dailydatewithgod

God is ever-engaging, ever-relating, and ever-loving!  God invites us to the oneness of life by creating us from the oneness of love.  We are part of the whole.  We are not separate. That is a belief that we take on when we embody a physical material reality.  We only think we are separate.  In the Course in Miracles it says we have only one problem, the belief that we are separate from God.  From that extends all our other problems.  St. Augustine of Hippo relays the same idea when he says “our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”  We have this longing to return to the wholeness, the oneness that we know in our spirits.  One could argue that this the mission and the purpose we are called to in this life–to remember who we are one of the whole.  This is why we only hurt ourselves when we continue to go along with the idea of others being different or separate from us.  It does not hurt the other person when we are angry with them, it hurts us because who we are being is estranged from the heart of oneness with us and the other person.  The good news is that it is just a thought that is repeated and we can choose to take on other thoughts and repeat them.  My prayer for us today is that we offer up one of our ideas of how we are separate to God and ask for the courage to embrace the oneness and connectedness that we do not see with our human eyes.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

In the vastness of space that we call this universe there runs a power that is beyond our understanding. This power is what enables the seemingly impossible to happen. That power is God.  That power is love.  We get glimpses of it all of the time but often we question it. We question it when it shows up in a way that is beyond our definition of love. We are privileged to be present to the miracles that are occurring all around us because of love.  Many times we don’t notice them because they are not the expected or acceptable forms.  God is all about showing up differently each time. God is all about now.  The presence of love in this moment of your day is different from it would be in another moment of your day.  Love takes a different shape with your child than it does with your coworker or the homeless person you see on the street.  Love doesn’t make sense and yet it is the only thing that does.  It breaks the boundaries, it expands our hearts, it yanks us out of our confined thinking about reality.  This is how it is designed. My continuous prayer to God is: Show me how love is present in this moment when I cannot see any such thing.  Help me open my heart so that I can sense the love even if I cannot see it with my eyes.  My prayer for us today is that we have the courage to suspend our expectation of love and consider that it is showing up all the time in ways we don’t expect.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

In an ever-growing and ever-evolving universe the continuous construction becomes part of the divine landscape.  Growing up we lived in a town, like many, that often had construction crews on the roads and around buildings.  It seemed in the discussion of people, that construction when it came to buildings and new formations it was acceptable.  Construction on the roads was tolerated.  The sentiment was when is this going to be finished?  How much longer are to we endure this?  It is in our way, can’t they be done with it yet? When its complete, then all will be well. This is very much how we view our lives.  When something new is being created from scratch we are all for it.  When something existing must be tended to, or reconfigured, we seem irritated.  I often look at the redo or upkeep of an existing part of my life as a failure in the design.  I have told myself in the past that if I have to construct or reconstruct an existing structure–thought, way of being, action, it must mean that I did it wrong the first time.  What if the construction of what is existing is part of its design?  What if the process of life and creation meant that construction would and “should” occur?  What if my idea that something is wrong is wrong? Ha! I like that one!  God often hears me ask the question why and I would swear that I can see God smile when I do.  It’s not that asking why is a problem, I just have learned that its answer rarely brings me into alignment with peace.  Sometimes it does, but I have learned that the question I want to ask is–how can this allow me to construct my heart to be more present to love?  How will this experience redesign my thinking so that I can see with Your eyes instead of just my physical eyes?  My prayer for us today is that we embrace construction of our lives (our thinking, feeling, and being) as the Designers intended experience for us to be more present to love (who we are at our core).  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Moment by moment, burst of energy by burst of energy this world we live in was created.  It seems as though God created the world and then just let it be. As usual, things are not as they seem. God created this physical experience with a design of systems in place that allow creation to keep occurring.  In fact, what they are discovering about space is that creation is still continuing–new planets and galaxies.  It seems there is no end to the creation process.  It is the same with us.  God did not create us and then leave us to figure it out.  With each new breath, each new moment we are invited to participate in this creation process with God. We can take any situation and learn from it–that is creation.  Creation of a new perspective and understanding.  We can experience anything and learn about the power of love from it–that is creation.  Creation of a new space in our hearts that make the next situation one where we will experience more love.  For me it is about trusting that God is Creator. God is love.  God is who God claims to be over and over in my experience of my heart and spirit.  When I get stuck in my head about who or what God is, I am restricted and limited by what only my mind can conceive.  When I dive into my heart and get quiet enough to touch my spirit, I remember that God is beyond my understanding.  And beyond my understanding is okay as long as I trust that God is.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to trusting that God is even if we don’t know what or how or why God is.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Are you willing to let go of your mind’s need to understand God and let your heart and spirit remember that God is?  Share in the comments.

We are all here.  There must be a reason for that.  The existence of something shows that it is exactly as it should be in the moment.  We think we have to prove the reason for our existence, but the mere fact that we exist tells us that our Creator already approves of us.  I can spend a lot of my energy and have done so in the past trying to prove that it is valid that I am here taking up space.  What I didn’t understand is that I would not be here if I was not meant to be here.  It is hard for my ego that needs physical proof of everything to understand.  Not to mention that it doesn’t like the idea that no proof is required.    Simply being is what is the proof.  Approval has been granted already. So then for me the question remains, who am I being today?  Does my being exude the principles of love and tolerance, patience and kindness, and show that love is alive and well in the world.  This would be my “job” as the messenger of God.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to letting go of the idea that we have to prove our worth and instead just be who we are from the truth of who we are.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

God is the certainty of life.  Without God there is no life. To acknowledge the presence of life means to recognize God’s presence.  They are one in the same.  To accept the life that we have been given is a gift to ourselves from God.  To deny the gift of our lives is to deny the one that created us and our connection to All That Is.  It is easy to take for granted that we will wake up each day and that the next breath will come. We are not bad because we forget to be consciously aware of the gift of our own lives.  God simply wants us to rejoice in it as he does.  God is excited that we are breathing.  God is excited that we continue to move forward and do our best.  It matters little to God if we succeed in a way that is accepted by the world.  It only matters that we keep showing up and being willing to do learn and to grow in love.  We are evidence of the power of love and of God when we show up and do our best.  Our best is different depending on the day, but it is easy to do when we remember that we have the power of the whole universe cheering us on.  We can expect that God sees us as good even when we don’t.  We can expect that God has confidence in our ability to keep showing up even when we don’t.  We can expect that God never doubts our capacity for love even when we or those around us do.  It is easy for me to slip into thinking that my thinking is that of God’s.  When I do, I simply need to pause, take a breath and remember that the breath did not come from me alone and it moves through me just as God does every moment of every day.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to suspend our thinking of us for the thinking of the God who we can expect to see us as only love.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The Glorious masterpiece that is you is right now.  God is made manifest in you today, in this moment, in this breath.  It is not when you have the job or the car or the significant other.  It is not when you get the degree or are no longer in debt, have the perfect body or deal with your past.  God does not quantify you based on who you are in the physical sense.  That is an ego job.  God acknowledges each day the perfection of creation and you are included in that.  You are not greater than or less than any living breathing element of energy on this planet.  Your magnificence is not in comparison to someone or something else.  It is just you.  God did not create something that lacked anything.  You are whole and complete right now.  More importantly, you can decide in this moment whether or not to believe in God’s creation.  You can with your next breath own and celebrate the unique magnificence and presence of God that you are to yourself and to this world.  The reason you are you with all your quirks and “missing” elements is because it is exactly what is needed by the world to see God today. God help me to believe that you knew what you were doing when you created me.  God help me to trust that you were wise in your decision to grant me a breath this morning to start my day.  My prayer for us today is that you be open to believing in action that God knows more than you.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

There is a rhythm in the flow of life that exists.  We hear in the heartbeats of our mothers when we are in the womb.  We are present to it when stand on the shore and watch and listen to the waves flow in and away from the coast.  We tune in with it when we notice our own heartbeat.  These are all reminders from God that behind all things physical is an eternal direction.  There is a guidance system built within us and the natural world that speaks to a constancy that we cannot destroy.  We have babies that have a difficult time in the womb of their mothers, we destroy coast lines with our oil ship crashes, and push our bodies and cause our hearts to stop.  And yet, life keeps moving forward.  Babies are delivered and survive, oceans get cleaned up and new life emerges, and people get their hearts restarted and learn to take greater care of themselves.  Life wins.  Life always wins.  Even when it ends, it has won because it existed in the first place.  When someone dies they have passed on their thinking and way of being to those around them. We are affected by others because we are not as separate as we imagine ourselves to be. We can choose what we want to be impacted by but we are not without effect.  An orchestra is impacted by the role of the violin.  It will not change what the trombone plays in the symphony but it can be made more profound when they play in rhythm with each other. My prayer for us today is that we find a sense of God’s rhythm for our lives and play our part in the orchestra of life as only we can.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

In this whole wide world there are so many intricacies that is hard to imagine the power that is responsible for creating it all.  We cannot within our finite minds comprehend the depth and breadth of the existence of life.  Even more mind-blowing is that the same Creator who designed everything we see “out there” also designed everything in us.  God invites us continually to keep creating. In partnership, God wants to do over and over again what God does which is create.  We have a set template or blueprint but we do not have to go by it if we choose to be creative.  We can be grateful for the foundation of the blueprint and learn from it. We can also recognize the greater blueprint that exists underneath it.  In other words, we can recognize that without the grains of the paper or ability to create grids a blueprint would not even exist.  We can align ourselves with the Creator of the ability of our minds to create a blue print and recreate and co-create from that space.  Whenever I feel overwhelmed and stuck, I recognize that I am working only from the set blue print of ideas, thoughts, beliefs, habits, and ways of being that have been with me a long time.  My spirit longs to create something new and my ego mind wants to hold on to what it knows, so I feel stuck.  This is where I take a breath, reach for God’s hand and say, Creator, show me what is possible here and infuse my spirit with the power and the courage to step into how you see my reality.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to our ability to creatively approach our life staring with our breath (our invitation to Spirit).   Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Within each one of us there is a presence.  A presence of love and light.  It is the essence of who we are.  This is why little babies seem to glow.  They are so connected to their own essence and have not yet been here long enough to pile layers on top of that.  By the time we reach adulthood we have so many stories caked on top of our essence that we can forget it is even there.  But our spirit whispers in the quiet moments and in our pauses. When we take a breath it is like the body’s way of calling upon the spirit.  The breath brings healing. Our body works in conjunction with our mind and our spirit.  It is not a separate entity.  It provides us with information about the state of our health.  Our body is not the problem or the solution, it is simply a reflection.  After a lifetime of hating my body, blaming my body, and feeling betrayed by my body, I have begun to be restored to wholeness. It has been a lifetime process but I am grateful for the temple that my spirit inhabits and try with patience to listen to its messages.  I believe that God calls us to be an embodiment of Love for the world.  That begins with finding something to love or at least like about the body we inhabit.  My prayer for us today is that we find one thing to love about the temple of our spirit so that we can allow the spirit to shine through the temple and share love with the world.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen