dailydatewithgod

God is enough because God is All.  We live in a society that tells us that more is better.  We live in a head that says we are not enough.  The two do quite well together because our society is composed of lots of people with the same story in their head.  We then give the message of our world the priority in our lives.  When God and I go on our dates each morning it does not start with a litany of all the things that I need to improve upon.  Here I am humbly starting this new day with the breath that I have been granted engaging with the very Being that created every cell in my body and mind that feeds off this breath and this Being finds my presence enchanting.  I am greeted like a gift.  The head space that often greets me when eyes first open is often the opposite.  Sometimes there is a little human girl at the foot of my bed with a checklist or the eyes looking back at me in the mirror that finds something less than satisfactory about the body it is viewing.  There is never a shortage.  Thankfully by not letting that rule my day and attending my date I can begin my day somewhere in the middle.  Sufficient is enough.  Sufficient is satisfactory. My date with God brings an equilibrium between my head and my heart.  God has my heart and on our date I am guided into aligning my head with my heart.  The date become a bridge and the bridge is sufficient.  Sometimes it is amazing and sufficient doesn’t begin to describe the connection I feel.  Sometimes it seems like a dilapidated bridge that is about to rip apart but it manages to work and get me to the other side.  Sometimes what is waiting for me on the other side is more of my head or society about what is not enough.  Either way, I have grabbed on to the hand of my Greatest companion and am no longer alone as I face the world and my head in this day.  My prayer for us is a willingness to accept the equilibrium of sufficient and trust that God is enough today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is evident.  God is clear. God is apparent. There are many perplexing elements to this human life.  We pride ourselves when we figure them out.  We are certain after a while that life is about having the answers.  We are humbled when we find ourselves admitting that we don’t know.  We look to the people who do have the answers and go with their way of thinking when we are lost.  What if living is about discovering some answers but even more questions?  What if a sense of peace can be derived from knowing that we do not know but the One Who Is All knows all.  If we can unequivocally rely on a power greater than ourselves we become gifted to explore and learn and be in the moment.  Being present in quandary can generate fear and disease only if we think that we are supposed to have it all resolved.  It is always are thinking that determines our reality.  Life is not about having the right answers or knowing the right people. Life and love are about learning and exploring so that we may grow in love.  There is joy in the mystery of a quandary.  There is excitement in the search to find some answers.  There is an opportunity for growth of our hearts and dependence upon All That is Love when we can sit with the unknown. God is always the ultimate answer to whatever quandary we experience.  If we learn to rest in Him, to take his hand amidst our confusion then we are free to be.  My prayer for us is the courage to trust the only thing we need to know is that God is today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is delighted.  God is enamored.  All of life sings of the beauty of love because all of life is a part of love.  God did not create anything outside of who and what God is.  The joy of life is experienced by seeking to find the love that is present.  In every moment we take a breath an element of energy is renewed and the world keeps going for one more breath. How beautifully joyous is that? We lose sight of the joy in our lives because we lose sight of the elements of our lives for which to be grateful.  The quickest way to return to joy when we get off course is to take on the lens of gratitude. Gratitude brings us to what is in the present and a level of appreciation and acceptance.  It doesn’t mean being happy all the time.   Joy is something deeper than happiness.  Joy is a sustaining characteristic that is present reminding us that no matter what happens God will never stop being the essence of love.  Nothing we do, have done or will do can undo God.  There is joy in being present to that idea.  Sometimes when I feel a lack of joy or reasons to be joyful I will look at my hands.  I see the intricate lines across the top, the way the bed of nails grow from the skin, how they grasp and hold on to things, and what they tell me about the world through my sense of touch. These things that are at the ends of my body on each side are miraculous and I had nothing to do with creating them.  God wanted me to know the joy of being able to grab on to things and heighten my world with my sense of touch.  My prayer for us is a willingness to find something to be marvelously grateful for to guide us back to a state of joy today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is empathy.  God is compassion.  God is understanding.  We are invited into relationship with the power greater than ourselves that not only embodies all the qualities that we desire to have but also those we are already live.  The distinction is in the fact that God is not limited by the qualities of human nature.  We however think that the only elements of life at our disposal are those that are limiting.  Because we cannot fathom a way of being that is beyond ourselves, we settle for what we know.  When we accept God’s invitation to be in relationship we open ourselves up to experience and know on a deeper level that we need not be limited either.  In the connection with God we come to experience the limitless nature of God’s grace.  As a recipient of the grace of God, I can tell you first hand that there is no experience like it.  It is like having fairy dust sprinkled on top of a grey cloud and watching it dissipate as though it had never existed.  The gift of the graciousness of God is thus far the greatest miracle of my life. I did what I learned in 12 steps to pray for my father so that my actions were in contradiction of my thinking.  Then one day for no reason I realized  I was no longer in fear or anger of a man who molested me as a child.  The one that I unconsciously blamed for a sense of terror and lack of safety growing up became the one who taught me what it means to love.  It was then that I knew that God could do the impossible.  My prayer for us is a willingness to imagine that God’s graciousness is available to us if we do our part and are willing to experience it today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is connection. Connection is the truth of love.  When we find ourselves listening to the longing of our hearts many of us will admit that despite seeming acts to the contrary we want to truly connect with others.  So we look for ways of creating hopefully healthy connections with the people in our lives.  Human beings are relational people.  We are social beings and we long to be joined with others in thought, in presence, in heart and in spirit.  There is a fundamental need in our existence that drives us to be in alliance with others.  It is a beautiful part of our nature.  Alliances created out of love for the purpose of bringing more love is the force that changes the world.  But what about those times when we feel not worthy of connection or not able to connect?  I know I have had my share of moments of isolation where I didn’t want to connect.  More often, I dealt with a sense of not being worthy of connection.  I thought I first had to prove the reason for my existence.  I needed to explain myself to you, whomever you are, so that I could be included.  But our alliance with others is not dependent upon the proof of existence that we provide if we come from the knowledge and inner knowing that God created us and therefore we matter.  We can participate in this game of connection and alliance because we are breathing.  No other permission or explanation is necessary.  In spending time on my dates with God I participate in the greatest alliance possible and out from that flows genuine connection with myself and those around me.  Now when I have moments of feeling on the out skirts or not able to connect, I know I simply need to turn to my relationship with God first, get my heart set right, and then I can see others and all the ways we are connected.  My prayer for us is the courage to look to God to establish our baseline alliance out from which will grow our genuine connection to ourselves and others today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God’s design is in and through all things in existence. God’s purpose of amplifying love expounds through all that has been and will be created.  As an essential part of creation, we are all called to do the same.  Each of our experiences are an opportunity to grow and learn how to love, share love, create love, abide in love.  We are gifted with energy that  moves through us. This energy in motion is powerful and sometimes seems overwhelming.  Its facets are wide and deep and sometimes seem to have control over us.  We talk about emotions as though they are more powerful than us.  We say we get swept away by them, we are carried by them, and we need to move past them.  Just as we cannot suppress our breath, we cannot suppress this energy  in motion.  But what if this energy in motion is an indication of our thinking.  Perhaps it needs to run its course or it is calling us to be open to alter our thinking. We are not ruled by it.  We are invited to  channel it in a healthy and respectful manner.  We are the guardians of this energy and can choose to direct it towards love. I know for many years I tried avoiding and suppressing my emotions.  Being that they were present in my mind and body and I ran from feeling present in my body as it was the enemy in my eyes, I wanted nothing to do with it.  This only resulted in me needing to use mind altering substances such as sugar to keep those emotions from what I assumed would consume me.  I now recognize that avoiding, judging, or doing anything besides recognizing this energy in motion as an indication of my thinking causes an unhealthy interruption in the flow of life.  Today I ask God for the courage to pay attention to this energy and how it is calling me to love no matter how it presents itself.  My prayer for us in an openness to listen to the energy that we are carrying in our minds and our bodies and ask God for the insight as to how we might best use it to generate more love for ourselves and others today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is choice.  God is empowerment.  When I engage in a relationship with God I do so at my own discretion.  There is no forcing of it.  There is no shoulding about it.  It is a relationship that I make a priority in my life because unlike anything else in my life there is a wholeness and a love that exists when I am aligned with my creator.  There have been times in my life when I engaged in this relationship because it was what I thought I was supposed to do but that is not the case today. The underlying connection has been there since before I was born but I chose to express it in only acceptable or expected fashions.  Today as a grown woman my participation in my relationship with the Divine is at my discretion.   It no longer has to look like others might expect.  It no longer has to fit into someone else’s definition of a relationship with God.  All bets are off because when I sense God drawing me closer and opening my eyes to an understanding of love that goes beyond what I already know, I am in.  Only in letting go of my ideas and expectations of God and how God will show up have I been gifted with the chance to know love and peace that surpasses all understanding.  I realize that this way of being in relationship with God is a daily walk, a moment by moment encounter that reaches places in my heart and soul that have yet to be awakened.  My prayer for us the courage to use our discretion in saying yes to God’s knock on our heart so that we may know love beyond what we imagine love can be for today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is flowing. God is contagious.  The simple idea that there exists and entity that created me that wants nothing more than to be with me through all my ways of being is evidence of a power greater than myself.  I am the first one to want to cut out a part of my life, an event from my past, or avoid a situation I am faced with.  I don’t think I can handle it.  I don’t think I am worth it.  I don’t think what I want matters.  If it were up to me and my thinking I would not have only thrown out the baby with the bath water, I would have tossed the tub while I was at it.  God’s presence bubbles up from within each of us to give us that extra grip to hang on and not abandon ourselves just yet.  The effervescence of God goes beyond the warm fuzzies of support and excitement. With God is an undeniable enthusiasm for the abundant life of all of creation.  The passion and arousal of God ignites all of us to take one more breath despite what our heads tell us. It comes from our heart which bears the imprint of our Creator.  My prayer for us is the courage to lean in to the breath that comes through the pumping of our heart and bears the signature of the Effervescent One in the very moment today that we want to exit left. Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is grand.  God is overarching.  We begin each day with a clean slate.  Our potential is untapped.  Our vision is clear.  Our breath is fresh.  In these beginning moments we can choose how we want to steer our day.  We can choose if we want to make an impact in our lives and the lives of others. We can fulfill our capacity for life by choosing to own and embrace our capability. Not someone else’s capability. Not someone else’s expectations of our potential.  Not our own expectations of our capabilities.  I have found that God sees me as greater and more capable than I ever could.  I am limited by my human mind’s perception of what I can and cannot do. I am not capable of perceiving the possibilities of love.  It is only when I give things a try to see what is outside the box of my mind do I begin to see what my capability is today.  I get to make the choice each day with each waking breath.  My best days are those I choose to place my hand in God’s as we begin our date and ask to be shown what God can do through me. Then I see my capacity far exceed what I think is possible in life and love. My prayer for us is a willingness to  acknowledge that we need not limit ourselves as we did yesterday if we choose God’s definition of our capacity this day.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

God is the beginning.  God is formation.  Being in relationship with God means allowing ourselves the opportunity to develop.  We are not a fixed state in time or space.  We begin with the infusion of life from our creator and spend the rest of our lives developing into the persons we become. Everything in our lives today is a result of all the thoughts and actions that we have embarked upon since our conception.We are invited by God to create with God by aligning ourselves with the thinking of God.  We do not have to go back through and undo all the non-God thinking or acting.  If we place ourselves in the gentle hands of our creator and ask to be shaped and molded from our bud state to the flower state then we will be shown an easier path than we come up with.  The world is harsh and full of fear.  God’s world is full of hope and promise.  When we consider the kind of environment fit for growing and developing, which would you choose?  We can still be in this world and grow as though we are in God’s world because the two are one in the same.  Which one we see depends upon the lens through which we are looking at life.  My prayer for us today is a willingness to allow ourselves to grow from bud to flower by planting ourselves in the thinking of God. Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen