dailydatewithgod

There are many roles we assume in this life. Some are given to us as in our family, others we take on as in the jobs we perform.  No role allows us to exemplify our capacity as human beings as the one God assigns us.  When I attend my date with God each morning it is an opportunity to connect to my most important role as a child of God.  A role vibrating on the frequency of love.  A role training my eyes to see the innocence of others.  A role interested in growing and learning through all situations.  I do this before I step into the multitude of roles I will be playing throughout the course of the day.  The connection time gives me the capacity to embody the other roles in my life with greater power.  The other roles become an extension of the one I have in the eyes of God.  When I find myself forgetting my true role and not having the capacity to show up for my life as it is, I can reach for God’s hand.  God will guide it back to my heart, remind me to breathe and reconnect.  My capacity to be the best version of myself as a daughter, friend, employee, coworker, road traveler, or someone with a smile to a stranger, comes from my role as a child of God who knows she is loved and cared for.

I remember as a child when people in church would talk about God as if God was “up there” somewhere.  I have heard people over the years talk about a bearded man in the sky.  Maybe it is because I have not had the easiest time connecting to God the Father, I didn’t connect with a God “up there”.  I saw the picture of the painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and have been in many churches with high dome paintings and stain glass window depictions of God.  God in a form I could relate to has always been a presence around me.  My father introduced the idea to me when I was 12 of Jesus as a friend.  It seemed foreign until I gave it a try.  From then on, I never saw God as not being around.  Clearly there were periods of my life in which I put as much distance around myself as I could, but I instinctively knew the moment I was willing to let God in closer, God was right there.  In my darkest hours when I thought God was nowhere to be found, I started yelling. I remember many a conversation with God as though God was around but I couldn’t feel God’s presence.  In frustration I told God I knew he/she had not abandoned me but I had no idea what I was doing to abandon God.  It is curious to me even though I felt abandoned, I still spoke to God like a friend with whom I thought was right there.  I have no qualms about being authentic in my expressions of anger and frustration about the status of our relationship.  I didn’t scream at the sky or even have to go into church, yet I have done both of those.  I sensed I just needed to share what I was feeling even in my frustration.  It is a deep and abiding friendship that is around me and within me.  The degree to which I remember God is as much within me as my own heart,  I am able to see God around me. Sometimes it is as simple as seeing God in the very thing around me where I can’t imagine God could ever be.

There is an expression we use in training people how to use computer programs.  Depending on the program there is often a lot happening on the screen.  It is easy to be overwhelmed and unsure where to start or how to move from one task to another.  Depending on the role of the clinician it varies.  It is not eased however, by the fact that there are often multiple ways to complete a task.  We refer to learning it as trying to take a sip from a water hose.  They often walk out of class feeling like they have been drenched in the face, especially those who are not as comfortable around computer systems. Most of us recognize it as part of our everyday world and do not think twice.  Our brains naturally weed out those which we determine we do not need to pay attention to and often we don’t even see them anymore.  This is a brilliant design of our brains.  If we had to take in and assess everything our eyes saw, ears heard, or skin felt we would go mad.  Our brains do the dirty work of sorting things out. However, we might be missing out on something and often do if we do not wake up and decide to reassert what is fundamental to our way of being we do miss out on an opportunity to grow into our best selves.  It is easy to go by our programming.  But even people need an upgrade to handle the next level of challenges.   We know when the newest version of the technology tools we use are coming out, but how often to we upgrade our perspective, our ideas, or our ways of being to a newer version of ourselves? The fundamental operating system stays the same for our survival.  How many of know what the fundamentals of our operating system are?  Our life, unlike our technology, is not just a tool.  It is a mirror of how we are functioning as a whole.  Our decisions and actions reveal the underlying programming from which we are working. It comes through in our language both verbally and non verbally.  It conveys messages to those with whom we interact.  If we want to change the output, we have to get to know the operating system.  God invites me to spend time getting to know the operating system each day on our dates.  I have found programs installed I had nothing to do with.  I get to look at them and decide if they are in need of an upgrade.  Some elements I have had for a long time and worked well, but then they become a bug in my system and stop working.  Sometimes their decay causes problems with other elements of my system.  They can block me from access the even deeper core of my fundamentals which is love.  In those times, getting quiet and taking a non-judgmental look are helpful.  God sits with me on our dates and helps me go through the process one day at a time.