Contagious Joy

Being a Christian Teammate

Think about the best teammate you’ve ever had. What made them a good teammate? How did they make you feel? What actions showed they cared about you? How did this person impact the culture of the locker room? How about the team’s performance?

Galatians 5:22 lists the fruit of the Spirit. The traits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

These qualities come out when we are living our lives connected to a relationship with Jesus. This fruit of the Spirit can be a powerful tool for us to impact our teammates in a positive way.

In college, I had a teammate who was grumpy in the mornings. Now, I don’t blame her because we had some early morning workouts. Grumpy is about everyone’s natural state at 6 a.m.! One semester, I made it my mission to bring joy to this teammate in the morning. So, every single day, I went to her and gave her a big hug. She hated it! But eventually, it became something that we all laughed at every day. I think it brought her some much-needed joy too.

When the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we experience the wonderful fruit of the Spirit in our hearts. But God doesn’t call us to keep them to ourselves. He has called us to influence those around us and share those good fruits with them!

My favorite movie is an old classic called It’s a Wonderful Life. There is a quote in the movie that says, “All you can take with you is that which you’ve given away.” I love that! When we try to hold on to joy for ourselves, we will end up losing it. Joy is meant to be shared.

Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6:18 that the way to experience life as God intended is to be generous in good works. For athletes, we can use this message to shape the way we interact with teammates. Being generous may look like giving a teammate a ride to practice in the morning. It may look like helping your coach clean up equipment and carry ball bags after training. It may be encouraging a teammate who made a mistake in a game. Or it can be as simple as giving a teammate a hug when you first see them in the morning.

The great thing about this type of service is that the more joy, love, and kindness we give away, the more we get to experience ourselves. Keep this in mind as you interact with your teammates. Generosity leads to abundance!

Application questions:

• What is one way you can serve your teammates this week
• Who is someone in your life who has been generous with their joy toward you? How can you make your teammates feel like this person made you feel?

Prayer:

God, thank you for your Spirit that lives in us. Help us be generous in the way we share the good things You have blessed us with. Give us the heart of a servant to build our teammates up. Help us understand that the more we give away, the more of You we get to experience. Amen.