dailydatewithgod

Have you ever stopped to think about what kinds of entertainment you like?  Do you prefer visuals or sounds?  Do you like lots of color or stark contrasts?  When you notice what your mind spends time thinking about you begin to clue into what your brain considers to be entertainment. It seems like our world is all about entertaining. Yet the goal seems to be to keep us occupied and numbed out. So much so that when we are not being entertained we feel as though we are having less than an optimal experience.  We want our spouses to entertain us.  We want our phones to entertain us.  We want our teachers to entertain us.  We seek out entertaining rewards.  Novelty and excitement creates new connections in our brains.  This is a good thing.  However, in order for us to be with the breadth and depth of the entertaining experience we need time to digest it.  Today we are entertained at every corner. After a while it becomes distraction.  It dulls our sensitivity and we create an expectation that in order for something to be important at all, it must be entertaining.  We are left feeling as though the ordinary and the routine are sub-par experiences because we are not overly stimulated by them.  The greatest joke about life that I clued in on after many years of my daily dates with God is that when we make time in the ordinary silence and quiet contemplation where we are not looking to be entertained and strongly engaged, all of life can be entertaining.  I find great joy and a sense of excitement sometimes in watching how birds travel in flocks.  I am tickled pink by watching a child share an idea they just learned. All of life becomes entertaining on some level because the wonder is returned.  When I make space for the opposite of what the world throws at me as entertaining and attune myself to the sacredness of the simple pleasure of being able to be alive and breathe, I can be entertained by the ordinary.

The evidence of the power of words is all around us.  We see it when we look at our beliefs.  A belief is a repeated thought.  It is a thought we attach meaning to and continually go back to as a source of our sense of ourselves.  The tricky part comes when we have beliefs that we are not aware of and ones we have adopted but did not author ourselves.  When we begin to listen to what we say out loud and what we tell ourselves we get an inkling as to what we actually believe.  If you aren’t connecting with what I am saying the next time you say something you always say like, “I’m so busy.”   Pause for a minute and ask yourself some questions: Is it true? What does it mean to be so busy?  Are there other words you might use to more accurately describe what it is you are expressing to yourself or others?  There is a common collective belief in western culture that we sound important when we indicate we are busy.  People say it all the time.  But what does it mean?  Does it mean we are overwhelmed?  Does it mean we mismanage our time?  Does it mean we are important?  What does it mean if we were tell someone we were not that busy?  Notice what happens in our tone and posture when we switch the conversation to not being busy.  What does that mean?  The power of belief is only effective in our lives if we know what it is we believe.  If when you go to question your beliefs you balk at the question all together, it may be an indication that you have no idea why you say or do what you do.  God invites us to question what we believe, even about God.  What does that word mean?  Do we believe in God? What does that look like?  What do we believe because we believe in God?  Is it a belief in our head or our heart?  What kind of message does believing in God convey to other people about the kind of people we are?  If we keep repeating the thoughts and they become beliefs and we define ourselves by them.  This is why we push back when people challenge them.  It is not an easy process to pause and take a look, but God invites us to do with curiosity and compassion. As part of our date time over the years, God invited me to peek closely at some of the beliefs I held for a long time and never questioned.  God helped me to wonder, if I was not always at fault, what might it mean about me?  If I am not busy today, am I still okay in God’s eyes even if not in the eyes of others?  Those others, by the way, are probably too busy to notice how busy I am. 😉

I have never been what one would describe as the rugged type.  When I travel I like to stay in nice places that have all the little essentials so you don’t have to worry about bringing it all with you. It is nice to feel taken care of, not having to worry about making your bed , and getting added comfort.  While that is my default, I have also voluntarily opted to experience what one might call roughing it. Camping, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, mountain climbing, snorkeling, and the like. The kind of trips where you go without a shower for several days and carry your own pooper-scooper because there are no portable toilets.  My experience of the essentials is completely different in those situations.  I am extremely grateful for the whole gamut.  It has given me an inkling of how one uses terminology that we think is defined a specific way and yet with a different context makes no sense.  An essential in a hotel room would be a bed with soft pillows, while an essential in a tent is a sleeping bag or at least a blanket.  An essential in a hotel room is the hot water in the shower.  An essential while rock climbing in Joshua Tree is something to wipe the dust off your hands so you aren’t ingesting the dirt with your lunch.  There is however, enough of a similarity that we cannot call these essentials completely different.  God is constantly reminding us in all areas of life that where we see differences, there are similarities.  Where we see separateness there is no union. While we may not agree on the content we can agree on the process.  While we may not want the same things, are interests may be the same. If we change our focus to the essential similarities between ourselves and others, we open the door for our heart to guide our vision.  Our hearts send the blood throughout our body to keep it functioning as a whole.  While the gut or the brain might get more from time to time, it does not mean they are both not an essential part of our lives. Their ability to survive is dependent upon the same system of the heart.

We all have a song inside of us.  Perhaps that is why music is so powerful.  The rhythm and the beat connect with our hearts. We are all energy vibrating in a vast universe.  It has been scientifically proven that we have an energetic vibration emanating from our hearts that is shared with those around us. It is not just a bunch of woo-woo nonsense.  These vibrations extend past words and gestures.  It is shared in such a way that we are aware of it even when we do not see anything specifically happening. Think about the time you met someone and sensed a connection which made no sense since you had never met them before.  Or how you can describe what a room feels like when you walk into it or get out of it.  When we take the time to connect with the vibration of our energy in our hearts we become attuned to what we are amplifying outward and inward.  If we are in distress or anger we will amplify those energies.  If we are in appreciation and wonder we will be the amplification of gratitude and curiosity.  It is not about forcing ourselves out of one state or the other, it is about an awareness that the energy residing in our hearts gets amplified and those around us will experience it.  Of course, how they interpret that experience will depend on what is resonating and vibrating within their own hearts.  We can take responsibility for our amplification by being aware of it and not blaming or accusing others of causing it.  There is an expression, if you spot it, you got it.  The reason we notice or connect with the vibration being amplified from another is because we sense a similar amplification in ourselves or the capacity for it in our ourselves.  God encourages us to know the vibrating  energy within our hearts by engaging in a process of self-discovery with curiosity and compassion.  It is not about blame or shame.  It is a call to know and love all the energies vibrating in us and recognizing them as playing a part in the song of our lives.

My prayer for us is the curiosity to notice the energy being amplified from our hearts and how it affects our perspective of ourselves and others today.

As a kid I remember we would have leftovers for dinner sometimes.  It would happen after a celebratory meal or a big gathering. Did you ever notice that certain foods are better as leftovers? There was, of course, my favorite leftover pizza! Best breakfast food ever!  😉 We do not often think of what remains as being the better part of an experience.  When you have guests over, isn’t it the ones whom you know the best who remain and help clean up?  When we graduate, all that remains are memories in a big year book and the stories we tell about our time together.  After attending a sporting event or a performance of some kind what remains is our sharing of the experience with those there and others whom we tell.  No wonder our stories mean so much to us.  Our interpretation of what happens in our lives is what remains with us far after other elements fade away.  Our decisions about the impact of something or someone is what remains when it is over or they are gone.  God wants to remain with us always.  God is remaining in our hearts to help us interpret and be with the experiences of our lives.  God desires to always be the faint whisper reminding us that no matter what remains we can use it to make some thing new.  God is the very idea that remaining as close to what we can learn about love from any person or exchange is what will remain in our consciousness and create a vision through which to move forward.  Remaining in a space of love is what our hearts are designed to do, but I need God’s help with that.  My daily date is a space to ask God, help me see the remains of love and growth from love after all else has faded away today.

God is now. God is present. God is here. We seem to spend a lot of time focusing on there.  When do we get there?  Go over there. Are you there? Look under there. What’s in there? Who is there?  What will happen when we are there? And the expression, wherever you go there you are.  Perhaps we must go the path over there or look under there or get to there before we are ready to let go and be here.  When we are here, we no longer need to concern ourselves with what is over there or under there or where.  Being here is the only place we can be.  When we let go of needing or wanting to be there instead of here, there is much less to carry in word and being.  But it is not as the spiritual by-pass story would tell us:  just be here and be zen about it.  Sometimes, often times in my experience,  it takes going there and looking there to realize I am and always have been here.  With the patience and perspective of God we can travel over there and wonder what is there.  It is in the exploration of the there that we find here.  We do not know what we are seeking until we walk the path.  The beauty, magnificence, innocence, and simplicity of God teach us that when we connect there with our hearts we are here and always have been.

My prayer for us is the wonder to explore what is over there or under there and allow ourselves to be shown what God already knows, that whatever is there is here in our hearts today.

There are various points in our lives that call our attention.  We reach points in our lives when we make decisions which can change the course of our lives. We live for the points in our lives that tell us what the point is.  Point is a funny word especially when you consider what power we give it.  How many times have we asked ourselves, what is the point?  Why are we here?  Who are we?  What are we doing?  Why does this matter?  How often have we been in conversation with someone and asked them to get to the point?  Is it so we can know which direction to go?  Or is it to determine if it is worthy of our time and attention? If we have no starting point, how do we know which direction to move in?  What happens when the point keeps moving?  How frustrated do we get when it seems like a person or an experience we are having has no point?  On my daily prayer and meditation dates with God there is no specific point I am trying to get to.  Even when I think there is, I lose the point of the time with God and myself.  It is about being. My heart wonders why there must always been a destination point other than the one I am currently experiencing.  Maybe the point is to be okay without a point.  Who knew a dot could mean so much?  At the end of the day, the only thing I can find peace about in the belief that God is the point.  The emanation of love is our purpose, it is where we are right now, it is where we are going, and it is where we have been.  If it isn’t about love, then what is the point?

Having been raised in a traditional faith environment I was told from an early age who God is.  I was presented with a whole cast of characters who supported the work of God but they were not God.  There was one element among all of this which led me to wonder about the nature of God past what I was told.  As a Catholic Christian we are asked to believe in the Trinity.  It is the idea of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  It is, of course, a mystery that cannot be explained in simple terms. Any explanation I might try to provide will certainly lack many of the essential theological tenants and philosophies but here goes.  Each of the members of the trinity are facets of the one God.  God created his son, and the Holy Spirit.  They work in relationship to one another which is a core part of how the trinity works to show us the nature of God.  We are meant to be in relationship.  The Hebrew scriptures which are the first set of books of the Bible speak of God as Father and God as Spirit.  In the Christian scriptures, the second set of books of the bible, we are introduced to Jesus who refers to His Father and speaks of the Spirit. Jesus tells us that he and his father are one.  Jesus shares that the spirit is an advocate for his disciples especially once he has left the earth.  There is much more involved but this is neither the time nor the place to go into it.  When I got into studying in college all of the worlds religions, I noticed some similar patterns in the polytheistic religions and in native american spirituality.  I saw connections to the faith which had become very dear to me and the sole of my spiritual practice.  It made me wonder how many more facets there are to understanding God.  In recovery I learned of the notion of creating one’s own concept of a higher power.  While I cannot fully describe my spirituality today it does have elements of all these things to which I have been exposed.  There are some very concrete facets of God for which I use the word God to describe, but what I am experiencing or knowing in that moment is not a typical picture of God.  Today I do not think it has to.  I think the journey of our hearts begins with exploring whatever facet works for you.  If we are not able to connect to one facet, what is the point of trying to make ourselves do so?  God is not limited by our understanding.  Who am I to say that the facet of God that resonates with you is right or wrong if it leads you to your heart?

Why is the idea of second chances so remarkable?  What about third and fourth chances?  Who determined that the first chance is the best or the most important?  God invites us with many chances to open our minds and hearts to grasp how much we are loved and cared for.  God does not care which chance is the one that awakens us.  It is about being able to allow it to be real for us. Sometimes it takes getting a sense through seeing, hearing, and experiencing love in many facets over time.  There comes a moment when we can no longer deny the truth of the power of love.  For people like me who were so busy expecting love to show up in a specific way I probably missed a dozen chances God had offered me to let it in.  I could not wrap my head around the idea that God’s love does not operate by human ideas alone.  Our worldly expressions of love give us an inkling as to the profound nature of God’s love but not the full picture. I can only describe it as first encountering the chances to allow love in as it was presented to me. Then venturing past what I was told and shown to see if it was real.  Next coming to terms with its limitations and untruths.  This was confusing and painful and I wondered what the true nature of love could possibly be.  At some point during one of these breakdowns of understanding, when my mind had given up and my heart felt smashed into a million pieces, another chance at encountering love appeared.  I was finally ready, having let go of my ideas and expectations to allow a profound sense of something I cannot really describe with words to resonate deep inside of me.  This hundredth chance was used by God to allow me to see not only am I loved but I AM love.  We all are.  Our daily dates serve as a quiet reminder because I forget, that even when I am not aware of it.  The power of love is always resonating within me.  We get a chance every day and every moment to embrace this truth of our Creator, but sometimes it takes the one thousandth chance to be open to it.

If we look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs it starts with our basic human necessities of food, shelter, and safety.  Then it builds up to the highest level known as actualization.  Part of the reason we do not allow ourselves to engage in the invitation presented to us continually by God for deeper relationship is because we are still focused on our more immediate needs.  If we do not know where our next meal is coming from, why would we concern ourselves with making sure we spend time in nature connecting with all that is?  If we do not feel safe enough in the world, why would we venture into trusting a power greater than ourselves that cares for us?  The concept of love in any form holds no space to grow when we do not feel safe.  Much of the literature and study of the nature of love confirms this.  We have grand notions of what love is and all its forms. We also know what allows us to feel safe enough to let love grow.  We know how to make things look like love, but to be able to rest in it we must be able to trust it.  Otherwise we can not allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough to allow it in.  Perhaps it is why in our broken moments when we have nowhere else to turn, we are willing to allow love in.  We have no strength to keep up our defenses and we are open to seeing another way.  These gifts of broken experiences crack us open and cause us to feel like we are losing part of ourselves.  The only thing we are losing is our defenses or lack of safety.  God holds a space for the growth of our hearts in the harbor of his love.  It is there for us to connect to when we are ready.  Sometimes the only way to be ready is to feel completely unready. In the darkest and most troublesome times of my life, it is not the neat and predetermined understandings of love that have saved me.  It is the madness that maybe just maybe there is a deeper experience of love and safety reaching back out to me that is keeping the light of life alive in me when I can no longer see it.

My prayer for us the curiosity to explore the sense of the safety of love provided by God that is beyond our understanding today.