dailydatewithgod

Those of you who are fans of the Back to the Future series will recall that it was the flux capacitor which made time travel possible. It came to Doc Brown in a vision after being knocked out. For most of us, flux is experienced as the continuous change that accompanies what it means to be alive. God invites us in this flow of life’s changes to engage with curiosity that makes our lives possible. Possible without burning or blowing up. The flux makes room for us to find a place of peace with our past, present, and future. While it is not time travel in a linear sense there is no mistaking the human experience of the past impacting our present and being the template of our expected future. To be able to deal with the flux of life we need to know how to navigate the past, present, and ideas of the future. It sounds like a lot of avoiding the reality of the present but it is just the opposite. An awareness of what has impacted us and setting a vision for how we see life gives us what we need to know how to most effectively walk through the flux in one piece. Especially with the rate of flux happening today in the world. The ability to increase the capacity of handling flux comes from accepting God’s invitation to get to know what has shaped us and how it is in alignment or not with the truth of who God created us to be.

Are we willing to look with curiosity at our template for flux capacity through the lens of our hearts today?

We live in a world full of information and ideas. Sometimes it seems as though their speed of expression is driven by a fear of running out of style. In such an environment it becomes imperative for us to harness the power of the pause. Not only for whether or not the ideas in our heads truly need to be voiced in the moment but also to determine which to take in. God invites us to take the time to determine the validity of what is coming across our path before we simply adopt it. Just because it is popular right now or what everyone else seems to be doing does not mean it is in resonance with the truth of who we are. This applies to ideas that have been readily ingrained in our sense of ourselves as well as things newly presented to us. On my daily dates with God over the years as I sit in a quiet and gentle space of love and acceptance held by God in my heart, I am given the grace of being in the moment. I come to it full of ideas and questions. God welcomes all that I am in that moment with open arms. Validity of anything for God is about what she sees as resonant with how I am designed. Each of us has a role to play in our own lives and in the lives of those with whom we interact. Interaction can be the simplicity of walking past someone on the street, standing in line behind them in the grocery store, or being stuck in traffic with them. And yes, even the one who isn’t using their blinker. What is valid in those moments is God’s presence in all of it. Even if the ideas and information they are presenting irritate us. In the space of quiet with our Creator, God invites us to find the peace of acceptance in all that we are and are not at any given moment. When we incorporate the knowing of such acceptance we find ourselves capable to hold the validity of the being of another being at any time because it is their God presence that resonates with us despite what is emanating from them.

Are we willing to take God up on the invitation of acceptance of us and make room for the validity of the being of others today?

We all play a role, most of us many roles in this game of life. There are also the ingredients of who we are which we bring to the roles we play. We have both a unique and common design inherent to who we are. Getting to know our own ingredients is a process. As we develop our awareness and recognition of them, we become equipped to make choices about how we show up. It is a bumpy road filled with missteps and triumphs. It involves bumping into and mixing in with the ingredients of others. God invites us to begin by learning the ingredients that make us up regardless of where we find ourselves or of what the world says we are made. We can take the information provided as feedback. However, to use the ingredients to their greatest capacity we must know for ourselves what is included. Paying attention with our minds and hearts to what resonates and moves us to utilize our ingredients to create in an energetic fashion is the invitation from the start. It is not about doing it perfectly or getting the right mix of ingredients but noticing which of our ingredients when mixed with others’ and experiences create life-giving meals. Honing in on what we bring to the table as well as noticing the ingredients brought by others enables us to live in alignment with the truth of who we are for the greater good of all. Being given the opportunity to create with our ingredients is what allows us to mirror the Creator himself. She has designed us to be the reflection of love embodied. Our connection and awareness of our ingredients is the path to get there.

Are we willing to develop an awareness of our ingredients and be the creators we are designed to be today?

We all know the feeling of our attention being captivated. The world is full of experiences that are constantly vying for our attention. They sparkle and shine. They dance and illuminate. The grab us but whether or not we let them keep us is up to us. An immersion experience developing from a captivating moment can seem unchosen. With so much outside of us flashing and clanging (and that is just coming from our phones!), it is hard not to fall for the feeling of being an immersion victim. The thing we often neglect to recognize is how God is equally vying for our attention. God has designed us to become immersed in what it means to be alive. The key is learning how to tune into and allow ourselves to be as captivated by it. We think it lacks the bells and whistles but perhaps that has more to do with our perspective. Perhaps we have allows our minds to be pulled this way or that by everything outside of us for so long we lost touch with the juiciness of how miraculous it is that we are alive and breathing in this very moment. I can’t explain how almost 20 years of daily dates with God has altered my perceptions of life but I can tell you there is something powerful about it. Somehow by taking a little time to start my day connecting with the power of who I truly am within, by allowing myself to reconnect with what it means to be alive down to a few breaths and movements of my heart the eyes of my mind are captivated and immersed by the littlest of things. How some prayer and meditation time each day no matter what has softened my heart and widened my desire for beauty and kindness I don’t know. Perhaps someone much smarter than me can explain the impetus to notice when I am immersed in the joy of the simplicity of life almost like a child, but I honestly don’t care. It does not mean I ignore what the world is drawing me to be immersed in, it just means I have a greater sovereignty and choice in where I keep my attention.

What would it take for each of us to desire an immersion into the simple joys of what it means to be alive today?

The creativity that lives within each of us is something we can easily dismiss. We presume that because creativity does not easily manifest itself in our lives in a particular fashion we are ourselves not very creative. We follow a cultural expectation of what is considered creative work product to evaluate our individual level of creativity. Just because there are agreed upon examples of creative manifestations in the world by people who are considered to be the standard for creative, does not mean that all other things are void of creativity. Perhaps we have not yet learned what the amplification of the living creative spirit that lives within us look like. Perhaps we have been so busy going along with the accepted definitions of creativity we forgot how to connect to the fact that we are an extension of the creative force of the universe and could not actually exist without emanating creativity in some form. God invites us to explore how to amplify the creative life force living and breathing in and through us. When we tap into the energy of our hearts and open our eyes we are able to see past how the world has chosen to limit its recognition of creativity amplified. Taking a breath and allow ourselves to sit with the creative life force flowing through us, we can learn to listen for the whispers of what it means for us to be creative. How are we being called upon to be the expression of life? How is who we are already being an amplification of creativity? Listening in the stillness allows us to feel and hear the beat of creativity already being amplified in our hearts. Our minds’ eye can easily look past what is already present in and through us because we have lost sight how to connect with the truth of who we are. The invitation to explore the amplification of creativity in our lives is an invitation to see ourselves as God sees us.

Are we willing to take the time to learn again what it means to resonate with the amplification of creativity expressing itself through our being and see ourselves as God sees us today?

It is no mistake that it is harder to breathe the more constricted we are. Breath requires space. The flow of life calls for freedom. Breath inspires movement. This is true not only in the physical sense. The more we constrict our minds, our feelings, our experiences, in other words, our reality, the more we impede the opportunity to be free. Having latitude with our thinking is about making room for possibility. Latitude in our feeling is allowing for the whole of who we are to be just as we are in the moment. The good news or the bad news, depending on your perspective is with each moment comes change. To allow latitude does not mean we are wishy washy or a relativist. It means we embrace all of what God wants us to experience about being alive. Only making room for whatever based on what we think or belief to be right and safe means we constrict the chance for something to enlighten us and free us from our own internal prisons. Our hearts long for the latitude to explore the depth and strength of our internal courage. When we block off the opportunity to test our latitude, we become cut off from who we can come to know ourselves as. We define ourselves solely by what has already happened and maneuver against what we are capable of becoming. God invites us to step outside our restricted thinking about who we are and the world around us and give ourselves the gift of the latitude of love one step at a time.

Are we willing to discover how courageous we are by giving ourselves some creative latitude in our thinking today?

It is easy to find things that disturb or annoy us. There is an endless list of things I am acutely aware of as not being the way I want them to be. Once in a while, it is my own state of mind. It is hard to be in acceptance of perturbation when upon scouring my mind cannot find a legitimate reason to be mentally disquieted. In my head as long as there is a specific cause of the perturbation then it is okay. With a specific source, I can know that by either changing it or accepting it I can move out of perturbation. I am kerfuffled when there is no source. It does not seem to matter the number of repetitive thoughts about why and even praying about it doesn’t seem to help. In these moments of perturbation, hopefully, without too much time in a mental funk, I recall God’s constant invitation to step out of my mind and into my heart. I place my hand on my heart and take three deep breaths, more depending on how many loops around my brain I have allowed the perturbation to go. I settle into how does being in a state of perturbation feels in my heart. I find myself asking what I need most in this moment of perturbation. Today what came through was just to notice that there were some unknowns but to trust that even amid the disquiet, I am okay. To recall all the evidence I have of being unknown about so many things and how I became aware just as the information was needed. I believe it is called faith. It is spoken about like it is a given or some kind of elevated state. Faith, however, requires great courage and not just in big moments. It requires it even in the subtle moments of perturbation.

Are we willing to let go of our minds’ hold when in a moment of perturbation and answer its call to step into the courage of our hearts today?

We are usually aware of the essential elements that make our lives work. We recognize there are choices we make which create an efficiency in living and ones that do not. But how aware are we of the crucial elements that we take for granted. Our heart beats, our lungs breath, our voice makes sound, and our legs move. The lights come on when we flip the switch, the phone call gets connected, and the car next to us does not crash into us. When we really take a close look so many of the crucial elements of our lives are , we soberly realize we have no control. Yes we can participate in a healthy lifestyle which ideally leads to more breaths, we can keep our eyes open in the event of a possible crash on the road, but at the end of the day we have no control. Thankfully it is not as fatalistic as it sounds. Within any given experience and situation we still maintain one crucial element. The power to choose how we view what happens. Victor Frankl, a holocaust survivor puts it best, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” God invites us to recognize where we are lacking in our creativity when it comes to shaping our attitude toward what is happening in our lives. Built within our physical system is a heart which causes us to pause and take a breath. In the moment of pause we can look at how we are forming our attitude about the current situation. It is this crucial element which offers us an empowering way to move through life. It is not always easy, but it is simple.

Are we making creative use of the crucial ability to choose our attitude in the moments of our day today?

Is it because it rolls of the tongue so easily or the fact that I first encountered it when watching the movie, The Three Amigos? My theory is the latter because I found myself laughing which creates an emotional layer to the memory. Then again, maybe I have geeked out on too much neuroplasticity information as of late. Irregardless, it matters little why we are more impacted by certain words and more about how we use them. Given that most people seem to operate from a story somewhere in their lives of not being, having, or doing enough, we all need a word or words which can creatively combat this story. There are contexts in which a feeling or experience of not enough is valid but nothing in the universe of life speaks to the kind of depravity from which we often operate. The universe is constantly growing and expanding. Nature cycles through over and over. It is usually our mind which is narrating the story provided by contextual experience or perhaps an economy driven by creating the illusion of scarcity to drum up more business or interest. Thus, the task of holding within us a word which can face the one two punch of enough must be able to engage our hearts. This requires the 1-2-3 cadence of a dance. Plethora is just discombobulating enough (ha!) to throw the mind off kilt but not enough for us to fall down. So next time you are listening to your mind drone on about how you are not enough, not doing enough, or do not have enough, take a deep breath, tap into your heart and allow the tempo of the word plethora to grant you a second look at right here, right now.

Are you willing to question the story of not enough by pausing to remind yourself that story will continue to drone on in our minds unless we choose to look at what plethora has to offer today?

As aware as we may be, we are so easily unaware of what is really driving us. So much of who we are being at any given moment is based on patterns that were shown to us early in our lives or the general make-up of what it means to be a human being. We are creative in how we explain our propulsions but to hone in on what is really driving us takes effort and patience. Mindfulness is a skill which is to be practiced. Tuning into our hearts as much as it is a doorway into the truth of who we are is not a standard go to. At least, not to most adults. As children we are more easily in touch with the propulsion of our hearts but growing up in a logical leaning environment can wear down the sensibility to it. God is constantly encouraging us to reignite a relationship of awareness to our hearts and thus a deeper awareness into what we can invite to provide a more authentic propulsion to our lives. Each breath is an opportunity to tap into the awareness of our hearts. It sounds too simplistic because we are culturally propelled to look for the more complicated rational. After all, it makes us sound more impressive, doesn’t it? Or does it make us appear more confused. It is not one or the other but, at least in the western world, most propulsion results in a leaning towards the logical at the expense of the heart. We can choose to use the reminder generated through our breath to bring our hearts back into the conversation. The propulsion of our hearts can awaken us to a side of ourselves we may have long shut down. Widening and deepening the connection between our hearts and minds will enable us to build a way of being where our propulsions match the truth of who we are.

Do we believe we possess the courage to accept the invitation of our breaths to check back in to the propulsions stemming from our hearts today?