March Gladness

No it's not a typo! This is not an article about Bracketology and College Basketball. It's my prayer for this spring to be a season of joy and gladness. I must confess that I am a huge College sports fan and I do get joy out of this time of year!

As I was reading Philippians 2 in the Message Bible, I began to see some great suggestions for living a life filled with joy. See if you can pick some of them out…

“If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.”

So many things to ponder today! Be agreeable, loving, and deeply invested in people. Don’t try to be first, be humble and honor those around you. And that last line might just be the greatest piece of advice of all if you want some March Gladness- "forget about yourself long enough to help out someone else." What a great idea! Paul let this church know that these things would make his joy cup filled to overflowing. How about sharing some of this joy today?