dailydatewithgod

They, whomever they are, say the only thing constant is change.  I suppose the reason the phrase is so cliché’ is because it is true.  We cannot avoid the changing of time, relationships, experiences, understandings and even our physical bodies.  I am not sure that people dislike change as much as they dislike the transition.  The time in between is what I find I want to avoid.  Most often it comes from a fear of the unknown.  The way things or people are now I am familiar with.  The more time I spend on our dates and in quiet stillness with God and the space of love whether I feel comfortable or not, I learn how to be in the in between.  The conversion experience which is spiritual terminology for change calls upon us to actively participate in the change.  A conversion is a call to embrace the mystery of God in the changing of everything from an idea to a relationship, or a way of being.  It is engaging God as a partner so we can sit in the space of unfamiliar, see the fear that comes up and be reminded we are with One who withstands all fear.  God invites us to conversion because it is an opening of our hearts to a deeper understanding of God and ourselves.  It is an opportunity to see more with the eyes of our heart and less with the eyes of our head.

I cannot keep track of the number of times I have told God I simply cannot do something.  I suppose God finds this amusing given my record of discounting God’s ability to work through me.  It is easy for me to fall back into thinking it must all come from me.  Even when I call on God for help because I am never certain of how it will come, I doubt it.  I have come to understand this is part of the delight of the mystery of life.  I need only remember that God will show up not how. If I knew how I suppose that would make me God.  It keeps an agile spring to our relationship that I can rely on God to be present even when I have no idea what that presence will look or feel like.  This kind of reliance requires me to have faith.  Faith that God is who God says God is in all circumstances and experiences.  Just because my feelings and thoughts change like the wind, does not mean God changes.  The reliance of God’s presence on our dates each morning is by far the greatest evidence when I am not able to recall anything else. There are plenty of times when I don’t want to show up to our dates.  I won’t be present enough, I am distracted, I am feeling too many things for my heart to quiet down, or I really messed up.  I have plenty of excuses by God is always there.

God relies on us to be the physical embodiment of the message of love.  The reason we are not expected to be some perfect purified channel through which God can speak is because who can relate to that?  When we come across such people we tend to discount ourselves and see ourselves as not worthy in comparison.  Love is not a scale of greater or lesser than.  Love just is.  It is within us but we have all of these stories and experiences which convey the opposite message to us.  We are not tall enough, skinny enough, kind enough, or successful enough.  We never will be. God does not wait for us to be enough because God is enough.  Why would God create us as an incomplete expression of love?  We are the extension of love from the source of All Love because it is in our innate design. We did not do anything to set ourselves up for it. We cannot earn it and we cannot destroy the core of who we are.  God lives within us in the dark and light places. God invites us to get quiet and spend some time resting in the inner space of our hearts so we can become acquainted with God.  God thrives when we open ourselves up to the idea that there is no place love cannot extend itself.

ON my daily dates with God I set my anchor for the day.  By making the time to connect with the Source of all creation I am choosing the direction of love to proceed me in all I do that day.  This does not mean I do it perfectly.  When I get off course, which I always do, I can quickly assess how far off course by reaching for God’s hand and taking a breath.  Through the pause I get a sense of which direction to move in from there.  Do I go back, do I move forward, do I come back around later . . .?  Unless I check in with my source I am liable to continue in a direction that does not serve me or anyone else.  It is not about being some perfect example of love and hospitality or never allowing for veering in an unfulfilled direction.  It is about how I choose to handle it when I go off course.  Do I berate myself?  Do I choose to learn from it?  Sometimes the point is to notice that going in a particular direction leads me to close my heart  versus cause it to open.  I can ask where else in my life this same pattern is happening.  I can inquire with God how God sees it.  I can investigate with God’s kind eyes what I am to learn about the facets of love from going in this particular direction.

Our mind’s eye focuses on what is physically in front of or around us.  God’s eye looks past what is physically present to what is beyond.  Seeing with one’s heart expands the horizon of viewpoint past what is capable for our mind to grasp.  It is within our capabilities to engage our hearts in looking beyond what our physical eyes can see.  We experience it when we let go of our expectations of what we think we know will appear and allow space for what might be.  It is a risk of our heart to open up beyond what we can guarantee as present with our minds.  It is a risk that we do not take alone.  God is readily encouraging us to open ourselves up to the multitude of possibilities that lay beyond the sight of our human eyes.  God knows because it is in our design that enlisting the energy of our hearts is the quickest way to go beyond our limitations and experience a fuller understanding of life and what it means to be human.  When we perceive a lack of safety we close off our hearts and rely solely on what we can see with our eyes.  This is a survival mechanism allowing us to maintain focus on making sure we can continue to grow and thrive.  God is the force behind us, reminding us that no perceived outside influence can actually cause damage to our hearts.  It only looks or feels that way.  On our daily dates, God is the consistent and often persistent reinforcement of the untainted nature of my heart.  God speaks gently in my ear of the remembrance of the true nature of my heart so I may be willing to see the love existing beyond any perceived lack I am experiencing in the moment.