From the Pulpit: Experience the joy of making other people’s lives better through God

Friends in the Community,

Greetings to each and every one of you from God our loving Heavenly Father and our living Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope and pray that this article finds all of you well as we officially move into the season of Fall! 

Have you ever noticed how many people work behind the scenes to make our communities better places to live? These people do not do their jobs because of the honors or awards they receive. They do not do these jobs because of the great pay. They do not even do these jobs because of the status these jobs bring. Instead, these people perform their tasks because they know they are making the lives of other people better. 

The people that I am speaking of go to work almost every day with a smile. They know their days will be made better because of the impacts they are going to make on other people. As they interact with people, they share their joy for their work, and they try, in some way, to help this joy spread from them to the people they know and with whom they work each day. When this joy is spread, other people know it is genuine and is not just some type of show or act.

This is living the Christian life. Jesus wants us to share the joy we have within us with other people every day. He wants us to take the gifts he shares with us and to share them with other people. We do not do this to receive recognition or rewards. We do this because we want to make other people’s lives better. We have joy in our hearts, and we want other people to experience this joy for themselves. We have been forgiven, and we want other people to know what it means to be truly and unconditionally forgiven. We have been loved, and we want others to experience this love in their lives.

When we live in this way, we can live with passion. Other people can see Jesus through our words, actions and interactions. They can see our joy, and their days are impacted because we share this joy with them. Joy is contagious and can be spread throughout a community. It starts with God’s people sharing that joy in ways that may seem small at first but can make a huge difference!

I have been blessed in the last few weeks to have this type of joy shared with me by people in our communities. This has happened when I have shown up in the schools to teach beside our teachers and to serve lunch with some of our cafeteria workers! These people share their gifts, their passions and their joy each day with the young people in our community. Their work makes a big difference.

They are also an amazing example for us. They have shown us how to share and spread their joy. Those of us who get to interact with them are blessed to be able to gain a great deal of joy and passion for us to share just as they do!

Just a thought …