June 2025-Your Win is My Win!

Finally, he did it! After years of trying, Rory McIlroy won the Masters. After 16 failed attempts he finally triumphed at Augusta. In so doing, he became one of only six golfers to have ever won all four majors. What an incredible achievement for the boy from Hollywood (not that one - the other one!). 

There was one wonderful moment in the immediate eruption of emotion that followed Rory’s triumph that struck me. As he walked from the final green to the clubhouse, walking past thousands of adoring fans all cheering his name, the first person who met him was his good friend Shane Lowry. Lowry couldn’t contain his happiness. He gave his friend the biggest of bearhugs. It was a heart warming scene, particularly when you consider that Lowry too was a player who began the week with his own aspirations and dreams of putting on the Green Jacket. I couldn’t help but deeply admire this man who genuinely delighted, to his expense, in his friend’s moment of glory.

I was reminded of Paul’s exhortation to the Christians at the church in Rome. Paul implores them, in their communal together, to rejoice with those who rejoice.[1] What a wonderful sentiment. 

I often wonder, however, why Paul felt the need to write that. I reckon it’s because he knows that our fallen human hearts so often default to doing the opposite. So often we mourn with those who rejoice. You know the kind of internal thoughts? Why didn’t what happened to them happen to me? What did they do to deserve it? How long before I get a slice of the success pie? We might not verbalise it in such terms but, if we’re honest, there’s so often an ugliness to the initial response in our hearts when things go well for someone else and not us. 

However, a person who truly rejoices with those who rejoice? That’s a lovely sign of the Spirit at work in someone’s life bringing that sense of security, contentment, delight and trust in an all sovereign and good Christ. In particular, considering the church in Rome contain both Jews and Gentiles, what a wonderful testimony to the unity and newness of life that Jesus brings. 

Do you not long to be, not just part of a church family like that, but to be a Christ-like person like that? Here’s a few questions to consider.

Who’s joy can you join?

As you lookout on your church family who is celebrating? Who had a new baby? Who passed the exam? Who bought a house? Who secured a new job? Who got engaged? Who’s child came to faith? You get the idea. Who in your church family can you go towards with the express purpose of entering their joy?

When the green eyed monster of jealously has threatened to overtake me, I’ve often found a successful strategy is to pray and give thanks to the Lord specifically for the other person. It’s very hard to be envious of someone who you’re going out of your way to be thankful for. How rarely we contemplate the possibility that sharing in someone else’s happiness might prove to be the perfect way the Lord rouses our sleepy souls to praise. Father, thank you Lord for yet another reason to praise you for your undeserved kindness!

Who’s song can you sing? 

There may well be someone in the church family who hasn’t yet perceived the Lord’s kindness in their life. Who could you come alongside in order to inspire them to praise the Lord for his grace? 

Conversely, who could you invite to come and share in your praise? David writes in Psalm 34;

‘Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.’[2]

Notice the invitation to corporate praise (italics mine). The Psalm is David’s response to the Lord delivering him from Abimelek. He has experienced God’s kindness firsthand and so responds by inviting others to taste and see that the Lord is good. That’s what a testimony says. Will you come and praise the Lord with me?  Let’s never grow tired of turning times of blessing from the Lord into arrows of praise to the Lord and inviting others to join us. 

Rejoicing with those who rejoice? Let’s make it par for the course. 

[1] Romans 12:14 (NIV)

[2] Psalm 34:3 (NIV)