A Lifestyle

Daily Gratitude Year 5-Day 301: Today, I am grateful loving is more than a one-time decision, but a lifestyle. 

A lifestyle is simply the way you live. 

Doing the right thing every once in awhile is... well... nice, but choosing love every day is our calling. It is hard. But, it unlocks joy if we persist until we succeed. 

Stepping out in love can feel risky, but it is that very sense of living on the edge that helps us learn to fly. 

I once heard a doctor say that he had worked hard to become a good doctor, to make a good living, to make a good life and to use his resources to serve God. Still, it wasn't until he did a medical mission trip that he discovered a real and vibrant relationship with Jesus. I love how he phrased it, "Jesus was in the margins." He had missed him in the good things he was doing at home, but it changed when he stepped out of his comfort zone. 

This doctor found himself working differently.  His job was still important, but how he used his skills changed. He no longer lived to serve himself and those with financial access to his care. He longed to take what he knew to the edge and give to those who needed his physician's hands so desperately. In the margins, he felt new life in his old work. He died to self and found new life in Christ. 

What an example of learning to love as a lifestyle. 

Jesus often picked the unlikely and sought them out. The Samaritan woman, the lepers, Zacheus, Saul on the road to Damascus and others who were feared, rejected or outcasts.  He's a tough act to follow... yet he said, "Come. Follow me." Then, he invited the most unlikely bunch to mentor and take into fellowship. Some of them were pretty rough around the edges and others smelled of fish. Love transformed them. 

Jesus loved as a lifestyle. Paul writes this to the Corinthians:

But as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also. I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.  -2 Corinthians 8:7-8

Genuine love. Not perfect, but striving to learn and grow in grace. Love is always the best choice. 

Today, I am grateful loving is more than a one-time decision, but a lifestyle.