The consequence of being the cause of everything in our lives means we are also being the effects of everything in our lives. At least in terms of our perspective. Of course, no life is void of impact by outside sources but when we are being bombarded by those outside influences we can lose sight of our personal sovereignty. It is easy to fall into a sense of victimhood. Believe me I am well practiced in that way of being. Recognizing the agency we have in how we see the effects of our lives and more importantly the perspective on those effects is the key to freedom. On my daily dates with God, I am always being directed to my heart. It is as though God is saying, “Listen the beat, pay attention to the rhythm, what is it speaking to you about who you are being right now?” When I look at the effects in my life, I am reminded of what Victor Frankl wrote: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” What comes out of my daily dates with God because it is a practice is what I think of as the pause button. When there are causes in my life and I am perceiving effects as unfavorable or not how they “should” be I can choose to activate the pause button. Stop, put my hand on my heart, take a deep breath and notice what is happening. Frankl also describes this: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” I figure if I guy who survived the camps during the Holocaust can hold so strongly to a belief in freedom, I would be wise to practice the same. It is not about discounting what we think and feel in the moment. It is about honoring and validating both and recognizing we can create an effect that mirrors who we are at our core not just what is happening. It is easy enough to get angry when someone else gets angry or things are unfair, unfortunately staying angry and only reacting from anger does nothing more than keep us angry. I know, I have done it. I spent plenty of time being angry about what happened to me as a child and when I was done being angry I decided to take a pause and find a different path. It still does not make what happened right , fair, or not cruel; but who I am is more than my circumstances. My best moments are when I am bothered by an effect of being an incest survivor that has shown up in my present day life and I hit the pause button. I tap into the energy of my heart and ask God, “How do you see me?”
Are we willing to pause and use the energy of our hearts to create an effect that demonstrates the core of who we are today?
dailydatewithgod 
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