AN UPGRADED MIND IS PEACE OF MIND

Many years ago a nutritionist gave me a short formula for healthier eating: What goes in hard comes out soft; what goes in soft comes out hard.

It occurs to me a like formula could apply to our inner life...what goes in bitter comes out sweet, what goes in sweet comes out bitter.

For example, we perceive an incoming remark, action, tax bill, etc., as nasty, hurtful, unfair...bitter in a word. As long as we stay in our reasoning mind with our perception, it is a bitter pill, and we take it personally...resentment aborning. However, when we resist not but trust our inner connection, God, to lead us peacefully through this, we open ourself to a new way of responding...not reacting, but responding. How sweet it is!

Same goes when we receive a lovely compliment, delightful gift, unexpected lottery win...and that feels sweet. Then the compliment sours, the gift ain't what it looked to be, the lottery win turns costly...now we're growing resentments.

Peace of mind begins with our change of mind...from seeking a self-determined objective to seeking God's will whatever that may be. We find peace of mind in an accepting mind when we resist not but trust our inner connection, God.

Believe. Trust. Love and laugh.

Thank you.

TRUTH IS NEVER NOT TRUE

We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness. -- Thich Nhat Hanh

Like most spiritual things, that cannot be understood with the dualistic or rational mind, but only at the level of soul. -- Fr Richard Rohr

Inertia is my bane today. I blame it on being 80. But if the answer to getting out of ourself, do something about something, was pure truth when I was 40, it is true still. Truth doesn't change, our want-to does. 

It's times like these that I find my joy in outside happenings: Tiger just won his 82nd tournament and tied Sam Snead's record; the Nats are still in it...one more, one more; Roger also won, his 10th Swiss Open; I know Ruckus is bounding around heaven bring joy to the angels; God loves me and so do more than one or two actual walking-around people. And best of all, I love them all right back.

Hey, if love is the answer to all our woes, than I can love inertia. I've just remembered two things I need to do today because I want to...both of which move me out of me.

The trouble with spiritual growth is that it works.

Thank you.

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE...IN RIGHT-SIZE PIECES

Never count success by money gained. That is not the mind of My Kingdom. Your success is the measure of My Will and Mind that you have revealed to those around you. -- God Calling, October 29

Unconditional love sounds so desirable yet unattainable both at the same time. I'm about halfway convinced that it sounds unattainable because our mind is stuck resisting the idea of our own ability to pull it off. Well, of course we cannot. That's our springboard to trust in the Lord.

We are taught, but seldom do, trust God can and will if sought.

We must break the concept of unconditional love into teensy-tiny pieces...starting with the idea of love itself. Love is the act of acceptance, and acceptance is surrender, prettied up. So we start with our surrender, surrendering our want-to of any and all things, to the universal force for good, God.

All that is a bare beginning and getting it takes years for some and a nanosecond for others, and we do not get to choose the time or place when the bridegroom will come. Hope for nano, prepare for years, the deeper blessing.

It is in the time of preparation that our mind is changed...the very process of our thinking is upgraded to the measure of My Will and Mind. This then is the font from which unconditional love flows from us to be revealed to those around us...without our control, without our knowledge or consent.

Ah, but be aware: If we think about it, we stop the flow. Our egoic self will have re-entered and declared it impossible...which, of course, it is to self.

The work of the Father is revealed by the Father...love and laugh.

Thank you.

NEITHER FREEDOM NOR FREE WILL ARE FREE

Is it you, God, knocking at the door seeking to be let out? Or is it my ego Lucy looking so adorable in her Shirley Temple ribbons and bows tap dancing at the door begging to be let in?

Again I know that fear is God in camouflage; his message is ever telling me to walk through my imagined killing fields to the safety of his arms and be freed of me.

Maybe we cannot take the Sermon literally, but we need to adhere to its underlying message. For me, I had to and still must take it literally to discover again that I personally cannot, that I must needs go to God if I am ever going to practice its underlying message...which is love and laugh, love and laugh, and that is all.

God loves us so much. Maybe that's why he gave us free will...so we can use it to find we must needs go to him to get free of that free will. 

Just as freedom isn't free neither is free will...ah, but both are more than equal to the price.

Thank you.

Go Nats. (Six weeks ago I couldn't spell baseball, and now my heart is a white sphere with red lacing and a curly W.)

CALL OUR NEMESIS BLESSED AND BE FREED

Morning blinding flash of the obvious:  As long as I give my attack mind fantasies free rein to call my tormentors by name, I stay my self in self. Keeping me no better than the worst of my mental tormentors.

This, too, I need to love.

For my very attack calls to my Father. and as One we call her blessed on my lips, in my head, in my heart, and in my gut so my Soul is freed of me...we call him blessed on my lips, in my head, in my heart, and in my gut so my Soul is freed of me... we call them blessed on my lips, in my head, in my heart, and in my gut so my Soul is freed of me.

Ah, and then I read today's "God Calling," and I knew joy:  I see the loving, striving, not the defects. I see the conquest of your particular battle. I count it victory, a glad victory, and the angels rejoice *** My children, count the days of conquest as very blessed days.

Thank you.

GROWING IN GOD-NESS, Part 2

He insulted me, he cheated me, he beat me, he robbed me -- those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace. -- The Buddha

In re transforming consciousness: ...You have to look for the right spot. In some people it is a particular compulsive craving; in some it is jealousy; in some, blind fury. Some may be fortunate enough to have all three. -- "Words to Live By," Eknath Easwaran, December 5

Life with Me is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties....Joy is the result of faithful trusting acceptance of My will when it seems not joyous. -- God Calling, January 8

Our reasoning mind sees all of our true growth in God-ness, or goodness, as the exact reverse of what we want, what our ego-thinking leads us to believe is best for us.

As long as we stay based in the belief that we must take our own part, look out for No. 1, namely self, without regard for the other person's part (who, incidentally, is also No. 1 to them), we will miss our true lesson: God has our back. All we need to learn and learn unto living it, breathing it, is simply that...I am not mine, but God's.

As long as I believe that I am my job, I will only look out for me. Give over to God, honestly and sincerely give over to God, and in the giving over, everyone grows in God-ness.

Whether we realize it or not.

Thank you.

UNFATHOMABLE SPIRITUAL TRUTH

As soon as we are presented with a need, we recognize that the demand is made by the Christ on the Christ of us. --  Joel Goldsmith, "The World is New" at p 69

There it is...an excellent example of spiritual truth being unfathomable to the reasoning mind.

We may know from our eyebrows up that all needs are fulfilled by God, but that doesn't stop our egoic thoughts from race-race running on how we are going to get the job done.

We find the answer when we are lifted out of self and into a higher consciousness, deeper within. It cannot be explained...well, it can be but only if words alone are what we seek. Unfortunately (fortunately?), words alone will not change our consciousness...they will either give us hope that this, too, can be ours or sink us into despair that because we cannot make it happen, we cannot get it.

I hold the story of Saul of Tarsus dear. My understanding is that he was not seeking God when God found him in a blinding flash of the obvious. He was changed from a man who believed in what he was living, thinking, doing, being into a new man on the rough road to sainthood. Changed not from a sinner to a saint, but changed from a knower to a seeker. I doubt not as Saint Paul, he was still seeking when he left this world. I hope so anyway.

Here's the nature of my ego...I can hope that Saint Paul was still seeking when he shook hands with Saint Peter at the pearly gates and still castigate myself for not getting it already.

God loves me so much that I can love me and laugh at that...which may be as spiritually grown-up as I ever get. Close enough...for Now.

Thank you.

LOVE IS OUR CUSHION

[You are] who God created you to be. God made us to be complex creatures, every one of us, for a reason. So if you want to honor God, here’s the first step: Know who you are. Be who you are. Be the person God created you to be. - Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," October 24, 2019

Old wives' tale: A worm cut in two becomes two worms. The truth of the matter: Our character defects, self-willed away, become two defects...our original one and the one we thought we were killing.

Back in the day, I often wondered how it was that I seemed to set myself up to fail. It was a big reveal, no doubt a blinding flash of the obvious, when I saw clearly that indeed I did do that...I did set myself up to fail. I did it on purpose...unconsciously, but on purpose.  It was my comfort zone.

Of course, I immediately started my war on self-defeat and was fairly quickly blessed with the realization that this defect could be neither beaten down nor lifted out by my own efforts. To try was to engage in the very thing I was fighting.

I chose to accept this as a natural part of me, neither good nor bad, and it has developed into what I consider to be my Saint Francis gift: With love as my cushion, seek less, strip self down rather than build self up, defend nothing, accept all that I bring my way.

And know God in the midst of it. (Which I sheepishly admit I no doubt will be working on until three days after I'm dead.)

Thank you.

THE CHOICE IS OURS

It is a wonderful thing when we know and show love for a once-rejected person, place or opinion...with no fanfare except a happy heartbeat. We know we have been changed and changed not by self-will but by Self will.

This then represents all these things that shall be added unto you, that which is promised when we seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

As we continue to seek, we will begin to glimpse the reality of all our difficulties taken away. We pray take away my difficulties that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of your love, your power, your way of life. All our difficulties are embodied in our reasoning mind, our egocentric viewpoint, and by Thy will they are transmuted to bear witness of Thy victory over self.

When we realize the kingdom of God and his righteousness, we will know all these things are and have ever been ours and are as nothing because we live in the consciousness of God and his righteousness

We have come to the Changing Room where our life, including all of our rues, regrets and remorses, is revealed within us as God's goodness and mercy, and we shall know the peace we choose.

Choose you this day whom ye will serve.... -- Joshua 24:15

Thank you.

LEARNING TO LOVE...OUR WORK-RELEASE

Whisperings from my quiet time this morning:

From my eyebrows up, all I want is to love the Lord aright. I have sought that feeling, of love for the Lord, for many years...against the advice of mentors, spiritual directors, the Bible and "God Calling."  All of which have warned that seeking the feeling is not seeking God, it is personal to me and not of the Lord. Apparently, all that I need do to love the Lord aright is to overcome my own self.

I rely on the promise in Isaiah 45:2,  I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight. I believe it is my so-called enemies, too, who go before me and make my crooked places straight. All of those discordant friends are my angels for they turn me to God almost as fast as fear does.

The trouble with being right is it closes our mind. So does being wrong, but being wrong brings down the hammer that cracks our shell...and lets God's light in.

The fantasy of glory bestowed upon me comes when old hurts and haunts seep slither into my unguided mind. It's fairly easy to recognize that fantasy as me getting over on all who ever dissed me...as in, they will be impressed or, better, shamed. The ice water shower: If all of them are gone from my life, what good is it, glory? Hey...maybe true glory will come when I catch myself fantasizing hugging them, kissing them and letting them go...not just the people but the hurts and the haunts.

God is so good to me.

Thank you.

COMFORTED BY OUR UNKNOWING

A spiritually mature Merton knew by a contemplative, intuitive grasp that oneness is less a goal toward which life is pressing, as it is a return to the truth in which we have always been held. * * * We are already one. But we imagine that we are not. What we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are. --  Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation"

We hear and want to believe that all our problems have already been solved...our need is to prove that truth to our own self.

Which, who's kidding whom?, means we get to Just Do It. Our problem du jour for which we are giving thanks to God...while wondering huh? and how? and what to do?...exists only in our imagination. Why, then, do we continue to ponder, analyze, judge then wallow in guilt for judging? 

Here's my excellent/addle-patted answer: That is the way we must go, what we must do, to ready ourself to be what we are. That is shucking our shields...our shields being our many different views of what perfection should look like for us personally if we're doing it right. That's the starter...that which gets us to crash-and-burn. 

The starter is God's inverted perspective...or our inverted perspective of God's will. Our ideas, opinions, mindset must change, a.k.a., crash and burn. Our mind must be changed not by figuring "it" out but by grace and by God. It is a slow, slow process in recognizing that as the way our thinking is  lifted up deeper.

We cannot unthink, we can only find our thinking upgraded...to gratitude for our problem du jour. Naught else brings us to God so completely...bewildered yet comforted by our unknowing.

Thank you.

THE GIFT IS IN SEEKING...SO SEEK

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these. things shall be added unto you. -- Matthew 6:33

It's a humbling fact but I am still wrestling with why we would want "all these things added unto us" if we...Oh my: Blinding flash of the obvious: The instruction is to seek first...not find or realize or live in forever, but to seek first. It is in seeking the kingdom of God, never forgetting and his righteousness (which I always forget), that the add-ons come to us.

So, it is in seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness that all my years of seeking are clarified as God's gift. They have yielded what to my reasoning mind was a boatload of rues, regrets and remorses, but were in God's eyes my necessary add-ons. For they, my three Rs, gifted me with humility in the opportunity to be wrong and promptly admit it, with courage in feeling fear and walking through it, with silence in the face of incoming shame and blame.

And there it is: The add-ons come with and within a new way of thinking, i.e., God's reverse take on our reasoning mind's ideas. That lesson we learned when we crashed and burned and knew as we were crashing and burning that there is no God or this would not be happening and then lo! and whoa! it turned out to be our sliver of gold bearing the pearl of great price that saved our sanity, our life and our Soul. Not to put too fine a point on it.

The pearl of great price: The humility to show courage by trusting God and remaining silent. There is no greater gift...or add-on.

God loves me sooo much.

Thank you.

ON GETTING OVER OUR OWN SELF

The cry of the human soul is never unheard.  It is never that God does not hear the cry, but that man fails to hear the response. --  God Calling, October 19

You wonder sometimes why you are permitted to make mistakes in your choice when you sought so truly to do My will in the matter.  To that I say it was no mistake.... All your lessons cannot be learned without difficulty, and this was needed to teach you a lesson. Not to him who walks on, with no obstructions in his way, but to him that overcometh is the promise given. 
*** 
So to attain peace quickly in your surroundings, as well as in your hearts, learn your lesson quickly. And the overcoming is never the overcoming of the one who troubled you, but the overcoming of the weaknesses and wrong in your own natures, aroused by such a one.  --  God Calling, July 28

There it is. The two-fold answer to each problem, each quandary we may stumble-bumble across in life. Long/short: (1) It is not that God does not answer our prayers, it is that we do not choose to hear or accept God's answer; (2) God's answer is that we are the source of all our woes, or Leave your nets and follow Me.

Thank you.

GOD'S WILL IS OUR WILL...TRANSMUTED

And they all forsook Him and fled. -- Mark 14:50

It behooves us to find ourself in the Bible no matter how little (or especially how little) the Bible means to us. I do not read the Bible, have never read the Bible for the Bible's sake. Yet it seems that many times when  I find myself connecting through a respected person's direction to a Bible verse, I feel strengthened.

There have been more than a few times in my life when I have felt deserted, left all alone, and not knowing or understanding why. More than once during those times, I have found myself directed to Mark 14:50, and I have found solace in that verse.

The  October 18 "God Calling" entry speaks to the verse with the punchline being, Not until man has failed has he learnt true humility. And it is only the humble who can inherit the earth.

I am reminded of the gospel song, Everybody wants to go to Heaven, nobody wants to die. Same goes for humility. Everybody wants to have humility, nobody wants to be humbled...which is God's perfect, possibly only, road there.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Today, I take comfort in thinking that to mean all of our rues, regrets and remorses are led by our own free will, are transmuted for His name's sake and become our paths of righteousness.,,to humility.

Thank you.

ADD NOT, SUBTRACT A LOT

I'm convinced that our peace of mind begins with the decision to take nothing personally.

We do get to decide the way we choose to live, starting with the way we think. We can decide to be a forgiving person or to be a nonjudgmental person or, actually, to quit resisting the dailies of our life. The dailies are not personal, they're just the happenings of life.

Our decision rests, of course, on the willingness to detach ourself from our egocentric wants...our wants which are based entirely on our perception...and come all dressed up as needs. We want to pay back a self-identified tormentor, i.e., to not forgive. Or to judge that same tormentor for being wrong when we are right. We call that feeling need, thus of God, and devil take the hindmost.

We have, in short, taken personally another's tempting...as if it had legs and must be crippled, or, better yet, demolished and by us. No. If we do not give life to others' tempting, it is dead to us. Or was never born into our own perception.

This is the nature of my spiritual growth: To accept the dailies of life with love and laughter, and when (not if) we realize something is unacceptable, we shake the dust off our feet and move on.

Or, more beautifully preached centuries ago by Meister Eckhart: God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.

Thank you.

ON RELEASING OUR INNER GOD-POWER

As all reform is from within out, you will always find the outward has improved too. To do this is to release the imprisoned God-Power within you. That Power, once operative, will immediately perform miracles. -- God Calling, October 16

The hard lesson we slowly learn is that the miracles performed for us will seldom if ever look like what we were seeking, i.e., power, prestige, security. My experience is the miracles performed for me require just as much spiritual growth to appreciate them as it takes to receive them. 

That's when we realize that we'd best take care not to think we're so spiritual that we find fault when we're simply being human. It takes time and effort to become attuned to receiving a personal slight and not taking it personally. To, just as we breathe, pray our thank you and know this, too, is of God. 

The interval between the slight and the prayer is the fertile ground upon which we seed our spiritual growth.

Our reaction may well be, usually is, simply a human reaction...hurt or angry, pay-back or silent scorn. There is no fault in that just as there is no God in that...the fault is in taking our reaction too seriously and haring off after a fix for it. No. We hug it and kiss it and let it go...s.o.s.o.

Then we're free to let this, too, be of God to bear fruit in our consciousness. That takes time, and spiritual growth is there within the time it takes. This is when our egocentric mind is on the defensive, wallowing in feelings of put-upon, misunderstood and unappreciated.

That's what proves the truth of all reform is from within out. We learn to our dismay that airing those feelings not only does not dispel them, it grows them uglier and seemingly more real. Ah...there's our sliver of gold for that turns us within to our God-Power.

Our mind is changed, our attitude upgraded, we are showered with feelings of love, and we can laugh with our Self at our self.

That Power, once operative, will immediately perform miracles. 

Thank you.

LOVE IS ABSENCE OF RESISTANCE

Idle paradoxical thought: The higher our reasoning-mind standards are, the lower our spiritual center seems. Ah, but the lower our spiritual center seems, the nearer to God we are.

Paradox explained: Our extremely high reasoning-mind standards are our self-protection...our God substitute. Our seemingly low spiritual center is below ego's radar bringing us ever nearer to God.

Imagine that there really is no such thing as evil in this world, only the perception of evil...that there really is only God or Love. It would seem, then, that the appearance of evil can and must be loved.

To fight evil is to give evil life...separate from God. Ah, the birth of dual thinking...of right/wrong, good/bad.

To live in acceptance that there is only God/Love is to resist not evil. Freeing us to love our enemy...or to study war no more.

War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!

Thank you.

WE'RE NEVER NOT UNDER GOD'S UMBRELLA

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. -- Martin Luther King

I love that quote. My problem, though, is the minute I read it, I immediately thought of others I could name to whom it applied. And there it is...the trouble with spiritual growth is it works. Learning or trying to learn to walk the Sermon is to accept that talking it is only wholly acceptable when we're talking to ourself.

So I tried pulling the sentence apart applying me and my behavior as the ignorant and/or stupid one.

It seems to me that sincere ignorance falls under God's umbrella. If I'm sincerely ignorant of some less-than-wonderful behavior I'm exhibiting, I can trust God to lead me aright to clarity...meaning I get to make my mistakes until I'm led by my own innate need and learned desire to do God's will.

So the correction for sincere ignorance would seem to be upon realizing our wrong, say our thank you, promptly admit it out loud, apologize and make our amends.

Conscientious stupidity, however, is a separate altogether pile of poop. Mainly because...who's kidding whom?..it is relatively easy to spot it out there...in her/him/them. But who recognizes unto admittance that they are being conscientiously stupid? I'm having a hard time not naming a few offenders even as I sit here typing...in my everso spiritual stance. Oh, and here comes God to light the way: That...that right there...is me being conscientiously stupid.

As I mentioned, the trouble with spiritual growth is it works.

The correction for conscientious stupidity is as yet a mystery to me. I doubt not it's pretty much the same, realize our wrong and promptly admit it. Ah, but our thank you, I'm betting, is contingent upon our willingness to forgive our judged ones...to loose 'em and let 'em walk free in our own head.  A tall, tall order when we're mentally married to our rigid, righteous and right opinion...just as I am right now. Speaking of falling under God's umbrella.

Father, forgive me for I know what I do, and I do it anyway.

Thank you.

SEEK NOT TO FIND GOD...KNOW, NOW

To seek God for to find God is to stay in self...for we use our egocentric mind to determine the God we seek.

God lives within us bringing perfect harmony to  us Now whether we know it or not. It takes much concentrated work to be able to un-concentrate...i.e., meditate. Freeing our mind from our egocentric idea of God, with or without fear and doubts...or giddy joy for that matter...is our life's journeys.

The spiritual life is all about our being opened to that certainty...not by our want to nor by our will but by the perfect will of God. According to me.

Thank you.

ON MEETING ASLAN IN THE LION'S DEN

Mature prayer always breaks into gratitude. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," August 6, 2019

Our hard life decisions can be analogized in two ways: as a snake pit or as a lion's den.

The first, a snake pit (ego's home), represents our being stuck in any self-determined objective with faith in naught but ourself to get us out, to break us free. And we feel consumed by  fear.

The second, the lion's den, represents our walking forward in faith toward a feared yet unknown outcome. There is a lion's den and we enter...praying thank you all the while. Whoa! and Lo! There is Aslan, i.e., the Christ, and we are freed of our fear, recognizing it as the fear of making a wrong decision. We know, and we know not how, that whatever choice we make will inure to our benefit. And we are enwrapped in grateful peace.

Thank you.

ON BECOMING THE PEACE WE SEEK

Morning blinding flash of the obvious: That I may have no sense of separation from You, my Father. To be in a state of trust...realizing that to seek to trust to is to stay in a sense of separation.

Our comfort rests in our trust and that trust is paradoxical. Our need is not to be understood; our need is to not be understood.

No matter that this belies the human condition's want to be understood; and there it is, the key to our change in consciousness, our upgrade so to speak.

We do not understand God, we trust God who understands us. Thus, we need not be understood by  others, and we have no need to enlighten others so they may understand us. (Plain speak: We've been moved on from our desire to set them straight.)

Our comfort comes from not being understood in material world consciousness...the world of getting not giving, of winning not losing, of being right not wrong. Our home now is in trusting our new view by resting in this world where there is only God who sees differently than we do.

We discover we are living a push-pull life where the material world will ever be pulling at us...and the spiritual world will be letting it. Our glory comes when we push on to our thank you and know the peace that passes understanding.

Long/short: Throw in with God, wrestle with our own self, remember we've thrown in with God, be the peace we seek.

Thank you.

TO CHANGE OUR MIND, SURRENDER

Surrender is about a peaceful inner opening that keeps the conduit of living water flowing. It is a quiet willingness to trust that you really are a beloved son or a beloved daughter, which allows God to be your Father and Mother. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," May 25, 2016

I've loved Rohr's quote from the time I first read it, probably because I had had a great awakening when I realized that surrender is acceptance...only acceptance comes in more comfortable clothes. Until then, to me, surrender meant You Lose...thus to be avoided at all costs. 

The truth of the quote is a good basis for the necessary change in our thinking we must make from reasoning to intuitive. That is the change we make to loose it and let it go, i.e., to surrender our wants, our egoic goals in exchange for our desire that God's will be done within us, without us.

It is not our rational mind that brings us the peace that passes understanding. It is our contemplative mind that allows us to feel in our heart, our soul, our body and our bones that we really are a beloved son or a beloved daughter, which allows God to be our Father and Mother.

It is that realization that cements our belief that God can and will intervene in our life in our behalf.

Thank you.

CHANGE RESPONSIBLY FOR THE BETTER

The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility that entails. -- Anonymous

It is a sobering reality that a change for the better starts by changing our mind...or, more to the point, allowing our mind to be changed.

Our spiritual growth begins with the realization that we cannot change our mind by self-will alone. Wanting to helps for sure; willingness, albeit like God a drag foot, counts. Ah, but for a truly changed mine, not just an upgraded opinion, we need other-than-me, a.k.a. Inside, help.

A metaphor by Fr Richard Rohr in his recent "Daily Meditation" states it well: We cannot remove the plank we are standing on.

Then there's that unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility that entails. That sounds too daunting. Common sense flinches, reasoning mind ducks, and ego silently whines, I can't, I don't know how, and why me?

And there it is. Our decision to throw in with God no matter the mountain to climb, the ditch to dig, the cross to bear births our pearl beyond price: Common sense, reasoning mind and ego in silent awe witness responsibilities undertaken by us with ease...with laughter! Words we have never spoken...like let me help you...come out of our own mouth.

That is God's proof that spiritual growth has taken root, our mind has been changed, and we are growing for the better.

God loves us so much.

Thank you.

OUR MISTAKES...OUR SLIVER OF GOLD

Now, this very minute is God's gift to us...God's gift planned by Him for us personally. How we interpret our individual Now is on us.

Our journey will go best for us and for our friends and un-friends if our interpretation, our life, is determined by spiritual rules...the laws, the commandments and the steps we take daily...rather than by our own self-determined objectives.

Even with our best intentions in interpreting our Now, God's gift, the results are often a huge uh-oh, or Big Mistake. It is the human condition to seek first for the benefit of self...it is spiritual longing that turns us in the right direction.

Some of us would never have made that U-bie without having made our mistake(s). Ah, and there's our sliver of gold. Hold it close, pray thank you, love and laugh.

God's in his Heaven, all's right with the world.

Thank you. 

ON GAINING OUR DREADED HUMILITY

Saint Francis taught you have to find a way interiorly to love and have compassion for the world....Finally, everything, every Scripture, every law, every action, history itself is to be interpreted in light of the primacy of Love and Christ over all. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," October 2, 20019

There it is, my mandate to give over, give up, give in.

We begin our journey seeking still more spiritual growth without a clue what that even means. Spiritual growth in my beginnings probably meant a way to feel serenity one hundred percent of the time. I recall talking about serenity a lot. I for sure wasn't looking to give over to anyone, much less give up or give in.

Today, with my time on this earth running low on gas, I am grateful that I caught a clue fairly early that ego deflation in depth was not only necessary but a good thing. Something, in fact, impossible for me to do all on my own...or to do at all. It is gifted us by the love of the Christ within.

All...every need, every hope, every prayer...is satisfied by the love of the Christ within.

However, we are rarely gifted by grace while living in our preferred Me First way. It is the prior proper planning that prevents poor performance (with thanks to my military friend for the 7 Ps, minus 1) that delivers.

We make a conscious decision to throw in with God...then the preparation begins. Studying spiritual literature, seeking others on the same path as ours, asking, asking, asking...finally, listening. Trying to do that which we have worked so hard to accept as our truth...and failing. Repeatedly. And then...and then...the gift of realization that failing, too, is of God. Part of God's plan. Our gift for how else do we gain our necessary, albeit dreaded, humility.

We are freed from our self-perceived need to stand up for ourself, to not be a doormat, to push back. When we made our decision, we were released from our egoic need to protect ourself. God has our back.

And there it is...finding a way interiorly to love is giving over, giving up, giving in. Loving others. Loving others as ourself. With God as our yardstick.

Thank you.

TO GROW DEEPER...WHERE OUR FATHER LIVES

 The psalms defeat our tendency to try to be holy without being human first. I have no idea where I read that, but I don't doubt it is from Fr Richard Rohr.

I know next to nothing about the psalms so I just substitute the various steps I take to keep me honest and free of me. I try to keep in mind: We have ceased fighting anything and anybody...my short version, of course: Give over, give up, give in.

Then there is my personal Golden Rule: Just try not to be as nasty as you want to be.

I believe trying not to be nasty shortsheets our tendency of trying to be holier than we are. Face it, one cannot concentrate on not being nasty while trying to appear holy...phony, condescending, arrogant and/or patronizing pretty much covers what we achieve when we're trying to appear holy whether we've got not being nasty in mind or not.

All of this boils down to giving ourself permission to make mistakes. We're going to with or without permission...if we're doing it right. Really, the lesson is in not judging others when they make their permissible mistakes. Talk about hard lesson a-learning.

I maintain it is such a hard lesson to learn because our reasoning mind thinks in terms of a self-determined objective, as in, Lord, just keep my mouth shut. Scotch tape could do that for us. Spiritual growth, however, recognizes nothing to judge...just love. And laugh.

We're talking inner growth...deep inner growth...where our Father lives.

Thank you.

TRUTH MUST BE PROVED

I will never be free of me until without conscious thought my life proves every spiritual thought I have, every word I write.

The spiritual life asks that we have naught but loving thoughts...not to impress nor to make friends but to have within ourself love and love alone for the scavengers of our soul. It is not to make a friend of our enemy...it is to make a friend of our feelings about our enemy. Ah, there be the scavengers, our ego-based feelings.

We are learning to recognize and welcome our feelings of all alone and forsaken as the fear that is God's calling card....God's calling card, our assurance that all is well as we walk through the fear to get to the other side to God.

We resist not the periods when we feel wrong and wronged, abandoned and forsaken for those are the blocks we have been gifted to use in building our foundation of peace...the peace that passes understanding.

I will never be free of me until without conscious thought my life proves every spiritual thought I have, every word I write. Ah, but I take comfort in knowing I'm heading in the right direction.

Thank you.

THIS, TOO, IS LOVE

Speak, oh Lord, if I'm ready to hear you...if I'm not ready, thank you for readying me.

Our desire must needs be not to get another's understanding of us...nor to shame them for misjudging us. No, our desire must needs be to understand them...to accept them...just as they are in their criticism of us.

Through our love and laughter, shame and blame are transfigured...as are we. Shame and blame become our spiritual guides out of self; we become less than in our own egoic mind...to befriend the friendless not for their sake but for our own...not by our will but by the will of God within us, without us.

We are made whole as shame and blame become empathetic, our empathic foundation of outflowing care and concern for the very other we previously had named as our enemy...blamed as our shamer. And we know this, too, is Love.

It is I;  be not afraid. -- Matthew 14:27

Thank you.

CHANGE FOR THE BETTER COMES BY LOVE

God gave us free will...it is entirely our choice to seek his will. God does not guard us, he guides us when, if and as we seek. Apparently, even that is not essential...God is not available on demand.  It is our need that is God's gift to fulfill.

When we pray take away my difficulties, we mean lift up my eyes that I may see my difficulties as You see them...as my gifts.

Hate is not turned by hating, regrets are not lifted by regretting, resentments are not resolved by resenting. Nothing is changed for the better but by love. Lift up my eyes that I may see as you see.

Fr Richard Rohr has written, Our false self, as all religions say in one way or another, must 'die before we die.' According to me, to die before we die is to surrender unto acceptance...to surrender self unto acceptance of self is to realize Self.

 ...if by grace you can make love your own, do.  —The Cloud of Unknowing

Thank you.

TO AWAKEN FROM OUR ILLUSION...LOVE

I just came across a 2011 note to myself, Guide my thoughts, not guard my thoughts. 

It's interesting that I'd come across this today since I've only recently committed to a regimen based in a meditation of loving my thoughts...meaning I want to love my darkest thoughts just as I joy in my grace-given thoughts...to count them both as one.

I believe, as the quote attributed to Thich Nhat Hanh states, We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness. The surest way to that awakening is through love...to love our humiliations (which are humility aborning after all) just as we love our glories simply as reflections of others' loving views of us.

I'm saying that life itself is love...it isn't that we need to learn to love, it is that we need to use the love that is born within us. It probably starts with our becoming willing to love that which we don't. To that  point, as Saint Francis said, we have to find a way interiorly to love...not talk about it, but do it. Which can only be done successfully from within where our Father lives.

It is in that great unknown-to-me that miracles materialize...we pray thank you and God's you're welcome transforms us and our problem.

In the end, we may discover, as Ram Dass put it, We are all just walking each other home.

Thank you.

FEAR INCREASES; GRACE ABOUNDS THE MORE

When our world feels at sixes and sevens in our heart, go to Romans 5:20 - "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more...." 

Romans 5:20 is one of my handy-dandy go-to phrases...I'm just now recognizing that I use it least of all my handy-dandys. Proof that how often spiritual aids are used has less importance than the fact that we have them to use...and do.

This is one of those times when the world seems at sixes and sevens, i.e., when fear is strutting its stuff, leading the parade, twirling its baton of fire. Our friends, the newspaper headlines, the TV news shows, our thoughts, are squawking some version of "Fire!" "Run for your life!" "There is no hope!"

Ah, we turn within and know peace. Peace in the fact that this panic is based on future garbage..."bad things" are happening...or seem to be...or probably will be...soon.

Yet, right this very instant, nothing has changed..nothing on the ground we stand on, for the place where you stand is holy ground.(Acts 7:33). We turn our heart, our soul, our body, our brains...and especially our thoughts...over to the Father within. We pray our thank you, remembering where trouble increased, grace abounded all the more.

Thank you for our everything just as it is right this very minute. You hold the universe in your love, and all is well. 

Thank you.