I used to watch pro wrasslin with my dad every chance I got when I was a kid. And then I continued to watch it all the way up until I was a dad. Then I watched it with MY son. Which is pretty cool, I have to say, but isn't the point. The point is, there was a catch phrase that was pretty popular that went like this, "That's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so!" So as far as I was concerned, the bottom line was the deal. But my son, Logan, disagreed. He said the TOP line was way more important because you put the best stuff first. And I gotta give him credit, when he's right... he's right. So in order to end this Rant series on a high note (see what I did there?) I want to stress the importance of love being first choice not last chance. I always use the picture of how we seem to think of God as a "break glass in case of emergency" type of God. We try to do it ourselves until we inevitably get in over our heads. And, listen, I'm not saying you shouldn't call on the name of the Lord in order to be saved. When you DO get in over your head, there's no better life line to grab onto. What I'm saying is, maybe if you didn't try to do it yourself in the first place you wouldn't have gotten into such a mess in the first place. In other words, "Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass" (Psalm 37:5). Like I said, first choice. Not last chance. But, again, if it IS your last chance... give HIM a chance! Let me say it another way, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last" (Revelation 22:13). And do you see how good this is? He (LOVE) is the top line AND the bottom line! The most important thing... and the last Word on the subject! So when we're trying to figure it all out... look, when you don't know what to do, do what you know. And what you know is that God is love and He loves you. What you know is that you ARE loved, so you CAN love. When you don't know what to do... love people. That's the safest bet you can make. And, listen, people ARE worth it. But that doesn't mean they won't let you don't. That doesn't mean they won't sometimes even reject the love you're trying to give them. That's ok. Love is a gift given without expectation. Giving everything you have and everything you are no matter what happens next. Even though it seems like the more you love people, the less they love you. Even though a lot of the time poeple think you have an agenda. Or an ulterior motive. Guys... love doesn't HAVE a motive. Love IS the motive. Love is why we do what we do. Either in order to try to get it, or because we know we have it. So start with love. That's my point. Start with the foundation that won't be shaken--the Rock--and build from there. And if someone comes along and knocks over what you've been building... dust yourself off and start over. Because it's not the destination. Its the journey. The never ending, eternal-life long journey into the heart of the matter. And the heart of the matter is the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chests. That's where it starts and (if it does end, in one sense or another) that's where it ends. The top line. Above all else. And the bottom line. Where nothing else matters. Its love. Love, love, love. Its all about love!

Sometimes we refer to God as a Higher Power, right? Well, I'm here to tell you that He is the HIGHEST power. Because He is love. And love is above all. But the amazing thing about love is that even though He IS above all... He came right down to us. He didn't expect us to jump a fence, or jump through hoops in order to get Him. He met us right where we were at. And, in fact and in truth, He was always right there with us. But let me say what I think I'm trying to say: "And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites" (Exodus 3:8). Love come down... to bring us up. To bring us up OUT of what we were stuck in. See, before the cross we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Adam ate from the tree of death, and on that day he surely died. And since he was humanity's representative at the time... when he died we died. We were, in a sense, IN Adam. But then on the cross Jesus drew us all into Himself. And then HE died. So that we could have a second death. So that we could die to death. So that death could die. And then we could have a new birth, as a new creature. THE (singular) New Man. The Son of man. The Son of God. Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOUR body. He came down from heaven, wrapped Himself in our sinful flesh, and brought us up out of all that mess. All that slavery. That bondage. And make no mistake, sin is NOT freedom. Sin is bondage. True freedom is being a prisoner of the Lord. Either way Christ's love controls us, right? Either we're chasing it because we think we don't have it (or don't deserve it), or we giving it away because we know and believe that we are loved. That we are LOVE. So God showed us strength by surrendering. Not by fighting. And the people that know me know that I don't like to fight. Its rare for me to argue at all. I'm usually content to let people believe whatever they want to believe. Because I believe the only fight worth fighting is the good fight of faith. Which is laying hold of eternal life. Receiving the gift we've been given by releasing the gift we've been given. Filling ourselves to overflowing with the love that God has filled us with. We don't need to--and can't--earn the gift of God. If you have to earn it, its not a gift. Its wages. And the wages spoken of in the Bible are the wages of sin. Which is death. Because sin is unbelief. Or believing the lie that says you have to do in order to be. Because the truth is, you do BECAUSE you be. The truth is you are the most powerful creature in the world. Because you have not only the capacity to love, but you are literally full of it. (And I always like to add that there are plenty of people who think I'm full of it, but the "it" in question here is love. So that's ok.) You have what everybody needs. The highest power there is. The power to come down, and meet people on their level, and love them. Right where they are. In just the way they need it. You can give love because you have love. Because you ARE love!

Above all else... there is love. Even under the Old Covenant Law of Moses Jesus summed it up by saying, "...Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40). Love God and love people. That's the whole deal of the whole thing. That's what matters, above all else. And here's the key: We love God BY loving people. By letting Him love the hell out of us so that we can stop judging each other by appearance, and start judging righteous judgment. So that we can give what we've got instead of trying to get, get, get. But see, I say this almost every day, you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. That's why 1 John 4:19 is so vitally important. And I love this: In the KJV it reads, "We love him, because he first loved us." And in the NLT it reads, "We love each other because he loved us first." Which, to me, makes perfect sense. Because we love Him BY loving each other. Whatever you do to the least of them you do unto Him, right? But what I'm getting at is the "He loved us first" part. You can't give what you don't have. But what you have... is love. Because the God who IS love, loved us first. When we didn't have anything He gave us everything. When we were yet sinners (unbelievers) He gave us something (someONE, Himself, LOVE) to believe in. He gave us what we needed in order to truly live by giving us His life. He gave it FOR us on the cross--Jesus died so that we could die. So that the old man could die. So that we, who were already dead in our trespasses and sins, could become dead to death and sin. And He also gave His life TO us. So that we could live His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life as HE lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us. So that we might experience that relationship of love between Father and Son, and between each other. He filled us with His love. And all we have to do is fill ourselves to overflowing with that love. All we have to do is LET God love us. And then it comes out of us. Naturally. Because its too big, and too good to keep to ourselves. I think that's the ultimate irony of the universe--the thing we want to "get" so badly is the thing that we already have... and the thing that we couldn't keep to ourselves if we wanted to. Because love IS giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. Giving everything you have and everything you are is the only way to truly live. That's what life IS. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected. They are the same thing. So, as easy as it is to get caught up in "stuff" what we really need to do is keep our priorities straight. What we really ought to do is set our affection on things above, not things on the earth. And when we do that we ought to set our affection on what is above all. The most important thing there is. Love. Love God, and love people. Love God BY loving people. 

I always liked Matthew 23:23 (NLT), "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law--justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things," because it was about priorities. And I think we get our priorities screwed up. A lot. Big time. We get lost in things that aren't important, and we lose the things that are important. Or, in the case of what Jesus was saying, we give too much importance to things that need SOME attention, but not ALL of our attention. And, listen, I'm not getting into whether tithing is only for the Old Covenant, or not, or what, right now. I'm leaving that alone. Because that's not what's most important. Above all... its about love. And justice, mercy, and faith (to finish tying my memory verse in) are aspects of love. I always say, "You gotta do what you gotta do." Paul said, "If you don't work, you don't eat." Rest is not being a Spiritual couch potato. Its not about doing nothing. But its not about doing something just to be doing something, either. Its about doing the RIGHT thing. I've said this a bunch of times too: When you're dealing with people its better to be kind than to "win" the argument. Its better to have the RIGHT Word (which is Jesus, which is love) than the last word. We get so caught up in stuff so often... when, in reality, the only two important things in the universe are God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. By letting Him love you, and receiving and releasing that love. But do you know what we do? We disqualify ourselves. And each other. We look for love in all the wrong places because we want it so badly. But then when it (HE) shows up... we think it (HE) is too good to be true. We think we don't deserve it. So we reject it. We look for reasons why someone CAN'T love us, instead of just believing the Word (which, again, is Jesus... love!) of God. It breaks my heart when I reach my hand out and it gets slapped away. And, I mean, Jesus addressed this too. "Then Peter came to him and asked, "Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?" "No, not seven times," Jesus replied, "but seventy times seven!"" (Matthew 18:21-22 NLT). Because love never fails. Because love never gives up. Love endures. And, listen to me, I'm NOT saying you should stay in a bad situation. I'm convinced that if you give something everything you've got its either enough... or it isn't. And if it is... good. And if its not... shrug your shoulders and move on. You can't save everybody. All you can do is love everybody. What they do with that love is up to them. But my point for this Rant series is: the focus needs to be on love. We need to get our priorities straight. Because without love, life isn't worth living. Without love, life is impossible to live. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. And this life that we have is the life that we have. We CAN do whatever we want with it. We OUGHT to live it to the fullest. Loving others with the love that God loves us with. Filling ourselves to overflowing with His love. Receiving it and releasing it, and in that way experiencing it!

I quote that memory verse about setting your affection on things above, and not the things on the earth, a lot. Because I think its vitally important that we have our priorities in order. Its so easy to get lost in our own mess that we miss the message of the gospel. Which, as simply as I can put it, is: God is love and He loves you... so love Him back by loving people. Receive and release the gift you've been given, and in that way experience the gift you've been given. But for today I want to quote 1 Peter 4:8, "And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." And there are a couple of things I want to hit here (and for the next few days). The first is "fervent charity." And according to Strong's Greek Concordance "fervent" is number 1618 and it means, "without ceasing." Which is the phrase from my favorite Bible verse of all time, "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Pray fervently. Love fervently. Live fervently. And, of course, "charity" is number 26 and it means, "love, that is, affection or benevolence; specifically a love feast: - feast of charity." And to me "charity" has always meant, "love in action." Not the idea of love, but the acts of love. EATING that love feast, and in so doing filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. SHARING that love feast, and in so doing experiencing that gift of God which is eternal life. Which is knowing the only true God, and the One whom He sent, knowing God as heavenly Father and yourself as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. See, if you want to feel love... love somebody. Its that simple. And, as always, I didn't say its that EASY. Because sometimes the snakes at your feet that are nipping at your heels are hard to ignore. Sometimes--even though we KNOW we need to look and live, look up the heavens so we can see things in Divine Order--we get stuck with our heads bowed. Like the woman in Luke 13 who was bowed to the earth and could in no way lift herself up. And that's the point: YOU can't lift YOURSELF up. But Jesus DID lift you up. He seated you with Himself (IN Himself) at the right hand of the Father. The seat of power, by the way. Kind of another way of saying, "But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26). You can't do it yourself. And that's ok. You're not supposed to. Nobody can live Jesus' life... except Jesus. Its HIM living HIS OWN abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life in you, and through you, and as you. His life... of love. That's what its all about. To live is to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. So all of this stuff that we get caught up in--and this is the second thing I want to focus on--gets covered under the umbrella of love. Love covers THE multitude of sins. Which doesn't mean "a bunch of sins." It means, "all sin." Where sin abounded (past tense, before the cross), grace did much more abound. My point is: When you're setting your affection on things above, make sure you set it the thing that is above all. The fervent, unceasing acts of love that make everything else unimportant. If you want to live... you have to love. That's the bottom line. Or, as Logan would say, that's the top line. Because its the most important!

To end this Rant series, all I want to say is: A life lived in service to love is the only life worth living. Jesus proved that to us when He--out of love--gave His life for us, and to us. God showed His love for us by dying for us (and as us). He gave us everything He had and everything He was. Everything He is. God basically said, "I would rather die than live without you." And the funny part is, HE never left us. He swore He would never leave us nor forsake us. But we ran from Him because we were ashamed of our nakedness. We ran from him and hid from His presence because we (wrongly) thought that He was mad at us. Guys, God is NOT mad AT you. He is mad ABOUT you. Head over heels in love with you. You are the apple of His eye. You are His favorite. Always have been, always will be. And it has NOTHING to do with anything you've done, or will do. When Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove and God declared, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," He hadn't even started His earthly ministry yet. He hadn't healed anybody. He hadn't walked on water. Anything. Because, see, what really happened was that the affirmation of the Father equipped and empowered to Son to go on and do all of those things. Jesus didn't do anything to EARN God's approval. He did things OUT OF God's approval. He wasn't trying to get something. He was simply giving what He had. Being who He was. And, if you follow that story, as soon as God was done declaring His love, the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And Jesus was able to stand on that preceeding Word. That Word of affirmation. That Word of Love. When the accuser tried to tempt Him, Jesus stood on the Rock and could not be shaken. He knew who He was. His heavenly Father had just told Him who He was. So He didn't need to try to be anyone else. He was dead to sin, and alive unto God. Dead to unbelief and alive to love. He didn't need anything from anybody else. His Father had provided all of His need. Nobody else had anything ot offer. Let me say it this way: When you know the truth its easy to ignore the lie. Its POSSIBLE to ignore the lie. When you know what that still, small voice is saying with every beat of God's heart in your chest... you can let what the world is screaming at you roll off you like water off a duck's back. That, to be honest, is why I really don't care very much about what people say about me. They don't know what they're talking about. They don't know the whole story--or usually, any part of it. So its mind over matter. If you don't mind, they don't matter. But that doesn't mean that I don't love those people anyway. Just like God loved us when we were sinners. Loved us enough to die on the cross for us. Literally lived His entire life in service to love. In service... to us. Living, and dying, and rising again. So that we could have that abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life. So that we could experience that life of love as Jesus Himself lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us. That's how life works. That's what life is. Its love, man. Its all about love. If you have to be in service to anything... live a life in service to love.

Either way, Christ's love controls us. No matter what we do, it comes from the central idea of love. Because either we believe we don't have it, and will do anything we can think of (looking for love in all the wrong places) to get it... or we know and believe that God loves us and we do everything we do in order to share it. Think about it: Approval, acceptance, belonging, these are the things that we crave most. And when we think we can't have these things, that's when we turn to cheap substitutes. Money, career, basicaly material possessions. And let me make this clear: I think its ok to have stuff. The problem comes when stuff has you. Remember the rich young ruler? He didn't want to sell everything he had. He wasn't willing to let go of it. And if your hands are full of stuff, you can't really catch any blessings. (As a quick aside, I think way too often we equate the word "blessing" with "money." I think it CAN encompass that, but doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it.) Let me say what I think I'm trying to say: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). We're either trying to GET something, or we know we HAVE something and we GIVE what we've GOT. But either way we WILL serve a master. Either way, Christ's love controls us. I know I already said that, but I think sometimes we learn best through repetition. So we DO live in service to love. One way or the other. Trying to get something, or giving away what we've got. That's what life is. And a lot of the time we get twisted around and distracted and we let other things take places of importance in our lives. But when you get down to the nitty gritty... its all about love. And the only life worth living--the only way to truly live this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life--is a life of love. Loving God by loving people. Loving God because He first loved us. Receiving and releasing the love that we have already been given. See, living a life in service to love is not about trying to get love. Its about understanding that we already have love. We are loved. We are love. And then letting what's inside come out. Living a life of service to each other. "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves" (Philippians 2:3). And I don't think that means we need to think we're not as good as anybody else. Being humble doesn't mean thinking less of yourself. It simply means thinking of yourself less. Taking care of others rather than worrying so much about taking care of yourself. Its the difference between being selfish and being selfless. Being self-centered, or being Christ-centered. And understanding that being Christ-centered is being people-centered. Whatever we do unto the lowest of them we do unto Him, right? So serving God is really about serving people. Just like Jesus did when He washed His disciples' feet. He didn't come to be served. He came to serve. To give us everything we would ever need so that WE could serve. He gave us His Holy Spirit. The love receptor. So that we could receive and release His love. Let God love us and love each other with that same love. That's what a life in service to love is. That's what life IS. And that's what its all about!

Let's get a little bit of context. 2 Corinthians 5:13-14 (NLT), "If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life." In other words, everything... EVERYTHING... we do in our new life is in service to love. Whether we are making a fool of ourselves, or doing small things that are really big things. Whether we are really even aware of it or not... this new life--Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life--is a life of love. Love is what makes it abundant, everlasting, and eternal. But here's the tricky part: We were ALL drawn into Christ on the cross. He planted Himself in ALL of us. Since we beleive that Christ died for ALL, we believe that we have ALL died to our old life. Its all about love. And for those of us who know and believe the love of Christ... we have it easy. In a sense. Because we no longer have to try to get something we (think we) don't have. We can simply receive it and release it. Receive it BY releasing it. We can do what we do in service to the love that we have. The love that we are! Its a bit more complicated for those who don't know the glorious truth of the gospel. Those who do everything they do in service of getting the love that they think they don't have. Looking for love in all the wrong places. Trying to jump through hoops in order to earn something that can't be earned. Guys... that's no way to live. I absolutely DO think there are some things worth jumping a fence for. People, for example. I think there are only two REALLY important things in the entire universe: God and people. Love God, love people. Love God BY loving people. Love God by letting Him love you and loving others with that same love. But love IS giving. It is never about getting. So if you're jumping through a hoop (or over a fence) hoping to get something from someone... its probably not going to happen. If you have to beg for something, even if you get it, its not worth it. So people who don't know that they are loved... they need it the most. The people who are the hardest to love aren't getting it anywhere else. And they need it. We all need it. So if loving someone seems crazy (because they don't accept it, or because they don't seem to "deserve it," or whatever), that's your time to shine. Giving what you've got. Reaching out because there are some people only you can reach. So if you don't... who will? You have what people need. So spend your life in service to love. Giving what you've got. Laying your life down for your friends (and, as always, understanding that you destroy your enemies by MAKING them your friends). Don't chase. Rest. Either way, Christ's love controls us. Either we do what we do in order to get it--which will lead to nothing but frustration because we already have it--or we do what we do in order to give it away. And in that way experience it. I don't think you can feel love any stronger than when you love someone. And that's HOW Christ's love controls us--We fill ourselves to overflowing with what HE has already filled us with and it comes out of us. Naturally. Letting what's inside come out is really the only way to live. Living a life in service to love. In service to God. In service to one another!

When we start to understand what this life is really all about--the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God that is a life of LOVE--we start to live in service to love. And by that I mean GIVING it, not trying to GET it. Because when we start to understand that the gift of God IS that life of God... and that we have already been given that gift... and that we experience that gift by giving it away... by sharing it... that we receive that gift that we've already been given by releasing it... that's when we are truly alive. Because living and loving aren't just connected. They are the same thing. To live is to love and to love is to live. So I guess what I'm trying to say is: when you understand what life is really all about... you can start to live. And I've always said the hardest part of life is living, but the truth is... when you do everything you do in service to love... things start to flow. Because when you're living a life of love, you're living a life of rest. You're doing everything you do from the inside out. Not from the outside in. Not trying to get something, but because you have something. I'm convinced that that's what the Bible means when it says, "Either way, Christ's love controls us..." (2 Corinthians 5:14 NLT). Because either we think we don't have love and we do everything we do in service to trying to get it... or we know and believe that we are loved and we do everything we do in service to the love we have. GIVING AWAY the love that we have. Because that's what love is; love is giving. Giving everything we have and everything we are. So, stay with me. A life in service to love... is a life in service to each other. Laying our lives down for our friends (with the understanding that we destroy our enemies by making them our friends. We have friends, and friends that don't know they're our friends yet). Let me quote some red letters here. "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28 NLT). We think "living the good life" is all about getting others to do stuff for us. But the truth of the matter is, living the good life is all about doing things for others! I can tell you with absolute certainly, from personal experience, that I have never been so happy as when I did something nice for someone. And while doing big things is pretty awesome, don't sleep on the small stuff. Because even though it might seem small to you, it might be huge to the other person. Just the other day at the store some lady walked past me and dropped a twenty dollar bill. I picked that bad boy up, chased her down, and returned it to her. And who knows? Maybe she had a bunch more where that came from and wouldn't even have missed it. But then again, maybe without that twenty bucks she wasn't buying groceries anymore. The point is, you were not called to change THE world, but even a random act of kindness can change SOMEONE'S whole world. So don't worry about what, specifically, you're doing. Just make sure that its in service to love. Live your life fearlessly. Love no matter who, or what, or where, or when!

Here's my entire thought for this whole Rant series: It is important that we make sure the things we do are in service to the things we want. And I'm not talking about selfish desires. But even in that case... if you want ANYTHING, hard work is the best way to get it. Not Spiritual works and labor in order to try to earn something that can't be earned. Obviously. But when Logan wanted a fifteen dollar book... he shoveled snow and earned it. And he was very proud of himself. He wanted that book real bad, and everything he did from that point was in service to getting it. So that's the natural aspect. Now I want to talk about the Spiritual aspect. And for that I want the idea of being a "prisoner of the Lord" as Paul puts it in most of his letters to the churches. Let me say it another way, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11). When we understand what it means that we are "prisoners," that Christ's love controls us, we will be able to really, truly BE alive unto God. Because we ARE alive unto God. We died when Jesus died on the cross, and we live because He rose again. Because He lives in us. But we need to know and believe that. We need to reckon ourselves dead to sin (or unbelief) and alive to God. We need to BE transformed (into what we've already BEEN transformed into) by the renewing of our minds. By LETTING the mind of Christ (that's already in us) BE in us. By USING that mind of Christ. By receiving and releasing (receiving BY releasing) that gift of God--which is eternal life--which we have already been given. Not trying to get... but giving what we've got. Because, Spiritually speaking, we have everything we need. We have already been blessed with all Spiritual blessings in the heavenly Christ. We have already been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. So in the natural we work hard to get what we want. Paul even wrote in another place, basically, "If you don't work, you don't eat." There's nothing wrong with hard work. It can give you a sense of pride, or accomplishment. In the natural. But Spiritually speaking, when we know that we have everything and don't need anything, that's when everything we do can be in service to... love. Which, by the way, is what it means to be "alive unto God." It means being alive unto love. Because God IS love. And being alive unto love means being OPEN to love. That, as I always say, is how we guard our hearts. Not by shutting them down and "protecting" ourselves... but by keeping our hearts open so that they can serve their true purpose--receiving and releasing love. The heart only knows one thing: Love. So, again, when we are alive unto God--or love--when Christ's love controls us... we stop worrying about getting and we start being able to give. We start to live that abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God--life of love. We start to live in service to love. Not to get love, but because we have love. Because we ARE love. Not to get love... but to GIVE the love we have! That's what it means to live in service to God... to love!