The first section of today’s reading, Romans 12:3-21, is about spiritual gifts and it really prompted me to think about this question as I was reading it, “When am I at my happiest state?  Or is it ‘most happy’?  I don’t know...but when is that?  I will tell you when that is...when I am feeling content and I am not comparing myself to others.  When I feel good enough as I am, I tend to relax a little more.  That’s when the weight comes off of my shoulders; that’s when I tend to be more present with the ones I love...when I feel like I am good enough.

Here Paul is pressing into this idea that God gave us all gifts, and He ordained us with a purpose in mind.  and he tells us that we should lean into those gifts and we should  focus on being the best version of ourselves, living out that purpose.  And, further, he connects our purpose with others in that he teaches us that God created everyone as pieces of the puzzle, as parts of the whole.  So, not only are we happiest when we are being our best selves, but that’s when the world is a better place as well.  As poetic and romantic as that idea is, it is actually very easy to accept and to confirm when I think about it.  40 years of living on this earth and I can say that those worlds really seem to be true based on my experience.

...and then it starts...we get a laundry list of  stuff from Paul in v9-21.  Now, I am going to read this section really quickly, but here is what I want us to remember this morning.  This list of stuff has 2 purposes - it is both a prescription and a description.  Meaning, we are to effort ourselves to live this way, but we do so knowing that we aren’t going to pull this off.  Jesus was the only one that was about to do that, ever.  BUT, that still doesn’t release us from the prescriptive nature here, we are to make the effort...that’s part of the growth process.  But we should also remember that doing these things doesn’t make us a Christian...these are cumulatively a  description of the fruits you and I will start to notice in our lives as we follow Jesus.  To the extent that you or I start to recognize these things happening in lives, our behavior, we can know that God is working in us.

So, yesterday I prayed to God a few extra times trying to create a better connection and a more open line of communication, today I am going to continue doing that, but I will add in a request that God would help me to spot moments to intentionally be more loving in these ways.  Today I want to act like I am loving and am loved by God.