I think group work is more fun than Six Flags. The happiest people I know are leaders of groups that are doubling every two years or less. If you didn’t have any high, holy, glorious, noble ambition in your life but just to have fun, I would invite you to give your life to doubling your group every two years or less. It is fun stuff.

Christian Swartz has done one of the most exhaustive studies ever conducted on the worldwide Church. He originally surveyed people on every continent in more than 1,000 churches, amassing 4.2 million bits of data. One of his findings: growing churches laugh more than non-growing churches. They are having more fun. Yes, we do have serious, heady, heavy reasons for giving our one and only lives to doubling. But I want to say right up front that this is a wonderful way to live.

There is a cost involved, a great cost. Our Master asked that we give up everything to be His followers (Luke 14:33). But the cost is richly rewarded. We are never asked to give up more than we get back. We give our rags to put on His royalty. It is worth it.

There will be some disappointment along the way. You will be hurt, rejected, and disappointed. People will not always respond to your love. They will reject you. I teach a very personal ministry, and when people reject you, it hurts. We are rejected as Christ was rejected. We share in his sufferings.2

Meet my friend Chris Thixton. Chris loves life. You can see it in his vibrant, expressive face. Chris is having fun doubling his class. He lives in Ozark, Missouri. I have been to his church twice. He has doubled his group numerous times. His method is not “Giving Friday Nights to Jesus” as I discuss in You Can Double Your Class in Two Years or Less. Instead he uses pizza on Sunday.

He roams the auditorium before the 11:00 service. Finding newcomers, he stops and introduces himself, engaging them in a friendly conversation. Soon, he pitches the bait: you guys like pizza? He directs the question at the kids, then turns to the parents to explain: “A bunch of us are going to get pizza after a while. If you want, I’d love for ya’ll to come with us. I’d love to buy your pizza.” He grew his class from 4 to 40 in 9 months using this method. (By the way, would you spend $25 a week to double your class? I told you it might cost you.)

I cannot emphasize enough that Chris is exceptionally happy. He is one of the happiest church members I know. He is happy, in part, because he is engaged in the pursuit of a great cause. He has embraced the magnificent obsession. Just as in the parable of the talents, Chris is seeking to be the servant who takes what he has been given and doubles it.

Happiness is not so much about prosperity, ease, and creature comforts as it is about losing ourselves in a great cause. We are happiest, not when we are in greatest comfort; rather, we are happiest when we are lost in a great cause. The happiest people I know are lost in a magnificent obsession.

Do you want to be happy? I invite you to lose yourself in the magnificent obsession of using your gifts to help your group double every two years or less.

John Piper points out something interesting about happiness. The world teaches us that in order to be happy we need to have high self-esteem. We need to feel good about ourselves. We need to feel big. This is not the whole story.

Imagine a group of people leaning over the railing at the Grand Canyon, drinking in the view. They are lost in amazement and wonder. You stand beside them and casually remark, “Doesn’t the Canyon make you feel good about yourself? Doesn’t it make you feel big?”

“What are you, nuts?” They would think, probably not owing you the courtesy of responding out loud. They would walk off and mutter under their breath, “Some people just don’t get it.”

People do not enjoy the Grand Canyon because it makes us feel big. It doesn’t do anything to enhance our self-esteem. It doesn’t help us feel big. If anything, it makes us feel small. We are happy then. We are happiest when we feel small standing before something great.

Ever look at the stars? I do. I sometimes lay outside in the back yard on my trampoline and bask in the wonder of the bigness of space above a New Mexico desert. Scientists tell me that the light I see left those stars millions of years ago. The star itself could have gone out by now and we would still be seeing what looks like a star for millions of years. I feel small—and I love it.

You may say, “I can’t do much.” Neither can I. Each of us makes a small splash, but the rippling effect is huge. Because I have been working on this magnificent obsession for some time, I am profoundly aware of this. I have often said that I feel like one who is attempting to empty the Pacific Ocean with tea cups. Everyone I teach to double is one who did not know before. But there is so much to do.

Nobody knows for sure how many lost people inhabit planet earth, but to be sure, it is in the billions. There are likely more than a billion people who have never even heard of Jesus. A few billion more don’t know any more about Jesus than you or I know about Confucius or Mohammed. They haven’t really been given a fighting chance to believe. “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14).

Billions.

The task is daunting. Tea cups trying to empty the Pacific. After we have doubled the number of God-worshiping people in the next 20 years, there will still be billions more to reach.

I feel small. But it feels good to feel small. It feels good to feel small, lost in a big, big cause. Lost in the big, big, cause of a big, big God.

What do you want to give your one and only life to? Do you want to give your life to collecting sea shells, playing softball, and trawling in your boat? Do you want to bury your talents and maintain the status quo? Or do you want to lose yourself in a big, big cause?

Join me. Give your life to the magnificent obsession of doubling. Lose yourself in the cause. It will make you happy.

But it is not just about making us happy. There is a much more serious, somber reason to double.

Josh Hunt, 1 Magnificent Obsession (Las Cruces, NM: Josh Hunt, 2012).