dailydatewithgod

The Great Spirit has created a system of life that allows for its movement. Life is a Dance of the exquisiteness of nature. When we are in the dance we can hear the music and sense the rhythm.  When we allow for the flow things move along at just the right pace and we find ourselves trusting that the next thing that is supposed to come along does.  When we notice that things don’t flow as they “should” it is often because we are holding on to something that it is time to let go of.  Letting go is not easy given our physical nature of wanting to hold on to things.  We grow attached to ideas, physical elements and people, ways of being, and familiar patterns.  It is good however, to stop and notice if holding on is getting in the way of letting the new appear.  It is not because newer is better.  It is because newer is in the flow of life.  It is the way of love to let go of that which is no longer needed.  Even our bodies know the importance of that.  If our bodies don’t let go, our whole system can shut down.  We must take what we want and dump the rest.  Hopefully we have the courage to do so before it becomes painful.  We can still have gained nutrients of knowledge and love from the experience.  No doubt whatever has been present in our lives caused us to learn and hopefully learn to love but at some point it is time to go.  If we rely on the belief that God is with us then God will be with us as we let go and make room for the new.  We fear the void in between, the unknown, but holding on to that which has outlived its usefulness causes it to further outlive its usefulness.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to dump with love those ideas, things or people, way of being or patterns that are no longer useful and have the courage to be with God in the unknown for a moment.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God of All things designed within us mechanisms that allow us to withstand a great  many things more than we may think we are capable of withstanding.  We focus so much on the new and the latest in this world that we lose sight of the importance of the roots that are within us ready to be used.  Some have been overlooked or brushed aside because they are not the latest and the greatest.  But maturity shows us that coming back to center to regenerate when we have broken down is the best way to heal. This is what the body does.  When there is an illness that we bear or attack on the body’s defenses it shuts down to do only what is needed and sends out alarms in the forms of heightened temperature or weakened muscular condition.  This makes it clear that we will not be doing anything outside of the absolute necessary for survival.  In those times our energy is weak and perhaps we are not as clear-headed but we are clear-headed (hopefully) enough to know that this moment is not one to make great decisions.  It gives us a pause. The body with the help of the mind, needs time to repair.  To turn to the core, become focused and regenerate and recreate.  In a world that measures life by results alone this is seen as wasted time.  But as the famous scripture from Ecclesiastes 3:1 states, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”  These times of repair are most necessary.  They are present in all of nature and we are a part of nature.  If we invite them in and allow them to do their work then we are returned to wholeness and made new again. If we fight it, we are fighting against the inevitable and going contrary to our nature which runs us down even further.  My prayer for us today is that we recognize an area of our lives that may need repair and ask God for the courage to slow down long enough to allow for that repair to take place.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The Magnificent One has guided us to where we are this day.  The Great Spirit calls us to be united with each other in love.  Each experience we have becomes an invitation to return to love.  We look at life and see the circumstances.  We look at the day-to-day and see the challenges and the obstacles.  We look at life and see the plans we made go up in smoke.  But what if we are a part of a grander plan?  What if we are being drawn in to experience something more than what appears to us physically, mentally, or emotionally?  What if there really is a reason behind all things occurring and the reason is a call to love.  The reason is the longing in our heart of hearts and soul of souls to be gathered yet again to the space and time that is space less and time less and only love.  It sounds like some sort of fairly tale but we have all had glimpses of it. We know those moments when a heart leaps for joy because we witness someone or something that goes past any physicality and reaches  the very core of our being.  Those moments that happen that do not allow us to deny on some level that there exists something beyond our understanding.  The nagging feeling that beyond our comprehension there is more than just the chaotic universe that appears to our eyes.  God constantly calls us to look with our hearts. This is not and easy task when we are used to looking with our eyes, but slowly we can begin to make the adjustment if we want.  My prayer for us today is that when we encounter something that with our eyes only appears as a challenge or an obstacle that we be willing to ask God for the courage to see it with our hearts and be open to what may appear from our core.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The Great I AM is with you. The Great I AM is always with you.  The Great I AM wants to be nowhere else but with you.  The one who designed every itty bitty piece of you wants nothing more than to be in close communion with you at all times.  God has written himself in the design of every cell in our bodies.  The design is such that everywhere we turn is a reminder to return to the love from which we were created.  This is why love always wins.  This is why there is always another chance to be restored to love.  It may not look the way we imagine it to.  It may not turn out the way we hoped it would.  This is where I have to trust that God is a power greater than me that can see and understand far more than I can with the limits of my mind.  I am only present to today.  God exists in the timeless and space less.  I get a glimpse of that on our dates and so I keep coming back to be nearer to Him.  God is often present for me in the person of Jesus but sometimes God surprises me by showing up in other ways too.  My favorite is in bumper stickers.  Usually at the moment I need it the most, there is a car that is in front of me on the freeway or sometimes cuts me off in traffic with a bumper sticker that says: “Relax, God’s in charge!” or “Smile God Loves You” or “Believe”  So much to my surprise God is even near to me in my head where all the worrying occurs, all the scheming occurs, and all the fears show up.  God knows just when I need to be woken up to a new thought and so one pulls up right in front me.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to how God shows up to be near to us and be willing to invite God in.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God of Enduring Love is with you.  God of All That Is is within you.  We are driven in our spirits to connect with this power of God within us so that we can accomplish the work we are called to do. The work of being and sharing love in all that we do, in all that we are.  The reason that we struggle with this idea is that we get caught up in the world’s definition of our mission–get the job, the car, the house, the spouse, the award, etc.  The world says we only matter because of our accomplishments.  So what of those of us who do not achieve those accolades in the time expected or at all?  Does that mean we have failed?  I suppose if we look through the eyes of the world the answer is yes.  God is also looking.  God sees our moxie.  God sees us on the path.  God sees us learning and growing.  God sees the potential for our development into the full likeness and image of God.  God sees the beings that God created out of love for love as love.  I know that the times in which I measure my growth and being by the world alone, it’s hit or miss and depends on whose scale I am using.  When I turn to God and ask:  How am I doing?  God smiles and says: I love you Colleen.  That reminder of being loved compels my spirit to either stay with what I am doing or let go of any way of being that is not in alignment with that love.  The willingness to see myself as God sees me means I can call upon my moxie and determine if I am sticking close to him and doing his work well.  Then I can rest my head on the pillow at night.  It takes courage to be aligned with our true selves and let go of anything that is something we picked up when we got caught up in the illusion of the world.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to ask God for the moxie to return to the true story of our lives which is love.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God of all magnificence pervades all of existence with a love beyond measure.  Everything consequentially is capable of that same love.  When we find ourselves in the presence of love, there is nothing else.  It seems magical.  Its seems other worldly.  It seems beyond our comprehension.  It is beyond us but also within us.  The humility in accepting that we could not create such love allows us to receive it.  Therein lies the importance of flow in our lives.  Giving and receiving.  The funny part about it is that they are not exclusive of each other.  Our worldly mind would have us see the separateness of giving from receiving but those who are present to both situations recognize the presence of both in both.  When we extend compassion to another human being we experience the compassion within our own hearts and therefore are receiving and accepting that energy in ourselves in order to give it. This is why we cannot give of what we do not have.  When it seems like we are able to give of what we don’t have (i.e.-extend compassion in a situation where we did not think we were capable), it is because the power of God is moving through us.  We are willing and humble enough to recognize and admit that we don’t think we can do it.  To which God responds: I got you on this one. This was my experience of forgiveness in my relationship with my father.  It was the first time I knew what grace was.  I took the actions of being open, humbly admitted that I was not capable, and over time God moved through my heart.  Just thinking about it humbles my heart.  I know that my heart has been transformed and as a result I am a more compassionate personal overall.  My prayer for us today is when we find ourselves lacking compassion we open our hands to receive the flow of God’s compassion so that we may give it.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The Great Creator has instilled within us a place of sacredness that cannot be touch or harmed.  This sacred part of ourselves is that which belongs to ourselves and to God and nothing outside of us can change that.  We can think that it can, but thinking does not make it so.  In the depth of our being, a place where a stillness of reality exists.  In a quiet place of stillness within where God resides at all times, this sacred nature remains pure and everlasting.  It is our greatest connection to our creator.  It permeates our being even if we are out of touch with it. As God calls us to remember who we are we become re-acquainted with what resides in this place of stillness.  In the Hebrew scriptures, God says, “Be Still and Know that I AM God.”  It this untouched space we know nothing but God.  As an incest survivor, I was certain for a long time that my innocence had been stolen.  But nothing that happened to me externally has changed my true essence.  My innocence has always been intact because God placed it there.  It is the still space within me that knows who I truly am.  It is the place that never forgets that I was created with and for love.  That is the innocence–the recognition of one’s true purpose and being.  Everything else is just a story.  Connecting with that came about when I realized that any notion of my innocence being taken or destroyed comes from the idea that something outside of me could undo God.  When nothing has been stolen or tainted there is no one to blame.  When there is no one to blame we are not a victims of anything.  When we are not victims of circumstance then we are free to be.  My prayer for us today is that in whatever area of our lives where we feel like a piece of ourselves or our innocence was stolen, we pause and ask God if that is true or not.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God of all graciousness is enchanted with us all.  We are the creations, the fruition of God’s love made manifest in the Universe.  Who wouldn’t be allured by that?  Just because we don’t see that in ourselves or each other does not change what God sees.  It is in surrendering the idea that there is something wrong with us that we do not see like God that we become open to learning how to do so.  The problem is not that we do not embody more of God’s nature and way of being.  The problem is that we think that there is something we need to do to overcome it ourselves.  We only need to be willing to recognize what is present and real for us and if it is not of God or God-thinking, then be willing to be revived to true reality.  I know that when I make myself wrong for things, I am utilizing a way of being that I took as a coping skill to make sense of reality.  A reality of fear based on the idea that there must be someone to blame.  It is a tool that I have utilized for many years and I really believed that it worked for me for a long time.  As I have gotten to know God better through our dates, I realized that anything driven from fear lacks love.  Anything that lacks love cannot grow to fullness.  Anything that is not able to grow to fullness cannot shine the light of truth.  Anything that cannot shine the light of truth does not make manifest the love of God.  What I do know is that when I engage in the conversation (mostly just in my own head, of course) that I am wrong for thinking or feeling something, a few things are happening.  One, I am no longer in the present moment and have separated from God. Two, I am focused more on myself as an individual and have separated myself from others and from God.  Three, I am taking my thinking as the final word and have separated myself from God’s thinking.  None of these modes will get me to a place of peace because they are all separating me from the very being that wants to be with me.  With all of me.  My prayer for us today is when we find ourselves in the space of self-judgment we have the courage to pause and ask for God to intervene, revive our thinking, and bring us back home.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God of great mercy and understanding loves beyond measure.  The depth of God’s acceptance is beyond our understanding.  God’s capacity for love and forgiveness is something that we can tap into but does not come naturally to us.  The world tells us that God’s way of being is not possible.  Of course it is not possible within our human understanding alone.  But all of us have had moments when we are in touch with something outside of ourselves, outside of rational explanation.  It is those experiences that tug at our spirits and remind us that we are much more than we appear to be.  If we continually open ourselves up to such an experience, let go of our mind’s need to understand, we can expect more of it.  God does not make connecting with our true essence difficult, we do.  We spend so much of our time believing the stories that we have created that they become embedded in our cells and then we literally live out the stories as though they are the only reality.  When I invite God in: God grant me the courage to see this differently; I am asking for a chance to remember who I truly am in God’s eyes.  I do this when I can recognize that continuing with the current story no longer serves me or anyone else.  There is sometimes a sorrow that occurs.  Yet, the moment I move in that direction and make a decision to trust Infinite God instead of my finite mind, an acceptance and freedom occurs far beyond any explanation.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to ask for the courage to admit to God one thing that is no longer working for us and invite a new possibility.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God of All Understanding wants to be involved in all of our lives.  God will not come in uninvited.  God wants to walk the path of our experiences with us, be there as we grow, change, evolve, and return to our true nature. God wants to hep us by reminding us constantly of who we really are.  God knows that it will be a bumpy ride but we can hang on to him whenever we need.  God is by our side and immersed in being with us even when we don’t want to be with us. From God we learn how not to abandon ourselves. I know that being present in this life means being present for all of it.  Not just the things that I expect, hope for, work towards, or wish for myself and others.  God wants us to experience all of the fullness of love in the human experience so that we can connect through those experiences with our true essence which is beyond those experiences.  For many years I thought my role was to spiritualize my way out of my humanness.  Slowly as God showed up to be with me each day for our date,  I realized that while I was trying so hard to do that, God was in the trenches of my humanity ready to stick it out.  It was me that abandoned me or turned my back on me, not God.  It was me that deemed my prayer and meditation time was not enough.  It was me that wasn’t measuring up to some insane level of kindness that denied my essence of presence.  God is not afraid of my darkness because God doesn’t buy into the illusion that there is any kind of darkness that can outshine the light that God placed deep within me.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to immerse ourselves in the very places of our human experience that we think God is not and be open to how God is not limited by our perception of places not to be.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen