Pastor’s Email College Devotion
The Week of Epiphany 4
January 31, 2016
Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. (1 Timothy 4:12)
Today was Youth Sunday in church. Remember Youth Sunday from your high school days? If you remember the sermon dramas from when you were in high school, you’ll remember that wrapped into their Bible message from the lesson for the day, was a fair amount of silliness, too. It always seems to me that the silliness softens us up a bit, so that we might hear the hard words of the Gospel. Sometimes you’ll meet people who get a little too uptight about their faith journey. God placed deep wells of joy in our lives, too. The joy allows us to laugh at our sin, and in our laughter, find ourselves disarmed enough to be able to acknowledge it honestly, and ask for forgiveness. I hope the semester has started well. Remember to always make choices of which you and those you love will be proud.
God of joy, you have placed the gift of laughter within us, and you invite us to use it to your glory. May our laughter allow us to see ourselves with honest eyes, that we might strive to correct those parts of our lives that are not laughing matters. Amen.