dailydatewithgod

There are always at least two sides to every story.  Actually, there are way more but for simplicity sake, it is helpful to acknowledge at least the existence of more than one side.  Just like as human beings there are many physical and personal sides to us and how we might be described or describe ourselves. In the same way, we can acknowledge the various sides, we see the potential to choose our perspective.  Often we do not see a choice.  We experience something strike us and it feels like we have been hit and are down for the count.  We experience a strike as a way of standing out against something.  We acknowledge that at first what seemed like a strike against us because it felt like a hit in the head, ended up impacting our hearts and changing our lives.  We have all heard people say that what seemed like the worst thing to happen to them turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  The different strikes we come across in our lives we can choose to see as a positive, negative, or neutral impact.  Acknowledge our first experience of a strike may be different than how we see the strike after the fact.  Much like strikes in a baseball game, they are a part of life. It is all in the game.  It is what we do with them that matters.  Do we take the impact made by the strike and change course?  Do we use it to increase our determination?  Do we stomp our feet in protest insisting we have been wronged?  Do we try so hard to get everything set up so we can avoid strikes?  Sometimes we need to be hit by life to get the impact of what it means to be alive.  In my disease, I put up a lot of layers of protection, especially around my heart.  I learned about betrayal and confusion as it relates to love early on and I wanted to avoid any more of it.  I chose to numb out in protest and ended up putting up steel doors around my heart.  When I got into recovery and starting spending time on my daily dates with God I learned to let the doors open a bit.  With time I came to see the false nature of the supposed safety I had created by avoiding any further strikes.  Today when I do my best to keep my heart open I still have strikes.  But these strikes, good and bad impact me deeply and enable me to grow.  Strangely, I have come to see strikes as a gift.  It may not be my first reaction but over time I see how the strikes of life are designed to strike open my heart and allow me to breathe in the beauty and madness of this game called being alive.