A Quiet Joy Among Us

If you are traveling through or live near Rock Island, Tennessee, you are warmly invited to join us this Sunday at 10:00 AM at Rock Island Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Ours is a small white church, beautifully decorated for Christmas, filled with natural light pouring through large windows. A piano anchors our worship, and hymns are sung with heart by a close-knit community that truly loves to gather.

It is a simple place, but one that feels deeply warm, welcoming, and quietly alive.

It is a simple place, but one that feels deeply warm, welcoming, and quietly alive In a season that often carries both anticipation and heaviness, that candle stands out. It reminds us that joy is not something we manufacture once life finally settles, but something we are invited into even while we are still waiting. Not a loud or forced joy, but a deep, steady joy rooted in truth.

That theme carried beautifully into Sunday’s message on faith and righteousness from Philippians 3. The sermon opened with a simple image most of us recognize immediately: a job interview. We prepare carefully, consider how we present ourselves, and bring a résumé, hoping it reflects enough competence and experience to be accepted. It’s how we are conditioned to move through the world. Worth is demonstrated. Approval is earned.

Then a quieter question surfaced. What happens when that same mindset follows us into faith?

Many of us recognize that tension. The subtle pressure to show progress, to perform well spiritually, to prove growth and maturity. At first it feels external, shaped by rules, expectations, and traditions. Over time, the deeper issue becomes clear. Is faith about qualification, or is it about trust?

Paul’s words in Philippians 3 bring striking clarity. He lays out his spiritual résumé, impressive by every religious standard: heritage, discipline, education, devotion. Yet he willingly sets it aside, not because it lacked value, but because it could never accomplish what only Christ could.

Scripture reminds us that even sincere effort and lifelong discipline cannot produce righteousness. This was a tension the early church faced as well. Acts 15 shows how quickly grace becomes heavy when additional requirements are added to the gospel. Circumcision, law-keeping, tradition. Well-intended additions that slowly turn freedom into burden.

Peter’s words cut through that impulse with wisdom. Why place a burden on people that no one has ever been able to carry? Why turn faith into something exhausting?

Righteousness is not constructed. It is received. Salvation does not come from background, performance, or religious credibility. It comes through faith in Christ alone.

That truth brings a quiet joy, the kind symbolized by the pink Advent candle. A joy that softens rather than pressures. A joy that draws us toward humility and relationship. Growth begins to flow from gratitude instead of fear.

Paul does not remain anchored in his past, even when that past includes regret and harm. He presses forward, longing to truly know Christ, not only in knowledge, but in lived experience; in uncertainty, in suffering, and in resurrection power that unfolds over time.

This is the heart of Advent as well. Waiting without striving. Trusting without proving. Allowing truth to reshape us quietly from the inside out.

If this resonates with you, if you are navigating questions about faith, growth, or what it means to live freely rather than perform endlessly, we invite you to come and worship with us.

Sometimes a simple message, spoken plainly, becomes the reminder of why joy was lit in the first place.