STAYING MY FOCUS ON GOD

Just bits and pieces that help me stay my focus on God:

1. Fr. Richard Rohr wrote one of my all-time favorite lines: "The most amazing fact about Jesus...is that he found God in disorder and imperfection -- and told us that we must do the same or we would never be content on this earth." [My note to me: That to me is the first step toward self-acceptance, finding God in my own imperfection.]
2. My one desire: to know and to show that wo/man "shall no longer live by bread alone or by the sword but by the grace of God without taking thought, without supplication, but in the understanding that He that is within you already knows your need, and it is His good pleasure to give you the kingdom." [My note: This was stated in Joel Goldsmith's biography, @ p. 91, as his one desire, and I want it to be true for me.]
3. Fr. Rohr wrote "Parables, like Zen koans, are almost always counter-intuitive and resist your common sense intellect. That is their whole point." [My note: This is exactly why paradox is so vitally important to me...it does the same as parables, turns me from my reasoning mind toward a higher mind.]
4. Don’t think about this too much, and don’t compare, which is always the work of the ego. The Holy Spirit can only be experienced. Faith is not really for problem solving. Faith is that attitude which allows you to fully experience your experiences, and not to eliminate the mysterious, problematic, and threatening parts of those experiences. [My note: This was either Rohr or Easwaran...maybe my blending of their words...I try to remember always to note when I've lifted something, and there is no note here.]
5. The closer you get to the Light, the more you see your own darkness. And the closer you get to your own ordinariness (darkness?), the more you know you need the Light. [My note: Same goes here.]
6. Also from Rohr: Spirituality is always about you changing your own way of seeing and your own way of hearing (not changing other people!). [My note: This sure brings No. 1, above, home, i.e., that we must find God in disorder and imperfection or we will never be content on this earth.]

I spell these out for me. I need to keep God-focused now more than ever.

Thank you.