Try it... you'll like it. That's basically what God is actually saying to us. No matter what religion would have you believe. God is NOT saying, "Turn or burn." He's NOT saying, "Love me or else." Look at Revelation 22:17, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Again, its not, "Come... or else." Its, "Come and get it!" If you're hungry, come and eat. If you're thirsty, come and drink. Freely. Jesus took Six Steps to the Throne (Crucified, Died, Buried, Quickened, Raised, Seated) on the cross, in His death, burial, and resurrection, in order to prepare a table for us in the presence of our enemies. In order to make everything available. So that if we ever finally do get sick and tired of being sick and tired... we can choose a more excellent way. We can stop trying to be someone we're not in order to get something we haven't got. Because we know who we are and we know what we've got. What you see is what you be. I've been focusing mostly on the eating and drinking part (because you are what you eatt), but I don't want to ignore the seeing part. Because if you don't see that the work is finished... you'll always try to finish it. You'll try earn what you need. But what you need can't be earned. It is a gift. And gifts are freely given. They must be received. Received and released. Shared, in order to be fully experienced. And think about this--to mix my metaphors back up--when you eat something really good... like something that's just delicious... you can't wait to tell people about it. Especially in this day and age of taking pictures of our food and putting them on social media. We want people to know what we had that was so good. And that CAN be scary, in a sense, because if we recommend something that we like, and then they don't like it we feel rejected. Like what we tried to share is a part of us. (You are what you love, not who loves you, to quote one of Logan's favorite bands.) But shared experiences are better. Seeing a movie with friends is better than seeing it alone. Sharing a meal. That's my point. You taste the love of God... and you can't help but want to share it. What you got if you ain't got love, the kind that you just want to give away? To quote one of MY favorite singers. But seeing is believing. You can't really be a witness to something that you didn't experience yourself. Second hand, third hand, six degrees of separation starring Kevin Bacon don't really cut it. Things get lost in translation. But when you hear the Spirit (within you) and the bride (that you are) saying come... you can answer that knock on the door of your heart (which is Jesus), and you can sit down and sup with Him. You can fill yourself to overflowing with what you've been filled with. You can, at the very least, try it. Try something new. Make mistakes and learn from them. Learn and grow. Taste and see. Receive and release. Its insane to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result. If you want something new you have to do something new. You might have to leave your comfort zone. You might have to go out on a limb. But that's ok, because that's where the fruit it. So when it comes to settling... don't. Don't ever settle. There's something available that is better than anything you could ask for or even think of. Give it a chance. Taste it and see.

I wanted to quote this memory verse the last couple of days, but it'll go nicely right here. "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious" (2 Peter 2:1-3). Taste the good and you'll lose your appetite for the bad. Not that I'm trying to split hairs between "good" and "evil." Because we know that the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil) emcompassed both. We're talking about a more excellent way. The Tree of Life. Which only has one fruit. The fruit of the Spirit. Love. When you enter into that love feast (which is what the word "love" means most times in the Bible), you find that love is all you want to eat. And you find that you ARE what you eat. Desire the milk of the word. I once preached a sermon about milk and honey. Milk being righteousness and honey being revelation. I might Rant about that after I finish with this, but for now I want to focus on "that ye may grow thereby." Because milke helps you grow, right? Strong healthy teeth and bones. Calcium. Its grow juice. And that's what tasting and seeing is all about: learning and growing. Trusting in God--even in baby steps--because He continually proves Himself trustworthy. Having faith in God (faith in love) because He consistently proves Himself faithful. Growing in grace. Learning how to love by learning how we are loved. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've been filled with. Receiving BY releasing. Releasing by receiving. And I just did a Guerrilla Gospel message about this: We need to stop getting it twisted around. We don't lay aside all malice, and guile, and etc. in order to make room for forgiveness, and mercy, and love. We don't focus on the negative--even in the sense of trying to get rid of it. Because what you focus on is what manifests in your life. If you're struggling with forgiving someone, its probably because you can't stop thinking about what they did to you that needs to be forgiven. You're feeding the very thing that's holding you back. But if you set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth... if you shift your focus to the truth that you have been forgiven... that's why (and how) you can forgive. You've done some stuff. We all have. And if your heavenly Father can (and did) forgive you... then it doesn't matter what someone else did. You can focus on the solution, instead of focusing on the problem. You can taste the milk. The righteousness of God, which is who you are. And you can GROW by that knowledge--heart knowledge, not head knowledge. You can be who you are as you learn who you really are. By learning who Jesus really is. By letting Him reveal Himself to you, and in you, and through you, and as you. By, if I can borrow a phrase, letting Jesus take the wheel. Having faith in Him that He knows where to go and what to do. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. Because the Lord wants to bless you. HAS already blessed you. And all you have to do is stop robbing yourself from the gift that you've already been given, and start sharing what you've already got! When you're full of love its easy to lay aside everything else. There isn't even room for anything else!

Faith is not hoping something will happen. Faith is knowing something happened. Two thousand years ago. On an old rugged cross. That's why the good fight of faith is laying hold of something you've already got, not trying to get something you haven't got. Seeking first the Kingdom and His righteousness is not about seeking in order to find something you don't have. Its about EXPLORING what you do have. Because you have His righteousness. You ARE His righteousness. The righteousness of God in Christ. That's you. Not who you need to be... not who you can be if you try hard enough... no, that's who you are. Right now. Who you've always been. The problem is that we allow the world to pile stuff up on us. Disappointments. Mistakes. Heartaches. And we let these things define us. Then we turn faith into hoping that somehow, someway, on some glad morning we'll finally turn into who we need to be. That's not faith. Because faith is believing in the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. Believing that truth about yourself. Believing that God is love and He loves you. But God doesn't expect us to just blindly "take it on faith." God is ready, willing, and able to prove Himself. Our key verse for this Rant series is Psalm 34:8, "O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." Faith. Trust. Having faith in God because God has proven Himself faithful. Tryusting Him because He has proven Himself trustworthy. And never forget that God is love. So having faith in God is having faith in love. Trusting love. Not expecting to get what we WANT all the time, but trusting that our heavenly Father will always provide all our NEED. And look at Hebrews 2:9, because this is powerful, "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Jesus tasted death for us. And all we have to do is see it. Because seeing is believing. Knowing that He died both for me and as me is what allows me to live in Him and as Him. Because we couldn't have a new birth without a second death. The first death was when Adam ate of the tree of death--the tree of knowledge of good and evil--and died. The second death was the death OF death when Jesus died and then rose again. He tasted death for us and as us. And when we see it, we don't have to suffer it. We can walk in newness of life. We can awake to righteousness, and because we're no longer sleepwalking (death walking) we will sin not. Because sin is unbelief. Believing anything other than God's Word. Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God. Listen to that still, small voice inside you that says, "I love you, I love you, I love you. I can't stop loving you" and you will be able to stop believing the lie that says, "Nobody love me, everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat some worms." You can stop trying to get something when you know what you've got--when you know that WHAT you've got is the only thing worth having. And then you can share what you've got. You can give it away to the people who need it. The people who need it, by the way, are everybody. Just so we're clear. When we taste and see that love--the kind of sacrificial love in which you give everything you are and everything you have, in which you lay your life down for your friends--we can't help but let what's inside come out. Naturally. Taste... and see... and share!

I really think we've twisted faith around. We say things like, "Have faith," and we mean "Hope really hard." That old saying, "PUSH, Pray Until Something Happens." Because it seems like we're always trying to get God to move. Trying to get God to do what we want Him to do. In a way, trying to make God in OUR image instead of understanding what it means to be made in HIS image. When the truth of the matter is: God already moved. 2,000 years ago on the cross He did everything He ever had, or ever would, need to do. He gave us His only begotten Son. His Spirit. Himself. He didn't just give His life FOR us, He gave His life TO us. So that we could have it. So that we could experience Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life as HE lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us. Because nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. We can experience it though, as it said. If we have faith. And if we understand what it means to have faith. Faith, according to Hebrews 11:1, "...is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." It's not hoping for something. Its GETTING what you hoped for. That's what faith is about: Not trying to get something, but knowing what you've got. That's why Jesus said, "Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22)... because God has proven Himself faithful. Faith is not a blind leap in the dark. And its not even a blind leap in the light. Its step after step of walking by faith. Trusting that you can get through what comes next because you've gotten through what came before. And here's where I wanted to get to today, and where I want to be for the next few days: Psalm 34:8, "O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." To me that the correct order--the Divine Order--of things. Like how you have to know before you believe. You can't believe something you don't know. And where does faith come from? It comes from hearing the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. You hear that Word, you know that Word, and then you can have faith in that Word. Even as a child I found it interesting that God required faith from people... but never shied away from giving them signs and wonders. He didn't scold people when they asked Him to prove Himself. When they asked Him to give them something to believe in. He was happy to do it. Even time and time again. Remember Gideon? Who asked for one sign after another? Make the fleece dry and the ground wet. Make the fleece wet and the ground dry. God didn't mind. He was happy to do whatever He could do to equip and empower those in whom He required faith. So instead of just wishing and hoping... taste and see. Give God a chance. See what He's all about. See if He doesn't stand on His Word and make His Word stand up. Taste the fruit of the Tree of Life--which is the fruit of the Spirit, which (of course) is love. Taste it and see if you still have an appetite for anything else. Its like this: Once you've had the best you won't settle for the rest. God is the best. Love is the best. Once you've tasted it, and seen it, you'll feast on it. And, almost even better, you'll share it. You'll give what you've got because its too good to keep to yourself. Because its so good that you want everybody else to taste it and see it too!

When you're disappointed about something, that means you're letting what's going on around you affect what's going on inside you. And that's not ok. That's a bad idea. Because, as Peter found out when he was walking on water, what's usually going on around you is wind and waves. In this world you WILL have tribulation. Becuase that's the nature of the world. But I'm here to tell you, the fire in you is ALWAYS hotter than the fire you're in. What's inside trumps what's outside. If you let it. If, when you're going through things, you make sure things don't get into you. Psalm 23:4 talks about walking THROUGH the valley of the shadow of death. Not stopping there and making a home there. Not living there. But that's what we do, so often. We live in the past. Or we let our mistakes define us. Those disappointments that, chances are, we had no control over in the first place. But that we still blame ourselves for. Stop being so hard on yourself. Give yourself room to learn and grow. Room to live. Give yourself a break. God is not disappointed in you. Even when you mess up. He loves you without conditions. Because that's what love is. If its not unconditional, its not love. Love cannot be earned. Because love is a gift. It is freely given. And it must be received. That's where giving ourselves a break comes in. Because if you're disqualifying yourself from God's love--when He is NOT disqualifying you--then YOU are the thief that Jesus spoke of in John 10:10. Trying to enter the sheepfold in any other way but the Door. Robbing yourself of what you've already been given. Banging your head against the wall and finding only disappoinment... and a headache. So instead of doing all that... be still and know that HE is God. Know that God is love and He loves you. Know that making a mistake is not the end of the world. When you know that God will never stop loving you, no matter what, that's when you can start to love others... no matter what. When you stop seeing yourself as a disappointment, you can stop letting others disappoint you. You can be yourself. And you can let others be themselves. You can love people no matter how they react to your love. You can stop trying to decide if people "deserve" it. You're a person. You deserve it. You were created to be loved by God and to love others with that same love that you're loved with. Stop worrying about everything and anything else. Let go and let God. Lay aside the sin and the weight that so easily besets you. Stop making mountains out of molehills by expecting things to always go the way YOU think they should. Realize that just because something makes sense for you doesn't mean it makes sense for everybody else. People do not need to be your idea of what they should be. People need to be who they are. And when we expect anything other than that, we WILL get disappointed. And while we ought to not set expectations (so as to not get disappointed at all), when we inevitably do... we need to get over it. Rise above it. Don't let things wreck us. Its not as bad as it seems. Because when it seems dark... all you need to do is let your light shine. The light of the world. The light of love. The light that IS love. And when love is involved... disappointment isn't!

Life happens. Every single day. In this world, you will have tribulations. Things don't go our way. And we can either let that wreck us... or we can rise above it. We can get frustrated and bang our head against the wall trying to make things go our way... or we can have peace. We can try to overcome... or we can understand that we HAVE overcome in Jesus... because He HAS overcome. Being an overcomer doesn't mean we CAN overcome. Its means we HAVE. The cross was over 2,000 years ago. That's where Jesus fought the war to end all wars. Fought it, and won it, and put an end to war. That's why there's only fight that's really spoken of in the New Testament: The good fight of faith. Laying hold of eternal life. Fighting FOR something, not against anything. Having faith in God. Faith in love. Knowing that even when disappointment comes... we're going to be ok. We don't have to let things get to us. Or, more importantly, INTO us. "What's gotten into you?" That's what Jesus asked Peter when the man was walking on water and then started to sink. He let the storm that was going on around him get into him. He lost sight of what was important. We spend so much time focusing on the problem. When we DO get disappointed, we dwell on it. We make mountains out of mole hills. Instead of letting things go, we hold on to them. Bitterness, resentment. And we take everything so personally. I believe most of the time people are FOR themselves, not necessarily AGAINST us. So don't take things personally, even if they are. People are gonna do what they're gonna do. And if we let every little slight--real or imagined--wreck us... we'll be a wreck. "Check yourself before you wreck yourself." For real though. One day at Bible college I got some great advice from my teacher (who is also my stepmom). She said, "If you're not going to be mad about this a year from now, is it really worth being mad about at all?" But we get mad and lash out at each other--and, possibly even worse than that, at ourselves--at every opportunity. This is already a battle I'm fighting with my seven year old son. He's SO hard on himself. "Logan, if anybody needs to punish you... I'll do it. Now go play." He's never a disappoinment to me, but he disappoints himself almost on the daily. So I'm trying to teach him: Life happens. We make mistakes. But it doesn't have to be a snowball rolling downhill. It doesn't have to feed on itself and grow and grown until its too big to do anything with. We can just lay aside the sin and the weight that so easily besets us. The unbelief that trips us up. Just let it go. God loves you. No matter what. He IS love. There's nothing else He can do. In order for the God who is love to stop loving you... He'd have to stop being God. He'd have to deny Himself. Reject His entire nature. And even if He COULD do that, He wouldn't. So stop trying to earn something you already have. Something that can't be earned. Because that WILL set you up for disappointment. Stop being so hard on yourself. Life happens. Keep on keeping on. Let people help you along. Let Jesus keep you from falling. Rest in His loving arms. Understand that He is NOT disappointed in you, and stop being disappointed in yourself. Then let what's inside come out. Stop being disappointed in others. Let it go, and let it flow...!

When you, inevitably, get disappointed... what do you do? Do you let one bump in the road ruin the entire journey? That seems to be the go to response. We're so ready, willing, and able to let the smallest things wreck us. Because we're so completely focused on what is going on around us. When really, its what's going on INSIDE us that matters. That's why Jesus asked Peter "What's gotten into you?" when Peter took his eyes off the Lord, saw the wind and the waves all around him, and stopped walking on water and started sinking. The facts of the matter can--and often do--look grim. But when you understand that truth is higher than fact, you can start walking by faith and not by sight. You can start to understand that the fire in you is ALWAYS hotter than the fire you're in. Love is a consuming fire. Love is what we have faith in. Love is what's inside. And when you're full of it--filled to overflowing with what we've already been filled with--there's not room for anything else. When love is bursting out of you, there's no room for disappointment. Let me say it another way: "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). And as He is, so are we in this world. Jesus identified Himself as the light of the world. And He also identified US as the light of the world. Its the same light. The same love. And when light shines, there can be no darkness. When God arises, His enemies are scattered. Trust me. Go into a dark room, turn the lights on, and see that you're not in a dark room anymore. What's that old saying? "Tough times don't last, but tough people do." And the key is to let it go. Don't dwell on the problem. Focus on the solution. Don't tell your God how big the storm is. Tell the storm how big your God is. Tell the storm, "Peace, be still." And that do it from a place of being still and knowing that He is God. Knowing that God is love. Do it from a place of peace. Let what's inside come out. Let it FLOW out, naturally. By filling yourself with it. In the midst of your biggest disappoinment... you can draw on the greatest amount of love. Because His strength is made perfect in our weakness. When we can't... He can. And will. A preacher once said it like this, "When you work, God will rest. And when you rest, God will work." So stop trying to be an overcomer--even when you face tribulation. Instead, know and believe that HE has overcome the world, and He did it both for you and as you. Which means you HAVE overcome the world. Which means you can face whatever you're facing. Because your heavenly Father has your back. He can keep you from falling, if you trust in Him. If you let Him. If you look for the love in every situation you'll find it. You won't be disappointed when things don't go your way because you will be confident that things happen for a reason. Now, listen, I did NOT just say God makes people sick. I said things happen for a reason. And, one more song lyric for you, "God gives us mountains so we can learn how to climb." He brought the mountains low and the valleys high so we could walk the straight and narrow path that leads to life. But as long as we make mountains out of molehills we'll always be straining and struggling to get where we're going. So don't let it get into you. Go through it, and keep on going!

Expectation leads to disappointment. That's inevitable. You know, until we learn how to live--how to love--without expectation. But in the meantime, I think its important to focus on what happens after we GET disappointed. And as far as I'm concerned, as my momma always says, we need to "toughen up." Things don't always go the way you want them to. But if you let that disappointment wreck you, well, that's on you. Let me quote the Message Bible to try to illustrate my point. Its the story of walking on water (or, more accurately, on the Word of God). Walking by faith, not by sight. Except, as we are about to see, Peter got messed up when he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at what was going on around him. "He said, "Come ahead."  But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. He cried, "Master, save me!"  Jesus didn't hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, "Faint-heart, what got into you?"" (Matthew 14:29-31). And here's the key: What was going on around him got INTO him. That's what Jesus asked: "What got into you?" And that's when we get messed up. That's when we get wrecked. When we let what's going on on the outside... inside. See, we're always going to go through stuff. Jesus said, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). Life happens. Every day. And if we're still expecting it to go one certain way... well... it probably won't. You SHALL have tribulation. BUT you can be of good cheer. Not because you have been "empowered" to overcome... but because JESUS has already overcome the world. When He did that--when He brought the valleys high and the mountains low--He took away anything we might need to overcome. The reason we struggle so much is because we try to do it ourselves. We try to overcome by ourselves. Instead of using the mind of Christ (that's already in us) by letting it be in us... we try to figure everything out. Make everything make sense. And when you're out on a limb, or walking on water, that doesn't make sense to the natural mind. So if your focus is on the problem, instead of the solution, you're going to sink. Drown. You're not going to be able to keep walking. And, like Rocky said, that's the key to the whole thing. Not how hard you can hit, but how hard you can GET hit and keep moving forward. Keep walking. On water. By faith. Going through stuff, but not letting stuff get into you. Like water off a duck's back, right? And while a duck looks calm on the surface when its swimming, those little legs are working hard. Rest is not inactivity. Its not opting out. It is simply Holy Spirit directed activity. And what the Holy Spirit directs us to do--the ONLY thing the Holy Spirit directs us to do--is love. Let God love you, and love Him back by loving each other. And when you love people out of pure heart--giving because you have something to get, not because you're trying to get--that's when you can live without expectation and avoid disappointment altogether. That's when you can take things as they come and find the love, the mercy, the grace, the forgiveness, the joy and the peace in every situation!

In the last Rant series we talked about how having expectations dooms you to disappointment. Because if you expect one thing to happen, that means there's only one way you WON'T be disappointed. And about a million billion trillion ways that you will be. So I thought we should follow that up with a few days of talking about what happens when you ARE disappointed. Dealing with disappointment. And, really, that's it right there. You can't let it wreck you when things don't go your way. You have to deal with it. Because, to quote Rocky Balboa, "Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!" And that's another way of saying, "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). Because if you just accept what the world throws at you--what you see, or what you hear when the world is screaming at the top of its lungs--you can get tripped up. You can get buried. But there's another option. A more excellent way. Look at Hebrews 12:1, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Lay aside what the world throws at you and walk by faith. Keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Run with patience. Don't let every bump in the road destroy your whole trip. Life happens. Every day. To all of us. But you don't have to let life wreck you. And I think the key is being "compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses." Letting people help you. I don't think asking for help is a sign of weakness. I think its a sign of wisdom. Because its not good for man to be alone. We're all in this together. We can't do it all by ourselves. We need each other. And if I stumble, and you grab ahold of me, I might not fall at all. Which--and this is my last memory verse for today, I promise, is what I think Jude 1:24 is talking about: "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." He keeps us from falling by putting us in position to keep each other from falling. Things work out better when we work together. What's that old saying? "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." Chances are life's going to disappoint you. Even when you manage your expectations. But if you have people in your life who care about you, you can overcome those disappointments. You can get hit and keep moving forward. You can walk by faith. Faith in God. Faith in love. Faith in each other. Helping each other. Living with each other. Loving each other!

God loves us with expectations. Which, of course, is why (and how) we can love each other without expectations. Because what happened was, on the cross God filled us with His Holy Spirit. He took up abode within us. He conformed us to the image of His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. He made it so that we could stop trying to get something, and instead start giving something. By knowing and believing that we have something to give. And I like to use Romans 5:8 to kind of explain why Jesus died for us. Ready? "But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Did you catch that? Jesus gave His life for us (and to us)... because He loves us. Because that's what love IS. Love is giving. Giving everything you have and everything you are. And there's two things I want to say about the "while we were yet sinners" part. The first thing is that if we were yet sinners before Christ died for us--before the cross--that means that we are no longer sinners on this side of the cross. That's one of the things that the cross accomplished. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but quickened to life when we were given the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God. From sinners to saints, if I can say it that way. If you were a sinner saved by grace... then you aren't a sinner anymore. "Whoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (1 John 3:9). Before the cross we WERE sinners. Because of the cross we are not. That's the first thing I want to say. The second is this: When we were sinners (one more time... before the cross) we didn't have anything to offer God. We know that God didn't want what we could produce with our hands, through our own works and labor. We saw that when God rejected Cain's offering. Because all God has ever wanted is the Lamb. Jesus. So when we couldn't offer God anything... He gave us everything. He loved us without exception, without condition, and without expectations. Unfortunately, religious folk seem to think that God did what He did on the cross in order to put us in his debt. In order to say, "I loved you. I saved you. Now what are you going to do for me?" But that's pretty twisted. That's like saying God got us out of the bondage of sin and death, only to but us into bondage with Him. He freed us... in order to enslave us? I don't think so. Love doesn't demand its (HIS) own way. Love that isn't freely given isn't love. Love that expects to get something... isn't love. Its manipulation and control. And that's gross. Let me say it like this: I take care of Logan as best I can. Feed him, clothe him, try to teach him how to live. And I make jokes about how when I'm old it'll be his turn to take care of me. But those are jokes. I don't expect him to anything because of everything I've done for him. Its not a quid pro quo. Its not a trade. I take care of him because he's mine and I love him. Period. Now, he DOES take care of me... even now. He's always got my back. And I know that's a byproduct of my love for him. Because its hard not to return that kind of love. But would I stop loving him if he didn't? Of course not. God loves us without expectations. And the New Commandment is to love one another as He loves us. So we can--and should--love each other without expectations. Just give what you've got. Just let the love inside come out!