dailydatewithgod

In certain Christian circles, we hear the term saved used.  It is often described like a once in a lifetime after which everything is wonderful.  Unfortunately, it is also something that has and can be used as an exclusionary factor.  Christians separate those who are saved versus those who are not.  As a Catholic Christian, it was not a term we used often.  I had a priest friend who would say we were salvaged.  I was raised to believe that while baptism was a cleansing of my spirit, it was more about a daily relationship with God.  I am not going to get into a religious debate about the pros and cons of different approaches to God.  I believe God meets each of us in a way we can understand on our own path.  As a child, I thought being saved meant being rescued from my circumstances.  The daily building of the relationship would somehow enable me to avoid certain circumstances and pain.  Today I recognize this as young thinking.  As I have grown and dealt with hardships in my life, I see how God has been present all along when I remembered to look for God.  Knowing God can save me from my thinking about a circumstance or person far outweighs the seeming relief of being rescued from a situation.  It is humbling to admit, but some of the worst experiences I have been through shaped me the most.  Only by facing the layers of messy perceptions about who I am as a woman and as a sexual woman who I came up with in order to survive the incest do I get to experience the power of forgiveness and self-compassion.  Only in desiring to forgive my father have I learned to experience true peace and grace that comes from the willingness to pray even absent of the belief of possibility of it doing anything.  It was only when I was about to flunk out of college that I saw my resiliency in walking through a time of loss in my life and still managed to show up and do what needed to be done.  When I remember to bring God into whatever it is I am facing, I know I stand a chance of walking through it in wholeness. God is the one who can save me from the dark and winding road of my thinking that cannot see the forest through the trees.  It is a daily practice and sometimes a moment to moment one.  God, show me how you see this.  God, help me to see this differently.  Two simple prayers which save me each time I use them.