What describes you?

"He was totally exemplary and trustworthy." - Daniel 6:4 (The Message)

"Things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely." - Galatians 5:22-23 (The Message)

My thoughts as I read those verses this morning - that is the standard. Not the goal, but the standard. If I am living life the way God laid out, then those should describe my life. They couldn't find any skeletons in Daniel's closet because he was totally exemplary and trustworthy. Wonder how hard it would be to find something in my closet? (Not very hard.) The book of Galatians lays out two different scenarios - one chasing after a life like Jesus and one of selfishness. The one above is what life should look like when we are chasing after Jesus, but when we live a life of self-interest and live one way at times and another way according to how we feel on that day, then it looks more like this.

"Repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness... paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community." - Galatians 5:19-21 (The Message)

Sucks when the wrong description describes your life. Nice slap upside the head to start the morning. What about you? Which list would describe your life? I hope you are living in the freedom that God has given us. I hope your life is marked as exemplary and you are trustworthy. It is gift, but we have to choose it.