40acts: Ready to ActSample

Act 6: Best Day Lewis Carroll first coined the phrase ‘unbirthday’. Why wait until it’s someone’s official special day? Make plans to spoil someone, either spontaneously today or in the near future. Surprise them if you know that’s what they like, or pre-warn them if that would make it easier for them to accept your invitation. ‘Outdo one another in showing honour.’ These stunning words from Romans 12 are a brilliantly joyful summary of how to live life. ‘Showing honour’ is just another way of saying ‘go out and love someone’. Romans is telling us to go over the top in love, and to get competitive about making a big deal of someone. It’s a recipe to put fun back into any grey, selfish life. Treat love like you would a hotly contested competition, or, in the words of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, make love your goal. Just like we’ve been doing all week, we’re learning how to move beyond just being casually open to generous opportunities, and instead to chase them down. But if Romans is telling us how to live a life of love, then where does that love come from? This life of generosity doesn’t come from nowhere; it’s not just a pleasant way to while away the hours in an already-packed schedule. It’s actually birthed right in the heart of the God who created you. ‘As I have loved you,’ said Jesus, ‘so you must love one another.’ It’s the overflow of your life when you’re connected in relationship to a God who outdoes anyone in love. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to spend life that way? Spent on others, spent on giving them the best that you would want for yourself, turning every selfish interest outwards for the good of others? If our verses for today are anything to go by, it’s totally and entirely possible.