If you're always looking at the grass on the other side, and thinking that it's greener, you're making sure you can't enjoy the grass on your own side. And if you don't like the grass on your own side... water it. MAKE it greener. Tend it and keep it. Take care of it. I truly believe that you can tell who a person is by looking at what's important to them. Because how we spend our Three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure) is how we interact with this life. And, to kind of keep with the gardening theme, what you put into it is what you get out of it. If you plant seeds of love, they will grow. Now, again, when I say "you" in this case I mean Jesus... because HE is the gardener. He is the one who finished the work. All we're really doing is focusing on what He did. Understanding and experiencing the fruit of HIS labor. And that's why it's pointless to compare yourself to anything or anybody else. You might be jealous of what someone else has, and you don't even realize how many people are jealous of what YOU have. You might think someone else is so much better off than you are, and not even realize the struggle they are going through. And you one hundred percent WILL miss out on what you've got by focusing on what you haven't got. Remember we talked about the thief in John 10? Who comes only to steal, and to kill, and to destroy? That's... us. We steal from ourselves by neglecting what we have. We kill our own joy by comparing ourselves to what we THINK is going on somewhere else. Because here's the deal: Life is hard. EVERYBODY is struggling. Nobody has things as easy as we think they do. But on the same token, things aren't always as hard as we think they are. A lot of times we make things harder (for ourselves and for others) by not focusing on what really matters. What someone else has, compared to what I have, doesn't matter. What someone else has doesn't have anything to do with me. But if I get all caught up and wrapped up in wishing I had what they had... then I'm missing out on what I DO have. That's where we get into trouble so much of the time. If we could just cultivate this attitude of gratitude, and pour ourselves into GIVING what we've got (and in that way experiencing what we've got) we would all be a lot better off. And think about this--you're upset because you think someone else has it better than you, right? Well, you can't do anything except give what you've got. You can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have. So if you things to be better... instead of trying to get, get, get... just give. Look at Matthew 10:8 (NLT), "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received." Receive it and release it. Let what's inside come out, by knowing and believing that it's in there. And notice that Jesus wasn't even talking about material possessions in any way. He was tlaking about healing. Bringing people from death unto life. I think there's a Spiritual aspect to that idea where when you love someone you are literally raising the dead. The difference between death and life is love. No love... no life. Know love... know life! So instead of worrying about what we think we don't have, and instead of comparing ourselves to others... just love people. Let God love you and love Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. Don't compare yourself to them. Don't rob yourself of what you've got by looking at what you haven't. Just experience and enjoy what you've got... by giving it away. Let what's inside come out, by knowing and believing that it's in there. God loves you. Love Him back... by loving people. That's how you water the grass. That's how you MAKE things important. Give them your Three T's. Give them your love!

The best way to stop being jealous of the "greener" grass on the other side... is to water your own grass. If you're taking care of you and yours you won't have the time or energy to worry about what anybody else is doing. And that, to me, makes it so simple. Instead of worrying about what you haven't got, just take care of what you have got. Instead of wishing for what someone else has, just be grateful for what you have. Change your mindset. Change your priorities. It's like how I always say the only time you should look down on someone is when you're REACHING down to help them up. The only person you should ever compare yourself to is the person you were yesterday. Moving forward. Upward and onward. Not, "Why can't I have what they have?" But rather, "Thank you, Father God, for giving me what I need." There's such a big difference between what you "want" and what you need. One of those is very important--as we can see by the fact that our heavenly Father has supplied all our NEED, according to His riches and glory--and one of those, quite frankly, isn't. You can't always get what you want. But when you trust in God you find that you get what you need. And I'm not saying it's not ok to want things. I'm not saying it's not ok to work for the things you want. I'm simply saying your priority should be on the needs. And even then, look at this: "So don't worry about these things, saying, 'what will we eat? what will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need" (Matthew 6:31-33 NLT). I said focus on needs instead of wants. God says, "I know what you need. Focus on ME." Remember Cain and Abel? Cain was focused on the grass. He gave God a sacrifice from what he could produce with his own hands. And that wasn't what God wanted. Abel gave a lamb. The only sacrifice God has ever accepted, as seen in fullness on the cross with Jesus, the Lamb of God. So what I'm trying to say today is that we water our grass, we focus on our needs, but knowing and believing that God has supplied us with everything we need. When Adam and Eve were naked and ashamed and tried to cover themselves with fig leaves... God covered them with Lamb skin. Whatever we can do to the best of our abilities... He can do better. So instead of trying to earn our bread by the sweat of our brow we ought to just enjoy the bread and wine, the lamb and living water, that is Jesus. Just enjoy the gift of God. You can't earn a gift. You simply have to receive it. Freely you have been given, freely you can give. Receive it and release it. Receive it BY releasing it. Focus on what's important in your life by focusing on God. Seek the Kingdom (not in the sense of "I don't have it but I want it," but in the sense of "Look at what I have!") and you will see that IN the Kingdom we have all we need. How could any grass anywhere be greener than in the Kingdom of God? Which is where, and who, we are. We are not just IN the Kingdom... we ARE the Kingdom!

If you always think the grass is greener on the other side, you need to do a better job of tending your own patch. Look at Genesis 2:15 (NLT), "The LORD God placed the man in the Garen of Eden to tend and watch over it." The garden was a finished work. But God put US in charge of it. I keep talking about John 14:12 (NLT), "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father." See, it was one thing when Jesus walked the earth as ONE man. He healed all of the people that He personally came into contact with. But that was seriously limited. If you didn't know about Him, or couldn't get to Him--look at some of the stories of some of the lengths people went to, just to touch the hem of His robe, or taking out a ceiling panel just to get in His path--then what remedy was there for you? But when Jesus died, and was buried, and rose again... and then ascended up to heaven... the Holy Spirit descended. Jesus went up and His Spirit came down. Now His Spirit dwells in us. So we can heal anybody we come into contact with. And in that way, in a sense, we can do greater works than Him. He touched people on the shores of Galilee. We can touch people all over the world. Wherever we are. He gave us the ball. We take it and run with it. He gave us the garden. We tend it and watch over it. And when you're busy with your own thing--focusing on what you have and not what you don't--then you won't even be able to worry about anybody else's. You can just be who you are, where you are. You can love people without envying them. You can let what's inside come out by knowing and believing it's in there. I'm telling you, this attitude of gratitude makes life so much easier. You don't have to get all fired up comparing yourself to others. Especially since we only seem to compare ourselves to others in a negative sense. We never seem to say, "Look what I've got, compared to what little they've got... let me give them some of what I've got." That's the right attitude to have, but it seems rare. More often it's, "I wish I had what they had." Which means you're neglecting to appreciate what YOU have. You're missing out on what you've got by chasing what you haven't got. The thief the Jesus spoke of in John 10:10 is not the devil. It is trying to get into the sheepfold any other way but through the door. Jesus is the sheepfold, and Jesus is the door. It's all Jesus. All love. He is the straight and narrow way that leads to life. So instead of trying to be someone we're not in order to get something that we think we haven't got, all we really need to do is use what we HAVE got. All we really need to do is give what we've got, and in that way experience what we've got. Maybe the grass IS greener on the other side. But maybe that's because you simply need to water your own grass. Take care of what you've been entrusted with. Take the ball and run with it. Give what you've got. Fill yourself up to overflowing with what God has already filled you with and let what's inside come out. Tend and watch over your own patch, and don't worry about what anybody else is doing. Help if you can but don't be jealous. What someone else has, has nothing to do with you. Stay in your lane and do what you can do!

I think it's easy to compare things in this life. What you have to what you don't have. What you have to what someone else has. But that's the thing that gets us into trouble so many times. Because when you're so busy looking at what you don't have--especially in the context of what someone else DOES--that's when you lose the attitude of gratitude that is so important in this life. Look at Proverbs 23:17, "Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long." Being in the fear of the Lord is, again, being grateful for what the Lord has done. Being thankful for what the Lord has done for us, AND for what the Lord has given us. Psalm 110:4 says, "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name." And Colossians 3:15, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." That attitude of gratitude. Focusing on what you have instead of what you don't. Tending your own garden instead of always thinking the grass is greener on the other side. Focusing on what really matters instead of being envious of what doesn't. Because here's the deal: What someone else has, has nothing to do with you. And all you're going to do is make yourself miserable by comparing yourself. Did you ever notice that it seems like whenever you compare yourself to someone else YOU come up short? How that could ALWAYS be the case? Probably because we don't choose things to compare in which we would come out on the right side. We look for that greener grass. And when someone else has it--or seems to have it, because you never know the whole story in any event--that's when we start to feel bad about ourselves. It's not even a true comparision. It's literally looking for ways to upset ourselves. "They have..." whatever. Well, there are people that look at you and what you have in exactly the same way. People pray for the things you're sick and tired of. Here's my point: If something is important to you, you take care of it. You can't take care of things if you're always looking at the other side to see how green the grass is. If you're neglecting what you've got in order to try to get something "better," you're going to lose what you've got. And chances are you aren't going to get that "greener" grass in any event. It's not real. It's a mirage. And, again, what someone else has doesn't have anything to do with you. "Fair" is not eveybody having the same thing. "Fair" is everybody having what they need. And, even more importantly, nobody ever said life was going to be fair. Just the same as "deserve" has nothing to do with it... "fair" has nothing to do with it. You get what you get and you don't throw a fit. If you want to be happy... stop comparing yourself to others. Don't let your heart envy sinners. Be happy where you're at, with what you've got. Be content. Be thankful. Cultivate that attitude of gratitude in your life. Enjoy what you've got instead of missing out on what you've got by always focusing on what you (think you) haven't got. The grass ISN'T always greener. When you have an attitude of gratitude you can be content and enjoy what YOU'VE got. You can experience what God has given you by knowing it and believing it. Receiving it and releasing it!

When you listen with you heart--when you have an ear to hear what the Spirit is speaking--you can receive and release the love of God. Because that's what the Spirit is speaking! The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And when you hear that invitation, you can extend that invitation. You can say, "Come." You can enjoy the love feast that Jesus has prepared for you in the presence of your enemies, and you can share that love feast with others. But here's what I want to say today: The Spirit and the bride doesn't say, "Come... or else." The Spirit and the bride say, "Come and get it!" It's an invitation. The ringing of a dinner bell. It is love making itself (HIMSELF) available to us. Jesus said, "...Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). If something is at hand, that means it is within your reach. All you have to do is reach out and grab it. All you have to do is repent. Which means "think different in light of new information." We don't have to be stuck in our old ways of thinking. We can let the mind of Christ--that's already in us--BE in us. We can USE the mind of Christ to understand, and think, the thoughts of God. Which we know are thoughts of peace and not of evil to bring us to His expected end. He knows the end from the beginning. Where to go and how to get there. And that's why we can let our heart be our guide. That's why we can let His Word (which is Jesus, which is love) be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We can trust in God--who is love--because He has, and is, and will, always prove Himself trustworthy. We can put our faith in Him because He is faithful. When we listen with our heart we hear that still, small voice deep inside saying, "I love you, I love you, I love you" with every beat of HIS heart in our chests. We can think differently (about God, ourselves, each other, and everything else) in light of the information that is the ultimate truth of the universe--which is simply that God is love and He loves you. When you know that truth (that has already set you free and made you free) you can experience that freedom. When you hear what the Spirit is speaking you can receive it and release it. You can let God love the hell out of you and you can love Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. You can share what you've been given. You can experience it by giving it away. Because what you've been given is love. And love is giving. You are blessed to be a blessing. You have been given love so that you can give love. And all it takes is a change of mindset. Instead of trying to be someone you're not in order to get what you think you haven't got, you can embrace who you are. You can BE who you are, by giving what you have got. By knowing and believing that you have it. By hearing what the Spirit is speaking. Getting to the heart of the matter--which is the heart. And the center of the heart is the ear. Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God. Faith works by love because love IS the Word of God. When you hear that love, and see that love, and experience that love... that's when you can be a witness to that love and you can give that love to everybody who crosses your path. And that, friends, is what life is all about. Being loved by God and loving Him back by loving people!

When you hear (with your heart) what the Spirit is speaking... that's when you can experience what is happening in the supernatural realm. And I use that term specifically because the supernatural is when God's super swallows up our natural. When heaven touches earth, if I can say it that way. On earth as it is in heaven. Letting what is Spiritual envelope what is natural. The days of heaven on earth. That's what the Spirit is speaking. Look at Revelation 22:17, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Com. 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." When you hear what the Spirit says, you can say what the Spirit says. When you know what is inside (when you know and believe that the love of God is inside) you can let it out. That's what the heart is for. That's what we were created for. Man lives from the inside out. What you believe is inside WILL come out. Whatever you believe it is. Good. Bad. Or ugly. Because, well, look at Proverbs 23:7, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee." As you think in your heart... so are you. The center of the heart is the ear. The ear to hear what the Spirit is saying. The Divine Order is knowing and believing. Because you can't believe what you don't know. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. When you heart the Spirit and the bride say, "Come," not only can YOU come, but you can invite others to come. You can heed the Word, and you can spread the Word. You can let God's Word (which is Jesus, which is love) in and out of you with every breath you take and every move you make. You can let what's REALLY inside (again, the love of God) come out by knowing and believing it's in there. Letting God love you and loving Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. That's the secret of life. That's what this life is for. That's what it's all about. Hearing God say, "I love you" with every beat of HIS heart in our chests, and loving Him back by loving people. We love because He first loved us. You hear it, then you can say it. That's what being a witness is all about. Sharing your experience. Telling people what you've seen and heard. Letting them know how good God is by showing them how good He is. But it starts in the heart. The heart of the matter is the heart. Everything flows from the heart. So listen to the heart. Listen WITH the heart. Filter everything through the heart. The heart is only concerned with one thing--love. Let your heart be your guide. Let love be your guide. If you don't know what to do, do what you know--love people. You can always love people. You can always let God's love--that is already inside you--come out. And you don't have to worry about whether they "deserve" it or not. Whether they've "earned" it or not. You can just love them anyway. Love them without condition. Becaust love is unconditional. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing. So, really, nothing should be able to separate us from each other, when we build that bridge of love. If you love someone, you can suffer anything. Love is longsuffering. I think that's one of it's (HIS) best qualities. Love endures. We don't need to build walls around our heart. That's not how you guard, or keep, your heart. You keep your heart by keeping it open. Keeping it open to love. Let the love keep flowing. It comes FROM God THROUGH us ONTO and INTO the people we come into contact with. That's what the Spirit is speaking. That's what we can hear with our h-ear-ts!

Following your heart can only come from listening to your heart. That still, small voice deep inside (your heavenly Father saying "I love you, I love you, I love you" with every beat of HIS heart in your chest) is what leads you, guides you, directs you, and protects you. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. You can't believe something you don't know. The Divine Order is knowing and believing, receiving and releasing. So make sure you're always focusing on the heart of the matter. Which, of course, is the heart. And what's in the middle of "heart"? EAR. Listening. I can't harp on this enough. Listening is so important. Two ears, one mouth, right? Listen twice as much as you talk. And, unfortunately, there's this idea out there that people don't listen to understand, they simply wait for their turn to talk. In my own life I make a policy of not arguing with people. I don't believe it ever does any good. If you're defending your position you're not going to change it. But if someone wants honest conversation and has an open mind about something... that's different. I probably won't tell you what I think unless you specifically ask me. And even then I'm going to take a good long look and see if you really want to know, or if you just want to fight about it. I think debate and discussion is important. But arguing never gets anybody anywhere. Trying to convince someoen else that "I'm right and you're wrong" is not a great attitude to have. And even if you ARE right... it's STILL better to be kind. Building relationships is more important than proving your rightness or their wrongness. Only together can we truly move forward. If it's you vs me, and someone has to lose in order for someone to win... then we all lose. Because we're all in this together. What I think I'm trying to say in my usual roundabout way is that we need to really major on the majors and minor on the minors. We need to agree to disagree. You don't have to agree with everything I say. But if you can find ANYTHING to agree on, then we can start from there. Common ground. And that, again, comes from listening. From being open to the possibility that there are people out there who know something you don't. And knowledge is power, right? The more you know. If you know better, you can do better. So listening is important. That's my point. And listening to that still, small voice of God deep inside you is vitally important. Hearing what the Spirit is speaking so that you can, well, speak what the Spirit is speaking. That's the best way to receive and release the love of God. Probably the only way. Let God love you, and love Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. Receive it and release it. Know it and believe it. Fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with. Hear it... and do it. God can't lead if you don't follow. He made the Way of Grace. We respond with the Walk of Faith. When you experience that love of God, I'm telling you, you won't WANT to do anything except return His love by lavishing it onto the people you come into contact with. Because it's so good. It needs to be shared. Love is giving. God gives it to us, and we give it back by giving it to each other!

The center of the heart is the ear. Hearing what the Spirit is saying. Because you can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. So you have to KNOW what you have. And look at Romans 10:17 (NLT), "So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ." The Divine Order of things (and I did a podcast episode about this not too long ago, check it out: Jesus Rant podcast) is knowing and believing. In that order. Because you can't believe something you don't know. Faith comes from hearing. Listening to the heart. Let me say it another way. "We love each other because he loved us first" (1 John 4:19, NLT). I believe one of the most powerful verses in the Bible is Luke 3:22 (NLT), "and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, "You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy."" This is so wonderful to me. Because the approval of the Father will always empower the Son. And because this is what heaven is saying. "I love you, I love you, I love you. I can't do anything but love you!" That's what we hear when we listen to our heart. And that's when we DO when we listen to our heart. We are empowered (by our heavenly Father's love) to love! God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. Letting HIM love the hell out of us and then loving Him back by loving the hell out of the people that we come into contact with. That's what this life is for. That's what this life is all about. That's what this life IS. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. Because what we have inside is too good and too big and too powerful to keep to ourselves. It is what the world needs more than anything. So listen to that still small voice, let God love you, and in that way fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with. Hear what the Spirit is speaking--and notice that it wasn't until the Holy Spirit descended like a dove that Jesus, and those around Him, heard those Words. The Spirit is always speaking, but it is the indwelling of the Spirit that lets us hear it. It is when we listen that we hear. Prayer, to me, is every bit as much about listening as it is about speaking. Speaking in tongues is a pure way to pray. You don't even know what you're saying, but God does. Listening is one of the best ways to pray. We spend so much time telling God what's wrong. What we ought to do is listen to God tell us what's RIGHT. "You are my dearly loved Son and you bring me great joy." I'm telling you... that will fire you up. Fill you up. Equip and empower you to live your best life. To receive and release the love of God. To experience Jesus's abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love by letting Jesus live His own life in you, and through you, and as you. Living life from a posture of rest. Which, by the way, is not inactivity, but Holy Spirit directed activity. And the Holy Spirit only ever has and ever will direct us to do one thing: Love! God is love. God is a Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love. The Spirit of love lives in us, and comes out of us, when we hear what the Spirit is speaking. When we SAY and DO what the Spirit is speaking. When we let the love that is inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there!

I teased this Rant series before getting caught up and fired up with my discussion about the fig tree with my son, so we're going to do it now. The heart is important, right? I think we can all agree with that. Proverbs 4:23 (NLT) reads like this, "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life." Which goes right along with something I always say, "Follow your heart." In other words, the heart is important. But the reason I titled this Rant series the way I did, and the reason I'm spending the next few days on it, is because in order to follow our heart, or guard our heart, we have to LISTEN to our heart. That's the center of the heart. The heart of the matter, you might say. The EAR that is in between the H and the T. Look at Revelation 2:17 (NLT), "Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it." An ear to hear. And not only listen, and hear, but understand. The hidden manna and the white stone. The stone with our new name written on it. The name of Jesus. That is our new (true) name. That is our true identity. That is who we really are. And the reason nobody knows what's written on that white stone except the one who receives it is... nobody can receive Jesus for you. Even reading the Bible--Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so--is only a link in the chain. You have to HEAR that still, small voice deep inside you. The voice of your heavenly Father saying, "You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." The voice of God saying, "I love you, I love you, I love you," with every beat of HIS heart in our cheste. Guarding our heart is all about keeping it open. Open to love. Not shutting it down in the hopes of being able to protect ourselves. We've all been hurt. Experienced heartache. But if you close your heart down you destroy the possiblity of experiencing what you were created for. You were created to be loved, and to love. To receive and release the love of God. To breathe it in and breathe it out. To hear (with your hEARt) what the Spirit is speaking, and then to speak life to those you come into contact with. To let God love you and then to love Him back by loving those you come into contact with. To let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. To obey the New Commandment (for the New Man, which is Jesus, God in the flesh, love in a body... God in YOUR flesh, love in YOUR body) by loving others as Jesus loves you. Receiving it and releasing it. Receiving it and releasing it. Receiving it and releasing it. Hearing the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God in your heart and then speaking that Word with your mouth and with your actions. Don't forget that actions speak louder than words. Preach the gospel at all times, and if you have to... use words. Let what's in your heart come out with every breathe you take and every move you make. Hear it... and obey it. Give what you've got by knowing what you've got. Guard your heart by listening to your heart! Listening WITH your heart!

The fig tree--the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree of death--couldn't produce any fruit. It kept people in the trap of trying to turn over a new leaf. Trying to swing from the "bad" limb to the "good" limb, without really realizing that both were on the same tree. It's not about turning over a new leaf. It's about getting onto--into--the right tree. That's what we see in the story of Zacchaeus. "So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way. When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. "Zacchaeus!" he said. "Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your house today"" (Luke 19:4-5 NLT). Zacchaeus climbed a--you guessed it--fig tree. Because he thought it was the only way to see Jesus. He thought he had to effort his way into an experience with God. Which is how so many of us view our relationship with our heavenly Father--we think we have to earn His good graces. But look at what Jesus said-- "It's not about what you do... it's about me coming into your house!" Isn't that the story of the Gospel in a nutshell? We think we need to do something, but really it's just about what JESUS does. What He did on the cross. What He did, is doing, and is going to do. Was, and is, and is to come. But the point is: It's all about Him. All about Jesus. We get so caught up in what WE'RE doing (or not doing, or doing wrong) that we forget about what HE did. JESUS is the One who did all the heavy lifting. Jesus is the One who cursed the fig tree. Jesus called Zacchaeus down out of that tree. Stop trying to turn over a new leaf and embrace a new tree! Stop trying to weigh your deeds and just let what's inside come out. Jesus is living in your house. He is who is inside. LOVE is who is inside. When you know it and believe it--when you feast on the fruit of the Tree of Life, which is the fruit of the Spirit, which is love--that's when you know that you have something. And you can't give what you don't have, so knowing what you have is critical. Knowing that what you have is so good you can't keep it to yourself! Because then you don't have to force it out, it will just flow. Knowing that what you have is what everybody needs really equips and empowers you to share what you have with everybody who needs it. Which, again, is everybody. Giving what you've got without worrying about it. Without trying to figure out if someone "deserves" it. Living without a care. Not afraid that you'll lose what you've got by giving it away, but knowing that you'll EXPERIENCE what you've got by giving it away. Because what you've got... is love. And love is giving. If you want to feel love... love somebody! Let the light inside you come out and shine on the people who you come into contact with. Just be who you are. Embrace who you are. And embrace the people in your life. The fruit of the Tree of Life--love--is to be shared. The leaves of the Tree of Life are for the healing of the nations. Giving what you've got to make things better for the people around you. And, since the tide raises all ships, it makes things better for you too! Not the goal, but a wonderful fringe benefit. Experiencing what you've got by giving it away. By sharing it. By eating from the right tree and not even worrying about the other one. The one that Jesus got rid of for us!