In Shel Silverstein’s epic tale on gratitude (The Giving Tree, 1964), a talking tree and a young boy age together. Their paths cross at various points and at each one the tree gives generously and is ‘happy’ while the boy, perennially in want, returns only out of discontent and is thus eternally ‘unhappy.’

The book finds its ending with the tree happily reduced to a stump and a grumpy old man seated on top. My cynical side says it’s the ultimate tale of codependency.

However, what has made this book a classic is its entertainingly simple pronouncement of ‘the Good News’ – that the life lived in generous, self-giving produces joy of the kind that even a self-interested lumberjack can’t take away.

After all, Jesus was killed for crimes he didn’t commit, to help people who didn’t like him, become aware of what they really wanted: God and love.

And we become like Jesus when we embrace inconvenience, discomfort, insult, and unselfishness in order to help others find what they really want: love and God.

No one wants us more contented and fulfilled than God. And God’s way of doing this was to come down from heaven and be the ultimate example of what brings us the most fulfillment life can offer: self-giving sacrifice.

How are we being asked to move in that direction? In what ways can we reach out and give? Be inconvenienced? Uncomfortable? And prepared to more deeply fulfill the needs of others? In doing so, we will find out we are the ones who are most deeply fulfilled.