dailydatewithgod

God is simple.  God is profound.  The heart of God from which we were created is the pure definition of whole-hearted living.  The essence from which our being was generated has bestowed upon each of us the capacity and capability to share with the world love that knows no bounds.  Our minds will rebuff just at the notion of trying to comprehend such a reality. How is the even remotely possible given the evidence of the world in which we live and what is happening these days?  It seems  highly unreal to even entertain such a profound notion.  Given what we see with our eyes it is time to throw in the towel, right?  We might as well concede that it is all random and there is no overwhelming power of love that runs through everything in existence.  Such a power would transform this world, wouldn’t it?  But maybe it is not a question of whether or not it exists, but rather our awareness of it.  Maybe we are looking in the wrong place for the evidence.  Maybe we have lost sight of what miracles really are and rely only on grand gestures to convey our belief in such a possibility.  I had the pleasure of spending some time recently with my niece and nephew both under the age of 5.  Watching kids on the playground is a simple glimpse into the steadfast profound reality of love.  The way that he would marvel at being able to climb up the step.  The almost breath-taking excitement that took hold of his heart as he was about to go down the slide.  The twinkle in her eye when she made it up a winding staircase only to find a new apparatus to conquer upon her arrival.  The assurance of safety as he saw his dad at the bottom of the slide ready to catch him.  The laughter and applause with which her mom greeted her when she made her way across the monkey bars.  Having the chance to witness the profound love that this small family shares in the play of life today made my heart break open with joy.  So how does this outshine the madness going on somewhere outside of my experience?  I was given the gift to be fully present to it and let it in.  God allowed me to see that this is one experience when fully breathed in that mirrors the love and joy with which our creator looks upon us every moment.  No newscasters showed up to film this.  No politicians will be discussing it in the next debate.  It was just a regular day with family at the park . . . or was it?  My prayer for us is the courage to let go of the idea that the ordinary is anything less than a simple expression of the profound nature of love today?  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is All.  God is One.  We are created from the space of oneness.  It only seems like we are separate because we are housed in separate bodies.  But that is like assuming that our hand is separate from our foot because it is a few feet above and takes a different shape.  Both are part of the same body.  They serve different functions and in theory one does not need the other to exist until we go put on a pair of shoes. When we are willing to integrate ourselves into the whole and accept the different parts that we all play we can remember the oneness from which we were created.  God invites us to acknowledge the integration of love in the whole of our bodies, minds, and spirits.  We begin this integration by engaging our connection with the One who designed us fully integrated and whole from the start.  By aligning ourselves with God we are able to see with the eyes of integration and the separateness falls away.  My prayer for us is a recognition that we need not fall for the illusion of separateness just because the integration is not yet part of our view today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is in the moment.  God is in the being of life.  It is the gift of life and the opportunity to be present for it that allows us to experience the joy of being alive.  When we step into the moment that we are in we connect completely with the Divine.  It is the present moment where the eternal meets the temporal.  This is the precious gift of the now.  It is why many spiritual practices, religions, spiritual and philosophical leaders share their experiences of the moment as though it was the greatest present they ever received.  It is difficult for our minds which are constantly looking back to evaluate and forward to predict to step out of the processing and into the current moment.  Asking God to allow us to process this moment is a simple way of calling ourselves to the present.  It is not about changing or fixing what we do automatically but instead noticing what we do and asking for help and gearing it towards a way to connect with Our Creator.  Processing our breath going in and out of our body.  Processing the sounds we are hearing around us.  Processing how our heart feels beating inside our chest.  Processing the sights our eyes are capturing.  Processing the sounds of the voice of the person who is speaking to you in the moment.  All of these things can take on a magical quality when we allow them to sink in.  My prayer for us is the courage to ask God to help us utilize the tool of processing for savoring the present moment.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God guides. God abides.  God is the answer, no matter the question.  Life is not about having the answer or thinking it is the same as the last time we asked the question.  Life is about knowing where to go to get our questions answered and being in the question without an answer in the meantime.  God resides in our hearts at all times.  Tuning into that wisdom is what allows us to be guided by All That Is.  The intuitive knowing is right at our fingertips. It is a rhythm that guides all of our existence and we rarely stop to notice it.  We breathe and our heart pumps blood to all the cells in our body. If this intuition keeps us alive physically without us even being aware of it, perhaps it also contains the sustenance for our mind and spirit.  My prayer for us is a willingness to draw quietly into our hearts and see what wisdom awaits us from the voice of intuition today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God has made a mark on humanity through its creation. It is the mark of love.  This mark is inscribed in every cell in our bodies and is the underlying energy of our hearts and minds.  We suffer to the extent that we try to be outside of the marking of love.  The source of all dis-ease comes from the idea that we are somehow separate from our true self, separate from love, separate from God.  When we behave in ways that express this unaligned thought we are in turmoil because we are going against the inscription on our hearts.  When we do it long enough we become numb to the turmoil and strife.  We layer on top of it a story that justifies our way of living so it all makes sense in our minds.  But deep down in the quiet of our hearts, God never stops speaking to the truth of who we are.  When we experience a breakdown or even a slowing down we are gifted with a chance to begin to hear and even listen to the voice of truth that reads our inscription.  My dates with God are about the writing on my heart.  I first had to be willing to get quiet enough, slow down, and in my case break down so that I could begin to read the inscription.  My prayer for us is the courage to slow down and be willing to read the writing on the wall of our hearts today.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

God is light.  God is wonder.  When we are in the company God we find that we cannot break away from the light.  There is an illumination that occurs in every area of our lives when we step into connecting with All That Is. We can become accustomed to living in the dark that when light is present we find ourselves alarmed.  We are jarred by seeing things as they really are.  God’s light is luminescent.  It is not produced by heat, there is no fire-like destruction required.  It is a simple call to see things for what they really are.  It is an invitation to step into reality as God understands reality.  This requires altering our perception away from what we think we know It is a process of letting go of that which seems tolerable or even fruitful in the dark.  When illuminated, however, the benefits and opportunity for growth are not there.  God is all about what is going to allow us to grow more fully into the love that God already knows us to be.  Love doesn’t grow in the dark.  We need not run from our darkness but instead be willing to have it illuminated by God’s love.  In God’s luminescence we can gently and patiently accept the reality we are called to live.  My prayer for us is a curiosity of the power of luminescence in the parts of our lives that we think are best kept in the dark today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is enough because God is All.  We live in a society that tells us that more is better.  We live in a head that says we are not enough.  The two do quite well together because our society is composed of lots of people with the same story in their head.  We then give the message of our world the priority in our lives.  When God and I go on our dates each morning it does not start with a litany of all the things that I need to improve upon.  Here I am humbly starting this new day with the breath that I have been granted engaging with the very Being that created every cell in my body and mind that feeds off this breath and this Being finds my presence enchanting.  I am greeted like a gift.  The head space that often greets me when eyes first open is often the opposite.  Sometimes there is a little human girl at the foot of my bed with a checklist or the eyes looking back at me in the mirror that finds something less than satisfactory about the body it is viewing.  There is never a shortage.  Thankfully by not letting that rule my day and attending my date I can begin my day somewhere in the middle.  Sufficient is enough.  Sufficient is satisfactory. My date with God brings an equilibrium between my head and my heart.  God has my heart and on our date I am guided into aligning my head with my heart.  The date become a bridge and the bridge is sufficient.  Sometimes it is amazing and sufficient doesn’t begin to describe the connection I feel.  Sometimes it seems like a dilapidated bridge that is about to rip apart but it manages to work and get me to the other side.  Sometimes what is waiting for me on the other side is more of my head or society about what is not enough.  Either way, I have grabbed on to the hand of my Greatest companion and am no longer alone as I face the world and my head in this day.  My prayer for us is a willingness to accept the equilibrium of sufficient and trust that God is enough today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is evident.  God is clear. God is apparent. There are many perplexing elements to this human life.  We pride ourselves when we figure them out.  We are certain after a while that life is about having the answers.  We are humbled when we find ourselves admitting that we don’t know.  We look to the people who do have the answers and go with their way of thinking when we are lost.  What if living is about discovering some answers but even more questions?  What if a sense of peace can be derived from knowing that we do not know but the One Who Is All knows all.  If we can unequivocally rely on a power greater than ourselves we become gifted to explore and learn and be in the moment.  Being present in quandary can generate fear and disease only if we think that we are supposed to have it all resolved.  It is always are thinking that determines our reality.  Life is not about having the right answers or knowing the right people. Life and love are about learning and exploring so that we may grow in love.  There is joy in the mystery of a quandary.  There is excitement in the search to find some answers.  There is an opportunity for growth of our hearts and dependence upon All That is Love when we can sit with the unknown. God is always the ultimate answer to whatever quandary we experience.  If we learn to rest in Him, to take his hand amidst our confusion then we are free to be.  My prayer for us is the courage to trust the only thing we need to know is that God is today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is delighted.  God is enamored.  All of life sings of the beauty of love because all of life is a part of love.  God did not create anything outside of who and what God is.  The joy of life is experienced by seeking to find the love that is present.  In every moment we take a breath an element of energy is renewed and the world keeps going for one more breath. How beautifully joyous is that? We lose sight of the joy in our lives because we lose sight of the elements of our lives for which to be grateful.  The quickest way to return to joy when we get off course is to take on the lens of gratitude. Gratitude brings us to what is in the present and a level of appreciation and acceptance.  It doesn’t mean being happy all the time.   Joy is something deeper than happiness.  Joy is a sustaining characteristic that is present reminding us that no matter what happens God will never stop being the essence of love.  Nothing we do, have done or will do can undo God.  There is joy in being present to that idea.  Sometimes when I feel a lack of joy or reasons to be joyful I will look at my hands.  I see the intricate lines across the top, the way the bed of nails grow from the skin, how they grasp and hold on to things, and what they tell me about the world through my sense of touch. These things that are at the ends of my body on each side are miraculous and I had nothing to do with creating them.  God wanted me to know the joy of being able to grab on to things and heighten my world with my sense of touch.  My prayer for us is a willingness to find something to be marvelously grateful for to guide us back to a state of joy today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is empathy.  God is compassion.  God is understanding.  We are invited into relationship with the power greater than ourselves that not only embodies all the qualities that we desire to have but also those we are already live.  The distinction is in the fact that God is not limited by the qualities of human nature.  We however think that the only elements of life at our disposal are those that are limiting.  Because we cannot fathom a way of being that is beyond ourselves, we settle for what we know.  When we accept God’s invitation to be in relationship we open ourselves up to experience and know on a deeper level that we need not be limited either.  In the connection with God we come to experience the limitless nature of God’s grace.  As a recipient of the grace of God, I can tell you first hand that there is no experience like it.  It is like having fairy dust sprinkled on top of a grey cloud and watching it dissipate as though it had never existed.  The gift of the graciousness of God is thus far the greatest miracle of my life. I did what I learned in 12 steps to pray for my father so that my actions were in contradiction of my thinking.  Then one day for no reason I realized  I was no longer in fear or anger of a man who molested me as a child.  The one that I unconsciously blamed for a sense of terror and lack of safety growing up became the one who taught me what it means to love.  It was then that I knew that God could do the impossible.  My prayer for us is a willingness to imagine that God’s graciousness is available to us if we do our part and are willing to experience it today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen