John 15:12-13 NKJV

(12)  This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

(13)  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

A surgeon wrote this story about an experience that changed his life.

I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish. A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed. She will be thus from now on. The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh; I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had cut the little nerve. Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed, and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private. Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry-mouth I have made, who gaze at and touch each other so generously, greedily? The young woman speaks. "Will my mouth always be like this?" she asks. "Yes," I say, "it will. It is because the nerve was cut." She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles. "I like it," he says. "It is kind of cute." All at once I know who he is. I understand, and lower my gaze. One is not bold in an encounter with a great man. Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth, and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers, to show her that their kiss still works.*

This husband was a great man. In the midst of what could have been a horrible experience for all, he rose above his shock: He accommodated his life and kiss to set his wife at ease.

As a Christian you are called to adjust your life to serve your fellow human family. What is God calling you to do with your life? Are you willing to follow His call? Are you willing to make some adjustments to your lifestyle if necessary?

1. What does Jesus call us to do in John 15:12-13?

2. What can you do with your life to make it count? Is there a part of your life that you’ve been complaining about that really would be better off if you took a different attitude about it? Today make an accommodation of love that you’ve needed to make for a long time.

John 13:34 NKJV

(34)  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 10:11 NKJV

(11)  "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.

Romans 5:7-8 NKJV

(7)  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

(8)  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

* Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery by Richard Selzer, M.D. (Touchstone Books, 1987)