Step two: Joy beats duty. Always.

A wise friend shared this quote in our morning meeting:

A perfect man does nothing out of duty. -C.S. Lewis

I am most certainly am not perfect, and so I often act because I ought. I perform out of a sense of duty instead of the actions bubbling out of a place of sheer joy. But as Mr. Scott so kindly pointed out while sharing his thoughts, this is refreshing because it reminds me of my imperfection. It reminds me that I need a little help up in here. So, I'm not perfect, meaning I will continue to do some things out of a sense of duty. And honestly, if I did only what I truly desired, I think I'd be a jerk of a person.

I need a bit of duty, but I'd like to move in the direction of perfection, moving from an earnest desire instead of a 'should-place'. My question is how do I cultivate this joy-driven lifestyle? I want to get there, but it seems a bit daunting. So I'm going to keep trying to figure that one out. To start this off 1 Peter 1:22-23 says:

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God...

I have been born again. Always a good place to start. My soul has been purified. Because of the obedience to the truth.
-Rewind-
Obedience? This word feels like it's leaning a little bit toward the duty side to me. Dictionary: "compliance with someone's wishes or orders or acknowledgment of their authority". Not quite duty, but it doesn't feel quite like desire either. I want to desire to obey. I want to love earnestly from the heart. I want to be kind to these sixth graders not because I should but because I want to.

Right now I want to go to bed. I'm not thinking about my heading hitting the pillow just because getting rest is the responsible thing to do. I really, from the bottom of my heart, want to go to sleepy town. So I think I will even though there is so much more to say about this topic.

God. Fill me with earnest joy. That I may love deeply, from the heart. May I walk not out of duty or responsibility, but out of pure delight.