It’s a new year and a new opportunity to make a difference both at Our Redeemer and in the world.  I’m excited to be back in a leadership position with such a great group of people on our leadership teams and in our congregation. We are very blessed.

After attending my first council meeting of the year there is an abundance of enthusiasm and optimism present within our leadership team and it is contagious. It is a great contrast to a lot of the negativity in the world that we have had to endure the past few years from everything from pandemics to politics.  Thank God that we have our faith and our church as a rock in the storm.

I was recently listening to a podcast on my way to work and the question that was posed to the listeners was “Did they have Joy in their life”?  We like to think that we do.  Having a good day filled with Joy doesn’t happen unless you make it happen and the key to that is to be joyful in all that we do.

Collossians 3:23 says, ”Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for Men”. We need to be reminded that in whatever we do we need to do the best job we can to glorify God. Our job may not be the most exciting and it can be hard to go to work each day with a smile and full of joy.  But if we look at our jobs and our volunteer work as ways to serve the Lord and show our appreciation to him for all the blessings, he has given us then this puts everything in a new perspective.

Do the people you work with know you are a Christian? Do they see the joy from being in Christ visible in your daily attitude and actions?  We all are challenged with witnessing but living a joyful and positive life for Christ is the best witness we can do. 

People will recognize the difference in your disposition and want to know what makes you tick. This is the opportunity that God wants us to take advantage of where we can share our faith with others and tell them how God has made a difference in our lives.

The next time you go out in public, go out of your way to make eye contact with someone, give them a smile and say “Hi”.  Share a little bit of the Joy that God gives us with others. You never know when something so simple can change a life. 

Just remember that we are all the feet and hands of God and we need to use them to show Him how appreciative we are for all the blessings he has given us.  We need to let the Joy we have from being his saved children radiate from us to make the world a little better place one simple smile and kind gesture at a time.

God Bless. Phil Linquist