It’s not what you get but what you give that engenders peace.

The ego literally lives by comparisons. Equality is beyond its grasp, and charity becomes impossible. The ego never gives out of abundance, because it was made as a substitute for it. That is why the concept of “getting” arose in the ego’s thought system. Appetites are “getting” mechanisms, representing the ego’s need to confirm itself. This is as true of body appetites as it is of the so-called “higher ego needs.” Body appetites are not physical in origin. The ego regards the body as its home, and tries to satisfy itself through the body. But the idea that this is possible is a decision of the mind, which has become completely confused about what is really possible.T-4.II.7: 1-9

A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

A Course In Miracles can be thought of as a book of humor and its narrator, Jesus, as a comedian. The things Jesus describes in A Course Of Miracles point to the incongruities and absurdities of the ego which are funny when one understands how what the ego would have us believe is so different to how things really are.

Conditional love, based on the principle of getting, will never make one happy or contribute to an experience of peace. Conditional love is always about “more,” “more,” “more” and is never satisfied. Nothing, it seems, is ever good enough. The ego is always grasping, manipulating, bribing, blackmailing, conniving, and then, with a straight face, calls it “love.” When one steps back and simply observes this phenomenon with a degree of objectivity and perspective, it seems like such a joke, the appropriate response is to laugh. Jesus, as he was being tortured and crucified, said with a laugh, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And they didn’t know what they were doing, and we still don’t to this very day, over 2,000 years later.

But, Jesus teaches that there is a better way and that is the way of unconditional love and the life of Spirit rather than of the ego.

Today, consider that we have a choice about what matters to us. Is it conditional love or unconditional love? Do we want to live our lives and judge their value on what we get or what we give? Today, set aside our striving for what we can get and strive to give. Start with a smile.