dailydatewithgod

“Behold, I make all things new.” This expression from the Christian Scriptures’ book of Revelation states a profound understanding of God.  Newness is God manifest.  The purity of the essence of any living energy is where God lives.  God is in the right now moment where there is no future or past.  In this moment which has never before occurred, newness is all that is.  When we become conscious of the present moment we join with God and become new.  There is no where we have been that means anything in this moment.  There is no where we are going that means anything in this moment. It is a gift to be aware of our newness in God.  The present is gratitude.  The present is joy.  The present is unattached to any outcome.  The present sees only love as real. The present is in our new breath.  The present is acceptance of what is.

My prayer for us is the willingness to receive the gift of newness that comes with this present moment.

If you have is the gift of newness in this present moment, what new experience would you want to be having or being?  Share in the comments.

God is the Ultimate Observer.  God’s presence is so profound that nothing besides being need be happening.  When we hearken to the message of God our ears and our being is tuned into the channel of love.  The vibration which enters our being while being in the presence of the Almighty rocks us to our core if we let it.  It is being one with our core that we recognize our true selves and embrace the message that vibrates through our hearts.  The beauty of God is such that it is simple to hearken to the message of God.  We don’t have to climb a mountain top, spend days in the desert or fast for several days.  We can utilize the experience of our lives to hear the message of God.  Each interaction and circumstance is an opportunity to be tuned into God’s vibration if we listen carefully.  There is no person, experience, or situation past, present or future where God is not.

My prayer for us is the courage to hearken our hearts to the message of God’s presence in the simplest of circumstances and experiences of our lives today.

If you knew that you could hear God’s message of love no matter where you went or with whom you interacted today, how often would you recognize God loving you and in what ways?  Share in the comments.

God is in all.  God created all.  God abides in all. This vast array of conglomeration that we call the human experience are full of so much love and light.  The difficulty arises when our eyes are no longer open to that love and light.  Our vision becomes clouded and we only see what separates us.  When we look at people and situations all we see is what is physically happening.  We have lost sight of other’s hearts and spirits.  I tell myself that you are the reason I am suffering.   I convince myself that if my circumstances were different I would feel different.  But nothing is going on outside of me that is not already happening inside of me.  My reality is a projection of my mind.  Just think of how dark and cloudy the world looks when you are in a bad mood versus how wonderful and loving people seem when you are in a good mood.  The people and situations are only different because the lens through which you are seeing them is different.  When I am in a space of being angry, I experience strife. When I am in a space of being fearful, I experience anxiety and doubt. When I am in a space of being loving, I experience love.  I learned years ago that the quickest way for me to have a different experience is to act differently and the thinking and the feelings will follow.  God makes room for all of these experiences.  One is not better than the other but some have more peace than others.  Some perceptions make me want to be included in this vast array of the human experience, others want me to remain separate.

My prayer for us is the courage to ask God to change our perceptions so that we might experience being included in peace today.

If you could be included in an experience of love and peace, how might you see the circumstances you are about to walk into today?  Share in the comments.

In the first book of the Hebrew scripture, Genesis, it tells of the creation story.  It gives details of stages of creation of all of life as we know it over the course of 7 days.  At the end of each it remarks that God saw that it was good.  It is clear that God was pleased with what had been created.  There are no exceptions in what God found satisfactory.  God is pleased by everything that is now in existence.  A similar story occurs in the Christian scriptures as Jesus begins his public ministry.  It begins when he is baptized by John the Baptist.  Immediately afterward it says that the heavens open up, a dove descends, and the voice of God is heard to say, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.”  This is before any miracles were done, apostles chosen, preaching from mountain tops, or walking on water.  God sees us in the same way.  The moment of our creation, God is satisfied.  God does not see lack, a list of things to get done, or what should be better.  In God’s eyes we are whole and complete just as we are and God is satisfied.

My prayer for us is to be willing to embrace God’s satisfactory view of us and breathe in that God is pleased with us today.

If you knew that you were pleasing and satisfactory to God just as you are in this moment, what would you see differently about you today?  Share in the comments.

One foot in front of the other. One breath and then the next.  Everything we do is a series of steps.  A progression in a particular direction.  This is always obvious  when it comes to how we physically progress from one thing to the next.  The same applies to our spiritual and emotional reality.  Everything is connected in a flow and when we step into the flow we move forward.  When we fight the flow we are resisting reality. We don’t have to fight it but we can interrupt it and redirect its course. We have a thought and then comes the feeling based on the thought.  We then progress by attaching to the energy generated by the emotion and we act.  When we repeat the same thoughts and feelings we create a habit.  Our habits then form a character or way of being.  Our destiny is designed from our way of being.  If we go back to the beginning of the progression and pay attention to the thoughts and feelings to which we attach ourselves, we can interrupt the cycle and make progress down a different path.  We can even ask God for help.

My prayer for us is to attune to how we progress in creating our destiny by paying attention to our thoughts and feelings today.

If you noticed your thoughts and feelings today, how do they tell of the progress of your destiny?  Share in the comments.

There are many sayings in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures that after 12 years of Catholic school, a religious studies degree, and a lifetimes of attending Catholic masses stand out to me.  I know them by heart and can quote them.  Then there are ones that pop up in my mind as needed.  Like an angel on my shoulder it is a whisper.  As this new year embarks and I am looking at what is ahead and what plans I might set in place, the beginning lines of the one from the Hebrew book of Jeremiah (29:11-13) came to me.

     “For I know the plans I have for you“, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

It reminds me of the alarm I have on my phone that goes off at 2:30 pm each day and says, “Hey Colleen, I got you on this one. Love, God”  In my times with God on our dates I am reminded of the simplicity of the Great Creator who not only gives me breath in which to sustain me throughout the day.  These whispers remind me that God does so much more.  This morning my reminder is to relax into that breath and trust that God has plans for me that include lack of harm (i.e.- I am safe), prosperity, hope, and a future.  I just have to keep doing my part which is come to God, share with God, and seek God in all things with my heart.

My prayer for us is to breathe in the message of plans for lack of harm, hope, and prosperity are taken care of for us today.

If you knew in your heart that a future of hope, prosperity, lack of harm were in the planning of and for you from the beginning, how might you act today? Share in the comments.

When I sit quietly in the space of my heart today, it is amazing how soft the space is. I spent much of my life trying to protect my heart in various and rather extreme ways.  Since my experience taught me that it was going to hurt and I didn’t like it I concluded as a child that the best bet was to construct some armor around it.  That armor eventually manifested into a physical barrier of over 300#s.  Beyond that was the emotional barrier of not fully letting in others, unless they proved themselves worthy.  I used humor and sarcasm to keep from showing my real feelings, lest they be considered unacceptable yet again.  It is actually quite brilliant the lengths that I went to in guarding my heart.  Unfortunately, that means that I blocked out a lot of the good stuff too.  When I encountered positive experiences of the heart through friends, boyfriends, and family I didn’t know how to take it in.  I was certain it was fleeting and not real.  I could hear my mind questioning it when someone would share and demonstrate their love and concern.  Thankfully I was able to ingest enough so that I wasn’t teetering on the edge of madness.  I think I figured most of the reason for the love and affection was because I was doing things right.  I was meeting their approval.  So as long as I kept in line, the good stuff would keep coming.  It is a mind warp, highly conditional, and a massive set up for failure and being inauthentic.  It meant I could not fully express who I was because I always had to be sure it measured up with what is okay with you.  Working my way out of that pattern has been a long process and I still have ways to go.  It began by being so broken down and not being able to keep up the wall to a slow process of getting to know myself again or perhaps for the first time.  I have had to look at all my ideas and beliefs and determine, is this in alignment with my heart and my spirit or is it because it is what is expected?  Is this an authentic way of being for me or simply what I have always done? Thankfully on our dates, God has guided me step by step through the unknown.  Most importantly, God has opened my eyes to see that my heart needs no protection. Its fullness and vitality are always present in the mind of God.  I need only to present it to Him with sincerity and ask, how can my heart be love and receive love today?  What ideas do You have so that I may be the fullest expression of myself?  Who I am is love. Who we all are is love.  Nothing that exists can undue or make that unsafe.  It would be like undoing God.

My prayer for us an awareness of the fullness and vitality of our hearts in God’s eyes this day.

If you knew that nothing you experienced could change the vitality of your heart, what is one simple way you would be willing to live from your heart today?  Share in the comments.

God approves of our being.  How do we know this?  How can we be certain God has placed a stamp of approval on our heads?  Simple.  We are breathing.  Our breath is the simplest gift of life. What gives life?  God.  What we do with our breath is up to us. The world would have us belive that the only way of being is to constantly be working to meet its approval.  The difficulty with this idea is that everyone has a different opinion depending on their mood as to what meets their approval.  There are certain societal expectations, but then if one travels to another country or spends time in another culture the approval measure shifts.  What is acceptable in one place is unacceptable in another.  Just think about how often we change our ideas about what is okay and right.  I have found that if I get quiet enough and check in with my own heart I get a better gauge.  In that space I can ask the question: what is going to cause me to have a sense of purpose and meaning about life?  What will encourage me to keep breathing and use my breath in a way that gives life as well as sustains my own?  These are not easy questions to answer but they are often simple answers.  When I live in accordance with the truth of my spirit–love, tolerance, kindness, acceptance I can take deeper breaths of approval.  When I remember life is about the process not the end result and am willing to grow in love I breathe easier. I am not fighting reality.

My prayer for us is to notice that which keeps our breath alive and know that in sustaining and cooperating with our breath we meet the approval of our hearts and it is enough.

If you do something that allows you to breathe easier, would you say that it meets your approval today? Share in the comments.

We are invited to a partnership with God at every moment.  We are given the free will to choose the path of love and light or choose something else.  The beauty of God is that at any moment we can choose to coordinate our efforts with God’s.  We can decide at 9:05 pm that the rest of our day will be in alignment with God’s will.  God does not bat any eye.  God is right there to accept our hand.  God is delighted that we have opted to place our hand in God’s.  There is a tenderness and acceptance that God showers upon us whenever we want to receive it.  It is never about being worthy.  Worthiness has already been determined.  The moment we begin as an idea in the mind of God we are worth it.  If we are worth a thought of God’s how can we think that we are not worthy?  Are our thoughts more powerful than God’s?  Are our ideas more creative and empowering than God’s?  I think back to one of my favorite shows, Joan of Arcadia, when Joan upon meeting God asks God to prove himself (present at the moment as a young hot teenage boy).  So he motions to a tree.  She then remarks that it is just a tree and he says, “you try making one”. It is the simplicity of the magnificence of God that defies our human understanding. Thankfully, God does not require us to understand.  We only need to open our hands, line them up with in God’s, and be willing to go along for the ride.

My prayer for us is a constant reminder of the simple magnificence of God’s unending love for us enough in this moment that we are willing to place our hand in God’s.

What kind of day might be in line for you if you were willing to place your hand in God’s just for today?  Share in the comments.

Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” I like simple and I like enough.  My heart breathes a sigh of relief when I give thanks.  My body relaxes and my soul rejoices.  It is a way of practicing acceptance, being in reality, and recognizing that all of life is a gift that is given.  Being thankful is not always easy when the circumstances I am presented with are less than ideal or terrible.  But if I truly acknowledge in my heart that God is more than any experience or situation or idea in my mind, then I have something to be thankful for.  Gratitude is the quickest way out of any kind of mind funk.  It is easy to go on with the litany of things that I don’t like or wish were different but being grateful allows me to take a step back and notice the simple joys of life.  I am thankful for my breath, being alive today, feeling whatever it is that I am feeling, not being alone, having ten fingers and ten toes, clothes to wear, a roof over my head, a mind to think, ability to choose what to focus on, and situations from which to learn and grow.  As part of my spiritual practice I write out a gratitude list of at least 10 things each night before I go to bed and I try to put several different things on there each night.  I have found over the years that when I go to bed thinking of the things I am grateful for my mind marinates in that soup all night and life is worth looking forward to in the morning.

My prayer for us is the acknowledgment that being thankful is a gift to our entire being and we can be grateful for the power of being able to give thanks this day.

If you were to list five things you are thankful for about this day, what would you put on your list?  Share in the comments.