I last talked about playing chess and how it teaches you to look ahead. Another thing about chess players who are at a high level is that they really don’t see individual moves with an “if-then-else” logic. They see patterns. They look at a chess board and see a pattern that they recognize and know how to make decisions on the next move in order to move the pattern toward a winning outcome.
Life is like that. Individual decisions seem harmless. These decisions add up to a pattern. You can easily find yourself in a pattern of doing the wrong things–or the right things.
What sort of pattern is your life weaving? Are you tending toward being someone who is welcomed? Or whose presence is dreaded? Do you find yourself in a pattern of losing relationships and life wasted? Or a pattern of service and love?
The first of the Spiritual fruit Paul lists is love. Many people still mistake love as an emotion. You know, that gushy, hormone-filled, lose-your-head emotional high. They are wrong. Infatuation is not love.
Love is action. Love is something you do. Following Jesus, you act out love in the way you treat people. The way you serve people. You actually develop emotions from actions. As you act, so you will begin to feel. But the feeling is more mature. It’s more akin to empathy than infatuation. It’s more real.
It’s something you do.
Faith Venture 
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