“Come into my parlor,” said the spider to the fly.
Ego operates like the spider to the fly. So tempting. So coaxing. So promising.
Ego will make you important. Ego will make you the King of the World. It will dress you and flaunt you.
Ego will make you the Queen who looks in the mirror and is the fairest of all, is the fairest of all until ego drops you in favor of another.
Even if ego would deliver all the promises it makes, it gives you little. Ego needs are hard to appease. Ego leaves you wanting. Even if you win star billing, a fortune, adoration everywhere, it is little. It is not enough. Ego persuades you that happiness is yours when you are the fairest of all, or the mightiest of all, or when you gain a contract or a beautiful home or a beautiful wife or whatever ego seduces you into believing will bring you happiness.
Ego taunts you, teases you, leads you to believe that happiness is around the corner, that all you need is one more thing that only ego can provide, and then there is another thing and another that you require before happiness can be yours. And so you spend a lifetime with ego leading you down the garden path. Ego lies to you, and ego leads you by the nose. Ego is so convincing. Ego holds out its hand, and you follow ego the way a dog would follow a piece of meat.
You fall for ego time and time again. It is your ego that tells you that you have not been fully appreciated. It is your ego that tells you that you must have the latest shade of lipstick or first prize or the handsomest or richest of husbands. Ego will lead you astray at every turn, and it would seem that you never learn. Ego sets its traps, and you fall into them as if you were a novice.
It is good to be innocent with life but not with ego. Be sophisticated with ego. Be aware. Be wary. Ego does not give you a foundation.
You don’t have to be the belle of the ball. You do not have to be famous. Everyone does not have to love your dress or fulfill your fictitious needs. You do not have to be the first in line. You just have to be love. And, just as you were told as a young child, you have to share. What you really have to have is the desire to share. Sharing without your heart behind it is just a motion. Life as it has been lived has had very many motions without your full heart behind them. Otherwise, why would manners have to be taught? Who would have to be trained to give his seat on the bus to someone who needs it more? Who would have to be told to share?
It is natural to share. It is unnatural to not share. Ego would whisper in your ear that there is an advantage in selfishness, yet selfishness had to be taught. Giving love does not have to be taught. What young child does not pluck a dandelion to give to his mother? No one told him: “Pick a dandelion to give to your mother to show your love for her.”
It is natural to serve. Serving does not mean erasing yourself. Serving means knowing yourself and knowing that all service is to Me. When you serve another, you are in service to Me. When you are in service to one of Mine, you serve Me. You are also one of Mine. When you are in service to Me, you have a vaster picture of yourself in the world. You have no desire to inflate yourself. And so you zap ego’s presumed power, and you come into your own.