we know that people will know us by these fruits (Matthew 7:16). If we call ourselves Christ-followers, we are to cultivate this attitude of joy in all areas of our life. Corporate joy is just one of those ways that we can practice being joyful in all situations. So be encouraged, friends: God is doing great things through this Squad! You have bought into something GOOD, whether it’s been through finances, prayer, encouragement, or all of the above! Great things are happening here. I love bringing you stories of the ways that God is moving through our team and the ways I am experiencing Him deeper each day, and I want to also be intentional about bringing you stories of the ways that God is moving all throughout the countries that we’re in via different teams who are a part of S Squad. I’m thankful for the sweet way that the Lord reminded me of this idea of corporate joy and taking joy in all things, and I hope you can dwell on these ideas and be encouraged, as well!
