What's in your lunchbox?

One of the most instructive phrases I have EVER heard from an elder was, "What grows is what you feed," and I have to keep that phrase simmering on a back burner in my mind as I go through each day's activities. I used it in the sermon on Love this past Sunday to remind us that we need to feed on Love in order to produce the fruit of Love. I conveniently forgot to get rid of the unhealthy snacks that have slipped into my diet as I seek to produce more fruit from the Love diet.

Thinking about the life that I have constructed - which leaves little time for socializing - I had been feeling like I was giving far more than I was getting and I had a momentary lapse into entitled toddler syndrome where I crossed my arms over my chest and stomped my shiny little patent-leather Mary Jane on the ground and asked, "If Mama said that I should do unto others as I would have them do unto me, then why are they not doing like I'm doing???" And then, as I began to count up all of my doings (clue: real Love doesn't keep score!), two things became crystal clear...

1- I am only called and commissioned to give love and to be loving...and I am able to do it out of the abundance of Love that God has given me. The axiom does not promise that the others WILL do unto you as you have done, it just asks me to act as if and leave the rest in God's hands. I am not responsible for other people's actions - I can only control my own actions...and thus, I am in control of how much Love I show each day.

2- Upon closer examination, I had to face the fact that much of what I do in the name of Love is really in the name of something else. If every loving act is performed with a hand out expecting a tip, a thank you, an equal or reciprocal offering..then it was not done in pure Love but in something else. (Clue: starts with self and ends with ish!)

This is where my poetry-fairy-Godmother-in-my-head (Nikki Giovanni) spoke to my soul and applied the balm of truth. In her poem, The Women Gather, she reminded me that...

"Most of us love from our need to love
not because we find someone deserving.
Most of us forgive because we have trespassed
not because we are magnanimous.
Most of us comfort because we need comforting,
our ancient rituals demand that we give what we hope to receive."

And by her loving truth-telling, I felt compelled to change my diet from one of a love that is self-seeking to one that is generous enough to keep giving. I felt compelled to remember that my ability to be loving is rooted in a Love that runs over the brim of my cup and into the saucer. I do not ever have to worry about a Love shortage because my love is connected to, rooted in, and empowered by Divine Love...which truly never fails.

Today, I pray that we would all remain on a steady diet of Divine Love. I pray that we would be unafraid to be generous. I pray that we would take a double serving of patience, kindness, grace, mercy, and compassion. I pray that our diet would produce in us...good fruit.

What grows is what you feed...what is in your lunchbox today?

Shalom