You have what you need in order to be who you are. The problem is that we think we don't matter. That our talent isn't good enough. That WE aren't good enough. Or we think that because we can't do something like so and so does it, we might as well not even do what we can do. I can't draw... so I shouldn't try to do anything. Well, no. Let the people who CAN draw do their part, and do your part. That way everything gets done. Because if you don't do your part, who will? Maybe somebody who shouldn't be trying to do your part. And then, if someone is doing your part... they aren't doing their own part. Basically it gets to be a big mess. So stay in your lane. Do your job. Be who you are and don't try to be someone else. God made you... you. Specifically. Because He wanted you in this world. For purpose, on purpose, and by purpose. Only you can do what you do in the way you can do it, for the people that you are connected to. You are a vital piece of the puzzle. Without you, the picture isn't complete. Now here's the good news: "God's Way is not a matter of mere talk; it's an empowered life" (1 Corinthians 4:20 MSG). God has given us that talent. He has equipped and empowered us with everything we will ever need. Because He gave us His only begotten Son. He gave us His Spirit. He gave us His love. He gave us... Himself. Jesus didn't just give His life FOR us, He gave His life TO us. Because He wanted us to have it. Because He wanted us to experience it as He lives it Himself in us, and through us, and as us. We have been given an empowered life. Everything God requires FROM us He first gave TO us. The New Commandment for the New Man is to love one another as Jesus has loved you. Simply to receive and release His love. To fill ourselves to overflowing with what He has already filled us with. To let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. That's what this life is for; life is for living. And to live is to love, to love is to live. So this life is for living. For giving what you've got. For being who you are. Giving your three T's (Time, Talent, and Treasure) to others in order to show them that you care. In order to love them. Because that's what the three T's are... they are how we show our love one to another. We give our Time. We give our Talent. We give out Treasure. Love is giving. Not getting. Giving what you have. Everything you have and everything you are. Laying your life down for your friends. Not worrying about getting anything, but seeing a need and meeting it. Living out of our abundance. We are empowered to live. It's not just talk. Charity is love in action. Where the rubber meets the road. That's when things get real. And that's when things get good! It is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. Seeing a more excellent way. And then being invited to experience that more excellent way. The Spirit and the bride say come. Come and get it. Everything is available to us because everything has been given to us. We are equipped and empowered to live and to love. And we do that by using our talent. By being who we are and giving ourselves to each other!

It seems to me that there are two kinds of people in this world: Those who try as hard as they can to be someone they're not, in order to "fit in" or impress other people... and those who don't care what other people think. And I've noticed that the latter category is a lot more rare than the former. It seems like most people try to be someone they're not in order to get something they think they haven't got. In order to get love. People are willing to do anything to get love. To be loved. To be accepted. But giving up who you are--who you really are--is too high a price. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36). Love is gift. It is freely given and must simply be received and released. If you have to convince someone to love you... that's not love. If you have to beg for something, even if you get it... it isn't worth it. Now look at the flip side of that: "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well" (Psalm 139:14). Accepting yourself. Embracing yourself. Understanding--with a knowledge that passes knowledge... heart knowledge instead of head knowledge--that you are exactly who you're supposed to be. And, listen, that doesn't mean you don't take care of yourself. It doesn't mean you look at rest like inactivity. Rest is not inactivity. It is Holy Spirit directed activity. And the only thing the Holy Spirit has ever, or will ever, direct you to do... is love. Love God. Love others. Love yourself. So instead of killing yourself... working yourself to death... trying to be someone you're not... you have to come to a place where you're ok with who you are. And more than that, where you can praise God for making you the way you are. You are needed. Necessary. You were made specifically you. On purpose. By purpose. For purpose. Nobody else can do what you can do exactly the way you can do it. And no one else can reach the people that you can reach in the way you can reach them. You have talent. It might not be the same as somebody else, but that's ok. That's the point. We are all different parts of the same body. We all have unique things we can do. So if I do my part and you do your part... everything will get done. Like that old football coach always says, "Do your job. Just do your job." Don't try to do somebody else's job. Don't try to be somebody else. Stay in your lane. Be you. Use your talent to love people. Let what's inside come out. By knowing and believing that it's in there. Receive and release the gift you've been given. You don't need to work for it. You can't earn it. Let it in and let out with each breath you take and move you make. Nobody can do what you do in the way you do it for the people you are connected with. That's your talent. That's your mission. That's your purpose. That's why you were created. You were put on this earth to be... you! So be you! Don't try to be someone you're not. You can't. Be who you are. The wonderful you that you are!

This is one of my favorite memory verses (and yes I know I say that about most of, if not all of, them): "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men" (Colossians 3:23). And to me, doing things heartily means two things. 1. Doing things to the best of our ability. 2. Doing things because they are in our hearts to do them. And, to me, that's a big part of what it means to use our talent. Just doing what is in our hearts. Doing those things that make us... us. And doing them with love. Doing them as unto the Lord. As unto love. Because God IS love, right? Anything we do unto Him, we do unto love. And anything we do UNTO love we have to do BECAUSE of love. WITH love. THROUGH love. IN love. What I'm trying to say is, love is our talent. All we do should be an expression of that talent. An expression of that love! Whatsoever we do. Because it doesn't matter what your talent is. We focus so much on what we CAN'T do that we end up not even doing what we can. We seem to think some talents are more valuable than others. Look at society. Professional athletes make hundreds of millions of dollars. We put celebrities on pedestals. We judge "success" by bank accounts and how much stuff you have. I think the most successful thing you can do in your life is to love somebody. To give someone the love that they need. That's what matters. If someone needs an ear, and you listen to them... I think you've succeeded in life. You've used a talent to help someone else. And, yes, money can be used to help people. Because living is expensive. But I don't want to fixate on that. When I Ranted about treasure I tried to move us past just always thinking about money, money, money. You can't serve God and mammon. One (mammon) is about getting. The other (God, love) is about giving. You can't do both at the same time. They are mutually exclusive. And when you understand that you have what you need--to give--you can stop trying to get. You can stop wasting your talent in the pursuit of meaningless things. If you give what you've got, you're too busy to try to get what you think you haven't got. I remember once saying (or, more likely, writing) "Distracting yourself from the wrong thing is not as important as focusing on the right thing." It's a mindset shift. Instead of focusing on--or even trying to distract yourself from--what you don't have... just enjoy what you do have. By giving it away. By sharing it. Don't be mad because someone has a talent you don't. Just use your talent. Don't be mad because you're not someone else. Just be yourself. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are who you're supposed to be. You are who God made you to be. So don't worry about the talent you don't have. I can't draw. At all. Under any circumstances. So I don't. I do what I CAN do instead of lamenting what I can't do. I focus on being the best ME I can be instead of struggling to be who I'm not. I do what I can do. Heartily. To the best of my ability. Because it's in my heart to do it!

This one is tricky. Because, in my experience, those people with talent--true talent--are usually pretty modest about it. I knew someone, once upon a time, who could draw really well. Like... it blew me away. Partly becasue I can't draw a stick figure with a ruler, but still. And yet, this person was almost embarrassed to show their artwork. Because they didn't think it was any good. Which blew my mind in a completely different way. I think sometimes we have trouble seeing ourselves correctly, is the point I'm trying to make. We think that no matter how good we do something, or how much effort we put into it, it's not good enough. Because it's us doing it. And, yes, I've seen the other side where people with no real talent to speak of in an area think they are the cat's pajamas. They think whatever they do is the best thing ever because it's them doing it. But I think the former is more common. Perhaps because we are taught and trained all our lives to fit in. Not to stand out. Which is a shame. We should train up children in the way they SHOULD go, not in the way they shouldn't. And we shouldn't rain on people's parades. It seems so rare to me that anybody gets truly excited about anything these days that when I see that seed I just want to water it. Help it grow. Because the world needs more of that. The world doesn't need more robots who think life is all about going to work and paying taxes. That IS a part of it, unfortunately a pretty big part of it, but there's more to it than that. There's love. And the best way for YOU to express love is for you to be YOU. For you to do that thing that sets you on fire. Because love IS a consuming fire. For me it's writing. I generally feel the best that I can feel when I'm putting words on a page. I know that's what I was created to do. That's my talent. So, like the last Rant series where we looked at using our three T's to love each other... I write things that I hope will do just that. Love letters to the world, if I can say it that way. But you don't have to write to make a love letter. You can paint. Or dance. Or teach. Or sing. Whatever. Play an instrument. In whatever way God has gifted you... use that gift. Let what's inside come out. By knowing and believing it's in there. Life is a journey of discovery, right? A journey into the heart of the matter. Which is the heart. God's heart beating with love in our chests. God's love inside us coming out of us as we express ourselves. We are the visible expression of an invisible God. People can't see God (LOVE) unless they see Him in us. And through us. And as us. You ARE talented. Whoever you are. I know it. Because that's what I see in 1 Thessalonians 3:12, "And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you." Increasing and abounding in love toward each other. That's how to live life, man. And using our talent to glorify God--to glorify and spread love--is really the only way to do that. Not trying to get, but giving what you've got. Being who you are. Letting what's inside come out. Using your talent to help others and to glorify God!

I think I kind of tried to mention this parable so I want to close this Rant series with it: Matthew 13:45-46, "Again, the kindgom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." Now, to me, Jesus is the merchant man. And we are the pearls. We are the treasure that He was seeking. All throughout the Old Testament the cry of God's heart was that He wanted to be our God and He wanted us to be His people. He wanted that connection. That relationship. And, to be true, HE always had it. In the garden, after eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, MAN hid from the presence of God. But HE swore that He would never leave us nor forsake us. So, like any good Father, He did everything that needed to be done in order to take care of His children. In order to make that reconciliation, that relationship, possible. He didn't just give His life FOR us, He also gave His life TO us. Because He wanted us to have it. He wanted us to experience His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by living it in us, and through us, and as us. He wanted to share what He has. Who He is. So He sold everything. Gave everything. Literally laid His life down for us. Got rid of any separation between God and man by God taking up abode (or dwelling) IN man! So God paid for the treasure--us. Which means we don't have to. We don't have to spend our other two T's (Time, Talent) trying to get something we've already got. We can simply receive it and release it. We can let what's inside flow out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Not seeking a treasure, but USING our treasure to enrich others. Seeing ourselves (and each other) AS the treasure. And spending ourselves (on each other) appropriately. Giving what we've got. Not trying to get anything, but giving what we've got. Love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. Giving what you've got. Being who you are. Letting what's inside come out. That's the Divine Order of things. That's what this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love is all about; letting God love us and loving Him back by loving each other. Using the treasure to enrich the treasure. Giving what we have--who we are--to each other. And we can do it... because God did it for us. Again, receiving and releasing. Breathing God's love in and out. Filling yourself to overflowing by emptying yourself out. And you'll find that BY emptying yourself you really ARE filling yourself. If God wants you to love people (and He does) He has to first equip and empower you to love. He has to give you what you need before He can require it of you. So don't worry about giving and giving and ending up with nothing. That's not how this works. The more you give, the more you have TO give. The more you give, the more you experience what you have! You are the prize. You are the treasure. And so is everybody else. Don't try to get, or hoard, the treasure. Use it. Share it. Give it away. And in that way experience it!

At this point in my life I'm not super interested in "good vs evil." I've Ranted and preached about this idea quite a bit. How the tree of knowledge of good and evil (the tree of death) had both of them on the same tree. About how we would swing like monkeys from one branch to the other, doing good for a while and then slipping and then trying again. About how it's not turning over a new leaf, but getting onto an entirely new tree. The Tree of Life. Which is Jesus. And only eating the fruit of that tree. Which is the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. Now. I said all that to say this: "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things" (Matthew 12:15). And, without focusing on the "good and evil" part, what we're left with is... "the treasure of the heart." Look. You can't give what you don't have, right? And you can only give what you do have. So you have to know what you have. What you really have. That's about as far as I want to go with the "evil man" deal. Hurting people hurt people. What's in your heart--or, more accurately, what you believe is in your heart--is what comes out. It has to. The heart is not a container. The heart is a funnel. God pours into us and then we fill ourselves to overflowing with what He has filled us with and it comes out. We are the spout where the glory comes out, as one preacher puts it. Where our treasure is, that's where our heart will be. Because it is the treasure of the heart. It isn't necessarily money (though that's how most people think of it). It's people. Relationships. Connections. The thing that is truly valuable to us. Truly precious to us. The book of Proverbs has a lot of sayings like this, "Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich" (Proverbs 28:6). Which is to say, while money is important, to a degree, there are things that much much more important. If your heart is only full of money, and the pursuit of money (mammon), you'll never be satisfied. It will never be enough. You'll keep trying harder and harder to get more and more. That's no way to live. But if you have your priorities, you'll be able to be more like Paul, "I know both how to be abased, adn I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:12-13). In other words, no matter what's going on around you... as long as you know what's going on in you you'll be ok. Christ in you the hope of glory. As long you have love (and we always do, nothing can separate us from the love of God) you have what you need. That's your treasure. The treasure of the heart. And out of that good treasure comes good things. How could it not? Apple trees don't produce oranges. They produce apples. Love inside produces love outside. Giving what you've got. Receiving and releasing the love of God. That's the Divine Order of things. That's how life is supposed to work. That's the only way life CAN work. Living Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by letting HIM live it in you, and through you, and as you. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing it's in there!

Where your treasure is, your heart also will be. Because your treasure is what is important to you. And that goes beyond just money. You can't serve God and mammon. Because God is love, and love is giving. Mammon is greed... getting. You can't do both. If your focus is on getting, then obviously you aren't giving. You're taking. Or trying to earn. Trying to get. Which is, in reality, the opposite of faith. Faith believes that you have what you need and you are who God wants you to be. If you have what you need you don't need to try to get anything else. If you are who God wants you to be then you don't need to be somebody else. You can embrace who you really are. You can give what you've got instead of trying to get something you think you haven't got. When I talk about the three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure) I'm not talking about things we need. I'm talking about things we have. Things we ARE. Things that we can use to express the love of God. You don't use your time and talent to get treasure. You use your time, talent, and treasure to show people that you love them. It's not the pursuit of treasure that makes life worthwhile. It's about using your treasure to help people that makes life worthwhile. PEOPLE are our treasure. LOVE is our treasure. It might seem a little bit backwards, but that's the Kingdom. Up is down. Black is white. He who would be first humbles himself and puts himself last. We esteem others higher than ourselves. We put others first. And, as always, it's not about thinking less of yourself. It's just about thinking of yourself less. Not GETTING treasure, but GIVING the treasure you have. The treasure you ARE! You are God's love letter to the world. Everything He wants to say He says to us. And in us, and through us, and as us. We are the visible expression of an invisible God. And the only thing He wants to say is, "I love you." Let there be light. The only expression He has is giving His life for us and to us. Laying His life down for His friends. That's the greatest love a man can have. That's what God--in the person of Jesus--did for us (and as us). That's what we can, and ought to, do for each other. It's a shift from being self-centered (and trying to get treasure) to be Christ-centered (people-centered) and giving away the treasure that we have. A Kingdom mindset says, "I have what I need. And I have what YOU need. So I'm going to give what I've got." Seeing a need and meeting it. Seeing past yourself and seeing other people. Using your treasure on, and with, and for other people. God blesses us to be blessings. To receive and release what we've been given. Faith doesn't say, "God will give me what I need." Faith says, "He has already given me all I need, and I'm going to give you what you need!" Living out of our abundance. Not chasing, but flowing. Not running around like chickens with their heads cut off, but resting. Following your heart doesn't mean trying to get treasure. Where your treasure is... your heart will be. Following yoru heart means USING your treasure to enrich others!

The three T's (time, talent, and treasure) are what we have in this world. What we can use to live this life. Which means we ought to use them to love people. Because that's what this life is for. To live is to love and to love is to live. We don't--or I should say we shouldn't--use our time and our talen to get treasure. Instead, we need to understand what our treasure IS. And what our treasure is, is what is valuable to us. It's not necessarily just money. You can't serve two masters. You can't serve God and mammon. Because you'll cling to one and not the other. Hate one and not the other. What you focus on, what you magnify in your life, is what will manifest in your life. If it's all about the pursuit of money then you'll miss out on everything else. Everything that really matters. What I'm trying to say is: People are our treasure. People are what is valuable and important to us. So rather than trying to get something, we need to take care of what we have. Matthew 6:21 says, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." What you focus on is what is important to you. It's important to you BECAUSE you focus on it. Because you put your heart and soul into it. Priorities. And if you're willing to throw people over for stuff... I just gotta say... your priorities are out of whack. You need make sure you're not using two of your T's to get the other one, and leaving the most important thing--PEOPLE--in the dust. And, listen, I'm not saying you should spend yourself into the poor house in order to buy people stuff. I think generosity is a good thing. But in that regard we are called to live out of our abundance. If you have TWO coats and someone doesn't have one, give them a coat. But don't put yourself in a position to freeze to death by giving away your one and only coat. Don't put, or keep, yourself in a bad situation. That's not what your heavenly Father wants for you. Now, let me say this: If God tells you to give something away... you should obey the Lord. Obey your heart. Because He assuredly has something better in store for you. It's ok to have stuff. It's not ok for stuff to have you. If you own something you're not willing to give up... do you own it or does it own you? So be careful, is what I'm saying. Find the balance. Be sure that your heart is leading and guiding you. Follow your heart. But don't feel like "If I don't give up everything I have I'm not being a good Christian." One more time: It's ok to have stuff. It's not ok for stuff to have you. And, honestly, giving people stuff is not as important, or impactful, as giving people your time and talent. Letting people know that they are your treasure. I think this was kind of what Jesus was trying to say in the parable of the field. You find a treasure in a field and you sell everything you have in order to buy the field. People are our treasure. We ought to do everything we can for them. Give everything we have and everything we are. See their need and meet it. Give what we've got. Make people our priority. Make sure they know that THEY are our treasure by giving them our time and our talent!

I talk about the three T's a lot. Time. Talent. Treasure. So I thought I could take the next couple of weeks to really dig in to each one of them. And then I figured I'd do it Tarantino style and do it backwards. Start with treasure. And right off the bat I want to say, treasure does not only mean money. That's included in it, yes. But it's more than that. When we see a verse like Matthew 6:24, "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," we automatically think about money. Right? And the word "mammon" there is number 3126 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "Confidence, that is, figuratively, wealth, personified; avarice." And avarice, according to dictionary.com is "insatiable greed for riches; inordinate, miserly desire to gain and hoard wealth." I'm not trying to belabor this. But I think it's important. I Rant all the time about how having things is not a problem. But things having you IS a problem. It's the greed that gets us. It's the chasing. It's serving that greed. Spending our other T's (time and talent) in order to GET the treasure is a problem. Because our three T's are SUPPOSED to serve the OTHER master. God. Love. Kids (and I think people in general, really) spell love T-I-M-E. Time is the one thing you can never get back. Spending it on accumulating wealth is, quite frankly, a waste of it. And, as always, I'm not saying you shouldn't take care of business. You have to take care of business. Paul wrote, "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). As my pastor was fond of saying, "Call up the power company and tell them how much you love Jesus... but if you don't pay the bill they WILL shut your lights off." So I'm not talking about not working. I'm talking about having a balance. Having your priorities in line and in order. Not always chasing the carrot but only getting the stick. There's more to life than just working and paying taxes. You HAVE to work. And you HAVE to pay taxes. But that's not the sum total of the whole deal. That's not even most of it. That's just taking care of business. Making sure you are doing your part. But really, your treasure is so much more than just money. So much more than mammon. Look at Matthew 6:21, which is really my key memory verse for this Rant series: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." There's a connection between treasure and heart. So to me, what treasure is--more than simply money--your treasure is what's important to you. Like the pirates of old who would bury their chests of gold, and diamonds, and jewels... we need to protect what is important to us. What is valuable to us. In other words... the PEOPLE in our lives. I always say God and people are what's important. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. In other words, where our treasure is... that's where our heart is. Put your heart into people. That's what's worth it. That's what makes life worth living. People. Connections. Relationship. Love!

We can be steadfast because God is steadfast. In us, and through us, and as us. Look at Ephesians 6:10, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." Be strong in the Lord. The only way to do that is to know and believe that He is strong in you. Our strength IS the Lord. Our strength is love. But, like I always say, 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 do have. You can't give people love unless you know that you have love. We love because He first loved us. That's what it's all about. It's all about love. God has filled us up with His love. And now we love Him back by loving each other. We fill ourselves to overflowing with what God has already filled us wtih. We don't have to fight and kick and scratch and claw to be loved or to love each other. We simply have to let it flow into us and out of us. By keeping our hearts open. By trusting in the love of our heavenly Father. Faith comes from hearing, right? And hearing from the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. He fills us up and we let it out. Receive it and release it. That's the Divine Order of things. Breathe it in... breathe it out. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of HIS might. Let HIS love lead you and guide you, direct you and protect you. Let love light your path. Follow your heart. Don't try to fit into any certain box. Don't think love has to look like any one certain thing. Love comes in all shapes and sizes. Being steadfast doesn't necessarily mean doing the same thing the same way every single time to every single person. Because not everybody expresses love in the same way and not everybody receives love in the same way. We need to learn how to love each other. Make connections. Build relationships. Being steadfast means standing by people. Standing with them. And I know you know how I feel about toxic people and bad situations so I'm not going to belabor it here. Sometimes you have to love people from a distance. I'll just leave it at that. You can stand though. That's my point. Against anything. Against everything. You can stand... because Jesus is holding you up. Because LOVE is holding you up! And love is steadfast. So love will never let you down. Love never fails. Because love endures. Love doesn't give up. On anybody. Ever. So if you think you've gone too far... you haven't. God is a stalker, as one preacher puts it. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He is the very definion of being steadfast. And all we have to do is let Him be who He is (one more time) in us, and through us, and as us. All we have to do is let HIS joy be our strength. All we have to do is be strong in HIM and in the power of HIS might. His steadfastness is our steadfastness. His light is our light. His life is our life. His love is our love. We don't need to try to get anything, or be anybody. We can be who we really are. Who we are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in us. We can stand strong because HE is strong. In us. And through us. And as us!