dailydatewithgod

Maybe you have experienced a stadium music show or been to a small intimate jazz club.  Each has a specific set up and the musicians know how to work with the acoustics to make the music sound good and create an experience.  We have our acoustics by how we set up the environment of our lives.  How often do we think about what we say and do as whether or not it is in resonance with the environment we are in?  It is written in the Hebrew scriptures of Ecclesiastes that there is a time and a place for all things under heaven. We play a role in when and where we create all of those things. It is not about perfectly creating a life where we will never do the wrong thing in the wrong place or at the wrong time.  It is about tuning into our hearts and creating an awareness of how we impact the acoustics of our lives.  I think most of us intend to make a positive contribution in some way.  I think we are called to it within ourselves.  My experience has taught me that people do not typically set out to create madness or harm others.  People do what they know.  Plain and simple.  If the only way they know how to get their needs met is through anger and intimidation then it is what they will do. We are all blinded by our personal experiences and stories.  Often we are not aware of the acoustics we have created in our lives. God calls us to check in with our hearts as often as possible.  When we make time to do it, we are more likely to remember we are connected and have an impact on the acoustics of our lives and the lives of others.

Our beings are a series of systems working in cooperation.  If for no other reason than that, I believe in a power greater than me.  There is no way that I could have designed the way they work in harmony with one another.  Our brains alone are this mass circuitry that runs so many more programs simultaneously than the most advanced computer systems.  As I go into my day starting with my daily prayer and meditation date with God, I ask what role I can play in maintaining the harmony of my system. The miracle of being alive is I want to play an active role in the continued harmony of my system so it may be a contribution of symphonic proportions to the world.  Or, at the very least not sound like a mismatched orchestra or an out of tune piano. By getting quiet and listening in my heart, God has taught me to identify where there might be a cacophony of noise detracting from the harmony through which I was designed.  She is ready to guide me back to the rhythmic harmony which is my true nature.  He wants me to know and experience the beauty of the harmony inherent within myself so I many know which chords to share with the world.

When things get itchy or uncomfortable there is a natural resistance that arises. If not in our minds, then in our bodies.  The lengths we go to avoid growth are amazing.  They are even called growing pains when we are children.  What is the point of that?  Why would something so ultimately good for us be so uncomfortable?  I am not sure I have an answer but I find the staying power of God to stand in contrast to my desire to flee.  If there is one message that comes through repeatedly, it is “stay the course.”  As a child one way of coping with the pain was to escape in my mind. I learned by leaving my body it was easier to pretend nothing was wrong.   There was no sojourning going on.  That was then, this is now.  While the practice of abandoning myself was a brilliant child strategy, as a grown woman in relationship with God it doesn’t work so well. God has shown me through our daily dates and everywhere I choose to look that sojourning allows for growth of my heart.  As a child safety was the biggest concern.  As an adult I know I am safe within my own heart and that nothing outside of me can break me.  I can sojourn on because I am experiencing growth of love which is sometimes hard and uncomfortable. My heart and the hearts of those around me will benefit from my willingness to sojourn. Truth be told most of what we label uncomfortable is simply unfamiliar and our minds interpret unfamiliar as uncomfortable.  With God sojourning by my side, I am willing to sojourn by my side too.

One of the impacts of my daily prayer and meditation dates with God has been a softer and more open heart.  In turn, I have also found my mind to be more open.  There is so much continual research on our minds and how they function.  Every day there is some new understanding.  A subtle but profound shift for me has been in seeing myself lean more towards what is described as a growth mindset versus a  fixed mindset.  I suppose because of the power of an intimate and safe relationship with God, I am more willing to take chances and try things out.  I see myself as a creating things in my life where I did not know I could. I am able to see growth versus a final verdict.  Feedback is information with which to make the next decision.  It is not a final decision.  For someone who thought her fate was decided long ago it is almost hard to believe.  It is one of those slowly shifting mechanisms where you wake up one day and realize you are seeing things differently.  There was no big explosion, no massive mind shift, and no fireworks.  Now I notice a subtle tug on my heart when I find myself shifting into old patterned thinking.  When all I am seeing are limits and impossibilities I am not so ready to give up.  When it appears that only darkness is on the horizon I hold fast to the idea that the rain clouds developing will produce great rain and wash things away that need to be refreshed.  I am more readily able to embrace the possibility of creating something from what looks like nothing.  When we create space in our hearts and practice looking through the lens of the core of who we are, there is more to be created.  We no longer have to rely on something already being there and being solid.  There is room to breathe energy into a new creation, a new possibility, and a new experience.  Even if that creation leads to a mess or need for more work, it is not the final verdict on my life.  There was a time in my life when I thought things were just not going to get any better and I was resigned.  It was only my belief in the power of God’s creation that held the hope that things might just shift even a little.  By drawing closer to God, she has shown me how creating the possibility that I do not know how it is all going to work out brings me increased peace. God is always creating opportunities for us to grow in love no matter the circumstance.  As I grow to know my own heart better I can create those same opportunities.

Throughout the Hebrew and Christian scriptures the writers mention the idea of God’s favor.  Not God’s favorite, but the idea of being held in esteem by God.  Why wouldn’t we be?  Why would God create something he did not value?  What would she design something with such intricacy only to discard it or put it in a pile somewhere?  It seems as though most people walking around are disconnected from the idea of any kind of favor of God.  You could imagine it as a father who looks at their child with a twinkle in their eye and smiles.  God sees us as our best selves.  God sees us as the wholeness we are.  We focus on our brokenness and our mistakes.  We focus on each other’s bumps and bruises.  God is not blind.  She knows we are flawed, but he also knows that there is nothing we can do to undo the work she has done in us at our creation.  No matter how much we mess up or fall out of favor with ourselves or those around us, we can never be stripped of God’s favor.  To have the capacity to undo God’s favor would reverse the power of God.  We may be capable of forever tinting the perspective through which we see ourselves but we cannot destroy God’s view of us.  If we reconcile our hearts to the idea that no matter what we are in God’s favor, how might we conduct ourselves?  How would we speak to ourselves and each other?  How would we treat ourselves and others if we connected within to the favor of God existing in our hearts? Do we have the humility to concede that despite all our failings and misgivings, we cannot undo what God has created?  Pride is still pride even if it is in reverse.  Claiming the favor of God which is freely given calls us to step up our game and do our part to make sure our outer lives reflect the love within us.

I have come to believe that life is about growing and learning in love.  It is built within us by our Creator that we have all that we need but we make this life in our discovery and learning.  All the great stories tell of a common theme.  There is a return to home.  A return to the place the journey started from.  We hear when others say, “I knew it all along;” “Something inside of me had an inkling;” or “I found myself back to where I started.”  The embarking on the journey comes at the admission of our unknowing.  We have a knowing of both things we know we dont’ know and a the things we do not know we do not know.  We will not know them until we are given the chance to learn them.  When I embarked into the field of education, part of my choice came from my personal interest in learning.  I figured what better space to be in to learn than the field dedicated to the idea.  I looked forward naively to what I would learn from my students as well as what I might teach.  In the end, I always learned more from them.  The process of knowing there is so much to be learned comes from the humble heart inside of us all.  We have an awareness of the unknowns we know and the unknowns we don’t know. God has placed within us the curiosity and humbleness of spirit to embrace the knowing of the unknown.  One breath at a time we have what we need to learn what love has to teach us through them all.  Our minds tell us unfamiliarity is scary but our spirits remind us God is bigger than any fear real or imagined.  God is willing to gently guide us step by step through the unknown so we may grow in love.

One of the thing that makes me giggle is watching a scene where a child is causing a commotion and the adult will tell them to stop fussing.  What exactly is the child supposed to do?  They have limited words to communicate.  Children are not yet trained to squelch their emotions.  Maybe there is a legitimate reason they are fussing.  They are not doing it to make the adults around them uncomfortable.  Why is it when it is the adults fussing over a new baby, it is okay?  It is funny how we interpret disruptions.  We all have set ideas in our minds about how things are supposed to go or what is to be expected.  Our brains are wired this way.  It makes sense for our survival to feel like we are walking into something we can handle.  But life is not just like instructions on a shampoo bottle: lather, rinse, repeat.  The moment it begins to feel like that we get bored and start looking for something new.  We are equally wired to be drawn to novelty.  The discord comes when we expect the novelty to come from only certain interactions or experiences.  Children making noises or put-sing about with no understandable purpose is not the kind of novelty we imagine.  God encourages to see with our hearts which are ready to learn ways to bring love into any situation..  If we are open to God showing up in random and perhaps unintended ways then we can approach fussing with curiosity.  What is the person (adult or child) fussing about?  What might be the reason behind it?  An even deeper question is what are the things I am fussing about in my mind that I am not sharing?  We can choose to open our hearts and find curiosity present to whatever situation we are in.  We can kindle the fire of love within us as we approach a seemingly annoying experience of fussing and find something novel.

I used to think growing was about success.  Look how far I have come.  Look at the growth I have obtained.  Now I realize growth is about failure.  It is a process.  It is the experience of changing and moving and most importantly being on the field.  If I am sitting in the stands to watch the others play it is a great spectacle. If I am willing to get out on the field and play, the game of life begins to mean something to me.  I am no longer just watching but I am in the experience and I am growing along with the rest of the players.  Growth means bumps and bruises.  It means trial and error and trial and error again.  With God I have a coach who is encouraging and keeps sending me back into the game.  She shows me how to get up, dust myself off, and use what I learned to run another play.  After a game I can look back at all I have learned, see my growth, and know what courage and power I have going into the next one.

We all know there are standards and protocols we are expected to follow. Every culture has a set of them.  Some of them cross over from culture to culture and are seen as basic human courtesies.  How we carry ourselves and treat others says a lot about what we value and what is important to us.  If it of value to see others’ dignity we will look for it.  If we want to be treated with respect we will treat others with respect.  What happens when your culture’s definition of respect is another culture’s definition of disrespect?  In most European, Japanese, and U.S. cultures it is seen as uncouth if you burp at the end of the meal.  In parts of India and China it is considered a compliment. What is the expected norm in your culture for God?  What are your individual expectations of God? Is it one to be feared?  It is one to be honored above all else?  Is God a being you can be close to or sense only from afar?  Does God show up only in big miracles or in small coincidences?  What would happen if you deviated from the norm of your cultural or individual experience of God?  Would you be considered eccentric or rude? Would you be viewed as strange and perverse?  Often times we do not consider the cultural norms of rules around God even if we do not follow a particular faith but they do exist.  Maybe deepening our relationship with God is about deviating from the cultural expectations of what a relationship with God looks like and trying out our own.

When we hear someone tell another person to hush it is not usually in a kind tone unless it is to a baby.  Something about how the word sounds coming out of our mouths alone conveys the end result we are looking for.  It is like a warm stroke on the arm guiding us to calm down. We picture a mother holding her child and rocking her.  It it is spoken harshly it feels like a slap, which is probably why it is not received well.  If someone were to say be still we would most likely take it as a direction.  Perhaps this is why we have so many words to convey the same idea in the English language.  While I know it is confusing for those who come to English through translation and different cultures, it is beautiful the way it can shape our experience depending how we use it. Language is powerful. Language conjures up images and allows us to craft stories.  Our words and word choices are what shape our perception and thus our reality.  If I think about my daily date with God, I like the idea of it being hush time as much as still time.  They are essentially the same in meaning and principal but I am much more likely to picture a nurturing experience of God’s presence if it is hush time.  And yet sometimes our dates are more like still time where I am in God’s presence but not leaning in to him.  When we reach our breaking point we need a God with whom we can have hush time.  A God who will hold us like a beloved child, sing to us and whisper reminders of how much we are loved.  Yet even in those most needed times I may be reluctant to allow such an intimate experience in.  I may be willing to open to still time where I sense the strength of God’s presence holding me up.  I ask God for the courage to embrace the hush of his love and the still power of her presence however I am in need of it in the moment I am in.