Serve God and serve as God.

You are asked to be loving, not because it is a task for you to fulfill, but because it is a natural fulfillment of God’s existence. You’re asked to be compassionate, not because you are punished if you are not, but that compassion is exercised as a manifestation that God is. God cannot be compassionate unless there are those who are in such need. It is for you to recognize God, but it is also for you to be more than a recognition, to be evidence of that which you perceive to be God.

You live to serve God, but you also live to serve as God, and there is a great gulf that exists between these two. Reflecting or serving, being or serving, interpreting or serving—both the one who serves and the one being served are essential to that relationship.

You’re asked to listen, but you ask others to listen so that you may speak. Listening works in both directions just as love works in both directions. You give, you receive, you give, you receive. This love is not a selfish love. It is a love which is directed outward entirely, for the love that is God’s love is a love that is directed outward entirely.