dailydatewithgod

Love doesn’t grow in the dark.  Life is about living in the light.  Living in witness to the creator of all life who enlightens us all.  In order to begin to live that way we must be willing to bring light to all situations and elements of our lives.  Our fear of the darkness is what brings us down.  It keeps us hiding and pretending.  The funny thing about that is that when it is in darkness we can’t distinguish it.  In other words, our perception of it becomes greater than it actually is.  This is why many who experience bringing something into the light as not as bad as they thought it would be.  I have experienced this many times in my life.  When I surrendered and let go of what I thought something was and looked at in the light so I could see what it really is, I realized that it was not as bad as I thought it was.  When we first turn on the lights in a dark room, it can seem alarming.  Our eyes need time to adjust, but when they do at least they are looking at the reality of things for what they are.  God is reality.  This is why God lives in the light.  Only in the light can you see the beauty and the detail of everything.  God loves everything, God created every itty bitty thing and wants it all to shine.  This includes all the parts of ourselves, especially those we keep hidden.  In fact, it is the parts of ourselves that we keep most hidden that can shine the brightest when they are brought to God to be light-giving.  My prayer for you today is that you trust that the God of light and understanding wants you to bring all of your light to the world, not just the parts you want to see.  Make it a great one!  Peace ~Colleen

I learned at an early age to be completely honest with God.  I was definitely taught to have reverence and respect for the Almighty and I do.  I am clear that God is greater than anything or anyone. God’s power and love surpasses all understanding.  But if I am to be in authentic relationship with God I must be able to be honest about what I am thinking and feeling.  This means that I cry before God about how life sucks at the moment.  It means that I scream at God when I am angry at the circumstances that I am facing.  It means that I express to God with a girlish wonder when I am filled with a happiness that makes me feel alive through my whole body.  Maybe that is why this date relationship works well for me and God.  I do not try to pretend that everything is good and fine all the time when it is not.  I especially reveal to God my shame and doubt–the things that I might want to keep wrapped up and hidden because of my own and the perceived judgment of the world.  God does not see these things as the world sees them, which is what encourages me to continue to be honest and to take the chance at being that much more revealing each time.  It comes down to a courage to be honest with myself and with God about how I am authentically feeling.  Until that acknowledgment happens, I cannot move forward.  My authentic feelings are an indication of my thinking.  My thinking needs to be transformed.  That transformation can only happen by being honest with God so that I can invite Him in to transform my way of seeing things.  It is with God’s help that I can let go of the stories I have created about whatever it is.  I cannot invite God’s story into my heart and live from a place of spirit sight until I first lay before Him with a humble heart the current state of what is in my mind.  My prayer for you today is that you be willing to take a chance that God will not condemn you for the good or bad of your perspective the way that you or the world has.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Have you ever measured how much time you allot to preparing yourself for a situation or looking forward to something?  It would be interesting to evaluate how much energy and time we spend in hopes of what will come versus time spent in the moment.  Not as a judgment but an observation.  I believe that God is the only true judge.  Anything I judge is with my human mind which it means it will come up short in the end as I cannot possibly know all that is.  Does God look at preparation as preparation or as what is meant to be happening in the moment?  Years ago in a TV show this God character was explaining to the human in the story that God is all about now. She said, “God is all about what you are going to do now,” and I remember it hit me right in my gut when I heard it.  What we see as preparation or being primed is actually what is supposed to be happening right now. We think of it in relation to the end result that we are envisioning and God sees it as what is so in the moment.  How much more might we appreciate the process of life and growth if we recognize that every experience, feeling, idea, and thought that brings us to the next moment in our lives is within itself the reality/gift of our lives?  That is what is meant by the saying that it is the journey not the destination.  But as human beings because we have limited minds, we need to make it mean something, so we think in terms of preparation.  God thinks in terms of the present.  He knows that we are already primed and ready to go because it is where we are.  God would like nothing more than to be fully present in the moment that is his gift to us.  God does not discriminate the kind of moment as good or bad, God simply wants to be with us.  The question then becomes, do we want to be with us?  My prayer for us today is put on the mind of God and revel in the priming of the moment as the destination. Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Get dirty!  Get in the mix!  Experience what it truly means to be grounded!  I am not a farmer and have only been to a few farms in my life.  But given what I know about the life of a farmer and what I know about Native American traditions, there is great reverence when it comes to soil.  In the city, what is known as dirt and something to clean up, in nature is the fertile ground through which things will grow and flourish.  It is to be taken care of–watered and toiled.  It is given a season to produce growth and a time to restore.  It is not taken at face value but seen as something with great potential to create something useful and fruitful.  It is receptive to what it is nourished with and is sensitive to harmful substances.  It weathers different conditions and adapts over time.  Maybe it is time for us to be soil for God.  What could God plant in us today if we were open and ready?  What could flourish from our hearts and minds if we gave ourselves a season of growth, allowed ourselves to be showered and sunned by love and care from our creator?  What might we be open to if we allowed ourselves a season of restoration?  So many possibilities.  If we are energy and created by the same creator that placed the soil on the nearby farm, what keeps us from believing that the same principles apply in our lives?  My prayer for you today is that you have the courage to get dirty.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

It is easy to let the events of our lives determine who we are.  If we are approaching life without any introspection that is exactly what it looks like.  Things happen in our lives that are out of our control and on the surface it looks like we have no say in the matter.  The reality is that our life is made up of how we decide to handle the situations that we encounter.  Stuff happens to everyone, good and bad.  To avoid that would be to not be alive.  It is not that things happen or what things happen it is about how we react to it.  Life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we react to it.  What forms our character is our reactions, or rather how we choose to act.  We always have a choice.  It requires responsibility and courage to step up and make a decision about how we are going to choose. God is always standing ready to guide us to make the best choice-one that honors ourselves and others as our greatest selves.  My prayer for you today is that you take God up on his offer to guide you in how best to act today despite your circumstances.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

The intricacies of this world fascinate me.  It is amazing that I have gotten this far in life to only now notice the tremendous details of everything that exists.  Better late than never I suppose.  What is even more tremendous is to realize that I am the same.  I am made up of all these intricate little systems.  When they are in rhythm together they weave a beautiful design of a body that walks and talks and a mind that sends messages to my feet to move so that I can walk from my car to the office.  I am grateful that my creator takes care of all those itty bitty details and I don’t have to consciously think about them.  It would be so overwhelming.  That got me thinking.  If that is the case for how my body functions, wouldn’t the same apply to other areas of my life?  When there are many things in motion, wouldn’t it make sense to turn those over to the Great Creator so that he can fashion out of them a great design that works?  Then I don’t have to worry myself about them.  The funny thing about it is the degree to which my ego will want to keep a hold of something just so that I can prove that I can do it.  The question then becomes to whom am I proving anything?  God does not need me to prove myself.  God wants me to enjoy my life.  My prayer for us today is to surrender the intricacies of our lives to the great designer and trust that a grand design will be fashioned in which we can shine and flourish.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

As we look at how we approach life we recognize the methods through which we are willing to risk.  As children we approach with much less fear than we do as adults.  This is because we have not yet built up stories or compiled evidence from which to base any fear.  As children we have a blank slate and so the possibilities for goodness abound.  Quickly though life will hand us experience us that can damper our approach.  From then we may find ourselves hesitant, cautious, leery, etc.  Usually if we stop to ask ourselves why we approach with caution we come to face two fears. Either that we will lose something that we have or we will not get something that we want–i.e. we will fail.  Rarely in this equation is the notion that reaching for the opportunity, engaging in the possibility is worth the risk because of the experience we will gain in working towards the goal.  We find ourselves living in the end result because we believe that it guarantees our safety.  I know I spent a large part of my life living this way. (I will always remember the spiritual experience I had one night on the beach when I felt God reaching into my heart to open me up and the tears of letting go that streamed down my face.)  I see now, that I robbed myself of much learning and life experience.  But as God is all about what I am going to do now, I am willing to take the risk and approach life opening my heart to possibility today.  This is not easy, but I have a relationship with God that shows me time and time again that the journey is why I am here.  In the end, if I trust in God to be God, then I know that whatever happens my connection to the Great I AM can never be broken.  In other words, I have nothing to lose.  In growing closer and closer to God, I have come to know in my heart that my greatest fear is that I will be cut off from God.  It sounds all spiritual and grandiose but it’s actually quite simple.  The pain in my life is directly proportional to my level of thinking that I have to control things that I cannot control.  Why do I feel I have to control them or it?  Because I think that if they go the way I want them to or it turns out the way I want it to, I will be okay.  If I relax and step into the knowledge of my heart, that God, the Creator of all creation, has got this creation under control, then I can rest and play my part.  Suddenly, I approach life with possibility.  Do you have the courage to let go of one thing that you are trying to control whether it be a person or a feeling you are having?  Are you willing to breathe and step into an adventurous approach of learning from the journey?  My prayer for you today is the courage to try it out in one area of your life.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

When we look at the fabric of our personality, we incorporate all the things that make up the whole of who we are.  But which of those elements are our core?  Which parts of “me” expresses my true essence?  Our essence is what lies below the layers of identity that we have created over time.  Part of our task as human beings is to shed the layers of identity that we have added so that we can allow our true essence to shine.  And while our essence is unique, it is also the very thing that connects us with the whole.  This is how we can differentiate between our “identity” and who we truly are.  Typically, the things that we see as our identity, keep us separate from others in some fashion. It can be a title (supervisor), a role (husband), a function (banker), an experience (trauma survivor).  All these pieces of who we show up in the world as are essential to get us to begin to look at who we truly are.  It is only by being a supervisor, husband, banker or trauma survivor that we engage in certain experiences which cause us to look at whether or not that is truly who we are.  Do you know what your layers of identity are?  Do you recognize how they are gifting you with the opportunity to  get closer to the truth of who you are deep down?  It is through these identities that we can begin to express part of who we are but it is only in letting them go that we get to reveal our true essence.  That is why our work as courageous human beings who are choosing life is a process of seeing those “parts” of who we are and letting them go.  I think we experience this on a basic level each day when we come to accept that things don’t go the way we think they should.  “He wasn’t being the husband I was expecting.  She didn’t act like a real sister would act.  That is not the kind of boss who really gets things done. I can’t believe I acted in such an unfriendly way.”  When we begin to experience the breakdown of these identities in our lives it causes us to question the validity of them and search for the true essence of who we are. My prayer for you today is that you have the courage to see the gift of letting go of your identity as a gateway to get in touch with your true essence (God in motion).  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen