Be who you are. You do not have to be this perfect something you think you do. Be the consciousness you are at this moment. I am not telling you anything goes, but I am telling you not to pretend to yourself that you must be, in terms of the world, something greater than you are.
I am not telling you to be selfish. I am telling you that you don’t have to assume a role of being unselfish. I am in favor of your giving, but I am not in favor of your pretending anything to yourself. Give because you stand in that place where it is wonderful to give. Give without thinking about giving. Let giving be as natural as breathing. Giving and receiving are not a matter of book-keeping, beloveds. Truly, I do not keep a score-card. Certainly, you often keep a score-card of what you think others owe you.
Neither think of what others owe you nor what you owe others. Then giving and collecting become a calculation of the mind. Your mind is not meant to be the preceptor of giving. Your heart is.
You are not to give because it is a good thing to do, or that it will earn you points. Even to give because it will make someone else happy is not reason enough. To give because it is the thing to do is not enough. To give because it makes you feel like a good guy is not reason enough. Give, not to show you are giving, but because giving gives you fullness of heart. Perhaps the fullness of heart comes first or later, but it is impossible to separate the giving from what you receive, even though you are more enriched with your attention on the giving rather than on what giving gives to you.
Until there is this modicum of fullness, you are not giving at all. You are paying and perhaps paying in advance for appearance’s sake or to ward off danger or for other reasons you are not even aware of. True giving is more like rowing a boat across a lake -- you row without thinking about it.
When possible, give anonymously because that makes it clear to you that you are not giving for thought of reward or thanks or anything at all. Giving because it is a responsible thing to do is not enough.
Of course, it is your responsibility to give, but not an obligation. Fulfilling an obligation makes you self-serving. Giving is your right, and it is your privilege, and yet you have to know giving as just something you do effortlessly, just the way you would hold a door open for someone graciously. Remind yourself, beloveds, that no matter for whom you hold a door open, it is for Me.
Certainly, I do not count what I give and compare it to what you give. It takes no pointing out that no matter how much you give, you do not approximate My giving. No matter how much you give, it is a drop in the bucket. It cannot be otherwise, beloveds. You are a server who serves the Server. You work in a small restaurant while Mine is a chain all over the Universe.
Yet I give you a franchise, beloveds. It requires no special training. Life itself is the training. No matter what is occurring now, soon you will take over a franchise, and then you will know what happiness is, as I do know happiness, not as spurts going up and down but as an evenness of love.