dailydatewithgod

God’s reality is the innocence of who we are. When we are aware of the truth of ourselves always present  in the depth of our hearts, we will find ourselves blown away by the phenomenal nature of the power of God. It is a wonder that no matter our outer circumstances there lives within us this nature that cannot be destroyed or broken apart by anything from the outside.  The awe-inspiring power of love is residing in us  because the one who created us is indestructible love.  We are a phenomenon.  When we lose touch with ourselves we just reach for the hand of God who draws it back to our hearts.  God is always ready to remind us of our true nature, to show us who we really are despite what we think or feel.  Early on in my recovery those who were there to support me reminded me over and over again that my actions despite my thinking or feeling were going to propel me in the direction I wanted to go in.  We can act our way into right thinking quicker than we can think our way into right acting.  When we allow ourselves to act from the phenomenon of love we know God sees inside of us our perspective of ourselves will be in alignment with how God thinks.

We all long to be free.  Freedom gives us room to breathe and be. It is about not being hindered by anything or anyone because we are led by our Creator and his view of who we are. When we have been hurt we are not able to be the fullest expression of ourselves because our view is eschewed    We end up spending our energy trying to protect ourselves from further harm.  The freedom to love which is who we are is the most fundamental part of our design. The barriers to our freedom come in all shapes and sizes.  We have negative experiences with people.  We deal with trying and stressful circumstances.  We all know these moments.  Some of us think these experiences define us.  I know I did for a long time. When I began my daily dates with God, it was because I was in a lot of pain emotionally and physically. I was desperate to change my view of myself and the world.  God, however, never saw my experiences as changing any part of my design. I learned God does not believe what I believe. She sees me as the love she created and this view is never changed by the things outside of me. He draws my attention on our date to my heart where I can choose to connect with her view of me which is unlimited freedom to love.

God is all about what we are going to do now.  Being in relationship is a daily practice.  Each moment is full of opportunities to continue to share the connection with one another.  Consistency and openness are called for because we all change over time. Being in relationship with who we are from moment to moment takes time and attention.  A relationship with God works the same.  God is always ready to meet us where we are, even more than we are willing to meet with ourselves.  God shows up because God is invested in the continuation of a relationship with us.  God began engaging with us before we were even conscious of it and desires to continue it on a daily basis.  The invitations she provides come in many forms. It is up to us to accept what he sends.  Showing up for our daily dates is my way of staying committed to the continuation of my relationship with God and myself.  My soul desires to grow closer and closer to the reality of my creator. All of our souls do if we examine our hearts and seek the truth of our nature. Through our daily interactions I see how God becomes present to me in many facets and a multitude of possibilities. Being committed to the continuation of our relationship one day at a time means I am open to the beauty of light and love in the moment. The moment I think I know how God will show up, I am choosing to not  continue to engage in the nature and mystery of love.

The miraculous nature of God is in the presence of love in all it’s totality at all times.  God does not show up to the party of life with an almost full tank of love.  It is who God is and because we were created by God it is who we are.   The total and complete nature of our being lives and thrives fully in love.  When we find ourselves feeling or acting in contradiction to it, we have simply tried to operate from less of the total of who we are.  It happens all the time. I am convinced that life is about the dance to and from this experience.  Living in a human body and interacting with other impermanent beings stands in contradiction to the totality of love because we can become easily preoccupied by the day-to-day limitations.  It is not about perfectly being aligned with our total nature all the time its more about how long do we stay misaligned.  How far away from our complete nature do we get before we remember to reach to our hearts and God’s hands to reel us back in?  The reason we feel discomfort and pain when we find ourselves thinking and behaving in ways that are not love is because it is contrary to our truest nature.  It is a good sign we are bothered by it.  It means we have not grown numb to the reality of our total design.  Whatever ways we use to bring ourselves back to the total and complete nature of love are there for the taking.  There are multiple religions and various philosophies with paths set out for just that purpose.  We only need to pick one or find our own.  Whatever it is, we will know it when we find the peace we have once known when we did not know there was another option than living in total love.

Inherent in our system is restoration.  Each time we take a breath we restore the oxygen levels in our system.  Each time we close and then open our eyes our lenses are refreshed.  So much of what occurs beyond our awareness is a restoring of the truth of who we are.  God is at work all the time making sure love wins.  The more we are willing to allow ourselves to play a role in the restoring of love’s reign, the more we are equipped to handle everything that stands in opposition to it. God does not need us to believe in his power. God needs us to be willing to stand and live on his message.  When we make the time to align ourselves to God’s vision of life, we can see clearly the vital role we play in restoring the presence of love in whatever situation we encounter.  God needs us where we are.  When I feel myself off kilter or stuck in my stinking thinking, I am nowhere near being able to believe in the possibility that love is what is restoring life to its right place.  I need God’s help as only she can guide me back to my heart.  On our dates each morning I humbly bring the madness of my thinking and lay it at his feet.  I think it should all be thrown away like a scrap heap and just start new.  God shows me it is not about getting rid of my darker energies but allowing them to be restored by the light.

We all have a special role to fill in our lives.  We don’t realize the extent to which we impact life unless we show up and take responsibility for doing so. Our lack of awareness is what often leads not only to our suffering but the suffering of others. Not filling our place in life leaves a gap.  The universe abhors a vacuum so invariably someone else is likely to step into filling our place.  But no matter how wonderful they are at filling their place in life, it won’t be a good match for ours.  Like a child playing dress up in her mom’s dress and tripping over it as she walks or a boy putting on his dad’s hat and not being able to see. In some cases, no one may step up and then the world will go without.   We are not meant to fill the role of others, only our own. It is not always obvious when we are not filling our place because over time we settle.  We put up with the void experienced by others and we rationalize our way out of us stepping up and taking responsibility.  We get lost in thinking we have to know all the ins and outs of how to fill the role.  In God’s eyes, we just need to be willing.  Willing to suit up and show up.  We have the courage of love deep in our hearts calling us to our place to fill. It will provide what we need if we stay connected to its source.  God would not imprint upon us a sense of what role we have to fill without giving us what we need to fill it.  We don’t get to know all the ins and outs of how it will happen because that is what life is all about.  The mystery and the adventure of love is in the showing up for the filling.

God invites us to step into the realm in which we are provided for.  In the third of the twelve steps of recovery for a person desiring to walk a spiritual path asks that he/she turn their will and their life over to the care of God as they understand God.  Only years after living the twelve steps did I see the word care.  I trusted on some level that God had my best interest at heart but I realize now that if I do not believe that God cares to provide for me, why would I want to turn my life over to him/her?  It is fundamental to believe God is providing for me what I need in order to live my life as a the fullest expression of myself.  If I am stuck thinking I need to provide for myself on all levels I am not free to live and be.  This was my experience growing up.  With a lack of safety provided, I was left to focus my energy on doing what I could to create it.  This left little room to live and grow.  It was about survival.  My parents provided a lot for me and I am very grateful but they were limited by what they knew how to provide.  We cannot give of what we do not have.  If I am to live as an expression of God, I must believe on some level God is providing for me what I cannot provide for myself.  It is an essential element to our relationship that begins with our daily dates.  Sometimes the most earnest prayer I can say is, God, I have no idea how I am going to live this day, walk through this situation, be the person I know I can be, but I trust you are providing what I need to do your will which is love.

In every moment there are these experiences of God showing up in our lives in ways we often do not perceive as God.  We have these fixed notions of what God is and if something falls outside that parameter we dismiss it as coincidence.  I often think of those coincidences as God-incidences.  Years ago when I was a teacher at a private school, once a week my students were tasked with reflecting on the past week and identifying where they experienced God-incidences.  I encouraged them to notice God-incidences as things that could show up outside of church or a “religious” figure.  They could expand their parameters to God showing up as hearing the sound of someone’s laughter, or  a song they loved; seeing a friend smile at them, or a bumper sticker on a car that made them laugh.  I invited them as God invites us to see how these everyday treasures are God’s way of reminding us we are loved and paid attention to.  Just by the fact we are aware and witness these things means they are gifts to us as well as those to whom they are happening.  I know I am warmed by seeing a loving embrace between people even if I don’t know them and I smile when I see a little child dancing in the line at the grocery store with complete abandon.

We seem to walk around worried or in fear about the future.  Does that even make sense?  How can we fear something that has not happened yet?  How can we possibly know what the future will look like and therefore have things to fear?  I once heard a spiritual teacher remark that he found great freedom in realizing that when he was experiencing anxiety he knew he was in the future.  He had left the present moment and attached himself to an idea about what was to come.  There is something about the present moment which grants us the freedom to just be free.  Most of our concern about the future comes from the past.  Keep in mind the moment a moment ends, it is no longer the present.  It is the past.  Just like you reading that last sentence or the word right before this one.  If we were to project our future from the present, we would have less with which to concern ourselves.  We could be free to be open to what would happen because in the present it is all we are doing.  God meets us in the present moment.  Now. Besides, if we are fully in the moment we are in we are not thinking or worrying about anything else.  It is the gift of the present to have a mind focused on what is right here, right now.  We are free to be. When I spend time with God on our daily prayer and meditation dates or find myself stopping to notice the beauty of nature, focus on my breath, or smile at someone, I am not focused on a time other than the present moment.

Love alive is enlightenment.  When we embody the love we are we live in a wakened state because the light inside of us is alive.  Have you ever tried to sleep in a brightly lit room?  Have you ever tried to hide in a wet lit space?  Not only can we not help but live waken in the light of love, but anything we deem as darkness gets dispelled when we bring it to the light.  Our eyes may need time to adjust and we can take as long as we like.  Our hearts overflowing with the love designed and created by God lives in this awakened light burning brightly in us.  We are invited to waken all areas of our life by using this light of love.  When we do not see how it could possibly tolerate the darkness we believe is buried deep within us, God encourages us to bring that thinking to him.  She does not wish to see us suffer in the dark and figure it out on our own. But God will not make us do anything. We are called to choose being wakened by the light of love buried and rooted even deeper in us than any darkness we perceive.  I know in some of my hardest moments when I have come face to face with my shame and hopelessness , the kind I was certain God would not nothing to do with, I had it completely wrong.  When I had the courage to bring it to the light barely flickering within me, I found God already there and wide awake. “Good, you’re here.  Now we can get to work and I can show you the gift wrapped up in what you call darkness.” God is awaiting our courage which is powered by the light of our wakened self.