dailydatewithgod

Martin Luther King said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” It sounds a little like something out of an Indiana Jones movies where the next step will appear after you take the first but that is exactly what faith is.  It is calling upon us to be present in the moment.  When we see the whole staircase we casually figure we got it.  We think we know exactly where the next step is and take for granted that it will be there.  Seeing only one step means that we need to be in that one step and take it with hope that there will be another one when we take that one.  God is calling us to be present in the moment.  God is in the moment and he/she/it wants us there too, as fully there as we can be. I think of it like my drive to work in the morning.  I know which roads to take, but what if I had to take one on ramp in order for the freeway to appear?  You better believe I would be praying the whole time on that ramp that the freeway would be there at the end of the it.  I wouldn’t be thinking about the emails waiting for me when I get into the office or the classes I would be training that day.  My eyes would be on the road and my mind would be focused on staying connected to God. Hmm, what if I approached everything in my day that way?

The simplest and easiest way to be in life is the truth of who we are.  At any given moment we have a choice.  We chose whether we want to be of ourselves or someone else.  It is so subtle of a decision sometimes that it is not until we find ourselves exhausted and frustrated, blaming others for how we feel, and wanting to shut down and escape that we notice we have decided to go against ourselves.  When we expend energy being something other than our own truth it takes more out of us because we are not going with the flow of who we are.  It took me a long time to understand this.  I spent a lot of my life trying to be who I thought other people wanted me to be.  I was sure that if I just did the right thing and behaved in the expected manner that I would win the approval I so craved and I wouldn’t get hurt again.  That isn’t what happened and I almost killed myself in the process.  Today my challenge is owning the truth of who I am in the moment and responding from that place.  It is not always easy because it is less familiar but I don’t find myself as frustrated, blaming others, or wanting to shut down and escape.

We all came in to this world whole and complete in spirit.  There is no element of us that is broken.  Even if our physical bodies had ailments had the appearance of brokenness it was not the totality of who we are.  Our bodies are never the totality of who we are.  The measurement of our lives is not in the shape of our thighs or the number in our bank account.  It is in the opportunity to be present to what is happening right now. Being present to the people, listening to the sounds in the room, breathing in the air, and feeling the cleansing effect of the tears that are running down my face.

We live in this remarkable world where we are surrounded by sounds and sights.  There is never an absence of things to do or plan or be involved in.  There is so much that sometimes I feel a pressure to do as much as I can.  I don’t want to miss out.  Do you?  Of course not.  Why is it then that my greatest and most delightful time of the day is in the stillness of my date with God each morning?  Being a part of this daily ritual with God has brought me to some insight on this question.  Paradoxically the still and quiet time I spend with my Creator each morning, heightens my experience of all the sights and sounds that abound. The stillness creates a pungent experience of things that I am thinking about and doing.  It is as though practicing the opposite has created a heightened sensory perception.  There is probably some neuropathway in my brain that has expanded.  Maybe it is being able to be fully present in the moment that creates this experience.  Somehow practice in the stillness every morning makes colors brighter, people more animated, sounds more joyous, feelings more deeply felt, and smells and tastes more luxurious.  At this point I could care less why and prefer to simply enjoy it.  All I can say is Thank you and I’ll take more of that.

Better, greater, faster, smarter, shinier, and deeper.  What is it about adding “er” to the end of a word?  Is there a reason we need to compare one thing to another?  What if we the world was not a competition?  What if our being was the greater?  What if we already had the win in the bag? God doesn’t give us life and then ask us to prove why we should get another breath.  God doesn’t design us and then place us in some sort of video game where the only the fastest and smartest win.  Why do we do that ourselves and those around us?  Reality is that we already are.  There is nothing to prove. It would be like trying to prove to God that it was a good idea to do the creation thing.  We were created out of love.  Love encompasses all the erness needed.  Maybe it is discovering why God thinks the world needs our erness.  What if instead of trying to find out and prove our existence to ourselves and each other we opted to ask the one who created us?  What if we got quiet enough to hear the answer?

What do you suppose it is that motivates one to be good?  Is it something inherent in us or a motivation from outside of us?  As children of a God who is good, I believe it is inherent in us.  But because we forget who we are so often we need reminders and sign posts to lead us back to the truth of who we are.  Our experiences cannot change who we are fundamentally.  In order for that to be true we would have to believe in a God that can be undone.  The All Powerful would become the Mostly Powerful.  We cannot go back into the childhood of our biological lives but we can always return to the innocence of our hearts. God always sees us with the same essence from which we were created–goodness.  God does not fall for the same illusions that we do.  Badness and indifference do not undo goodness, they are simply paths back to goodness.  God knew what he/she/it was doing when we were created.  It’s not like we came up with an alternative way of existing after the one who is all designed all.  We get to choose if the path we are following aligns itself with the truest part of our hearts or not. If we are even asking the question we have a clue as to what the answer might be.

In order to begin to understand the madness of this world in which we live, we must be willing to look at the madness that resides in our own hearts.  What is happening outside of us in no more foreign to us than our own true sense of self.  It is easier to witness it outside of ourselves.  The greater task is taking the time to slow down, get quiet, and connect with the truth of our hearts.  I find that the ability to be tolerant allows me room to be where I am in my thoughts and my feelings.  I don’t have to like something to be tolerant of it.  I don’t have to buy into it to be tolerant.  Tolerance creates space for thoughts and experiences of which I am not yet certain is okay with me. This space is what I understand God to be.  It as though his gentle hand takes mine and guides me to take a look and observe what is happening.  I do not need to defend against it or seek to hide and protect myself.  By being tolerance and with God at my side I can investigate, explore, and perhaps be open to something even more than tolerance.

God is the Ultimate!  God is da Bomb! Where else in the universe can we find the power of love more affirmed than in the smile of a child.  I have had the opportunity to marvel at the smiles of such little ones with great frequency lately and it simply elevates my mood.  I notice that when I am around them, whatever else is going on just melts away with that smile.  The beauty of the excellence of a smile is that it not only transforms the face that is conveying it but it also beams light to others.  Just last week I ran into a man who was working at a grocery store who smiled with his eyes as well as his lips.  I went up to talk to him just because the light beaming from his being was so alluring I couldn’t resist.  We take for granted the simplicity of a smile.  I have even tried the experiment of looking in the mirror and making myself smile for a couple of minutes to see if it improves my mood.  Eventually I found myself smiling genuinely out of the absurdity of the experiment.  Apparently, it works!  My prayer for us is the courage to experiment with the effects of a smile in ourselves and others today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is definitive.  God is illuminating.  Being in the presence of Our Creator is like being in a brightly lit room that has no doors or windows.  There are no boundaries in love because its purpose is to permeate all.  Being in a physical reality that is all about lines and boundaries it is hard for us to imagine an energy that does not obey those same rules.  Our minds know where one thing ends and another begins.  We see distinction between ourselves and others.  Love blurs those lines.  This is why on some level it does not make sense to us.  We cannot wrap our heads around the idea of an all permeating force that connects every one and every thing.  But what if we aren’t supposed to wrap our heads around it at all?  What if it is the knowing of our heart and spirit that is meant to resonate with this idea?  What if our mind and our thinking are not the dominant force?  When we are touched by love there is a knowing resonance that calms the mind and reassure the soul.  This cannot be explained in language but we know it when we experience it.  We live in a world that relies on thinking and understanding and knowing in the traditional sense.  It is seen as the most powerful way to reside in this world. This makes it difficult for us to step away from and consider another possibility.  In my experience when I get quiet and still, tune in with my breath, and slow down the dominant resonance of my being does not come from my mind.  It comes from an underlying rhythm that seems to be flowing no matter what I do.  This is the rhythm of God.  This is the knowledge of existence from the heart and spirit.  My prayer for us is a willingness to be with the resonating rhythm of love that runs through us and from us today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is identifiable.  God is available. Making the time each day to connect with the one who created me started as a necessity and has grown into a necessity.  At the entrance into recovery from my disease of food and sugar addiction I had to make some drastic changes to my behavior not only physically but mentally.  I could no longer continue on the path of my thinking and expect that I would somehow stop trying to kill myself with food.  The mind-set change would mean that whatever actions I took around food and exercise would be sustained because they had a basis of understanding in my head.  I had thrown any kind of self-care except for the bare essentials out the door long before that and with it a nurturing of my body.  I needed the help of others who lived this way of recovery but most importantly I needed to create relationship with a God that saw this form of self-care and self-esteem as the truth of who I am.  With concerted effort and a willingness to be uncomfortable, day by day, I began to create new course for my life.  I concentrated on what I thought my newfound sense of God would think of my actions and not listen to my own head which had the same story about not being good enough or what was the point or the built up anger at my body and the world around me.  The women who mentored me through the process required that daily prayer and meditation be a part of that formula.  So it was a necessity if I wanted what they had and over time it has become a necessity for my very livelihood.  I had no clue how to meditate and knew enough about prayer to get started, but all I had to do was take the action and be willing to do it badly.  To my amazement I found that God does not care in the least about how I attempt to connect with Him, just that I show up.  These daily dates are much more than some obligatory and good girl action, they are the signs of a woman who desires to remember who she truly is and who all of us are in God’s eyes.  My prayer for us is a willingness to concentrate our efforts for five minutes today in connecting with God as we understand God in whatever way, shape or form it takes. Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen