I would rev up my Christian to do list with all manner of serving, blessing and giving others that kind of love I was so desperate to have boomerang back on me. Those are all good things. Fabulous activities. Biblical instructions. But when given from a heart whose real motivation is what I’m hoping I’ll get in return is not really love at all. That’s not the answer. Giving with strings of secret expectations attached is the greatest invitation to heartbreak. That’s not love. That’s manipulation, and it’s also unrealistic. Only audiences are trained to applaud performances. People in everyday life can sniff out the neediness of a performer trying to earn love. Their instinct isn’t to clap, but rather to be repulsed by the fakeness of it all, and walk away. No soul can soar to the place of living loved when it’s a performance based endeavour. Living loved is sourced in your quiet daily surrender to the One who made you.