Running With Our Community

The journey I'm in right now is this post-Blood:Water, post-leader journey. I'm almost four years out of having been at the leadership helm. I’m trying to make sense of my time there, and I've been feeling definitely the accomplishment of the work. But really a lot of my mind is focusing on what I wish I had done, you know, X, Y, and Z. 

Which makes me ask, does the work that we do matter? Even if it doesn't completely turn out the way that we had envisioned in that 25-page proposal when we were 21 years old, how do you stick with it? That's something all entrepreneurs probably ask themselves.

Especially since I don't get to rework the organization and it's doing wonderfully outside of my leadership. But there are still things that I wish I could do. I was struck in Hebrews by the reminder of this cloud of witnesses and this long story of our lives and the even longer narrative of God.

It goes on to talk about how there are so many of these faithful individuals who had moments of progress and incredible things happened. There were all of these things to be able to celebrate, and there were also so many who had been tortured and tormented. It talks about all of them in this passage and how they didn't receive what was promised. And I think I'm recognizing how I live on the assumption that all promises will be answered in my timeline. But now I’m thinking about this longer narrative of the work of our hands and the work of our lives.

In comparison to the troubles that they were talking about and living an arduous life of faith, that it's risky, that it's worth it, even if at the end of the day, at the end of the month, at the end of the year, the decade or the lifetime, it doesn't turn out perfectly in the way that you had imagined.

This cloud of witnesses is that we are not alone and that we actually exist within a communal faith that spans time and place and generation. We can tend to be so individualistic about our personal journeys, but we can take great comfort and responsibility and conviction around being a part of this broader community of faith.

Jena Nardella

At the age of 21, Jena Nardella co-founded Blood:Water alongside the band, Jars of Clay. Under her leadership, the organization raised more than $20 million to provide grants to grassroots organizations addressing HIV/AIDS and water in sub-Saharan Africa.