Recovering your ilfe is not about YOU doing something. It is about what GOD did on the cross. In our key passage for this Rant series Jesus said, "I'll show you how to take a real rest." That's what being a disciple is all about--a disciple of Christ is a student of love. Learning how to love by learning how we are loved. Letting God love us and then loving Him back by loving each other. And that is how we rest. Rest is not inactivity. It is not being a "holy couch potato." Rest is Holy Spirit directed activity. And what could the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of Love--possibly direct us to do but love? Like when we talk about the heart. Out of the heart come the issues of life. Which means love. What else could the heart possibly be concerned with? It's all about love. Because it's all about God... and God is love! Jesus SHOWS us how to rest, and that's how we take a REAL rest. Jesus SHOWS us how to love and that's how we really experience love. We recover our lives (as God originally intended them to be) when we be still and know that HE is God. When we get to the place of totally and completely trusting in Him... understanding that His death on the cross was the death of our old man, it was our death... and that this life we live is HIM living His own abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love in us, and through us, and as us... that's when we get "our" life back. When we understand that it's HIS life. HE lives it. We experience it through Him as He lives it through us. And guess what else--that takes all of the pressure off. We can stop trying to be someone we're not in order to get what we think we haven't got, and we can embrace who we are. Who we really are. Which is who we are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in us. We can get back to basics. Stop running around like chickens with their heads cut off. We can major on the majors and minor on the minors. Get to the place where we understand that what is important in life is God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. Letting Him love us and loving Him back by loving the people we come into contact with. Receiving and releasing the love of God. Getting away with Him. Focusing on love. Feeding the thing that really matters so that it will grow. Feeding love by giving it away. Because that's what love is--love is giving. You can give without loving but you can't love without giving. You can waste your life chasing something you think you haven't got, or you can live your life to the fullest by giving the love that you have inside to everybody you cross paths with. A life of service is a life truly and fully lived. Laying your life down for your friends, and knowing that everybody is your friend... whether they know it or not. Knowing that you can destroy your enemies by making them your friends. Knowing that love is all we need. Love is what everybody needs. So if you know it... throw it. If you have it... give it away. Share it. And in that way, experience it! Breathe it in and breathe it out. Love with every breath you take and every move you make. Stop separating life and love. They aren't just connected. They are the same thing. To live is to love and to love is to live. You can't have one without the other and you can't do one without the other. So stop trying so hard. Stop trying to be someone you're not in order to get something you think you haven't got. Jesus will show you what you need to know. How to take a real rest. Who you really are. All you have to do is look. Listen. Learn. Experience the love of God by both receiving and releasing it. That's your life. And that's how "you" recover it!

Get away with Jesus. Walk with Him and work with Him and you'll recover your life. To me, that means that life is walking and working. Walking by faith and not by sight. Working from a posture of rest. Love is maximum effort. Love is giving everything you have and everything you are. AND to live is to love. To love is to live. So living is giving. A life of service is what the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God is all about. The gift of God that has already been given to us. Not something we need to--or can--earn. You can't earn a gift. A gift must be received. And, especially in this case, in order for it to be experienced and enjoyed... it must be released. That's the Divine Order of things. That's how this whole thing works. Receive and release the love of God. Let God love you and love Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. I think the hardest part about recovering our life is that we've lost sight of what life is. We spend (waste) our three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure) looking for love in all the wrong places. We are so desperate to fill the God-shaped (love-shaped) void inside of us that we will look for love anywhere. We look for love in all the wrong places, and then can't understand why we can't find what we're looking for. Look at James 4:2 (NLT), "You want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can't get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it." Go to the source, man! God is love. If that's what you're looking for... that's where you'll find it. Going boldly to the Throne of Grace in order to find grace to help in time of need makes perfect sense to me. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord because he knew where to look for it. You have not, because you ask not. Make your requests known to God. Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. Pray without ceasing. Be grateful for what you have instead of upet about what you don't have. It's not getting what you want, it's wanting what you've got. You have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. What else could you possibly need? (And that's another key--distinguishing between wants and needs.) I believe the simplest way to love someone (anyone, everyone) is to see a need and meet it. Don't worry about if you think they "deserve" it. Don't try to make them earn it. Just give what you've got. Let it out without worrying about things like "deserve" or "earn." Freely you have been given, freely you can give. Fill yourself to overflowing with what God has filled you with. Just let it out. And in that way experience and enjoy it. Everything is better when it is shared. Everything is better when you experience it together. This life is about connections. Relationships. The bonds of love. So how can we recover our lives if we are concerned with everything and anything else BUT love? When we major on the majors and minor on the minors we find a lot more common ground. And the ground is most common at the cross. That's where we find God's love in it's most pure and powerful form. He loved us so much He died for us. And because of that love we ought to love each other in that same way. Esteeming each other higher than ourselves. Giving what we've got. Laying our own lives down for each other. If you want to recover your life you have to "lose" it. You have to give it away. Because that's what love is: Love is giving!

Something was lost when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (the tree of death). And, in a word, it was life. The abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God that is the relationship between Father and son. Because, at that point, Adam and Eve--humanity--began to hide from the presence of God. They ran FROM Him instead of running TO Him. Even though He wasn't mad at them, wasn't punishing them. When God swore to NEVER leave us nor forsake us, that was just Him telling us how things had always been and would always be. God never turned His back on us... we turned our backs on Him. Tried to go our own way. Look at Proverbs 14:12, "There is a way which semeth right unto a man, but the end therof are the ways of death." The fruit of the tree of death LOOKED good... but it couldn't produce anything but death. Which, to me, makes perfect sense. What else could you get from the tree of death... but death? Here's the thing though: God is life. He doesn't want death for us. Which, by the way, is why He warned Adam not to eat from that tree. He didn't say, "If you disobey me I'm going to kill you." He said, "If you eat from that tree--the tree of death--you will surely die." Which, again, of course! Obviously. But here's the good part. "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself tthrough Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:17-19 NLT). We ran from Him. Hid from Him. And yet, He reconcilied us back to Himself. Showed us the way to live. Showed us what life IS. Showed us that by getting away with Him, walking with Him and working with Him... we can recover our lives. We can get back to where He always wanted us to be. Back to basics. Back to that relationship of love between God and man. Again--God never has and never will and never can stop loving us. What this reconciliation really is, is God showing us what that means. God showing us what His love is. The greatest love a man can have, right? Laying his life down for his friends. Giving everything you have and everything you are. That's love. And that's how God brings us back to where He always wanted us to be--He loves the hell out of us. He gives us everything He has and everything He is. He gives us the Kingdom. He gives us His Son. His Spirit. His light. His life. His love. And then, when we begin to understand that we are who we're supposed to be and we have what we're supposed to have... that's when we can go from even just being Kingdom consumers to Kingdom exporters! We can let what's inside come out, by knowing and believing that its in there! We can be who we were created to be by letting God love us and loving Him back by loving people. We can experience this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love by letting Him live His own life in us, and through us, and as us! That's what it means to get away with Him. That's what it means to recover our lives. Not necessarily what we think we should have, or do, but what God KNOWS we need and what HE created us to do! It is the power of God in us that both will and do His good pleasure. It is the love in us that IS our life. To live is to love and to love is to live. You can't do one without the other and you can't have one without the other!

There's an idea in theology that I really like: Being totally consumed by the consuming fire that is God. The bush that burned but wasn't consumed. Love engulfing and consuming everything but itself, until only love remains. And that, friends, is what happened on the cross. The Messianic Rebirth of the world. That's when everything changed, because either the cross changed everything or it didn't change anything. With that in mind, it's frustrating to me that people are still settling for so much less than what is available to them. So let me drop my Scripture for this Rant series and then we'll really get into it. Matthew 11:28-30 in the Message Bible, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." I love this. Because it's the the other side of the coin of being totally consumed--and that's being burned out. But it doesn't just describe the problem (as if we don't know what the problem is). It also gives the solution. The way to recover our lives. Let me add this to that: 1 John 2:7 (NLT), "Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment--to love one another--is the same message you heard before." Everything "old" is "new" again. The "new" commandment for the New Man is really the Divine Order of things. Always has been, always will be. It is the idea that our "new" nature is really our TRUE nature. Something we've always had, but have lost sight of and forgotten. Guys, we were created in the image and likeness of God. That's so important and so key. But between then and the cross we lost sight of who we are, because we didn't know who God really was. That's why Jesus said, "If you've seen me you've seen the Father." He came to show us. To show us who we are in the context of who God is. To show us what it means to be God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. That's why, in our key passage, Jesus is talking about getting away with Him and recovering your life. You are what you eat. The bread and the wine. The living water and the lamb. What you magnify in your life is what will manifest in your life. What you feed is what will grow. So what we're talking about is setting our affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Focusing on Jesus. Looking in the mirror and seeing Jesus. Looking at each other and seeing Jesus. Not continuing to let ourselves be burned out on religion, but being totally consumed by the Holy Ghost wildfire of love! Life is all about love. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. They aren't just connected, they are the same thing. In order to recover your life--by getting away with Jesus--you have to get back to basics. The ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you. The ultimate truth of the universe that the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. When you recover love, you recover life. No love, no life. Know love, know life! It's really that simple. And it's really that simple to experience what God has for us. Simply by walking with Him and working with Him. Letting Him walk with your feet and work in, and through, and as you!

Charity is love in action. Not just saying something that someone would find nice to hear, but actually DOING something to help them. Here's the key though: You can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have. So, with that in mind, look at Hebrews 4:15-16 (NLT), "This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most." In order to find grace, you need to know where to look for it. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. We can come boldy to the Throne of Grace. We can go straight to the source. Instead of looking for love in all the wrong places, we can be still and know that HE is God. We can let God love us, and then love Him back by loving each other. We can let the love inside come out, by knowing and believing that it's in there. When we go to the Throne to find grace... that's when we can be graceful. That's when we can give what we've got--when we know what we've got and when we believe that we've got it. So don't just tell people that God is loving, and gracious, and merciful, and forgiving. SHOW them His love and His grace and His mercy and His forgiveness! Make it apparent to everybody. Preach the gospel at all times. And if you absolutely have to, use words. And, listen, I do want to say this: As a writer, I understand how important words are. "The Sovereign LORD has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will" (Isaiah 50:4 NLT). A word in season is powerful. Where the word of the king is, there is power. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. I'm not saying you should be careless with your words. I'm saying exactly the opposite. You should take care in what you say. And you should back it up with your actions. Where the rubber meets the road is where things get real and powerful. Putting your money where your mouth is, if I can say it like that. Basically--don't just tell people you love them. Do that, but also SHOW them. Love is giving. It isn't just words. If someone's hungy and you say, "I hope you get a good meal," have you really helped them at all? Loved them at all? If someone's hungry... feed them. Problem solved. See a need, and if it's at all in your power to do so... meet it. That's as simple as I can make it. See a need and meet it. Live out of your abundance. Show people what God has done for you... by doing the same for them! One more memory verse to drive this home: "Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other" (1 John 4:11 (NLT). Receiving and releasing the love of God. Breathing it in and breathing it out with every breath we take and every move we make. Letting God love us and then loving Him back by loving each other. That's what this life is for. That's what this life is all about. That's why we were created, and that's how we experience God's creation! It's all about relationship. It's all about connection. It's not good that man should be alone. It's the love in our lives that makes life worth living. It's the love in our lives that makes it possible to live. Because to live is to love and to love is live! So don't just tell people. Tell them--but don't JUST tell them. Show them. Show them you love them by showing them what (WHO) love is. Love is giving. Giving everything you are and everything you have. That's how we experience this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life to the fullest!

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Right? People can say whatever they want, whether it's true or not, and you don't have to listen. In other words, you are not what people call you... but you are what you answer to. Which is why it's so important to listen to the still, small voice deep inside that is the voice of God telling you the ultimate truth of the universe--that He loves you--with every beat of HIS heart in your chest. When you know the truth you can simply ignore the lie. And when you know the truth you can not only tell it... you can show it. Because love is more than just words. Remember that passage in James chapter 2? Verses 15 and 16 in the NLT: "Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well"--but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?" Well... it doesn't do any good. Where the word of a king is, there is power. That is true. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. Again--true. But love is putting your money where your mouth is. Because love is giving. Seeing a need and meeting it. Living out of your abundance. Look at Luke 3:10-11 (NLT), "The crowds asked, "What should we do?" John replied, "If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry."" Now, notice he DIDN'T say, "Give the shirt off your back and freeze to death." He said, "If you have two... give one." Live out of your abudance. God has blessed you to be a blessing. You don't need a saw to give someone a hand. Boundaries are healthy and important. Know when to say when, stay in your lane, and do what you can do. With the understanding that love is maximum effort. And furthermore with the understanding that once you've done everything you can do... it's either enough, or it's not. And if it's not, shrug your shoulders and move on. Let things be what they are. If someone isn't picking up what you're putting down, you have to be ok with that. You can't force people to accept... anything, really. That's why I won't argue with people. For the most part I won't even tell people anything unless they specifically ask. And even then I first determine whether they really want to know, or whether they just want to attack my opinion and change it to their own. I'm not interested in that. Believe what you want... and let me believe what I want. We can still fellowship. If you want to. We can major on the majors and minor on the minors. We can find common ground. If you want to. Or we can go our separate ways. My point is--as much as it's possible on your end, love people. Even if that means from a distance. Even if that means setting those healthy boundaries. When you refuse to let people use and abuse you... you're showing love. Both to them AND to yourself. If a relationship is unhealthy, it's not rooted and grounded in love. "I love you" doesn't mean "you can abuse me." So do what you can do. And let that be what it is. Show people love. Preach the gospel at all times, and if you have to... use words. But turning the other cheek doesn't mean stand there and let people slap the mess out of you. It means don't retaliate. It means be the bigger person. And sometimes that means simply walking away. Excusing yourself from a bad situation. You can't fix everything or everybody. So get in where you fit in. Don't just tell people you love them... show them. And pour yourself into the people and situation where you can make the biggest impact and the most difference!

"Preach the gospel always, and if necessary, use words," St. Francis. I think this quote is great. Because preaching the gospel is so much more than just hitting people over the head with "chapter and verse" from the Bible. I think people are turned off by religion. I know I am. And I'm a pastor. It seems like we, as a species, ruin things whenever we get our hands on them. We get lost. We lose sight of what's really important or what it's really supposed to be. Look at Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG), ""Are you tired? Owrn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."" Man, that's powerful! And did you notice that Jesus said "I'll show you"? He said, "Watch how I do it." Showing, not telling. Walk WITH Him. Work WITH Him. Learn by doing. There is a lot in this life that you can't learn from books. And I say that as an avid reader. Life, for the most part, has to be lived. And you learn more from "failures" than you do from successes. You can't learn from your mistakes if you never make any mistakes. More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. What I'm saying is... if you never try anything, you'll never do anything. And you can't show anybody anything unless you do it. You can't be a witness to the gospel--the Good News that God is love and He loves you--without receiving and releasing that love! This life is all about giving what you've got. Living from the inside out. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what God has filled us with. Letting your light shine. Not being just a hearer of the word, but a doer of the word! You know what, let's quote that verse. "For if you listen to the word and don't obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk, away, and forget what you look like" (James 1:23-24 NLT). The next verse is really good though. Watch this: James 1:25 (NLT), "But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it." The perfect law of liberty. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Where LOVE is, there is liberty. Owe no man anything but love. Guys. Come on. It's all about love. So stop getting it twisted. Stop focusing on religion. Stop trying to get people to think and act just like you. Let people be who they are and love them anyway. Love them BECAUSE of who they are. Embrace people for their uniqueness. Don't just LET people be who they are, CELEBRATE people for who they are! Show them love. Instead of always being on a sin-hunt, try being on a righteousness-hunt. Instead of telling people what's wrong with them, tell people what's right with them. Train up a child in the way he SHOULD go. Edify people. Build them up. Show them what it means to be a disciple of Christ (a student of love) by showing them love! Show people who God is by showing them what love is! Love is giving. Gladly spending everything you have and everything you are without worrying about what people think. Giving what you've got because you know it's worth sharing. Seeing a need and meeting it. That, to me, is the simpliest and more powerful way to show someone that God loves them. And you don't even have to say the word "God." You can simply show people love!

There's a big difference between showing and telling. Even to the point that after Jesus told us what the greatest expression of love that a man can have is--laying his life down for his friends--He went to the cross and did just that. he didn't just tell us... He showed us. He put His money where His mouth is. And that's why it is so important that we be a witness to Him. Not just telling people what we've "learned" (head knowledge), but SHOWING people what we've experience (heart knowledge). Giving what we've got. Showing people who God is by showing them what love is. Look at Isaiah 43:21, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise." A lot of the other translations of this verse say "declare my praise." But I like the phrase "shew forth." Or show forth, you know, for those of us not great with the king's English. And the reason I like that so much is exactly what we've been talking about. Letting what's inside come out. Showing people what we have by giving them what we have. Receiving and releasing the love of God! And, while we're on the subject, I want to point out that praise is not about getting someone to do something. You don't "praise" God in order to try to get Him to move. First of all, that's not praise. You praise someone for what they've done, not for what you want them to do. And second of all, God did what He's going to do. On the cross Jesus cried out, "It is finished." And I think He meant... it is finished. On the cross Jesus fought--and won--the war to end all wars. When He rose again from the dead and defeated death (the last enemy), He brought us into a realm and a dimension of eternal life. Life without beginning or end. Life so radically different from what we had known and understood that even to this day we don't seem to fully know or understand it. Everybody only wants to talk about the "afterlife." But if life doesn't end... how could there be an "after"? But I did a whole podcast episode about that, and I don't want to rehash it here. What I want to talk about here is how much more powerful it is to show than tell. Anybody can say anything. And if that's not a timely word in this age of social media, I don't know what is. What you say doesn't matter as much as what you do. And, listen, I'm not saying what you say doesn't matter. It does. Actions--and words--have consequences. The power of life and death is in the tongue. Where the word of the king is, there is power. We are kings and priests equipped and empowered to rule and reign on this earth. Our words matter. What we say matters. The point I'm trying to illustrate is that a picture is worth a thousand words. I'm trying to help us see that when we put our words into action... that's when they REALLY mean something. That's where the rubber meets the road. That's where we can really make a difference. Look at James 2:15-16 (NLT), "Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well"--but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?" In certain situations words can make all the difference. In most situations... you have to put your money where your mouth is. Don't just say what sounds good. DO what needs to be done. Show people who God is by showing them what love is. Show them that love is giving... by giving! Give them what you've got. Give them what they need. Telling someone you love them is great. Showing them what that means by giving them everything you have and everything you are is something else entirely!

It's always more effective to show than it is to tell. A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. What you THINK doesn't compare to what someone KNOWS. I think that's why there are so many verses in the Bible like Psalm 85:7 (NLT), "Show us your unfailing love, O LORD, and grant us yoru salvation." Why so many times in the Bible people asked God for signs and wonders. And here's the cool part--He never said no. He never had (and never will) have a problem putting Himself on display for us. In fact, whenever God shows up... He goes above and beyond. "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20). More than we could ever even think! Because a lot of the time we think too small. We settle for the bare minimum when, in fact and in truth, it is ALL available to us. God wanted for the best for us so He gave the best TO us. He so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son. He gave Himself. His Spirit. His light. His life. His love. That's not what we need... that's what we have. That's who we are! So instead of running around like chickens with their heads cut off... we ought to just be still and know that He is God. Listen to that still, small voice deep inside and fill ourselves to overflowing with the love that He first loved us with. Look at the cry of man's heart in John 14:8 (NLT), "Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied."" Jesus, of course, said, "If you've seen me you've seen the Father." Because the Father and the Son... are One. There is no difference and no separation between God and man... because God lives IN man. Now add this to that: "Dear friends, we are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is" (1 John 3:2). We are already God's children. That's not something that needs to happen. That's something that already happened. From the foundation of the world, and brought to full manifestation on the cross. We were created in His image and then conformed to the image of His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Being God's children is not the problem. Understanding what it MEANS to be God's children is where we get mixed up. Of course, there's a solution for that too-- Jesus showing us who we are by showing us who the Father is. Letting us understand our dynamic as Son by helping us understand His role as Father. And whenever I quote that verse in 1 John I like to point out that I believe this "appearing" is not something we need to look forward to. It is something that happens every day in every way. Jesus is always appearing to us--showing Himself to us. We just have to have eyes to see and ears to hear. We just have to see what He is showing us. Love appears in our lives when we are looking for it. When we guard our hearts--and by that I mean keep them open to love. Telling people "chapter and verse" what you think the Bible says isn't necessarily the most effective way to spread the gospel. SHOWING people what it means to be loved by God... by loving them... is a surefire way to get your message across. Show people who God is in the same way that Jesus showed Philip. Show them by loving them. It's that simple. Because that's who God is--God is love. And He loves you. That is the ultimate truth of the universe. That is what everybody needs to know. And that, to me, is the best way to get the truth out there!

There are a few things in the Bible that God is concretely described as. God is Spirit. God is light. God is love. God is a consuming fire. These are important because in understanding who God is... we understand who we are. As He is, so are we in this world. So we need to know Him as He is. That's why He reveals Himself to us, and in us, and through us, and as us. But, according to 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT), "Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love." I say that to say this: God is love. Period. Full stop. Every other picture of Him is a picture of love. In the love chapter of the Bible, when Paul is describing love, he is describing God. It is a personality profile of Jesus. So God is a Spirit, right? That Spirit is love. God is a consuming fire. That fire is love. God is light... that light is love! It's not just the light OF love, the light IS love. I'm saying all this because it is important to understand that we don't just HAVE light... we ARE light. Jesus described Himself AND US as the light of the world. The same light. The light that God spoke into existence way back in the beginning when the heaven and earth (the mind and the body... you) were dark and void and without form. Shining your light doesn't mean doing anything extra. It means simply knowing who you are, believing that you are who God says you are, and being who you are. Filling yourself to overflowing with the love that God has already filled you with so that the love inside comes out. Naturally. It's not faking it 'til you make it (though I'm not against that if that's where you are in your maturation process). It's about breathing God's love in and out with every breath you take and every move you make. It's about being who you are by knowing who you are. Letting your light shine because you are in the light as God is in the light. He IS light and there is no darkness in Him at all. Same for you. You ARE light and there is no darkness in you at all! Guys, it's so important to understand your true identity. Because if you don't you will run around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to be someone you're not. And you can't be anyone you're not. You can't be anybody but you. And that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. You were created on purpose, for purpose, and by purpose. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are not an accident. You are exactly who God wanted you to be. He knew He needed a you in the world, so He made you. Embrace who you are. BE who you are. And do it in the light. People are already watching you. Give them something to talk about. Don't do things that you are ashamed of and need to hide. Don't do things that you shouldn't be doing. Just because you CAN do everything doesn't mean you SHOULD. Do things on purpose. Do things that help you work for your goals. Do things because they are in your heart to do them. That's the best (and perhaps only true) motivation for anything. It is the power of God working in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. The power of love working in you so that love can work it's way out of you. Living in the light means loving people. That's as simply as I can make it. And if you're loving people you won't be doing anything you need to hide. You'll be doing the right thing. It might not always end up the way you think it should, but it WILL end up the way it's supposed to. Because love never fails. So let your light shine. By knowing and believing that it's there. Knowing and believing that it's love. Knowing and believing that... it's you!