The Love Dare - Day 32

We're getting near the end of this 40 day Love Dare, and you may be thinking that the picture at the left is meant to depict me joyously crossing the finish line.  After all, I've been putting my love stories out there for 31 days now!  And yes, I'm in the picture all right, but I'm not victoriously crossing the finish line.  I'm the one falling on my chin - at least, that's what I did today.  Or did I?  I'm really not sure.

It isn't that I didn't do anything that could be construed as 'loving' today.  Actually, I did several things for other people in the course of this day.  But I didn't want to do any of them, and if I could have gotten out of them, I would have!  So I can't really claim those as acts of love, can I?  My motives certainly weren't very good.  On the other hand, I knew that doing them was the right thing to do, and that's why I did them.  James 4:17 says, "to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin."  But I did them!  So it must have been a good thing in the sight of God, even if my motives weren't as noble as they could have been.  I didn't have wrong motives (trying to look good, trying to impress God, etc.).  I simply didn't want to do the things I did, yet I did them anyway because they were the right things to do.  So, did I fall on my chin, or did I do good?

Jesus once told a parable about two sons (Matthew 21:28ff).  He started with a question.  "What do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, 'Son, go work today in the vineyard.'  And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterward he regretted it and went.  The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, 'I will, sir'; but he did not go.  Which of the two did the will of his father?"  Now, clearly, I was the first son today.  My heart was saying, "No!  I won't do it."  But I did it.  And the correct answer to Jesus' question of "which of the two did the will of his father," seems to have been "The first."  So maybe I really was doing the will of my love-exhorting Father today, even though I didn't really want to be doing it. Of course, there's always the possibility that I'm just justifying the half-hearted commitment to love that I exercised today.  If I was doing the will of my Father, I certainly missed out on the joy that often comes from a whole-hearted obedience.  And yet, I did the things that were right to do!

So... maybe that is me crossing the finish line in that picture!  I'd like to think it is, or at least that I am heading in the right direction.  But just to make sure, I think I'll try to be a bit more heart-felt in my love-stuff for tomorrow!  This is no time to be backing off.