dailydatewithgod

I am rather fascinated by mystery.  Not scary mystery although a little of that is always good to get the juices flowing.  In terms of TV programs or books, I enjoy stories about people who devote energy to figuring out the mystery.  Life does not fit it a book or a 45 minute period where all the mysteries are solved but I am drawn to how the characters use their skills of detection to get into the heart of the mystery they are trying to solve.  While in some cases there is a lot of pressure on the detectives in a story in many ways it is an experimental process.  They notice clues and look beyond what is obviously there to get closer to what happened or how the mystery evolved.  The power of noticing ourselves in our own lives is something God taught me on our daily dates.  By taking myself out of the equation, I increase my detection skills for figuring out the mystery of me.  Figuring out the presence of love inherent in me. It also provides a way to begin detecting God’s presence in our lives. Is the bumper sticker just a bumper sticker or is there some greater message behind why it appeared in my sight the moment it did?  The skills of detection, like anything, if overused will drive one mad.  Embracing detection as a way to clue into the mysterious and sometimes playful ways God shares love with us provides a new set of eyes through which to see.  Using detection as a tool to engage with God and embrace the presence of the one who designed us can lead to insights on how we can be the presence of God in the world.  I imagine it will take a lifetime if not more to detect all the ways God makes present love in our lives but what a fun mystery to spend time exploring!

Years ago there was a movie, “The Commitments” about an Irish band and one of the things which have always stuck in my mind is the lead singer’s rendition of the song, “Try a Little Tenderness”.  Up to that point, I had never heard the songwriter, Otis Redding’s rendition of it so I was surprised in my first hearing of the song that it almost seemed to contradict what the song was conveying.  The lead singer in this film was so passionate and his voice was far from tender.  (That may have something to do with the fact that he was drunk which was his state through most of the film).  You almost got from his expression that it was a stretch for him to try a little tenderness for himself or anyone else.  Kind of like how we are with ourselves and each other.  I think if God had one overlaying message to give us each day it would be to try a little tenderness.  As Redding sings, “you won’t regret it.”  In our everyday life we are often in such a rush we forget how fragile we are.  I do not mean we will fall apart easily but rather we are much more sensitive than we think we are which brings me to a favorite song of mine, “Fragile” by Sting.  Did I mention that I love music and I often find God speaks to us through music?  Why not?  Music is full of spirit (inspiration), vibration (energy), and rhythm (flow of life) it only makes sense that God would use it as a messenger.  Maybe today we can listen to God’s messages by keeping in mind how fragile we are and try a little tenderness with ourselves and others. We in each of our lives know how best to interpret the message of tenderness for ourselves.  The more we attune ourselves to our tenderness the more we are sensitive to the tenderness of others because we have adjusted the lens through which we are seeing.

If we are really honest with ourselves we recognize how much we do not know.  In fact, the amount of things we do not know far surpasses the things we do.  There are actually two differentiations when it comes to things we do not know.  One would fall under things we do not know that we know we do not know.  The other would fall under things we do not know that we do not know we do not know.  Is your tongue tied yet?  Given how much we are unaware of, why do you suppose we are surprised when we are flummoxed by life.  We find ourselves upset and even take it personally when we are hit by a confounding experience or idea.  How else are we to learn new things if we cannot own how much life is one big flummox after another. We lose the heart of a child when we make ourselves wrong for being surprised by life.  All that is happening when we are flummoxed is we did not somehow plan for, prophesize, or foretell the future. For all the times we tell ourselves we know exactly how something or someone is going to play out or behave, we are flummoxed when they do not go as prescribed.  In those moments, we are experiencing the present.  Someone or something is not being as they were in the past which is what we are basing our assumptions on.  Our minds want us to hold on to the idea that we already know because it requires less brain power to function from the already known.  Our hearts get energy from being the present and look with an eye of adventure each time we are flummoxed.  Perhaps God is trying to help us initiate a balance so experiencing the opposite of our expectations feels less like a flummox and more like a little tap to look in another direction.  Maybe God within our hearts is inviting us to see what is in front of us that lies outside our assumptions.

How many things in our lives do we consent to and are not aware of it?  I have heard that silence is the voice of submission.  If we do not object to something, the implied understanding is our consent. Yet what about the things we have consented to on an unconscious level.  We notice it once in a while when we hear ourselves say something we do not really mean.  Or someone points out to us a particular behavior that we deny doing.  We have consented on some level to it being a part of who we are and we do not even know where it comes from.  Much of our being is like this because so much of our functioning is not chosen by us.  We do have the power of choice but so often we consent to give it away. It seems like too much work or unnecessary. Maybe we believe we are not capable of changing even if we wanted to.  Is that true or yet another idea we have consented to without realizing it? To question our way of being seems like a threat, or at least feels like one.  To engage in the unknown is alarming to us on a biological level because for survival purposes, the unknown could mean death.  Yet many of our consents are not life or death territory.  They are a day-to-day territory.  They are relationship territory.  They are the possible awakening of our heart territory. While our minds clampdown in fear, our hearts get excited to enter into the mystery.  The mystery which gives us the space to choose our consents.  We never know what awaits us if we take the chance and examine a consent we have been operating from unaware. God encourages us to peek into the mystery of ourselves by awakening our hearts to what our minds may have determined is a done deal.

Our lives are filled with moments. Our hours are filled with moments.  Each breath is a moment.  When we look at our lives we recognize certain defining moments.  The times when something occurred and provided insight into who we are or who we could be.  They may not have been big moments by the world’s standards but they were the moments when we felt something within ourselves connect to what was happening on a deeper level.  It is as though our hearts were whispering to us to speak through our being as the fullest expression of ourselves.  We may see defining moments as times when we fell short of being the truth of who we are. In a learning universe, we can grow from those. Given the way the universe works, we do not have one defining moment.  If every moment is begun and ended with a breath, just like our whole lives, then there are defining moments wherever we choose them to be.  It may not seem very consequential to smile at someone in line at the grocery store or to ask someone a question, but we do not know how our being the truth of who we are will be a defining moment for the other person.  Perhaps the person you smile at is contemplating whether or not their life is worth living since no one seems to notice them.  Your smile could be their defining moment.  Maybe the person to whom you ask a question did not know how to articulate an answer until you prompted something within them through your question. The defining moments in our lives may have nothing to do with us.

We love the story of triumph in the end.  We are drawn to the situations and people who victoriously beat the odds. The message of overcoming lives inside of us which is why we recognize it.  It wakes us up and reminds us of what we are capable of.  It seems trite to speak of it in personal terms when reacting to someone else’s victory but it is personal.  The spark of overcoming awakens us and reminds us that we too can overcome.  The heart of love ever-present within us is the story of overcoming. In this messy, crazy, wacky, and often confusing world where sometimes we do not know which end is up we are reassured when we witness the triumph over those circumstances.  God invites us to notice how the spirit of overcoming is present in our own lives. The moments when we could succumb to our survival nature, to hunker down and hide, but chose to hold our heads up and lead with our hearts.  The moments when we take a breath and allow someone close to us to draw closer into our hearts.  The moments when we let go of the desire to be right and chose to be loving despite every reason not to be.  All of these are instances of our hearts overcoming.  God knows us as beings who overcome with love more than we realize but wants us to recognize and celebrate it within our own vision.

We get so stuck in right versus wrong.  It is so important to our egos to be right.  Thus the question which is most helpful in relationships with others, do I want to be right or do I want to be happy?   Essentially there is nothing good or bad about right or wrong. It is only an issue as it interferes with our growth and our ability to get along well with others.  It is easy for our minds to go along categorizing things as polar opposites–good/bad, right/wrong, evil/holy, and so on.  It is an automatic process that serves a survival purpose but when we take a closer look at life and live it day-to-day, we see the limitation in this perspective.  It serves a purpose but does it serve the purpose we need it to today? A deeper perspective might be gained by looking at the degree to which a person or experience is helping.  Does how I see this experience help me to grow?  Is my labeling this person as good or bad help me to grow my heart? How does spending time thinking about or holding this idea help me to make a contribution to the world?  When does this mindset help me to keep others at a distance?  What does treating this person as good or bad help me to feel about myself?  Does avoiding this kind of situation help me to take better care of myself?  How does this friendship help me to learn and grow? God encourages us to embrace the elements of our lives that allow us to connect to the truth of who we are.  In that scenario, anything that helps us move in that direction is good and right.

There are some words when you say them out loud they convey their meaning. Or perhaps it is the look on the person’s face when they say it.  Cherish is one of those words.  Maybe its the “sh” that gives it that oomph of meaning.  But somehow one pictures holding something with delicacy or touching with a certain softness.  The word breathes the lack of harshness which if it did would give the wrong sense of the word.  When we think of the persons, places, or things we cherish we feel this internal connection.  Cherishing seems to be as much a conveyer of meaning as an energetic push from the heart.  I might think long and hard about whether or not I would say I cherish something but my heart knows the answer right away.  Perhaps the language of our heart which can be felt in vibrations does not need a word.  Cherishing can be an avenue to gratitude and therefore alter our perspective in an instant if we let it.  How might we use the concept of cherishing to allow our hearts to guide the vision of our lives today?

We all make use of things, ideas, people, and experiences.  Life is spent.  For all we know, when we breathe our last breath, we do not get to take any of it with us.   A life lived to the fullest means we take hold of what it is worth and use it up.  When we think about expending ourselves we do not normally think in terms of cost.  We see ourselves as separate from some equation of value.  And while we may not have a financial price or particular numerical value we all can acknowledge that there are times when we feel we are expending more or less than who we are.  The deeper question is are we expending more or less because we are not pulling from the truth of who we are?  Are we expending more or less because we are being from something other than our core?  Does the expending enhance our value or detract from it?  Looking at how we are expending ourselves gives us an insight into where we see our core center of operations.  Do we expend more from our minds, bodies, hearts, or spirit?  Do we equally draw from all the elements of ourselves to determine the level of expending we can afford?  How often do we rely solely on our own resources to determine the level of expending we can show up for?

When we reflect on the status of our lives, what we see is a weaving of all our experiences and knowledge up to this point. We like to think that if we did not have to deal with certain circumstances or people that we might be better off.  We think if we could excise certain elements from our lives we will be free.  The reality is all of life is designed to grow us in love.  All of existence is present for us so we can learn how to grow our capacity in love.  The funny thing is that circumstances and people present themselves as exactly the opposite of love.  This causes us to get lost.  We attach to the form that is presented and sometimes lose the lesson.  We forget life is about growing our heart not our status.  We lose what we might be able to weave into our experience and become more of ourselves.  Ultimately, God wants us to know the presence of light and love within us.  We do not need to be hindered by what we see going on outside of us.  Whether it is good or bad circumstances, helpful or harmful people, or whatever other stories we come up with claiming that we cannot grow from them.  It is humbling to admit I often forget God uses all of life to grow me in love, not just the elements I think I would prefer.  It is up to me to weave the learning of love, not the form it shows up in, to a new understanding of the power of light and love.  We do not need to incorporate the form, just the lesson.  It is the lessons that reveal who we are to ourselves. Within the lesson is the opportunity to weave in the truth of love as it resonates in our hearts.  So when I am put off by someone who is irritating or annoyed by having to wait in traffic and see nothing worth weaving into who I am, I can stop and ask, “God how do you see this?“