Regular Pioneer Service—An Invitation to Increased Happiness
1 How do you respond to an invitation to participate in activity that brings enjoyment and refreshment? Likely it is with appreciation and eagerness. Jesus extended to his disciples a warm invitation to lasting happiness and refreshment. He said: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, . . . and you will find refreshment for your souls.” That yoke of Christian discipleship includes inviting still others to have a share in preaching the good news of the Kingdom. The regular pioneer service is an excellent avenue for increasing your share in this work and in the happiness and refreshment it brings.—Matt. 11:28-30; 28:19, 20.
2 Since the 1979 service year, the average number of regular pioneers in the United States has increased by 214 percent! We have gone from an average of 14,219 regular pioneers in 1979 to an average of 44,664 during the 1986 service year. The current service year started out with 51,381 regular pioneers reporting, a 12.2-percent increase over the 1986 peak of 45,786 reporting in April. What is one message conveyed by this swelling throng of full-time workers? It is that an increasing number of Kingdom publishers are finding happiness and contentment by exerting themselves in Jehovah’s service. Their enthusiasm in the pioneer service has moved others to take a serious look at whether they also can adjust their affairs to become regular pioneers. Are you prayerfully considering this possibility?
WHO CAN PIONEER?
3 A young brother who was able to arrange his affairs to enter the regular pioneer service during his last year of high school reported: “I have never been as happy in my entire life.” After starting to pioneer this past September, a mother of two young children commented: “I am happier now than I have ever been.” Following the loss of her husband in death, another sister wrote: ‘I sincerely encourage anyone who possibly can to engage in the pioneer activity. It can only draw you closer to Jehovah and your congregation.’ How glad these individuals are that they responded to the invitation to enter regular pioneer service!
4 We may easily convince ourselves that we cannot pioneer. But with prayerful effort, we can discern whether our circumstances will allow us to enter the regular pioneer ranks. After debating the matter for some time, one sister who now joyfully serves as a regular pioneer admitted that when she weighed her reasons for not being a regular pioneer against the reasons why she should, it became obvious that she should take up the pioneer service. She overcame her hesitancy and allowed her faith and love for Jehovah to prevail.—See Ecclesiastes 11:4
5 Are you nearing retirement, or are you retired already? If your health and circumstances permit you to become a regular pioneer, your life could take on added meaning and purpose. Then there are married couples who do not now have the responsibility of caring for children. If this is your situation, can you increase your happiness by making the needed adjustments to enter the regular pioneer service?
6 Those who pioneer before beginning to raise a family can later enjoy the advantage of being able to speak from experience when encouraging their children to consider pioneering as a goal to work toward. Some have even been able to continue to pioneer while raising a family. (Prov. 22:6) Over 60 percent of all regular pioneers in the United States are married brothers and sisters, a goodly number of whom have children and yet have arranged their circumstances to pioneer. What a positive spiritual atmosphere this generates in the home!
7 Single persons make up 40 percent of the total pioneers in the United States. Many of these do not have family responsibilities and have readily recognized the fine opportunity before them to make Jehovah’s heart glad while increasing their own happiness by serving as regular pioneers.
8 You may be nearing completion of your secular education. What will you do upon graduation from high school? Jesus advised keeping a ‘simple eye,’ not letting material things and physical comforts become the big things in life. A good runner knows the wisdom of dispensing with anything that could weigh him down and interfere with his running a successful race. Likewise, as a young person, your chances to succeed in winning Jehovah’s favor and avoiding the world’s entanglements stand to improve markedly when you keep busy in Jehovah’s service. Pioneering strengthens your sense of devotion and provides you with incentive to be fully occupied with spiritual things. Therefore, if your circumstances permit it, should you not feel an obligation to be a regular pioneer?—Matt. 6:22; 1 Cor. 15:58; 1 Tim. 6:7, 8.
9 Our happiness now and on into the indefinite future springs from doing Jehovah’s will. Jesus made this abundantly clear by what he taught and did. (Heb. 12:2; John 4:34) It is when we are busy inviting others to come and “take life’s water free” that our own life is most satisfying. Can you increase your happiness by responding to this invitation to become a regular pioneer?—Rev. 22:17; Prov. 11:25.