dailydatewithgod

Sharing my experiences and understandings of the Great I AM.

Dec 22

Be About Use!

by Colleen

There is a poem attributed to Teresa of Avila a 16th century Christian mystic and doctor of the Church:

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”  While Teresa may not have been the author, the message is clear. Our role in the world is to be the presence of the divine.  We are the vessels through which the message of love, compassion, and forgiveness can be carried.  What more profound responsibility do we have then to live out the calling of our soul?  Within us is the capacity to love beyond our understanding.  When we allow ourselves to be used by God for a loving purpose we find ourselves at peace with others and ourselves.  The moment I think I need to figure it out and step in and take control I have gone off course. It does not mean we sit idly by and let life happen.  In each situation, we can reach for hand of God and inquire how we might be used for the greater good. I cannot possibly conjure up in my mind all the possibilities.  I need to be connected to God to be in the realm of possibility.  In essence, it is easy to do so but we resist it because we think we will fade away.  We latch on to the word use and think we are going to be thrown away when we are finished.  In the moments when I pause from trying to make things go my way and release myself to be used by God, there is a fluidity and a joy I experience.  The only moment is now. We have all had this experience, it is called being in the flow state.  Scientists have discovered there is an actual phenomenon that occurs in the brain when we are in flow.  Those moments when you lose time and space and are one with the experience is a flow state.  When we let go of making it happen and surrender to being our truest self, we receive the benefit.  I have never heard someone talk about being in a flow state and vowing never to go back.  Most people want to know how to create more of it.  When we allow ourselves to be used we step into God’s loving flow of light and life.

 

My prayer for us is the willingness to be used by God and experience the flow of love and light in our entire being today.

 

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Dec 21

Be About Glimpses!

by Colleen
God provides insight in our minds when we open ourselves up to the idea that we may not have all the pieces.  It starts with the momentary breath in which we pause to take stock of what information we have and what information we are missing.  In that moment we can choose to open ourselves up to more information.  We will experience glimpses in God’s vision of ourselves, others, situations and decisions.  These glimpses set out a path that we could not create due to our limited view.  In my experience God does not lay out the entire path, but I get glimpses along the way. The glimpses usually come in the form of the next indicated step.  When I find myself in a place of trying to figure out and not being able to I will turn to God in wonder of an answer.  Sometimes I hear God reminding me that I am focused on something that is not in the day I am in.  I am reassured that if I focus on this day, I will be given what I need. It is hard to let go and trust I will be provided with a glimpse as I need it.  In the meantime, I do not sit by and do nothing.  I have learned that worrying is not actually doing anything but providing potential fuel for fear which in the end is not helpful.  If there is something I can do, I ask God for the courage to do it.  If there is not, I let go and trust. Worrying, I have learned is not action for my head, despite how much my mind may want to go there.  Glimpses require an ongoing relationship.  Very much like C.S. Lewis said, “Relying on God has to begin again all over again each day as if nothing had yet been done.”
My prayer for us is the willingness to reach out for the glimpses God is ready to provide us with today.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Dec 20

Be About Clarity!

by Colleen
In the small spaces of our lives when no one is watching we find ourselves in a moment of choice.  We can do what we think we are expected to do or we can do what our hearts want us to do.  In some cases they may be the same thing but at the end of the day we are beholden to our hearts not expectations. My daily dates with God have brought a clarity to my life that I did not expect. To be honest, I did not realize how muddy my thinking was when I started.  I just figured life was overwhelming and some how I would muddle through.  I would follow along doing what was expected of me and since everyone else seemed to be pleased, I would be too, eventually.  Yet, I was trying to blot out my life by numbing myself with food and self-hatred so something did not line up with my being. I built up a wall around my heart so thick I could barely access it.  When God invited me to look into what I had created and decide as an adult if it was still working for me, the process of clarity began.  Now I notice when my thinking steps me back into murky waters and I am invited by God to take a breath and reach out my hand.  Some days it takes me longer than others but God does not judge the length of time.  The moment I wake up to see what I am thinking and doing,  the clarity begins.
My prayer for us is the willingness to notice when we have stepped our minds into murky waters and take a breath to ask God to guide us back to clarity today.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Dec 19

Be About Memory!

by Colleen
God is the deepest understanding in our minds.  When we wed ourselves only to the physical reality of this world we forget the essence from which we were created.  When we attach ourselves to a physical manifestation of God whether in a spiritual person or nature we step closer to memory housed within us of a connection to something greater than ourselves.  They become a portal into a memory of God.  Growing past that limited physical connection however is what causes our faith to grow and mature. If our experience of God is cultivated, it will expand beyond the form.  Thrown in the mix of all of this is particular institutions connected to certain spiritual figures.  Sometimes they can distort the message to meet their purposes only.  This can sometimes cause us to not want to remember our connection to a spiritual being because we associate it as only the form which is presented and accepted by a large group of people.  But our memory of God is not limited to the form which we or others believe  to be an acceptable version of God.  Through our daily dates I have been opened to experiences of God that defy standard acceptable presentations of God.  This causes my memory of God’s presence in my life throughout my life to be opened.  The times when I thought God was nowhere to be found, I see instead that what I believed was the only form of God was not there.  God is always there, but my eyes needed adjustment.  Reclaiming the memory of God restores my relationship with God and myself.
My prayer for us is the willingness to consider that our memory of God’s presence in our lives may be limited only by our conception of God at the time and ask God to help us create new memories by opening our eyes to see how God is choosing to show up in our lives today.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Dec 18

Be About Healing!

by Colleen
One of the definitions of healing refers to the idea of becoming sound again.  As though when we are healed we fall back int the rhythm of life.  What a beautiful picture.  When we are out of tune with life we are ill at ease.  We are in a wounded state and cannot hear the call of love.  God offers healing because God knows we are at our best when we are in sync with the vibration of light and love which is health.  Given how unhealthy we can potentially be, is it any wonder that we struggle with the mindset and heart space to handle the basic ups and downs of life?  We look to be restored to the soundness of life by finding something outside ourselves.  When we are on our own trying to connect to what is ailing us we are greeted by a cacophony of sounds very few of which resonate with our deepest selves.  Despite the alluring promises, however, the answers will not come from outside of us.  When we take the time to spend with God and have the chance to fine tune our hearts we can be healed.  Sound is a vibrational experience involving energies unseen.  This means healing is a process that can be somewhat mysterious.  There are the moments when we are healed by changing our behavior but if our mind is out of sync with our heart it is only a matter of time before the body begins to resonate the discord.  Inviting God into the spaces where we feel out of tune, even the ones we are ashamed of, allows the light of love to enter in and shift our resonance to health.  The gift of healing is one God is read to dispense upon invitation.  God desires to be in full resonance with us as much as possible and openness to healing is the first step.
My prayer for us is the curiosity to see what healing can occur when we invite God into the spaces of discord in our lives today.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Dec 17

Be About Surrounding!

by Colleen
The magnificence of God is such that our minds can barely comprehend it. Choosing a relationship with God means being open to the mysteries of being in relationship with the ebb and flow of life.  As we walk daily with God, we can experience the joy and the surprise of what it means to witness and partake in the surrounding nature of love.  God does not just create us to live life like a prescriptive measure.  God desires for us to be engulfed in the passion of living.  When we are surrounded by the mysterious and sometimes misunderstood presence of love we have no words.  We find ourselves devoid of thought and we lose a sense of time and space.  This experience gives us an inclination into the reality of God.  We are not able to surround ourselves this way so to experience it we must abandon ourselves to the surrounding God provides.  We have all had moments of brief flashes of this before but often do not know how to describe it.  We say it is mysterious, bizarre, weird, or other-worldly.  Rarely do we use the word love to express what is happening.  Yet love is exactly what it is.  Through the surrounding of God we are completely enveloped in the nature of our core reality and time and space have no hold on us.  We cannot think our way out of it.  We can only breathe it in.
My prayer for us is the willingness to abandon ourselves to the surrounding of love by God in whatever small or large way it shows up today.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Dec 16

Be About Claiming!

by Colleen
As we wake up to the love God has for us we realize it is not God’s disengagement from which we have been suffering.  God wants nothing more than for us to claim the power of our hearts.  God placed within us the deep and profound capability to be a force for love in the world.  Yet if we go about our day without a sense of what we have to give, how can we share it?  If we do not claim the gift God has given us how will we know we have it to give to others?  In my daily prayer and meditation date with God, he shows me he is willing to be with me even in times when I do not want to be with me.  She stands firm in her view of my innocence and purity when all I feel is dark and angry.  God has already claimed us as the ones to play the role of living and growing in love with one another.  How long will we go without claiming it?  I was always grateful that unlike many people I saw wreaking havoc on the world, I did not suffer from being boastful or prideful about myself.  When I got into recovery I realized that suffering from low self-esteem and non stop self-criticism was the flip side of the same coin. Reverse pride is as much disconnected from God as self-righteousness or grandiosity.  It is not claiming who I truly am which is an extension of God, not for my own purposes but as a part of the greater story of love.  Stepping into claiming who we really are takes us out of feeling like we are less or more than others.  Claiming who we are allows us to be one with others.  We are all children of God.  Both the people we love and the people we cannot stand are children of God.  How close we want to be to others is directly proportional to their willingness to claim who they truly are. The same can be said for us.  In the meantime, God’s perspective will not waver.  Nothing we can think about ourselves or others ever changes God’s reality.
My prayer for us is the curiosity to see who God claims us to be and explore how much love is present when we believe it today.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Dec 15

Be About Forgetting!

by Colleen
As someone with a good memory I pride myself on being able to remember things that other people tend to forget.  Conversely, I am very hard on myself and think something is wrong if I do not remember something. As I have matured I have learned to let go more and not be so hard on myself, thank God.  The longer I live there is more information in my brain and sometimes it reaches capacity when I least want it to.  I have also learned that in the grand scheme of things, I can trust that what I need to remember I will.  The downside of a strong memory is I can also remember things I would rather forget.  Mostly I want to forget the shameful, embarrassing  or traumatic events and experiences.  With God’s help I have learned to flip my relationship with my remembering.  The grace of being able to remember what I learn from an experience and forgetting the nitty-gritty details or feelings leaves space for a willingness to grow.  I heard recently someone say that they gave a graduation speech and said they hoped the new graduates would fail as much as possible.  I almost gasped and thought about my relationship to failure.  I always saw forgetting as a failure.  It is amazing the connections and meanings we put on things.  I internalized the idea growing up that if I failed it meant I was a failure and I would fall out of favor with others.  Who wants that?  In my daily relationship with God I see that sometimes the most powerful thing I can do is forget the meanings I create.  Things happen.  Life is awkward and uncomfortable.  We make mistakes so we can have something from which to grow. Forgetting my relationship to remembering allows me the opportunity to not have the right answer or be in control.  Ah . . . the freedom to just be. . . .How many more meanings might it serve me to forget?  Growing in the image and likeness of God is not about being perfect.  It is about embracing all the elements of ourselves and allowing God to use them to create love. What one person sees as failure, God sees as a perfect opportunity.
My prayer for us is the courage to see what meanings we can be forgetting as we go through our day focusing on how to be a portal of love.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Dec 14

Be About Offering!

by Colleen
We all have gifts given to us to be shared.  They come in multiple forms from momentary to a life-long process.  We all know what it is like to be touched by someone else’s gift.  It could be their smile, musical talent, attention, money, curiosity, athletic ability, or kind ear.  We are often led to think we have nothing of significance to offer unless its elaborate, grand, or can change the lives of many people.  Yet how important is the offering of a guiding hand to someone who is blind?  How valuable is the offering of a smile to someone who is having a bad day?  How much impact is felt in the offering of music to the heart of someone who feels numb?  As a child I loved the story of the little drummer boy.  The only thing he had to offer was the playing of his drum.  He did not have the elaborate gifts of the kings, but his gift played with all his effort brought a smile to the mother of the newborn king.  When we connect with what our hearts have to offer throughout our lives or even just in this day, we can bring joy, peace, and the presence of love to any situation.
My prayer for us is the willingness to offer what we have to share in the little moments of today and know we are making an offering of love.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
Dec 13

Be About Nearness!

by Colleen
We get to choose the people and ideas that we keep close to our hearts. As adults we have a say that I we did not have as children.  We have voices to express opinions and share ideas.  As children we often do not have a say in who or what we allow close to ourselves.  There are expectations, even as adults, which cause us to be at war with what resonates with us. God does not desire our hearts to be a stomping ground for everything.  What we allow near to our hearts, if it is to live within us, must move with the same rhythm.  In my past when I have allowed things and people near to my heart that did not resonate with me, I chose to shut down my heart in order to make it happen.  There are a million reasons why and they are not important.  The important thing is seeing I was the one to suffer by allowing the nearness to my heart.  Shutting down was effective to numb me out but it cut off the access I had to my own heart.  It caused me to put casings and guards around my heart.  On the outside it looked loving and wonderful.  Inside my heart longed to be free.  After a time, it all broke down and while that was painful, it was the best thing for me.  It caused me to reevaluate what I allow near to my heart.  The actions, ideas, experiences, and people I bring near to my heart now go through me and God.  Each time I ask God, Is this person, idea, or experience something that resonates with my heart? Will cause me to grow in love and give love more fully to the world?  There is no formula, there is no system.   It is a day-to-day walk in the moments of the breath.
My prayer for us is the courage to pause in the moments of our breath and check in with our own hearts and God and ask if what is nearest to our hearts is resonating on the frequency of love today.

Uncategorized

Leave a comment »
«Older Entries
Newer Entries »
Blog at WordPress.com.