dailydatewithgod

 One of my most favorite stories comes from the gospels of the Christian Scriptures.  The short version of the story is that Jesus of Nazareth shows up to where John the Baptist has been preaching the coming of God and baptizing people to prepare them. Jesus comes to John to be baptized and when he does the scripture paints a dramatic picture of the sky opening up, a dove descending and the voice of God the father saying, “This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.”  In college, I worked with a Dominican sister who has since passed from cancer (talk about a beautiful laugh, Sr. Kathleen’s was famous), she shared that this message about Jesus from the father came before he had done anything. He had not yet chosen his apostles, performed any miracles, suffered and died and rose from the dead.  None of that.  She said that God was pleased with him before he had done anything and that was exactly how God sees us.  We show up and he is pleased.  It was like a breath of fresh air.  You mean it is not about me doing a bunch of stuff?  It is not about me proving myself worthy of love?  I just have to show up?  I have learned over the years that life is about suiting up and showing up.  Being present in the moment–that is where the gift is.  It is then that God can use me for his purposes.  A loving creator can enable me to be an instrument of peace and love when I show up.  Being pleased with myself is not something I have much practice in. My head is often full of a laundry list of things that need to get done in order for me to feel satisfied, to feel like I have made a contribution.  And sadly this same mind rarely sees the contribution that I do make as enough.  But this story reminds me that the stories my head tells me are not true.  Who I am is pleasing.  Because I was created, I am enough.  It is like starting out the school year with an A in all my classes.  It is my job to keep showing up, putting one foot in front of the other and trusting that I will be guided and that I do enough.  This also makes me think of other areas of my life and whether or not I am pleased.  Or do I look upon my life and the people in it and only see that it is not enough?  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t sit around and wait for life to be handed to me.  But coming from a place of being pleased with what is, is much stronger than coming from a place of lack or having to prove.  If I am pleased then I am starting from the present.  I am not busy trying to make up for the fact that it was not enough to begin with.  What are areas of your life where you are pleased?  My prayer for you today is that you may know deep in your heart that God is always pleased with you and that you can embody that perspective in your own life at any given moment.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

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