dailydatewithgod

It has been my experience and because of it I believe all things are restored in love. Whatever it is that we feel we have lost or is broken by our experiences in the world, God will bring the gift of restoration. If it is something we have been designed with, there is nothing the world can do to keep the restoration from happening.  As an incest survivor who has and continues to walk through facing what seemed like the destruction of my sense of innocence, a sense that my body is my own, and the understanding that I get to say what is okay and not okay in my body and in my life, it is crucial for me to believe that God restores all those elements to me.  I have moved through many phases in this process of recovery which could be called a process of restoration to the eyes of God.  It is about letting go of my perception of  loss and realize it was a disconnection.  A disconnection that I initiated because it was safer to do so than face the unfathomable reality of what I was experiencing.  God however, did not see the same loss.  God held for safe keeping all that has always been mine gifted by Him at my creation.  She never bought into the idea that I was separate from my sense of safety, being a sexual being, or having a voice to say what is okay with me and what is not.  God provides the restoration to show me that I no longer have to believe the lies I created in order to survive.  In my experience, whatever our challenges in life are, we have all had some sense of brokenness and loss in need of restoration. The beauty of the experience is realizing all we need to initiate the restoration is to acknowledge that God has it ready and waiting when we are willing to let go of our perception.

One of the more subtle powers of a daily prayer and meditation date with God is the heightened observational qualities one develops.  There is a lot going on in our day-to-day experiences and the information we are taking in is more than we can handle cognitively.  Our minds have a convenient filter system so we do not pass out or die from the amount of stimulation.  It is magnificently designed.  In meditation I learned to be a witness to my thoughts, body sensations, feelings, and everything around me.  In that time of quietness it is easy to become attuned to the subtleties of what is happening in my experience because it is devoid of distractions.  In the flutter of daily life it is not as easy.  Yet the practice of witnessing allows it to become an option even amidst the distractions.  Over time I have seen great power in being able to pause before reacting and notice what I am thinking and feeling.  It is like getting a window into my default perception. It allows me to question the assumptions and beliefs that kick into gear as soon as a situation occurs.  When we take the time to witness our lives we can see things with greater balance.  It takes some of the charge out of the moment we might have previously ridden into an electric storm.  God invites us to practice witnessing so we can begin to connect with the way our heart sees things.  Our minds speak the quickest and the loudest.  Our hearts are more subtle.  When we pause to witness the direction of our minds we can peel it back before we jump into reaction.

There is information that we receive in our minds and we think it is a direct ingestion into our minds.  More accurately, what we perceive in our minds is an interpretation of what we are picking up through our senses.  Specific facts or information spoken to us are filtered through our hearing and incorporate the tone and speed of the information.  Our visual sense picks up information on who the person is who is speaking.  Our perception is also influenced by what we are feeling ,smelling, and tasting at the time we receive the information spoken to us.  We are not a computer that receives cold data.  Everything goes through our sensing.  On my daily dates, God has taught me to pay attention to what I am sensing that may have nothing to do with what is actually happening.  Our reaction to an experience is not based on the actual event, it is based on what we are sensing while the event is occurring.  Our mind then interprets the situation and we form our version of what happened.  This is how two people can be present in the same situation and have completely different versions of what happened. If we attune ourselves to our inner sensing we can develop an awareness of what our default perceptions are.  As we grow in knowledge of how we are operating we can make a realistic attempt to choose to put our default aside and sense what is happening with a newness. Pausing and taking a breath can be the portal to paying attention.  God wants us to have the opportunity to embrace being in the moments we are in and sense them for what they are, not what we already know.

When we distance ourselves from our expectations we are able to assess things the way they are.  It is learning to live life on life’s terms.  God encourages us to be in the actuality of our experience because it is being in the now. It is the now where God meets us. It is about embracing the gifts of the moment which sometimes look like gifts and sometimes look like trash.  Only when we assess and accept the actuality of what is happening can we determine what requires a change.  It is God inviting us into a life of self-honesty.    The actuality of our thoughts, our feelings, our perceptions, and our actions are what make us who we are in the moment we are in.  Letting go of the judgment about it and simply accepting what actually is makes room for us to breathe through it.  Then we can invite God in to share how God sees our actuality.  When we tune into the actual rhythm of our heart within an experience we get a window into how we are interpreting the moment we are in.  If we are busy in our heads about how it is supposed to be and how it is not what we had imagined, we lose the opportunity and the gift of the actual moment.  I know for me that the opportunity and the openness to change only happens when I first accept the actuality of what is happening.  If I am consumed by the stories in my head of expectation and wishful thinking, I cannot hear the rhythms of my heart.  I do not sense attunement with God or have the capacity to shift from the fantasy in my head when I am void of actuality.  Returning to my breath, linking with the hand of God, and seeing what is actually in front of me is where change begins.

There are many things in this world that we may think it would be better off to be protected from than to experience.  There is some level at which this may be true. Unfortunately when we go into experiences there is no way we can know how all of it is going to go and we may miss out on something essential.  Our minds have this fantastical way of imagining by default the worse case scenario. It is what keeps us safe. This is a good thing.  However, it can sometimes be to our detriment.  If we spend too much time believing everything our head tells us we would eventually never go outside let alone engage with other human beings.  Just the statistics on the number of germs we would encounter is enough to make anyone stay inside.  We can be smart about things and ask questions.  We can touch base with those who have gone through things before and hear their experience.  At the end of the day the greatest impact will be our own experience.  It takes courage to show up and live life.  The one staying power we have is knowing that God is always sheltering our hearts.  Not in the way we would but shutting it off or barring it from any outside influence.  God’s sheltering is in the knowing of the unchanging nature of the power of love within us.  No experience we can engage in can ever change the nature of our hearts.  We make experience some dents and bruises but the life force of love is more powerful than any temporary mark.  If we can garner up the curiosity and willingness to trust God, we do not have to spend time sheltering ourselves the way our minds would have us do.  We can smile at a stranger and look them in the eye.  We can have an uncomfortable conversation.  We can ask others for help.  We can admit we don’t have the answers.  We can try something and fail at it.  When we know we can rely upon God to do the sheltering of our hearts we can live and go where our hearts lead us.

There is a lot of stress in the world over how different people do or do not understand God.  Has it occurred to anyone that the way we each understand God has more to do with how God has chosen to reveal himself to us than what we conceive of God?  Perhaps the reason the scientist is at peace with his conception of an intelligent universe but does not believe in a God creator is because God has chosen to reveal herself that way to the scientist?  Whose to say just because lots of people conceive of God as a being of creation who has watches over us makes us right and everyone who does not have the same conception wrong?  How is it that we do not trust whatever conception we have of God which brings us peace and allows us to operate with love in the world is enough for us?  Why must it be the same for others?  When we are in alignment with whatever conception we have of God in such a way that allows us to grow in love and create harmony among our fellows and our world, how is this wrong?  Is it more right that we have a conception of God that makes us afraid to grow and be who we are because God will judge as right or wrong when we die?  If my conception of God is one that leads me to focus primarily on my faults and doing things perfectly because I am somehow inherently flawed, is that truly what my heart conceives of God or is it the world’s conception?  These are questions our hearts draw us to ask.

We carry messages to each other through language.  When we use language its meaning changes depending on the tone in which it is used.  In the same way that a minor or major note conveys a different message of the music. It comes down to the vibration which is the energy of the sound. The vibrations are what impact us not the actual words.  By themselves they are only symbols with no meaning.  The vibration creates a context for the meaning.  We notice it when we adjust our tone around babies or animals who do not understand what the actual words are.  All they have to work with is the vibration conveyed through the tone. The more we pay attention to how we are affected by vibration and the impact of aligning our heart in the vibration of love, the more we can intentionally send the vibration of love with whatever words we use.

The mystery of our hearts lies in their depth.  It can seem beyond our reach because it is foreign to us.  To get through the depths we are called dive into what seems like darkness.  We are invited to a time and space of stillness with God.  It is much easier to stay distracted by the world.  It is bright and shiny and already revealed to us.  The deepening we are called to requires courage.  Courage comes from the heart.  The tools we need to take the journey into the depth of our being are already within us.  God wants us to know ourselves fully.  God desires for us the ability to trust and move through life relying on the truth of our hearts.  Deepening our relationship and understanding of our hearts is a necessary process.  It is not easy, but it is simple.  God will be with us every step of the process.  At least that is what my experience has been each day I show up on our date.

It is important for us to keep growing.  If we aren’t growing we are dying.  I have learned on my daily dates with God how to be with being uncomfortable.  It is not easy just to sit and meditate, especially when one first starts out.  There is a lot of noise going through one’s head.  Sometimes it still goes on during our date.  The discipline of showing up each day no matter what knowing I was offering that time to spend with my Creator made me willing.  This in turn trained me on how to handle uncomfortable situations and experiences. I do not like them but see how they enable me to grow.  The funny thing is we do not have to seek out discomfort.  It is actually very feasible.  It is present everywhere.  As human beings we just usually opt for the comfort otherwise known as the familiar.  We deserve it.  We work so hard.  Insert usual excuses here.  The brilliance of an uncomfortable experience is that it masks itself as impossible.  We can’t deal with the feelings.  We don’t like that person.  Our mind’s will tell us a million different reasons because the discomfort is usually unfamiliarity. Unfamiliarity breeds fear.  Fear kicks in survival mode.  Recognizing the feasibility of the situation is what occurs when we stop and take a breath.  We recognize that we can not only survive the unfamiliar, we can grow from it.   No thought or feeling can kill us.  The stories we tell ourselves about how the future will work out if we allow ourselves to face the discomfort are seriously disproportionate to reality.   Have you noticed that things do not turn out as bad as we imagine they will?  God reminds us in our hearts when we breathe that things are way more feasible if guided by the heart.

From the perspective of self-sufficiency, needing help or helping others seems like a polar opposites.  Extremes however are only a small part of the picture.  Most everything is interconnected.  On the path of life’s discovery where we learn who we are and what our role is in the world, we see things are rarely just one or the other.  As we grow towards self-actualization, determining which path is ours and carving out the life we feel we are meant to live, involves others.  No man is an island.  What I do  affects others no matter how solitary it is.  Along the individual path we see where we are of help to others and where they are of help to us.  Helping is simply a way of interacting with other human beings and the natural world.  It is not as is touted in some individualistic pursuits, a sign of weakness.  Helping provides us with a way to engage with others.  Not because we are better than or do not need help ourselves but because in that moment we can make a contribution. It lightens our hearts to connect with each other and the world around us.  When that connection involves helping we not only lighten the burden of others, but we allow the light of our hearts to shine through us.  Helping is not a hierarchical situation unless we turn it into one.  The reality is at one point or another in our lives, no matter how much of an individual we are, we are going to need help as well.  God invites us to see helping as an opportunity to practice being engaged in relationship with one another.