dailydatewithgod

We all have a special role to fill in our lives.  We don’t realize the extent to which we impact life unless we show up and take responsibility for doing so. Our lack of awareness is what often leads not only to our suffering but the suffering of others. Not filling our place in life leaves a gap.  The universe abhors a vacuum so invariably someone else is likely to step into filling our place.  But no matter how wonderful they are at filling their place in life, it won’t be a good match for ours.  Like a child playing dress up in her mom’s dress and tripping over it as she walks or a boy putting on his dad’s hat and not being able to see. In some cases, no one may step up and then the world will go without.   We are not meant to fill the role of others, only our own. It is not always obvious when we are not filling our place because over time we settle.  We put up with the void experienced by others and we rationalize our way out of us stepping up and taking responsibility.  We get lost in thinking we have to know all the ins and outs of how to fill the role.  In God’s eyes, we just need to be willing.  Willing to suit up and show up.  We have the courage of love deep in our hearts calling us to our place to fill. It will provide what we need if we stay connected to its source.  God would not imprint upon us a sense of what role we have to fill without giving us what we need to fill it.  We don’t get to know all the ins and outs of how it will happen because that is what life is all about.  The mystery and the adventure of love is in the showing up for the filling.

God invites us to step into the realm in which we are provided for.  In the third of the twelve steps of recovery for a person desiring to walk a spiritual path asks that he/she turn their will and their life over to the care of God as they understand God.  Only years after living the twelve steps did I see the word care.  I trusted on some level that God had my best interest at heart but I realize now that if I do not believe that God cares to provide for me, why would I want to turn my life over to him/her?  It is fundamental to believe God is providing for me what I need in order to live my life as a the fullest expression of myself.  If I am stuck thinking I need to provide for myself on all levels I am not free to live and be.  This was my experience growing up.  With a lack of safety provided, I was left to focus my energy on doing what I could to create it.  This left little room to live and grow.  It was about survival.  My parents provided a lot for me and I am very grateful but they were limited by what they knew how to provide.  We cannot give of what we do not have.  If I am to live as an expression of God, I must believe on some level God is providing for me what I cannot provide for myself.  It is an essential element to our relationship that begins with our daily dates.  Sometimes the most earnest prayer I can say is, God, I have no idea how I am going to live this day, walk through this situation, be the person I know I can be, but I trust you are providing what I need to do your will which is love.

In every moment there are these experiences of God showing up in our lives in ways we often do not perceive as God.  We have these fixed notions of what God is and if something falls outside that parameter we dismiss it as coincidence.  I often think of those coincidences as God-incidences.  Years ago when I was a teacher at a private school, once a week my students were tasked with reflecting on the past week and identifying where they experienced God-incidences.  I encouraged them to notice God-incidences as things that could show up outside of church or a “religious” figure.  They could expand their parameters to God showing up as hearing the sound of someone’s laughter, or  a song they loved; seeing a friend smile at them, or a bumper sticker on a car that made them laugh.  I invited them as God invites us to see how these everyday treasures are God’s way of reminding us we are loved and paid attention to.  Just by the fact we are aware and witness these things means they are gifts to us as well as those to whom they are happening.  I know I am warmed by seeing a loving embrace between people even if I don’t know them and I smile when I see a little child dancing in the line at the grocery store with complete abandon.

We seem to walk around worried or in fear about the future.  Does that even make sense?  How can we fear something that has not happened yet?  How can we possibly know what the future will look like and therefore have things to fear?  I once heard a spiritual teacher remark that he found great freedom in realizing that when he was experiencing anxiety he knew he was in the future.  He had left the present moment and attached himself to an idea about what was to come.  There is something about the present moment which grants us the freedom to just be free.  Most of our concern about the future comes from the past.  Keep in mind the moment a moment ends, it is no longer the present.  It is the past.  Just like you reading that last sentence or the word right before this one.  If we were to project our future from the present, we would have less with which to concern ourselves.  We could be free to be open to what would happen because in the present it is all we are doing.  God meets us in the present moment.  Now. Besides, if we are fully in the moment we are in we are not thinking or worrying about anything else.  It is the gift of the present to have a mind focused on what is right here, right now.  We are free to be. When I spend time with God on our daily prayer and meditation dates or find myself stopping to notice the beauty of nature, focus on my breath, or smile at someone, I am not focused on a time other than the present moment.

Love alive is enlightenment.  When we embody the love we are we live in a wakened state because the light inside of us is alive.  Have you ever tried to sleep in a brightly lit room?  Have you ever tried to hide in a wet lit space?  Not only can we not help but live waken in the light of love, but anything we deem as darkness gets dispelled when we bring it to the light.  Our eyes may need time to adjust and we can take as long as we like.  Our hearts overflowing with the love designed and created by God lives in this awakened light burning brightly in us.  We are invited to waken all areas of our life by using this light of love.  When we do not see how it could possibly tolerate the darkness we believe is buried deep within us, God encourages us to bring that thinking to him.  She does not wish to see us suffer in the dark and figure it out on our own. But God will not make us do anything. We are called to choose being wakened by the light of love buried and rooted even deeper in us than any darkness we perceive.  I know in some of my hardest moments when I have come face to face with my shame and hopelessness , the kind I was certain God would not nothing to do with, I had it completely wrong.  When I had the courage to bring it to the light barely flickering within me, I found God already there and wide awake. “Good, you’re here.  Now we can get to work and I can show you the gift wrapped up in what you call darkness.” God is awaiting our courage which is powered by the light of our wakened self.

We see things all the time but how often do we direct our looking?  If we choose not to choose what we want to see we are stuck looking at whatever pops up in front of us.  Our eyes are a funny thing.  We think it is our eyes that see, but when you break down the mechanics of how we register sight in our brain, it is not the direct of an input we imagine.  Our eyes are not cameras. This is why eyewitness testimony is often unreliable.  Often we see what we are looking for.  We have an idea in mind, perhaps formed from a first glimpse, and immediately our mind creates associations.  It develops a story before we have even taken in the full picture.  I sometimes wonder, what is God looking for in any given situation.  God always sees with love and therefore finds love in the looking. We can see the same love when we use the sight of our hearts.  I imagine the reason God sees love is because God is love and is looking to witness love.  If I am not looking for evidence of love in any given situation, I am liable to see whatever the most recent thing was dwelling in my brain.  My perspective and focus taint my vision for good or for worse.  God invites us to engage in the moment by looking for love.  When we struggle and fear we do not see it, we can ask God for help.

God does not see things as we see things.  God greets us with each new breath and offers the gift of his perspective if we are open to it.  She invites us to see things as the love we are instead of the fear will feel.  I did not know the what relief was until I learned the practice of turning to God both during our dates and at any point during the day and saying: “God, show me how to see this differently, ”  “God, I am willing to see this person, situation, experience differently, ” “God how do you see this. ” Or in my less finessed way, “Ugghh . . . God! What in the world?  Where are you in this?  I can’t see you. Help me to see.”  To be set free from my own perspective on what I am making something mean is priceless.  I am not always able to open my mind or my heart to see where love is and I struggle.  I am a driven woman and will keep at it.  However, when I have exhausted myself and come up with no alternative, I will pause and reach out to God to seek the relief only God can provide.  It usually comes with little or no effort, just a willingness to ask and receive   I am grateful for what I perceive as God’s patience with me, but well aware that I am the one who denies myself the relief until I choose otherwise.  God does not condemn me for the length of time I take.  She is happy to shed relief with the lightness of love’s being that he is whenever I am ready to receive.

We begin with a welcome.  It is what the world says to us when we arrive.  It is what we greet people who come to visit. It is how we respond when people express gratitude.  Being welcoming is about acknowledging the opportunities that each new moment possesses.  God welcomes us into the knowing of his existence starting with our breath. The breath we use to face each moment of our lives.  She further welcomes us to reacquaint ourselves with our heart.  Therein lies the creative design. By welcoming all circumstances in our lives and bringing them to our heart to discern how we can grow in love from them forms a welcoming life.  God does not promise a life free to experiences which we sometimes call challenges or bad things.  God welcomes us to get to know all experiences whether we label them good or bad as an opportunity to grow our hearts.

It is our true nature that shines light in the darkness.  Part of that nature is the darkness itself.  We would not know what the light is if we did not have the awareness of the darkness.  Living in a dualistic experience we are called to bring love to all sides of things and all elements of ourselves.  We will not live in wholeness, the realness of ourselves until we embrace all parts and acknowledge them as part of the whole.  I don’t know about you but I cannot relate to someone who has never made any mistakes.  So why do I feel driven to not make any myself or feel I need to hide things that are less than perfect in my eyes?  My eyes miss the beauty of things all the time.  Is it possible they miss the reality of the beauty of my life shone from the missteps or mistakes?  God invites us to see the real nature of ourselves as that which is a wholly accumulation of all our experiences.  If God can love all of us in all our realness unconditionally, who are we to choose not to?

When we live in agreement with our truest selves there is a peace we experience unlike any other.  This experience of concord with one’s heart is remarkable.  Before I began my daily dates with God I had a momentary sense of peace with myself from time to time but it was fleeting.  I did not know the power of living in concord with one’s heart because I was still running from it.  I thought somehow I could keep the deepest part of myself hidden out of fear of its darkness and still manage to be okay. Unfortunately I was doing a lousy job of it.  Day by day God showed me how to step into the deepest space of my heart, despite my fear and find the concord of love residing where I thought it would never be.  I had placed my ideas of safety and protection above who God is.  I thought my experiences taught me I had to figure it out on my own.  God has patiently shown me I can let go of my ideas of what safety is and embrace the concord of my heart I can be at peace with myself and life one day at a time.

My prayer for us is the willingness to let go of any conflict with have within ourselves and embrace the concord of love God designed in us today.