dailydatewithgod

We are so much more than just our physical experience.  It is hard sometimes to grasp this because so much of our time and energy is spent in our bodies, in a physical world, thinking in our heads, and relating to things we can connect with our physical senses.  Yet each of us has had an experience of a time when we felt that we touched something outside of our physical experience.  Or at least we thought of it as being outside of ourselves.  But what if that unexplainable experience came from somewhere within ourselves?  An inner space that cannot be described in terms of physical matter.  We made a decision based on a hunch or a gut feeling.  We walked into an encounter and found ourselves acting and behaving in a way that was above and beyond what we thought we could do or be.  We were overwhelmed by a sense of peace and understanding of which no words can describe. Those are all elements of Spirit.  We often think of experiences of Spirit as being outside of us, but what if instead that knowing or sense of something more is within us?  This means that if we wanted to connect with it, all we might have to do is get quiet in the moment and take a breath.  We would not have to wait for something or someone outside of us to happen or to be something.  In my date time with God I have found that I can connect with All that is when I am quiet and still.  Then I am able to close the door on the chatter in my head about everything and it all begins with a breath.  It is actually in connecting with the most basic of my physical existence–the breath, that I open the portal through and access something more.  My prayer for us today is that through one of the breaths we take, we have the courage to see if even for just a second we can sense the Spirit within us.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

One of the things that God calls us to is to look below the surface.  To pay attention to what is going on inside of us.  The unique feature of our human experience is that we don’t have to look very far.  We simply need to pay attention to our reactions to thing, situations and people.  That is the indicator of what is going on for us inside.  Everything we experience outside of ourselves is subject to the interior lens that we have within ourselves.  This is how ten people can be present and tell you ten different stories of the same event.  We think that everyone sees things as we do, but that is not true.  God calls us to listen to how we are understanding, interpreting, and taking in the outside experience.  It is within our interior experience of life that we can make adjustments if needed, but we first must concede that it is not happening “out there”, it is happening within us.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to stop expecting “out there” to be something that we are not willing to address “inside”.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

In a world full of sounds it is sometimes hard to listen.  Choosing to get quiet and listen is a decision that we make.  I sometimes what it must be like for someone who is not able to hear.  Is it more quiet in their head or is their inner voice or critic just as loud as mine?  Do their eyes keep the narrative going rapidly?  We are blessed to be able to hear so many things, both with our eyes and our ears.  However, it is our capacity to not only hear but listen, that distinguishes the experience from merely a physical one.  We listen with our ears, our hearts, our minds, our eyes, our presence, and our spirit.  When the sounds of the world are causing my ears to be overwhelmed, I am less open to listening with my heart and my spirit.  It takes discipline to pause and connect with what my heart is hearing and what my spirit longs to listen to.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to listening with our spirit.  The spirit that whispers of our highest good.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

If God is All that Is, This Moment, Right Now, then when we are present in the moment right now in our lives we are fully in God.  We are Presence in the present.  Yet we resist, our heads wiggle and get anxious.  In the present moment we are full and complete.  There is nothing for our ego to solve, fix, or take care of.  We lack for nothing, we are whole and complete.  The only reason that our ego fights the present moment is because it defies the belief that we are separate.  When we are present in Presence in this moment we are connected to All that is.  Our ego thrives on the idea that we are alone, that we need to be fixed, and we cannot trust Love to be enough.  Our minds’ eye seeks to assert itself by reminding us that we need to prove ourselves, show ourselves to be worthy, and make it count.  Our spirit whispers that we have nothing to prove, we are already worthy and we count and we know this deep within ourselves when we connect with All that is.  Our minds don’t want to stop and even try to wrap itself around this idea because it is beyond it.  Our minds and egos are wonderful essential qualities of who we are.  If they were not essential we would not have been given them by our Creator in the first place.  But like anything, that which we place in higher priority to the Essence from which we were created we make into a God.  If I want to hold onto whatever ideas I have about who I am or who you are based on only my mind’s ideas then I am making my mind, my thinking, God.  Your ego mind is probably already coming up with arguments as to the invalidity of these statements , the voice that sounds like a protesting child perhaps.  That is okay because at least you can then see it for what it really is.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to being Presence in The Presence and experiencing even for just a moment who we fully are.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

There is one thing that I am certain of: God loves us so much that He never gives up on us.  No matter how much we doubt God, question God, abandon God, make fun of God, or any other dismissive element; God remains constant.  God’s constancy is a model to us of the nature of love.  Love does not exist less because we don’t practice it.  Love does not give up because we have yet to reach it.  Love does not lowers its standards so that is less than pure love. We are called to persist not because it is something to be applauded for and receive recognition for, but because it is built within our hearts that we are to experience nothing less than the purest form of love.  My prayer for us today is that we have the courage to step away from our limited thinking of love and embrace God’s persistent demonstration of love for us.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

One of my favorite places in the world is the ocean!  I love standing on the edge of the shore with my feet in the sand watching the waves come and go and listening to sound of the water coming in and going out.  Most of our planet is covered in ocean water, most of our body is made up of water.  We even spent the first nine months of our lives enclosed in fluid, so there must be something to the quality of water that speaks to our human consciousness.  Standing on the edge of the shore reminds me of the ebb and flow of life.  No matter what else is happening, those waves come in and go out, come in and go out.  It doesn’t matter if it is raining or the sun is out, if it is hot or cold.  The waves hold their own rhythm.  It is like the rhythm of our spirit.  No matter what else is going on, our spirit is meant for love. It is sometimes hard to trust that when we are feeling pulled down by life that it will return to a more calm time, but the rhythm of the ocean assures me that it will. God speaks so clearly in nature and when I lose sight of my groundedness I am reminded by looking around me.  My prayer for us today is that when we experience a pulling away from the calm of our spirit we have the courage to pause and take a breath in and out, in and out.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

Heraclitus said, “The only constant is change.”  If that is true then change is the only thing (apart from God) of which we can be certain.  It makes sense if we believe that the universe of which we are a part of is always growing and evolving. It also coincides with what Einstein said, “Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.” We allude ourselves into thinking that we will arrive at some sort of destination point. We are all so often in a hurry to get there, wherever there is–the job, the relationship, the degree, title, the award, other end of a difficult conversation or decision, etc.  The reality is when we get there, there will be somewhere else to go.  It keeps going.  It is the miracle and the cycle of life that we are constantly evolving.  So even the idea that we are stuck somewhere is an illusion.  The good news is that these ideas all reside in our heads and can be changed–yep even our beliefs are subject to the same laws of the universe as everything else.  The difficulty is when we think that our ideas are God.  We give them that kind of power, it is no wonder we fight the notion that they can evolve.  God is All that Is.  God is in and through everything, there is no need for God to evolve because God is the highest evolution. We are a part of God but we are not wholly and completely God. That means that whatever fixed ideas that we have in between our ears can grow and change as much as our underwear or skin cells, or friendships.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to step into our fully human experience and embrace how our ideas and therefore our perception and experience can evolve just for today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

We typically think of being fit  in regards to a our bodies.  But what if that principles applies to the nature of our spiritual condition as well?  One of the gems that I have come to understand is that most truthful concepts apply unilaterally across all areas of my life.  I am responsible (have the ability to actively choose) to keep up the fitness of my physical body by what I eat and how I move.  I also am endowed with the responsibility of keeping my heart and spirit open.  For not letting things block the channel through which God can move and speak.  If my heart is closed, how can God use it to speak to me and to others?  If my spirit is shut down, how can God use it to shine His light to the world?  The time that I spend connecting with my Heavenly Father is just as much about fine tuning my channel as it is about receiving love and compassion.  It is up to me to be willing to let go of the things that block my channel.  I cannot remove them on my own, but I get to choose to not hold on to resentments, anger, dissatisfaction, fear, lack of acceptance, self-righteousness, needing to be right, needing to have all the answers, etc.  I have shared before my story of the night I felt God opening my heart so that I could release the anger and the darkness that was residing there.  I still remember the painful feeling of recognizing that it was even there.  But God gave me the courage that night to step into a path that would lead me to a heart that was free, soft and loving.  Today I feel and live the difference.  I knew that God had my back and whatever I had to walk through and whatever ideas I might have to let go of, I could do it.  I need only recall that night on the beach in which God lovingly whispered that we just needed to “open this up a little”, that it would be painful but that He would be with me every step of the way.  I had not idea what that meant specifically, but I was willing to take the action necessary.  So I kept my eyes open, kept listening, kept showing up for our dates 🙂 and took the next indicated step.  It is not my experience that there is one set path to an open and loving heart.  God uses everything and everyone.  What I do know is that if given the option I want to be part of that process for the world.  I want God to be able to use me to enable as many people as possible to love to the fullest.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to what idea or story we can be willing to let go of so that we can be that much more of a fit vessel for God to use.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

One of the unique qualities of God is perseverance.  I am not sure if it is because God has the whole picture and always knows that love is what it will be in the end or if it is just an infinite mind quality to never give up.  We see it all the time in nature.  Each day cycles through and things die and come back to life.  The sun keeps shining, the earth keeps turning.  No matter how much our world seems to come to a halt and we “feel” stuck and like nothings is happening, that is not God’s reality.  So I can choose to stay in my own private head space of perspective or I can link up with God’s ideas, God’s mind, and God’s way of being.  When I do that I am all of a sudden capable of trust and faith that maybe just maybe things are not what they seem.  Things are still moving forward.  Life is energy and motion and so this notion of being stuck is simply a symptom of a finite mind.  It always seems to come back to the same thing–is my head and thinking God or is God God?  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to trust in God’s perspective of life–the one where we are pursued and loved at every turn and every moment, despite what we think about us and our own world.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

It has taken time and patience to develop the kind of relationship with God that allows me to confidently be willing to turn everything that I am and do to the care of the Great Creator.  It sounds all lovely and Pollyannaish that I have these dates with God each morning, but like most relationships, mine with God has been a bumpy one full of twists and turns.  I am grateful that for today I am willing to trust my life to God because I have witnessed and seen in my heart of hearts the power of this God of Love.  I have always known God was there but have spent my fair share of time defying God and being angry with God.  Throughout it all, I was transparent in my conversation and let it be known whatever I was feeling.  To me, more than anything, if I cannot be in relationship with a God that I can be real with, there is no point.  God is big enough to handle all my ups and downs, many times more than I can.  My prayer for us today is that we trust that wherever we are with our relationship with God, it is okay and just be willing to keep the conversation going.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen