dailydatewithgod

I like this idea simply because it is one that my brain stops at. What?  That doesn’t make any sense.  As usual the spiritual experience is about duality.  How does one live in abundance but be narrow?  How does that even make sense?  Because my mind wants to reject the notion, I see that as an opportunity to learn something.  I came across this scripture this morning about entering through the narrow gate because the wide gate is filled with destruction.  Makes it sound like the gate we want to enter through is hard to get through. I think it is about our mindset.  I can think of it in how I approach God.  If my mind is full of ideas of how things are going to be or are supposed to be, I cannot be focused on God or love, I cannot hear the message because I am full already. But if I let go of those things, bring it back to the simple then there is a road through which I can build that connection to God. First I must find the narrow entry way, let go of the extraneous and take the chance on faith that it is the best way.  My prayer for you today is that you find the simplest answer to your most troubling question and be open to the possibility that the answer might something more simple than you imagined.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Being in the physical world we like physical results.  We want proof of theories, physical evidence in a courtroom, and numbers in black and white.  It is helpful to ground us in reality when we look at what actually is.  It is important for us to be present to what is actually happening versus what we imagine it to be.  Within that our spiritual life encourages us to not get too attached to the physical reality.  That is because it is only part of the story of our lives.  We are spiritual being who are present in a physical world.  But our nature is not tied to this world.  There are countless scriptures and spiritual writings that convey this idea that we are in this world but not of this world.  It is easy to get caught up in the expectation of results. To get attached to the physical reality of experiences.  We want to not trust something when there is no proof, we want to abandon when things don’t turn out the way we thought they would.  The question to be asked there is, were we expecting reality or just our imagination that we hoped would be reality.? It can all sound really complicated so I try to keep it simple.  I do my part and let God do his.  I suit up and show up, have an attitude of love and service, and let the chips fall where they may.  I believe that if I truly trust in God, no matter what actually happens, it will be used by God for the greater good for all.  This, of course, is on a good day when I am not trying to assert my will.  For me, it is best practiced one moment at a time.  God is either in and through everything or God is not.  My prayer for you today is that you take one moment and let go of how it is “supposed” to be and ask God what he wants you to be in that situation.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

We think many things through the course of a day, actually within a given moment, millions of thoughts run through out heads.  So the idea of being thoughtful isn’t about the quantity of thoughts but the quality. It is about which thoughts we give power to.  Which thoughts will we allow to penetrate beyond our heads and carry into action?  We get to choose. Our brains will often latch on to certain thoughts that are familiar because the grooves in our are already fashioned for those. It does not have to create new circuitry to accommodate those thoughts.  It is however, the ones that have no groove yet that we want to pay close attention to.  I am not sure that the brain is a muscle but I would guess that when it does not make use of certain parts it will begin to weaken.  I plan on living to be at least 100 so I am going to need all the circuitry available to me.  This means creating new patterns.  Experience is what actually creates those new grooves.  However, my perception of those actions which create the experiences will get me there.  That is why I cannot always wait for my thinking .  I often have to just take the action and trust that all will turn out.  My blessed mind wants to figure everything out before it will take the first step because it is a safety measure.  My heart knows that it can trust my God so that no matter what happens I will be safe.  Thus the strife between the head and the heart ensues. If I take time daily to focus my thoughts on God.  On God’s love and care for me, on God’s thoughtfulness, then I can take action in my life based on that, not on fear.  Then I will experience things I have never experienced before and create new grooves in my brain.  Those new grooves open up avenues of possibility and the perception through which I see things broadens and deepens.  This is what it means to live abundantly. To go beyond what we perceive, to trust and know God.  My prayer for you today is that you take action, trust God, and create a new thought.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

I spent a majority of my life looking for approval from other people.  I thought that if they said that I was okay and I was doing well that it was true.  I didn’t stop to realize that there was never enough of that or how dangerous.  I say dangerous because it left me completely  dependent upon the mood and mindset of other people.  It was great when it worked out, but if I caught someone having a bad day they would have found something wrong with what Mother Teresa did.  I didn’t realize that I was making them my God when I looked to them–teachers, parents, friends, co-workers, society, etc to tell me that I was okay and doing right.  I think the voice inside my head that was ready to point out all the things I was doing wrong was so loud that I had no other choice then to look outside of me. And to be honest, because there was no space in my head for approval it didn’t fully register which means that I needed it more and more from the outside.  The switch came for me when I became courageous enough to question and confront that voice within me.  This meant I had to get still and quiet.  Instead of just buying into the message that rang between my ears, I stopped and said “Really, what makes you say that?”  The first thing that happened was that it stopped.  Just the mere fact that I was questioning it caused it to stop dead in its tracks.  Once I had that opening I could then reassert myself.  I could acknowledge all the things that I am doing right.  I could ask God, what do you think?  It takes courage to wake up and face our stories.  It takes courage to not just buy into the madness that resides between our ears.  The story, and it is a story, of me doing things wrong is an old and worn one.  It is one that I took on as a kid to make sense of the circumstances in my life that didn’t make sense.  But I am not that little girl anymore.  It is a worn groove and when I am stressed or worn out, it creeps back in there.  The beauty of it is that I can stop and question it. By creating a time of pause and reflection that I have with God every morning, I am able to bring moments of pause into my day. Then, I can present evidence of self-approval.  I build a new muscle.  At first, just like when building new muscles in my body, I am sore.  But before I know it I have grown in strength.  Then when I am acknowledged by others it sticks.  I can own it because I recognize it.  I am not using it to bat away at all the negativity inside of me.  It connects with the sense of approval I feel from God and with the truth of my life.  My prayer for you today is that you create a space to pause and question one of your old stories, ask God how he sees it.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

It is amazing the things that we can accomplish in one given day.  We are miraculous beings and are attention is called for in so many ways through our day.  Admittedly, I pride myself on my ability to multi-task.  Everything from cleaning up my kitchen while talking on the phone to listening to the radio while driving.  Even at work I have two computer screens so I can be working on two different documents at the same time. Technology is miraculous at helping us all to accomplish more with less time.  But do we really accomplish more?  What nuances do I miss in the conversation when I am wiping my counter and listening to my friend?  Am I really paying attention to what the other drivers are doing or the lyrics going through my head or even more so, thoughts about the past or the future connected to my destination? God is the God of the present.  I know that because it is where I am in this moment.  One of the treasures of my daily date with God is that nothing else is happening.  I am just sitting in my comfy chair and breathing and focusing on God–that can be visual or my breath or just saying the word love over and over again.  I know that time is so sacred.  I am completely immersed in it.  I think it tickles me because I am aware that God is completely immersed in me in that moment as well.  I am not saying there are always fireworks but over time this moment of my day has become so sacred because it is an immersion experience.  The challenge for me is, how can I carry that through my day into the not so immersed moments?  My prayer for you today is that you find one experience that you are willing to be completely present to and be able to see the gift that it truly is to you and the others who may be involved.  I will do the same.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Over and over the message that seems to come out of life is let go.  We hold on so tight to our ideas of how things are supposed to be that we see life in comparison to our own thinking.  Meaning that we place expectations before an experience and then we judge the experience as being good or bad based on whether or not it met our expectations.  This includes  other people and ourselves.  This is why the policy of forgiveness is so important.  It is the healing balm through which we are able to let go of expectations, judgments, and also let go of the idea that the situation or circumstance determines our happiness.  When we are not attached to an outer experience but instead guided by our hearts experience of a situation all seems to fall into place.  I don’t know about you, but I need God’s help with this, sometimes on a moment to moment basis.  My prayer for you today is that you be willing to let go of how things “should” be and ask God how he wants things to be for you in a given situation.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Everything that we experience is a gift. It is an invitation to go into our hearts, to see what love can do in and through us, and to get connected to our hearts.  Too often we don’t like the packaging on the gift or we turn it away because it wasn’t what we expected.  We judge the outer contents-the wrapping.  Or we open it up and it allows us to see something inside ourselves that we do not like or makes us uncomfortable.  Yet God invites us to take a closer look.  He is there.  He is waiting to show us what He sees.  He sees the love even if it is buried underneath layers of anger, hurt, frustration, resentment.  He sees it because he gifted us with a loving heart.  He invites us to clear away the layers.  We get an opportunity to do that in life through everyday moments.  Our knee-jerk reaction when it brings up something uncomfortable in us is to put it on the other person. But the reality is that they are not having the same experience we are.  The reaction is ours, not theirs.  They do not do things to elicit a reaction from us.  Others just do what they do.  My reactions are indications of where I am mentally and emotionally in the moment.  I know this because when I am in a good mood, not much bothers me.  When I am tired, stressed, or exhausted everything has the potential to bother me.  It is in those moments that I am least interested in looking at what is going on within myself and my own heart.  It is precisely at those times when I need God to give me courage to do just that.  My prayer for you today is that when you are given the gift of looking at your own heart, you may ask God to see it through His eyes.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

When we look at the final product of something, unless we were involved in the making of it we don’t often think too much about how it got there.  We eat food without thinking about the person who planted the seeds in the farm or who harvested the crops, packed them up, put them on a truck, sent them to the store, put them on the shelf, etc.  We see or partake in the end product and hopefully appreciate it.  We watch a theatre performance or a sporting event and the performer and athlete mesmeriz0es us with their talent.  We don’t think about the years of long hours of honing their craft, working out, the injuries their body may have endured, the number of times their coach or mentor talked them out of quitting or maybe even how they doubted they were any good at their chosen passion.  So much goes into becoming the “end” product.  We experience in our daily lives and ironically think that no one else understands what it is like to come up against difficulty or strife.  It is the big lie that our ego tells us to keep us feeling separate.  But the adversity we face is not only common among everyone it is most necessary.  We cannot shine without being rubbed!  We will endure the shaping, the polishing, the packing, the shipping, displaying, and the showcasing all to be chosen.  We want to be chosen. The beauty of God is that He choses us at every step.  He does not wait until the final product emerges, he is there encouraging us to keep moving forward when the shaping hurts, when we don’t think we can stand one more rub, when the packaging feels to tight or the shipping is taking too long.  God sustains us. We need that, otherwise we would never make it.  Not only that, but by recognizing God’s role in the whole process we need not fear what happens when we get “there”, wherever there is.  Life is a series of journeys. One ends and another begins.  We get caught up in the idea that life will be okay when we get there – the job, the guy or gal, the car, the house, the spiritual experience.  It is the process that is the ride of life.  I want to be grateful for the process and the rubs along the way that show me the power of God that lives within me.  My prayer for you today is when you experience being rubbed the wrong way, you say thank you.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Life hands us situations on a sliver platter. Things happen for us, not to us.  There is a grand plan in place and it is one that calls us each to love and accept more and more.  I think this is what Jesus was saying when he instructed his disciples to forgive 7 x 70 times.  Meaning, there is no limit on forgiveness.  Not only that, but it is a way that we are meant to live. I think that he knew that we walk around with all kinds of fixed and fettered ideas of how things should be and when they are not we are prone to anger and resentment.  The cure for anger and resentment is forgiveness.  Forgiveness of ourselves, others, situations, God.  Forgiveness means that I am willing to put love towards whatever I am putting the opposite energy towards.  It does not mean condoning, or forgetting, or saying it is okay.  Forgiveness is about releasing the anger so that it is not what is ruling our hearts.  Forgiveness is about choosing God’s way.  Recognizing that we all mess up sometimes and it usually means that we are more in need of love.  Forgiveness is like taking the bridge across the damn to love.  It can be frightening to let go of a pattern of hate, but we get the gift because it opens our hearts to love.  When I am busy holding on to anger towards you–that anger lives in my heart.  Being willing to forgive means that I want to make room in my heart for love. Forgiveness is not about the other person, it is about us, about our hearts and about how we want to live.  I have learned what it means to forgive slowly and sometimes fighting. But having reached the other side, I cannot say that I regret crossing the bridge, not for a moment.  My prayer for you today is that you find some small thing for which you can forgive yourself –use it as practice. Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Living in God-consciousness gives you eyes that see more colors, a heart that has an awareness of more feelings, and a mind that can be stilled by a deep breath.  This requires practice and patience.  But most of all it requires a relationship with God that is maintained on a regular basis.  Just because my eyes, heart and mind are now opened, does not mean I can handle it on my on.  The heightened sense of being alive is a gift and I must continually turn to the Great Giver to ask how to properly use the gift.  It comes with instruction, daily instruction.  There is an expression that God will not give us more than we can handle.  I always say that God will not give us more than we can handle with his help today.  Meaning that it is a partnership and it is for this day.  When I am worried about yesterday or projecting into the future, I am no longer in this day and in this moment.  Why would God bring me to this moment and this experience to be somewhere else in my mind?  Doesn’t make sense, does it? I think we do that because to be fully present can be overwhelming.  To attune all our senses to the present moment means to be fully in alignment with God. God is amazingly powerful and ever-reaching and we don’t know how to “handle” God so it can be easier for our minds to go off somewhere else.  I need God to experience God and not run.  Good thing God knows exactly how to help me be with Him.  That is the loving gentle God that I know in my heart and all I need to do is call his name.  My prayer for you today is that as you step into those heightened moments you know you are not alone.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen