Joy

It seems that everybody is my Facebook friend these days. If you do not know what I’m talking about, get a teenager to hook you up! Anyway… last Sunday, I was crossing our Messiah campus when I bumped into Carlo and Aimee Bell. Carlo and I are such big kids (others say: “goofballs”), that we were gleefully playing off one another in seconds. Aimee is much more responsible than Carlo and I, but before too long, all three of us were giggling and laughing and being wonderfully silly. I was excited about a friend on Facebook and was telling them about how they should hook into her as a friend, too. I was sure that they would appreciate the pure joy she shares in each of her videos. How could I know that? Simple… Carlo and Aimee radiate a pure joy that is infectious to everybody around them. Although their lives are filled with challenges, they reflect a purity of faith and service and spirit and joy … as it is magnified off of each other, and then reflected into a world that is rather starved for joy.

I was telling them about singer/songwriter Stacey Renee Baltes. Stacey is the school chum of Carmen Pease who organizes our on-going Leadership Conference series. I had heard Stacey at one of the conferences, and was really impressed. But being linked in to her Facebook page has been nothing short of wonderful! You see, Stacey is sharing all of the songs she has written for the children’s ministry at her church. The technology used to do this is not exactly “high-end”, and her studio looks to be her living room, but I find myself watching the videos over and over. I laugh and giggle, I feel like she’s talking and singing right to me, and I can’t help feeling transformed by her pure and innocent joy.

Here… check out her V-I-C-T-O-R-Y song, and let’s see if you can watch without giggling (turn up your volume):



Stacey is alive in God’s Spirit. You can see it in her smile, you can feel it in her music, and you can hear it as her sweet voice shares inspired lyrics. Her CD is wonderful, she’s awesome in person, and the videos are so much fun! Of course, I can hear the grumbling already: “With that much talent, it’s easy to be full of joy. What about the rest of us?” Well, I’d point back to the beginning of this post to Carlo and Amy, and point out that with FAITH, and SERVICE, and SPIRIT… come JOY.

Find the gift that God has blessed YOU with, and use it. If you don’t know what your gift is, volunteer. Teach Sunday school, get in a Bible study, lead a bible study, try out for a play or the choir, join the repair team, serve on a committee or run for a council position. The short answer is: there are hundreds of ways to find your gift… through service. The truth is that just sitting in a pew during worship isn’t what God wants from us. He wants us to shine and sparkle with our gifts, to His glory, to light a dark and despairing world.

Take a look and a listen to how Stacey “sparkles”:



Don’t hide your joy under a bushel basket… “Be” the light on the hill and let your joy shine and SPARKLE through!

Oh… by the way… if you want more of Stacey, you can connect with her at:

http://www.staceybaltes.com/

Your brother in Christ,

Dave