Living in the Ways of the Spirit: Loving Boldly, Serving Joyfully

This week’s message invited us deeper into the 2026 theme shared by the UMC, the Horizon Texas Conference, and our own church: Serve Joyfully. After four weeks of exploring what it means to Love Boldly, we were reminded that loving God, loving our neighbors, and even loving ourselves is only part of the call—God also invites us to serve with joy.

Psalm 100 encourages us to “Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing,” shifting our focus from life’s chaos to God’s steady goodness. Eugene Peterson’s Message translation urges us to “Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourselves into his presence,” reminding us that joy is not a mood but a spiritual posture.

The sermon acknowledged that joyful service isn’t always easy. Grief, exhaustion, and the noise of the world can distract us from God. Yet joyful practices—praise, gratitude, singing—are gifts God built into us for our healing. As the sermon notes, “Serving God joyfully protects us from the chaos of the world… it keeps it from destroying us.”

When we choose to love boldly and serve joyfully, we step into the rhythm God designed for our souls. May we walk forward ready to embrace that joy.

Blessing of the Students

This Sunday we will offer a special prayer and anointing of our school students. Please bring any and all the students you know for this sacred event. And do not forget our baseball game outing this weekend. Texas Rangers vs the Baltimore Orioles. I have forwarded tickets to those of you with MLB app access. For others, I have your tickets and will meet you at the game to get you into the park.

We will continue this Sunday with the next discussion of Serving Joyfully. This week we will examine what happens when your mood does not match the joyfulness you want to exhibit. Anyone familiar with this problem? This will be another sermon preached to myself that you get to eavesdrop on.

Thank you to Shannon, Julian, and Joshua for a beautiful Disney concert last Saturday night. And thank you to Blake and Shannon for creating such a moving musical service on Sunday morning.

See you this week, my dear friends and family. Wednesday at 10 am for Bible Study or Sunday at 1030am for breakfast followed by worship at 11 am. Love to all, Mary