dailydatewithgod

Our Grand Designer has put forth the plans of how to make love manifest in our hearts.  The Great Architect of All That Is knows our hearts and our minds and encourages us to step into the plan of love.  We by ourselves cannot undo the design of love that is within each one of us.  We can ignore it, we can downplay it, we can become numb to it, but we cannot make it not so.  One of the gifts of the human experience is that of loss of control.  I have not yet met anyone who likes this gift in particular and I suspect that it is not on the top of anyone’s Christmas list.  When I get to the place of inability to overcome an experience in my life I often feel defeat.  I feel lost and with that comes feelings of anger, sadness, and frustration.  All I want to do is close off from God and others and hide away.  Somehow it is in those same moments that if I stop listening to the mind which is super loud and chattering a mile a minute, there is a quiet still voice of Spirit that is singing a song.  It sings the song that is in our hearts.  The song of love and of complete power.  The song of the manifestation of love that is waiting to awaken in me.  When I feel defeated and at a loss, I am open to hearing the song of my heart because my head has run out of solutions.  There God sits in that song, the sweetest melody that exists, playing over and over again of the triumph of my heart.  God does not see defeat or inability to handle life.  God sees an opening to the connection to All That Is.  God sees the pathway to design of love that has always been present.  God invites me to let go of my limited sight of defeat and inability and see the greater design of love through all things.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to embrace those moments of defeat as the portal to stepping into the design of love in our hearts. Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God knows all, understands all, is with all.  God created us all as energy of love.  Our very existence down to the cells and atoms conveys this message.  We go along in our lives and we layer all kinds of stories on top of that knowing.  Some that carry this same message, some that carry the opposite message.  Whichever story lines or agreements that we make that carry the most energy are the ones that stick.  When they stick they create a groove which then becomes our being.  The eyes through which we experience our reality then becomes this familiar story played over and over again.  In fact, when we experience something different we manage to rationalize it to fit the story.  The unfamiliar is uncomfortable because knowing and being familiar is what we like.   We do not have to be present and the ego can just run on automatic pilot when we stick with the familiar.  People and situations sometimes known as angels in the flesh will present themselves and cause us to wake up.  The waking up ignites this unfamiliar feeling and we often push it aside because we interpret unfamiliar as wrong.  These experiences that present themselves are a call to be present which is where God is.  God is calling us back through the unfamiliar to our hearts.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to sit in the unfamiliar just long enough to see back into our hearts.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God of All Love is attentive to you and has been from the beginning.  God does not create and disappear.  God creates and lives in the creation.  All of God’s creation is a manifestation of God’s love.  This is yet another way that God is clearly a power greater than ourselves.  One of the most creative things I did as a kid growing up to deal with the chaos of my experience was to disassociate from my body and make it wrong.  In other words, abandon the present moment.  At the time it was a great coping skill and it served me well.  It no longer serves me today.  I have many more options and resources at my disposal and so growing up has been a process of being present in the moment with God.  I know that God is always attentive and present.  Given that I am a child of God I can step by step begin to trust that it is okay for me to be present in the moment no matter what I am feeling or remembering.  The mind is very creative and always set in its ways.  I ask God for a new perspective and sit in the unfamiliarity in the meantime.  I know that in doing this I create new experiences and new neural pathways.  Then more and more I am able to be present and attentive to the good and the bad in my life today.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to allowing God to grant us the courage to be attentive to the life we have this day, no matter what we think or feel.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The Great Creator designed us with full thought.  There was nothing left to chance. Every angle and possibility was considered.  The Mind of All That Is considered every possible scenario when it decided what each one of us might bring to the world through our presence.  Each one of us is a gift of love to the world.  We may not believe that about ourselves or other people.  But just because we cannot conceive of it, does not make it any less true in God’s eyes.  God wanted to share love with the world and so God created.  We were created for nothing less than the fullest expression of love.  It is our mission, our birthright, and our greatest capacity for living.  When we are mindful of our purpose given to us by God and own who we truly are then we are able to be our truest selves.  We get snagged into other thinking along the way and forget who we are.  This is why I need God, to remind me of the gift that I am and the gift that you are.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to see with the mind of God the gift of ourselves and the gift of others in bringing us all back to LOVE.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God of All That Is created all that exists. God sustains our very being through all time and space.  There is no place or way of being that we can go or experience where we cannot find God.  Sometimes we have this notion that there are places and experiences that God would not want to be a part of, but that would mean that we know better than God.  It usually means that we see only darkness in that place and get something out of keeping it in the dark. Our ego’s nature is all about separation so when we are stuck in this thinking, we are entrenched in the ego’s perspective.  To begin to open up to God’s perspective we need to be willing to acknowledge that perhaps there is another way.  A way that allows the light to come in, even bit by bit and eventually dispel the darkness.  Our greatest fear is that we will have to be rid of whatever we keep in the dark and since our ego needs that for its identification it will resist letting go.  When I am faced with a dark aspect of my life, something that I am not too proud of, it can quickly develop into shame if I keep it hidden. First, I acknowledge it to myself and honestly as best as I can admit if it is still working for me or not. Then, I need people I can trust to share it so that it doesn’t build up more of a story inside of me.  When I have done that me , God, and someone else are witnesses to my courage to dispel any darkness or fear and love rushes in to provide support.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to poke some holes in the darkness and begin to dispel the story of it being a place where God could never be willing to go.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God of All Creation longs to be as close to us as possible.  God’s desire for closeness to us is embedded in our own hearts.  The longing that we feel for love and to be love comes from this fire within us that calls us to the Divine.  This calling that is in our nature is by design.  We find fulfillment and purpose when we are aligned with our true self which is who we are in God.  It is easy to forget this because for most of us it has been a while since we have been pure energetic spirit.   When we take form there is a disconnect because we find ourselves simultaneously this grand spirit trapped in a physical body that is limited. But our hearts and our souls know our true selves are not limited.  The heart and the spirit knows that we are no further from God than we ever were, it just feels that way.  When we experience a reconnection with God we know it.  We sense the divine spark within us light up. We know it when we see it in others and we are inspired by it.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit–Inspiration–to remind us of who we are connected to.  But sometimes we get lost because we think it is the form that we want or that will enable us to keep that connection. In my dates with God as I sit in my meditation chair, as I write down my thoughts and turn them over, and as I reflect on the words in spiritual books I am slowly calibrated back to an understanding that I am connected.  There are times when I feel that in that specific moment, but other times it comes out of nowhere.  Sometimes all I have to do is stop, breathe, look at the clouds in the sky and sense the soft comfort that God is trying to wrap me in.  I have always had a relationship with God but it is only in the years that I have dedicated consistently to showing up each morning to meet God for our date that I have noticed this entire shift in my perspective.  There are no words to explain but I hear God in the whispers of the wind and the light of the sun.  It is as though I see God’s hand reaching down to my heart and beckoning me: Come to me now .  So I do my best to open my heart and let myself be touched by the presence of the Almighty because there is nowhere to hide and nowhere to run.  The miracle of it all is that I don’t want to anymore.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to take the time to be calibrated by listening to the call and allowing ourselves to open our hearts to the Divine.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God creates perfectly.  God sees us with the eyes of perfection and the satisfaction of All That Is.  We on the other hand see with the eyes of imperfection and dissatisfaction when we look through the eyes of only our mind.  God encourages us to develop the mindset of One Who Sees All.  When we walk in relationship with God and even attempt to genuinely connect we give ourselves the chance to develop the mindset of God.  We often don’t get past the comparison of our mindset to God’s and spend our time condemning ourselves.  Then before we allow ourselves to open up and let God’s vision in we are convinced of our hopelessness. We then give up and continue to focus on what is wrong with us and the world.  In my dates with God I have learned that being open to development of my heart requires patience.  I cannot reverse the attitudes and mindsets that I have created without God’s help because God has the patience required.  The beauty of this process of development, of returning to my whole and true self, is in itself a development of heart and mind in alignment with a relationship and oneness of God.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to step into the process of development and have the courage to accept the patience of God with ourselves.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

God of joy and laughter is delighted by all of creation!  God sees through the eyes of love and therefore is always amused by something.  When we step back and take a breath we can be granted that same view.  I find that a lot of my suffering occurs simply from taking myself too seriously.  Yes, life is serious and there is a time and a place for reverence and contemplation. However, all of life is not suffering. All of life is not do or die.  News flash, we are going to die at some point and there is nothing we can do to prevent it.  The point is to enjoy the ride.  Life is a roller coaster.  It goes up and down and takes unexpected turns and twists,  Sometimes it is super fast and other times it moves in a calculated slow fashion.  Sometimes we see the bend coming around the corner and can prepare. Other times it will turn out differently than we expect.  We can clench our teeth and hunker down, stop breathing and brace ourselves.  Or we can let go, trust that the seat we are in will hold us no matter what, and scream out loud for the pure joy of it.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to embrace the amusements of life and go with God along for the ride.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is the composer who wrote the world in a song of love.  God created the symphony in which we all play an instrument so that the melody of love is carried out.  When we play our instrument (ourselves) we make the music of love come alive. When we try to play the instrument of someone else, then our piece in the melody is missing.  We may be a part of the wind instrument section or the string section.  We may even be next to another violin player but when we play from our full being we enliven the music for all those who are listening.  If the piece of music requires a quartet of violins, it will not sound the same if only three show up to play.  My prayer for us today is that we have the courage to trust that our part in the melody of love cannot be played by anyone but our true selves.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

All That God is, is beyond our comprehension.  When we dive deep into the love that created us we find ourselves traversing territories that our minds could not imagine.  There are no boundaries to love. There are no limits to love. There are no fixed realities in love.  When we spend most of our time in a physical, limited reality we begin to think that God and love operate on that same level.  Yes, God is present in our physical reality. Love is present in form that can be touched and seen and heard.  But there is always more happening than can be seen.  We get a subtle sense of it when we open ourselves up to the idea that All That God Is cannot be understood in our minds alone.  I have had many experiences where my mind could not explain the spiritual experience I was having in mass or on a retreat or in a meditation.  The mystical and mysterious nature of God is such that it keeps us growing and reaching beyond a one-sided perspective about God, about love.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to allow our hearts to guide us in recognizing the space in which the mystery of God thrives and be delighted by its mystical nature.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen