dailydatewithgod

Have you ever watched closely as someone performs–whether artistically or in a sports arena?  They seem to do so with such ease, it is almost effortless.  The way that the dancer turns, the stage actor belts out a song, the baseball player swing the bat, and soccer player kicks the ball into the goal. We see that and it inspires us to want to do those things.  Then as kids we might get involved in learning to play the piano, be on a soccer team, or in dance class and all of a sudden we are faced with the fact that it is not as easy as it seems.  How do “they” do that?  How do they make it seem so effortless?  Are we doing something wrong?  No, of course not!  Those same performers and athletes went through the same thing.  The difference is that they pushed through to the other side.  They didn’t give up the moment it got hard.  They were driven by something, a passion perhaps, in their heart to continue to grow in that arena.  Doing so allowed them to reach the moment where they are so present in what they are doing that all their hard work clicked and it was effortless.  In fact, if you were to interview them about that moment and ask them what they did, they often cannot describe it.  Those are the moments in which we become the vehicle and God shines through us.  That is what attracts those of who are watching.  We are not just impressed by what we are seeing, our hearts are moved by the presence of God in that moment–the beauty, the triumph, the excitement, and the joy of life!  These moments of being effortless can happen not just in grand moments but in the simple ones as well.  Think of a time when you were with someone you loved and the conversation flowed, you really enjoyed just being present with them.  Time seems to pass so effortlessly.  Who do you think was there?  When we are present in the moment, we are most connected with God and it is as though life takes on a power of its own.  We do not have to force or cajole or make anything happen, we are in the flow.  My prayer for you today is that you eyes be opened to the little moments that you experience effortlessness (perhaps that you were not even aware were happening each day).  In that moment, touch your hand to your heart and say, “thank you.”  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

It is almost as if you can hear the music of the band pounding with excitement.  When the runner cross the finish line, when the Olympians are on the podium with their metals, when you finish a project you have been working on for months, when a basketball team scores that three-pointer out of nowhere.  These are all moments that make our heart sing.  Good won out!  The hard work paid off!  It is true that good things in life happened.  We see it in others–the capacity to overcome odds and uncertainty. Why then, when we face these things in little moments of our lives do we become so easily discouraged.  Are we not capable of the same thing?  Has not God-given us the courage and the strength to overcome even what seems impossible?  Of course he has, we just lose sight of it.  We become daunted by the process or impatient with how long it’s taking.  We try to do it alone and so we want to throw in the towel.  Remember it is a band that plays the triumphant hymns, not one instrument.  Maybe we are feeling defeated because we are trying to do it on our own.  My prayer for you today is to keep sight of the triumphant experience that you will have when you seek the help of others and God to overcome whatever obstacles are placed in your path today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

We are pulled in many directions throughout the course of our day.  So much demands our attention.  We hear our name being called by our family at home, we see friends and coworkers pop up on our phones, we respond to emails that are addressed to us.  We are called in many ways by many people in situations demanding that we pay attention to them or it.  Sometimes it may seem like we don’t have a choice of where to go and consequently our days wear us out because we full pulled in a bunch of different directions.  For me, I need to pay attention to what calls to me and stop and make a choice if it is aligned with what summons me.  I see God as summoning.  A quiet pull on my heart, a whisper in my ear, an intuition to look closer at something.  This summoning is much more subtle than the other forms that call for my attention and so they are easy to miss.  If, however, I take the time to get centered in the morning and get present to whom I am called to be and do that day it is easier to be summoned in a direction that is in line with that.  My prayer for you today is that wherever you are in your day when you read this, that you stop to get centered and determine not only what is calling to you but what is summoning you to your greater calling for today.  Most importantly, I pray that you have the courage to follow that which aligns most with your heart and trust that the rest will take care of itself.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Life can be rough.  We wake up full of hope and excitement and not too far into our day we find ourselves disappointed or dismayed by an experience or an interaction with someone.  We may not have had any specific expectations or intentions for the day, but some how we get blindsided by these experiences.  Our inclination often is to close off our hearts when that happens.  Especially if it is an impactful experience that we have given lots of meaning to.  Often, without realizing it we allow the experience and what we have made it mean harden our hearts.  We don’t see it as a lesson or a play experience in which to learn something and so we close ourselves off from others and from life.  We think, “I will never let that happen to me again.”  It may seem like we are closing ourselves off to just that one experience but instead it hardens our hearts to all of life.  It takes courage to embrace problems as opportunities to soften our hearts instead of harden them.  I can only do that through the grace of God.  My prayer for you today is that when you experience something that makes you want to harden your heart, ask God to show you what you can learn through the situation that will soften your heart.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

If I believe that God created everything and that within all of God’s creation God is present then, I am called to be aware of the presence of God within every person, situation, and thought and experience.  That includes of being aware of God within me.  So many times I think we look for God “out there”.  We find ourselves asking, “Where are you God? I can’t see you.  Reveal yourself to me.”  Then God calls us to look within ourselves and we reject that notion.  How could God possibly be dwelling within me?  When I slow down and look within me all I see is what is wrong and what is a mess and so then I run back out.  It requires patience and persistence to stay and see that God is not only within us but right in the mess.  He is already gotten himself dirty and he is down there with a flashlight of hope and encouraging us to come see things with His perspective.  The reason we are called to find God within ourselves is because if we are to be an expression of God to the world around us we must first be aware of where he is within us.  The beauty of God is that He uses whatever he can for his purposes.  St. Paul writes about this in his letter to the community in Rome: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him …”  Our part is to be willing to see God within us.  If we cannot see God within us, how can we see God anywhere.  At the end of the day it is just me. At the end of my life I don’t get to take anyone or anything with me so I need to know where God is within me.  My prayer for you today is that you become aware of God within you.  Maybe you will be surprised to find him in a place that you don’t want to go.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

One of the magnificent things to observe is how nature ebbs and flows.  It seems to happen without struggle or pain.  I say seems because I don’t know if there is struggle involved in a bud developing into a rose.  Each year the trees grow leaves and then they darken and fall off and the tree is bare and then they grow new ones.  The cycle is never-ending.  I compare that to when something I am experiencing dies and I start freaking out.  When it comes to letting go, I want to hold on and for it not to change.  I do not have the same trust that the tree does that its leaves will return anew when the time comes.  I have definitely experienced my struggles and every time I not only make it through but because I do my best to stay connected to my Creator, I come out the other side stronger and closer to who I truly am.  These experiences that I resist are the ones that fashion me into a more loving and generous human being.  But the fact that I fear going through them, that I forget that I will persevere makes me laugh.  I once had a spiritual mentor who said to me that God did not bring me this far to drop me  off a cliff!  In order to be resilient I need to be reminded that there is nothing that can separate me from God.  One thing I do know in my heart of hearts is that as long as I remember God is with me, that I am not alone, then I can face whatever it is.  I no longer expect God to rescue me from it (which doesn’t mean that I don’t ask, because I do) but to be there to remind me that I am not alone.  This is what gives me the courage to keep going when it seems like all hope is lost, like I am simply repeating a pattern.  If I am like nature, what seems like a repetition may just be an opportunity to grow through another cycle.  I am humbled each time a situation or thinking brings me to a place of doubt in myself and in God.  Perhaps those times are necessary to show me that I am stronger and more resilient than I think I am.  And if I am, then you are too.  My prayer for you today is in moments of doubt, you be reminded that you have already come through something that you didn’t think you could make it through and there is no reason to think it won’t happen again.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The moment one begins to talk about being rich on a spiritual blog or any spiritual format for that matter, the hairs on people’s heads begin to rise.  Perhaps that is happening to you right now.  Take a deep breath, this will probably not be what you think its going to be.  Either way, take what you want and leave the rest.  God is a God of abundance.  He has created this rich and full world and invites us to participate in it to the fullest. He has given each of us a wealth of ideas, talents, options, abilities, etc. through which to participate in life.  In this life there are those who see themselves and others as rich and poor.  In some circles one is considered better than the other.  In other circles one is feared more than the other.  There is also the mentality that one cannot be rich and spiritual at the same time.  I know that is a mentality that I suffered from for a long time.  But I began to see that it was a lens through which I was seeing the world.  In other words, the notion that I was not to be rich, not only applied to my monetary capabilities but my relationships, work life, physical, and yes even my spirituality.  Essentially what I was doing was putting restrictions on how I accepted or rejected the things that God brought into my life.  I am not sure that I would say that I had a poor mentality but I never stopped to recognize that I was not fully accepting of the richness of my life (I was not fully in gratitude for the gifts, people, situations, and opportunities of my life.)  Once I let go of the notion that in order to be connected to God, I must be poor–I began to be open to how God was gifting me with things in my life.  And by things, I mean people, experiences, opportunities, and yes money.  Money that I continually have to turn to God to ask how am I to use this.  I am in no way “rich” by any kind of material standards and still have debt that I am working at reducing, but my viewpoint has shifted.  My prayer for you today is to begin to focus on the richness of your life.  Ask God to see how you are rich and how your richness is a contribution to others.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Along with this idea of us being real comes the acceptance of what is real in the world.  So often I think we approach people and situations with what we would like them to be (expectations).  We can possibly have a whole script in our head of what they might say and do and how it will all turn out–good or bad.  The difficulty however comes when that does not happen and we are disappointed.  I have heard it said that expectations are the groundwork for resentments.  When we see that our fantasy does not match the reality, we are disappointed and disgruntled.  We do those around us a disservice when we have mapped out how they should be and then respond not to what they are actually doing but to the fact that they are not doing what we would expect them to do.  In that light, we will almost always be disappointed. I think it is important to dream and to envision, but not get so caught up in it that we lose touch with what is really happening and that what is really happening is the gift.  Life is what happens when we are busy making other plans.  When it comes down to it, I believe that God calls us to show up authentically in each moment and be present to what is really happening.  How can I bring an attitude of acceptance and tolerance to the situation right in front of me?  Often I turn to God, and say, “Really?  This is what you want me to do? But I had other ideas.  Hmm, okay, need your help with this one.”  My prayer for you today is that you have eyes to see what is really happening in your world and be open to receiving the gift of things as they actually are.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

When we are young and full of enthusiasm, excited about life and the opportunities it holds we respond authentically to situations.  As that happens we look to those in authority, those who help sustain our lives to respond to our authenticity. Depending on the reaction that we get from other people will then shape our willingness going forward to continue to respond authentically.  It is only natural that we will make adjustments given circumstances but to change who we are all altogether usually comes when we are met with disapproval or disappointment by those whose ideas and opinions we have placed above our own.  What we don’t realize as children is that those human beings–parents, teachers, other authority figures, are only responding from where they are in that moment.  It is not a matter of them approving or disapproving of how we are being, that is not their call.  We have a higher authority that calls us to be real.  Our Creator designed us, fashioned us to be us and no one else.  Our culture and our families however have certain expectations and experiences that they pass on, a lot of it unknowingly.  Instead of being angry and frustrated by this process of life we can look at it as an opportunity to step into maturity and fine tune ourselves, reconnect with the Creator of Creation and again get in touch with who we really are.  We are not our circumstances, we are not our situations, we are not what other people are reacting to.  Other people are reacting to their perception of what is happening.  As human beings we strongly believe we are reacting to what is happening, but in reality we are reacting to our perception, our meaning of what is happening.  This is why we cannot change other people, whether by trying to actually change them or change how we are being to “please” them.  The only thing we can do is authentically reach for who we are in God.  It takes great courage to step out of a situation, a reaction, and check-in and see what is true for ourselves in any given moment and act from there.  My prayer for you today is that you may take a moment to breathe and connect with your heart to ask, am I being real to me in this moment?  Am I being the expression of God that is uniquely me in this moment?  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Stretching is a dual experience in the body.  It often hurts and feels good at the same time.  It is like relief and struggle all happening at once.  Maybe it is what being a grown-up is all about.  Grown-up as in a willingness to grow and change.  If I am fighting the stretch then it is more painful but if I breathe into it, it goes more smoothly and I am able to go past what I think I can.  As I look at my life, it is the times when I resisted the growth and the change that I suffered the most.  But when I surrendered and breathed into what was happening I found experiences I would not have had and saw growth in myself.  Stretching provides us with an opportunity to be amazed by who we truly are. I think it enables us to see God in a different way–that is the courage we call upon when we take that breath.  My prayer for you today is that you be open to breathing into the stretch of your life.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen