Word of Encouragement from Pastor Eugene Thursday, October 15, 2020

Through an experience this week I was reminded of something that I have learned about myself.  Often in secular settings when meeting people that I will be working with for the first time, my initial impression is usually more negative than I would like.  My greatest challenge is the language (what I consider vulgar and profane) that is often spoken.  But usually as I work with them and come to know them better, I am able to filter (bleep!) it out.  I find that many of these people really care and have good hearts.  What’s on the inside may be a whole lot different than what first appears on the outside.  I was encouraged this week when I saw one of these individuals bow his head in a moment of thanks before he ate his lunch.
Thinking about what I have described above causes me to go back to when I started college at a small all-male engineering school years ago.  The freshmen were asked to come in earlier than the rest of the classes to go through a period of orientation before the regular class schedule began.  As we all met for the first time in the auditorium (I think there were around 160 of us) I remember looking around over the group and thinking, “Wow, I have never seen such an uglier looking group of young men!”  Later, I realized they probably thought the same about me.  However, as I grew to know them and spent nearly four years with them—they became some of the finest and most handsome young men that I knew.  I wonder who changed?
During this week I have been reading and meditating on the book of Colossians.  In the third chapter Paul is reminding the Colossians of how they have put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man who is to be in the image of Christ.  He lists a number of qualities that the new person is to have—kindness, humility, forbearing and forgiving one another, loving one another, to name a few.  He further emphasizes the right relationship of husbands and wives, parents and children, and masters and servants.  In verse 23 he basically says that whatever we do, do it well, for we represent the Lord in all that we do.  I want to always remember and practice that.  How about you?  Be encouraged and lifted up!  
Pastor Eugene