dailydatewithgod

One of the defining characteristics of God is limitlessness.  In stands in stark contrast to our human experience of limits. We live in a world defined by lines, boundaries, time and space.  We operate in bodies encased by a physical structure of skin and bones and all other kinds of dense matter. We move in a particular direction and come up against a restriction or block. All of these show up as interference between our reality and who we are at our core.  In the moments we find ourselves transcending time and space we get a glimpse of how God operates.  We feel it in our hearts when we are touched by something which cannot be bound in a physical experience.  My daily dates with God have opened my eyes and my heart to limitless possibilities.  They are always there for us but because of interference often from our rational mind trying to find a matter of fact way of understanding everything we live in limited options.  It is why I have found making a concerted effort to reach for the hand of God and ask, “God, how do you see this? or “Allow me to see what you see here in this moment.”  Those requests create interference in the form of pausing and questioning my thinking. We get glimpses through the interference when we let go of our limitations on possibilities and are willing to be present to something outside of what our minds’ can conjure up. Using the principle of interference to our advantage is a way of putting limits on the automatic inclination of our mind to run interference for what is possible.  We do not have to dislike or get frustrated with how our mind’s system operates. We can choose to make it work for us. Using interference with our own minds provides the pause needed to bring the heart online.  Using interference makes it possible to remember to reach for God’s insight when we find ourselves lost in our limitations.

Our lives are measured by what we show up for and direct our attention. We attend to the things our lives which we have determined are a priority.  Even when we choose attendance at or for someone or something outside of us, it is still our choice.  How often have we shown up for something we agreed to attend only to not bring our full presence with us? Our choices about attendance work well when they match up with the truth of who we are.  We can gauge the level of worth we hold for ourselves by noticing how much we are in full attendance with whatever or whomever we are choosing to direct our attention and intention.  Do we attend because it is what is expected?  Do we attend because we want to be perceived in a particular way by others?  Do we attend because it is in alignment with who we believe ourselves to be?  All these layers of attendance bring notice to whether we are making our choices from our minds and our hearts or just our minds.  If attendance in life was simply about being present physically or with part of our physicality like our eyes, we would get credit for showing up all over the place and in some cases more than one place at a time. If attendance is measured by our intention as well as our attention then it might be a different story. God encourages us to notice how much of the truth of who we are is choosing our attendance in life.  If we are open to stretching ourselves through the discomfort of growth through learning to align our intention with our attention,  we might notice the changes to our attendance.  The heart and mind aligned when in attendance send a powerful message of presence for ourselves and those with whom we share the experience.

We see what we are made of when we find ourselves in places and situations we were not expecting to face. We do not realize how much of our experience is simply an altering of our expectations. The truth is we do not know how something is going to go or how someone is going to behave but we create ideas and set ourselves out to expect it or them to be what we have conceived. In come the puckers and we are disturbed because we did not incorporate them into our expected scenario.  We blame the wrinkles and irregularities that get folded into our experiences because they are not part of the design in our expectations.  How might we be less rattled or disappointed by life if we factored in the puckers or at least the possibilities of unknown puckers? God invites us to look for the puckers, to celebrate the puckers, and to find love in the puckers.  Our minds will push back on this because the mind is wedded to its own creative ideas.  Our hearts have the capacity to be more open if we let them guide us through and around the puckers. I get countless chances each day to embrace the unknown puckers if I am open. God reminds me of God’s capacity for a multitude of possibilities whatever happens.  On our daily dates, I am reminded that no matter what is puckering in my world it does not change who I am.  This opens the door to release the fear that comes up when facing unmet expectations. If I opt for the perspective of facing unknown puckers with curiosity instead of fearing them as potentially changing the truth of who I am, I am one step closer to walking in God’s view for the moment.

When we walk into a situation we do not know all of what we will encounter.  We might have some ideas and do our best to be prepared.  Some people prefer to walk in completely unknown and be surprised.  Most of life seems to be a combination of the two regardless of our preference. What I find fascinating in how life is orchestrated is the number of corollaries that can be experienced when we dare to show up.  Things and people present themselves one way for a particular purpose and yet all of those involved will draw different experiences from them.  If we look closely enough we can notice how one situation provides a corollary to something else we are facing. It is why we enjoy analogies so much.  We draw energy from making connections whether with people or concepts. They make sense to us because we experience life through corollaries. The more humorous part about a corollary is the simplistic nature with which it reveals itself.  We feel like we have been hit over the head with understanding.  There is a certain uptick in our interest and excitement when we find a corollary.  As though all of sudden it makes sense and it was worth it to show up. Our hearts find a corollary wherever love can grow.  When we step into situations calling upon our courage we open ourselves up to experience a corollary beyond our mind’s conception.

If you are Yoda the notion of trying is not considered very wise.  Putting aside the wisdom of a Jedi master for a moment, most times what we have in life are shots. There are opportunities we do not even realize are presenting themselves until we take a shot. We open ourselves to many more options when we take a chance or make an attempt at something.  We often want to have it all figured out or think we know exactly why we are engaging in something or with someone, but we really do not.  We cannot conceive of the multitude of twists and turns coming from being present in the moment enough to do what is in front of us to do.  Rarely are we guaranteed a sure thing with no risk  Most of the time we take shots. Some in the dark, some in the light, but all to get to the next step. Sometimes they are winning shots, sometimes they are losing shots. At least they appear to be one or the other.  All shots provide additional information and options.  Maybe the shot provided the win we were looking for but present unforeseen consequences and provided information we did not know we would discover.  Maybe the shot created a loss but broke open a side view into something we had not imagined.  The moments we are willing to allow our hearts to guide us in taking shots we open ourselves up to the creative process of life and surrender to its flow.

We like to complicate things.  Perhaps it makes us feel important. Complication creates a scenario by which we can feel overwhelmed and powerless.  In some cases, we can avoid taking responsibility because we struggle to connect to our simple part of the complication. When I am willing to step up and own my part in something, the complication tends to leave.  I am attuned to the austerity when I can be with what my role or choice point is. As one mentor put it, there are three parts: yours, others, and God’s.  She then pointed out the only one I could do anything about was mine. The austerity of owning and doing what one can with their part is not sexy or exciting.  The simplicity of my part lacks the bling-bling of complication but that is only if I see austerity in comparison to extravagance. God invites us to be with the power of austerity of our part.  It creates the space for relationships, for learning, and for a heart-opening.

We underestimate our capacity for imagination.  We think of it as the creativity that only certain people have.  We say that we don’t have time to imagine things. The truth is we are constantly imagining, we just believe it so readily when our minds conjure up their concoctions we don’t question them. To us, because we are concocting it, it is real. When we believe something it goes from the realm of imagination to reality. The concoctions of our minds are made up.  How else can we go about believing that we know what someone is thinking and why they are thinking it?  We don’t even really know half the time why we do or say the things we do.  We concoct all kinds of rational explanations but so much of our behavior is automatic and the explanation is nothing more than a rationalization.   God invites us to move from the realm of concoction in our minds and tap into the concoctions of our hearts.  In the space of the truth of who we are is the capacity exists an added layer of a different kind of energy with which to navigate through and around our concoctions by tapping into God’s concoctions.

One of my more recently consistent prayers has been a simple, “Lord, use me.”  I do not spend much time thinking about it after or before I say it, it has become a standard in my conversations with God. One thing I have come to understand after all these daily dates with God is the same degree to which I do not know God, I also do not know how I might be of use in any given situation.  I have my ideas and things I am familiar with or areas of interest, but I can’t count the number of times I have shown up to something thinking it was for one purpose and finding out it was yet another element of learning about myself and the world around me.  I also have discovered times when I thought I was there in a particular capacity only to be called on or found myself in a situation where I could be useful with something else.  There is definitely a surrender in the prayer which can be scary because it leaves so much open and unknown.  There is also an element of excitement and potential growth and awareness of the possibilities of life.  It calls upon me to open myself up to how God sees me which is another one of my constant prayers versus how I see me and the world around me.  I cannot possibly know all the ways God will show up and that includes how God invites me to participate in showing up through me. We are vessels of the unknown.  We are the messengers of love who do our best to show up in the moments of breath we are given and called to be who we are at our core.  This is no easy task, especially when we put our ideas of what it or we are supposed to be.  The simple prayer of usage allows me to experiment with life.  I can’t get it wrong.

Have you ever noticed the way kids and animals find little nooks and crannies to hide in?  We do it as adults too, but it is not as cute and is often labeled as avoidance or isolation and somehow there is something wrong with us because we want to be alone or carve out some sacred space. It is a courageous act to show up in the world and be present.  To balance that we need a nook to come back to ourselves in.  We can create them with physical space but we always have it within our own hearts. If we learn to honor the sacred energetic space around our hearts as a valued nook we can connect within a crowd of people.  We hear about pausing and taking a breath, but have you ever as you are doing that placed your hand on your heart as well?  It is a simple and powerful gesture to connect to us to the nook of the truth of who we are. People do it instinctively without recognizing it as though the nook is the internal force that draws them to place their hand on their hearts at times of emotional connection or prayer and in some cultures, it is used when they greet each other with reverence.  The nook is the space within our hearts which knows undoubtedly the sacredness of our true self and is not harmed or battered by the world.  In the nook of our very being exists the ever-present recognition of our sacred truth of being.

We place great value on our thoughts and ideas.  They are creative and numerous.  We never seem to run out of them.  We pride ourselves on the accumulation of them and get accolades for spending years learning about them and memorizing them in the form of degrees and authority. Our mind is a marvelous and essential element of what makes us who we are and rightly deserves the attention and power it is given. The fact that we hold it in the upper echelon of importance makes total sense.  The degree to which we place it in an echelon above all else also makes sense.  Yet the capacity to use our mind is not unique among us.  All living things have a form of intelligence.  It may not be in words or easily understood by us but it does exist.  To what degree do we place our thinking capacity in an echelon above all other living things? How about how much higher the echelon of our intellect over our emotions and instincts?  With our inclination to place the intellect echelons above all the other elements of what makes us human, it makes sense that we do not place as much value on what is happening in our hearts or with our spirit.  We place a priority on being able to explain it all.  If our intellect cannot grasp what is happening in our hearts or with our spirit we see it as less valid.  What if our sense of wholeness cannot be explained in thoughts and ideas alone?  What if the echelon we have placed intellect upon is out of fear of the unknown?  What if the very factor we need to embrace our hearts and spirits stems from our willingness to be in the unknown?  If out of fear we place our intellect as the highest echelon of our existence, doesn’t that mean fear is actually an echelon above our intellect? On my daily dates with God, I am encouraged to step away from the echelon of fear and spend time in the unknown.  I get to play in the space of putting my heart and spirit in an echelon above my mind.  Most of what I can say I have learned by practicing this daily is how much of an illusion any echelon of what makes me who I am are smoke and mirrors.  Wholeness is about the interplay of all of who we are one moment at a time.