We’re surrounded by ‘Lifestyle Choices’ that we make… If I do this, have that, think this way… then I will feel fulfilled, be happier, stay healthy….
Sometimes it’s about exercise…
…I enjoy hearing from friends who continue to leave their warm beds early in the morning and swim in the cold North Sea. I enjoy hearing from them, but it’s a lifestyle choice I choose not to make.
Sometimes it’s about diet…
…My nephew Benjamin in the Ivory Coast posted this picture of his brother-in-law Tenena who had prepared a wonderful meal for him with this giant monitor-lizard. This is a lifestyle choice I’m not able to make.
Sometimes it’s about leisure time. I saw this on Facebook:
Anybody interested in a free ride in a helicopter flight for 4 people?! I’m still looking for 2 more people to join us. We leave early Saturday (October 16) morning from Great Yarmouth. We’ll fly to Poole (Dorset), where we will have breakfast and then on to a yacht for lunch. Then we’ll fly to Jersey, return to Poole for dinner, then fly back home.
If interested please message me… Preferably someone with a helicopter and yacht, otherwise we can’t go…’
I don’t have yacht or helicopter so I didn’t respond. This isn’t my lifestyle either.
I’m reading ‘The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry’ by John Mark Comer.
He says that historically Christianity has focused on a set of ideas… truth… theology; it’s emphasised a list of dos and don’ts… ethics; it hasn’t said so much about lifestyle.
He talks about followers of Jesus being ‘Jesus-apprentices’ who follow Jesus’ lifestyle. ‘…by lifestyle I mean the rhythms and routines that make your day-to-day existence. The way you organise your time. Spend your money…’
I still won’t swim in the sea, eat a big lizard or own a helicopter but I am musing on and re-thinking some of my lifestyle choices… in the light of the lifestyle that Jesus modelled and taught.
malcolmsmusings.org 