While practical goals are important, the spiritual goal is to awaken the compassion that lies at the root of all change. 'Success' doesn’t mean I’ve saved an endangered species or cleaned up a toxic waste dump or fed hungry children. Success means awakening myself in the Spirit that can help make a better life for others. Success means I have acted in the world as though I were a part of it, not apart from it. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 30, 2019
Personally, I was never a goal-driven person until I was forced by my own decisions based on self to seek other than human help...having run through all the human help I could find. Over many rough and ready roads to my Father within, I realized my path was...had ever been...toward the spiritual.
The above paragraph holds one sentence that describes my goal today, that sentence being: While practical goals are important, the spiritual goal is to awaken the compassion that lies at the root of all change.
I am convinced it is that awakened compassion that leads to a feeling of personal fulfillment, so beautifully described as: Success means awakening myself in the Spirit that can help make a better life for others.
I am happy I know this is my goal today, happier still that I am fully aware my success practicing that goal lies ahead, ever ahead. And I am grateful.
Thank you.
Saturday, November 30, 2019
Friday, November 29, 2019
ON DOING IT RIGHT
According to Fr Richard Rohr, "somewhere, somehow the challenge comes that sets us on a different path."
This is not a path we take in order to become hip, slick and cool, but a way we trudge toward "a faith that will sustain us when we go to jail, when the money runs out, when we are powerless and cold and alone"...when fear is feasting on our very soul.
That's when we're doing it right.
What else could so completely prove to us our powerlessness? Could cause us in our helplessness to seek cosmic help. There it is. Proof our reasoning mind in turmoil is a gift from on high deep within.
And its name is God. For it is God alone come to our aid disguised as another in need whom we can help, an abused animal by the side of the road, a dire diagnosis for ourself or a loved one...even the high sheriff and police that we've been trying to avoid.
We never know the time or the place our challenge will come...and, we discover, to our aid. The new path we have chosen teaches and prepares us to invite all in...to welcome all.
We welcome with a prayer of thank you; we love and laugh.
Thank you.
This is not a path we take in order to become hip, slick and cool, but a way we trudge toward "a faith that will sustain us when we go to jail, when the money runs out, when we are powerless and cold and alone"...when fear is feasting on our very soul.
That's when we're doing it right.
What else could so completely prove to us our powerlessness? Could cause us in our helplessness to seek cosmic help. There it is. Proof our reasoning mind in turmoil is a gift from on high deep within.
And its name is God. For it is God alone come to our aid disguised as another in need whom we can help, an abused animal by the side of the road, a dire diagnosis for ourself or a loved one...even the high sheriff and police that we've been trying to avoid.
We never know the time or the place our challenge will come...and, we discover, to our aid. The new path we have chosen teaches and prepares us to invite all in...to welcome all.
We welcome with a prayer of thank you; we love and laugh.
Thank you.
Thursday, November 28, 2019
TRUST...OR BE NOT AFRAID
He prepares a place before me in the presence of my enemies. My enemies are my attack thoughts. They are my real enemies, and they are wholly my resistance to what is...while remembering that resistance is a denial of God.
There will ever be mixups, misunderstandings and conflict in our daily life. In the face of any of those, the hardest action to take is none. To do nothing but mentally shoot prayers of gratitude for the opportunity to trust the Lord is a whole catechism on spiritual growth.
[I tend to think of spiritual growth as ego deflation in depth in designer jeans...I reckon because it takes the "holy" out of it, which is a tish off-putting but maybe that's just me.]
I do know that our trying to "fix" a misunderstanding, and with nothing but good intentions (a self-determined objective every time), is to touch our personal third rail. Makes no nevermind...by word or deed...or thought?...we take it away from God and delay his perfect work.
Ah, there's where the power of ego first proves itself...it is well nigh impossible to know better and not do it anyway. Apparently, it takes burning oneself enough times that we begin to feel embarrassed...even with no visible witness.
Paradox alert! We learn to get grateful for that embarrassment. There's our sliver of gold...that's God making himself known. Find our gold, and our world changes.
I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. -- Isaiah 45:2
Thank you.
There will ever be mixups, misunderstandings and conflict in our daily life. In the face of any of those, the hardest action to take is none. To do nothing but mentally shoot prayers of gratitude for the opportunity to trust the Lord is a whole catechism on spiritual growth.
[I tend to think of spiritual growth as ego deflation in depth in designer jeans...I reckon because it takes the "holy" out of it, which is a tish off-putting but maybe that's just me.]
I do know that our trying to "fix" a misunderstanding, and with nothing but good intentions (a self-determined objective every time), is to touch our personal third rail. Makes no nevermind...by word or deed...or thought?...we take it away from God and delay his perfect work.
Ah, there's where the power of ego first proves itself...it is well nigh impossible to know better and not do it anyway. Apparently, it takes burning oneself enough times that we begin to feel embarrassed...even with no visible witness.
Paradox alert! We learn to get grateful for that embarrassment. There's our sliver of gold...that's God making himself known. Find our gold, and our world changes.
I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. -- Isaiah 45:2
Thank you.
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
DETACHMENT FROM SELF
[The is a reprint of my post of September 20, 2012.]
When a job still looked like a mere means of getting money rather than an opportunity for service, when the acquisition of money for financial independence looks more important than a right dependence upon God, we were still the victims of unreasonable fears. - Anonymous
When first I read that, I realized that my only concern had ever been for relief from my unreasonable fears, never how to serve in my job or in life itself. I was always seeking to get...rather than to realize God as my fulfillment, my sustenance, my abundance.
Any chance of freedom from fear of anything is dependent on reliance on a power greater than ourselves...a power we have no way to control, influence, curry the favor of, or even despise...a power for our own personal good, hence for the good of friend and foe alike...the reliance shows forth in and as service, being of service, becoming a service-giver according to the other's needs (as determined by that same higher power upon whom we are learning to rely).
It is all about detachment from self into Oneness, here and now.
Thank you.
When a job still looked like a mere means of getting money rather than an opportunity for service, when the acquisition of money for financial independence looks more important than a right dependence upon God, we were still the victims of unreasonable fears. - Anonymous
When first I read that, I realized that my only concern had ever been for relief from my unreasonable fears, never how to serve in my job or in life itself. I was always seeking to get...rather than to realize God as my fulfillment, my sustenance, my abundance.
Any chance of freedom from fear of anything is dependent on reliance on a power greater than ourselves...a power we have no way to control, influence, curry the favor of, or even despise...a power for our own personal good, hence for the good of friend and foe alike...the reliance shows forth in and as service, being of service, becoming a service-giver according to the other's needs (as determined by that same higher power upon whom we are learning to rely).
It is all about detachment from self into Oneness, here and now.
Thank you.
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
FEEL FEAR, PRAY THANK YOU, MOVE ON
The feeling of running on empty is with me and has been for awhile. My notes in "God Calling" tell an interesting tale...all the way back to the 1980s, November is packed with less-than-wonderful notes, asides, prayers and plaints.
Life goes in circles and cycles and going with it works best so those notes bring me comfort...hard comfort, but comfort. They remind me that November is the time of the year I've preselected to be my just for getting through time.
Finding grace in loss is grace. It cannot be self-willed...wished for, of course, but acceptance is as close as we'll come to it, and that can't be self-willed either. I've walked over a lot of personal hot coals getting to acceptance and unlearned from each one...and, who's kidding whom, that's gratitude in a cold bath.
Maybe loss is the cherry-on-top...like fear, it exposes our utter powerlessness, and in our emptiness, we can only turn to God. There in the miasma of neglected, rejected and abandoned, we sense our lantern's faint glow...before ever we have eyeball evidence, we know: I feel fear...God is here.
Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment. — Eckhart Tolle
Thank you.
Life goes in circles and cycles and going with it works best so those notes bring me comfort...hard comfort, but comfort. They remind me that November is the time of the year I've preselected to be my just for getting through time.
Finding grace in loss is grace. It cannot be self-willed...wished for, of course, but acceptance is as close as we'll come to it, and that can't be self-willed either. I've walked over a lot of personal hot coals getting to acceptance and unlearned from each one...and, who's kidding whom, that's gratitude in a cold bath.
Maybe loss is the cherry-on-top...like fear, it exposes our utter powerlessness, and in our emptiness, we can only turn to God. There in the miasma of neglected, rejected and abandoned, we sense our lantern's faint glow...before ever we have eyeball evidence, we know: I feel fear...God is here.
Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment. — Eckhart Tolle
Thank you.
Monday, November 25, 2019
THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE POWER OF GRATITUDE
[The following is a reprint of my post of July 17, 2016, and again April 15, 2018...clearly, it calls to me.]
A thought I picked up from Rohr back in 2013: "It was surrender to gratitude—and also to immense confidence that you were a part of something very good."
It is the surrender to gratitude that calls my name, that showers me, inside and out, with immense confidence that I am, myself, something very good.
And you, yourself, are something very good.
That we, ourselves, are, together and apart, One...something very good.
And it all starts with surrender...to gratitude.
Thank you.
A thought I picked up from Rohr back in 2013: "It was surrender to gratitude—and also to immense confidence that you were a part of something very good."
It is the surrender to gratitude that calls my name, that showers me, inside and out, with immense confidence that I am, myself, something very good.
And you, yourself, are something very good.
That we, ourselves, are, together and apart, One...something very good.
And it all starts with surrender...to gratitude.
Thank you.
Sunday, November 24, 2019
WITHOUT MY NAME ON IT
To be graced with the gift of silence in the face of public dissing, I have learned, is the pearl beyond price. Ah, but then to know that as but the first step is to begin living the peace that passes understanding.
The Soul at peace within extends outward, gracing all who were party to the diss with their same inner peace...and, best, without my name on it.
That first step has led to my recognition that my left-alone, almost shunned, feelings are my gold, for I have been led on a new and deeper path. With no effort on my part but willingness, I have found my hope diamond anew.
There's naught wrong with asking God if he loves me for that is my proof to me that I trust he is there.
Thank you.
The Soul at peace within extends outward, gracing all who were party to the diss with their same inner peace...and, best, without my name on it.
That first step has led to my recognition that my left-alone, almost shunned, feelings are my gold, for I have been led on a new and deeper path. With no effort on my part but willingness, I have found my hope diamond anew.
There's naught wrong with asking God if he loves me for that is my proof to me that I trust he is there.
Thank you.
Saturday, November 23, 2019
GOD'S WORK CUT OUT FOR ME
When I am faced with an apparent problem (quite often rues, regrets and remorses), I find great freedom in straight talking to God about it...by straight talking I mean I speak truth to Power. I let him know he's got some serious work to do, what's the hold-up, getting cracking already.
I came to this freedom when I realized what the Father within does the work actually means. It means I am talking to me, and I am the hold-up.
Howsomever: I, with my reasoning mind alone, cannot will it, but cosmically accepting that it is my hands and feet, my brains and bones that the Father within uses releases me from the self-condemnation of guilt, shame and blame. Ah, then I am lifted deeper into love and laughter. My straight talk usually ends with, You've got the power, God...use it.
The who'd-a-thunk-it part is how God uses his power for my good...almost always by making me available to or for another. Since I am basically a self-centered person, making myself available for another rarely comes first to my mind. I just find myself doing it. No...it's most often after the fact. Whenever whatever is done, I'm being thanked, and I'm all but kicking the dirt, all aw shucks, it was nothing...knowing for pure fact, it was nothing for me personally.
Only going there feels like I'm putting on airs, like, Oh pish-tosh, God works through me, I'm just his dust mop...and humble, too.
Hmmm...for whatever reason, I am reminded that my basic character defect is that I take myself too seriously. There you go, God...your work cut out for me.
Thank you.
I came to this freedom when I realized what the Father within does the work actually means. It means I am talking to me, and I am the hold-up.
Howsomever: I, with my reasoning mind alone, cannot will it, but cosmically accepting that it is my hands and feet, my brains and bones that the Father within uses releases me from the self-condemnation of guilt, shame and blame. Ah, then I am lifted deeper into love and laughter. My straight talk usually ends with, You've got the power, God...use it.
The who'd-a-thunk-it part is how God uses his power for my good...almost always by making me available to or for another. Since I am basically a self-centered person, making myself available for another rarely comes first to my mind. I just find myself doing it. No...it's most often after the fact. Whenever whatever is done, I'm being thanked, and I'm all but kicking the dirt, all aw shucks, it was nothing...knowing for pure fact, it was nothing for me personally.
Only going there feels like I'm putting on airs, like, Oh pish-tosh, God works through me, I'm just his dust mop...and humble, too.
Hmmm...for whatever reason, I am reminded that my basic character defect is that I take myself too seriously. There you go, God...your work cut out for me.
Thank you.
Friday, November 22, 2019
I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOU HEAR
My morning blinding flash of the obvious: I'm woke, I just haven't had my coffee yet.
Long-ago lesson learned: I am not responsible for what you hear me say, nor am I responsible for how you choose to interpret what you hear me say.
Long-ago lesson learned: I am not responsible for what you hear me say, nor am I responsible for how you choose to interpret what you hear me say.
That has grown up to be: S/He is not responsible for what I heard him say, nor is she responsible for how I choose to interpret what I heard said. Then I turn my thoughts to God for a better translation...that shuts down the old ego-judging before it can get a toehold.
A new lesson aborning: Fairly recently, I was advised that it has become unfashionable to call God God...it's too Christian, I am told. No, we must say Higher Power or any number of things except God. Guess who resisted that on hearing it...while God grinned.
I submit we all are invited from within our own self to name our source of good and stand on it. My source of good came to me as God, and until my God lets me know he has changed his name, I stand on it.
But I did seek God's help in opening my mind, and here's the short-form of what I got to help me in not resisting (overmuch) others generic name for their source of good: Say we hear someone speak of praying to their Whatever...instead of getting all up in our head resisting the name we're hearing, we can shoot a quick thank you prayer to our source of good. As in, "Thank you for this opportunity to turn for your help with my hearing and translating since it is all for good anyhow. You've got the power, I need it now. Please and thank you."
Thank you.
Thursday, November 21, 2019
REASON HINDERS; UNKNOWING BLESSES
Again I am reminded that the hardest act life asks of us is that we change our mind. Ah, but it is the underneath message that takes so long to catch, realizing we change our mind not from "I am right and you are wrong to I am wrong and you are right." No. That's reasoning mind still in charge.
A changed mind is our material or rational mind being upgraded to the deeper fourth dimension. Our mind is changed from reliance on our own reasoning to resting in our unknowing. Where reason is a hindrance and unknowing is a gift.
For my own walking around purposes, I consider that I received the barest beginning of a changed mind by a blinding flash of the obvious concerning mirror image...that which I consider to be God's view. Our "Oh, No!" or life's cataclysmic crash-and-burn that we prayed so hard to avoid...it grows up to be our pearl beyond price. Then our "Yes!" or our $2 bet that returns more money than we can count turns out to be our cross to bear. There...kiddie-korn examples of mirror image.
It is said that an authentic spiritual experience comes through great suffering or great love. I choose to believe that an authentic spiritual experience is daily life on God's terms. I've found that my greatest suffering brought me the pearl beyond price which brings me great love...and I cause me pain whenever my ego Lucy breaks out her football, and I go for it.
Hey...that's when I'm doing it right! How else am I going to get to God consciousness except through my reasoning mind failing me yet again?
I recall that 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.
Thank you.
A changed mind is our material or rational mind being upgraded to the deeper fourth dimension. Our mind is changed from reliance on our own reasoning to resting in our unknowing. Where reason is a hindrance and unknowing is a gift.
For my own walking around purposes, I consider that I received the barest beginning of a changed mind by a blinding flash of the obvious concerning mirror image...that which I consider to be God's view. Our "Oh, No!" or life's cataclysmic crash-and-burn that we prayed so hard to avoid...it grows up to be our pearl beyond price. Then our "Yes!" or our $2 bet that returns more money than we can count turns out to be our cross to bear. There...kiddie-korn examples of mirror image.
It is said that an authentic spiritual experience comes through great suffering or great love. I choose to believe that an authentic spiritual experience is daily life on God's terms. I've found that my greatest suffering brought me the pearl beyond price which brings me great love...and I cause me pain whenever my ego Lucy breaks out her football, and I go for it.
Hey...that's when I'm doing it right! How else am I going to get to God consciousness except through my reasoning mind failing me yet again?
I recall that 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.
Thank you.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
IF THIS BE FEAR, LOVE IT
The line what was it that you thought needed to be loved comes to me when I find that I've invited a fear into my consciousness...not a fear of such as cancer or dementia, but a common-as-dirt fear, like looking dumb in public, getting caught putting on airs...that kind of fear, the "soft" fears.
Unsurprisingly, those fears are harder to love than the "hard" fears of cancer or dementia, obviously because coming to love cancer, et al., when we don't have them, is purely in the abstract.
Ah, but common or soft fears live in our ego and visit at their pleasure, any hour of the day or night. It helps to think of them as the human condition.Our job is not to be rid of them forever and ever, an ego-wish if ever there was one, but to give them breathing room.
For instance, when, not if, I again find myself mentally knowing I am better than Gertrude, I count myself blessed when I quick remember that this is fear, i am resisting that which i fear, I can love this...thank you. Then turn my thoughts to lilies of the valley, Ruckus romping around Heaven, or what I'm going to have for dinner...which, who's kidding whom, works best.
What I particularly like about giving my ego fears breathing room is it reminds me that I need beware of trying to be so spiritual that I fault myself for being human. Love, laugh and move on is the goal.
Face it, if it weren't for humans, God wouldn't have any laughs at all.
Thank you.
Unsurprisingly, those fears are harder to love than the "hard" fears of cancer or dementia, obviously because coming to love cancer, et al., when we don't have them, is purely in the abstract.
Ah, but common or soft fears live in our ego and visit at their pleasure, any hour of the day or night. It helps to think of them as the human condition.Our job is not to be rid of them forever and ever, an ego-wish if ever there was one, but to give them breathing room.
For instance, when, not if, I again find myself mentally knowing I am better than Gertrude, I count myself blessed when I quick remember that this is fear, i am resisting that which i fear, I can love this...thank you. Then turn my thoughts to lilies of the valley, Ruckus romping around Heaven, or what I'm going to have for dinner...which, who's kidding whom, works best.
What I particularly like about giving my ego fears breathing room is it reminds me that I need beware of trying to be so spiritual that I fault myself for being human. Love, laugh and move on is the goal.
Face it, if it weren't for humans, God wouldn't have any laughs at all.
Thank you.
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
LOOSE IT, AND LET IT BE
When we're all wrapped around ourself, taking ourself too seriously, remembering that it is our ego doing our thinking for us is a momentary pitstop...that does not lift it, our ego problem du jour. Face it, that would give us control. No. we must turn to God every time. We must name our perceived problem and give up by giving our will over to him...again, each time.
It occurs that just saying whatever might work, but that keeps it tied to the reasoning mind. Best to remember to pray thank you when in the midst of a dreaded something...no better reminder of who is in charge, who is doing it right...not me, in a word.
When God's will showing up in our life seems to take so long, we might consider that every delay, lie, exaggeration, fear-balk is the cause of the delay in God's will being done...slows his perfect will as he deals with that ego-delay for us and for all the others affected by our reliance on our reasoning mind to fix it.
We might also consider that his will has already been done...the delay is in our willingness to accept that. Or our unwillingness to accept that what we see is God's perfect will...done. The sooner we detach from our want-to, the clearer our path forward shows forth.
Thank you.
We might also consider that his will has already been done...the delay is in our willingness to accept that. Or our unwillingness to accept that what we see is God's perfect will...done. The sooner we detach from our want-to, the clearer our path forward shows forth.
Thank you.
Monday, November 18, 2019
WE ARE GOD'S GUEST HOUSE
I like to think of God as the original GPS. We ask, he directs, we mishear, he corrects, we misunderstand, he corrects...until we get it right. We ask God to come to our aid...every self-described mistake is God's opportunity to come to our aid.
For whatever reason, I have just been led to another site where I found this Rumi writing which takes that puny thought to a wondrous height:
Thank you.
For whatever reason, I have just been led to another site where I found this Rumi writing which takes that puny thought to a wondrous height:
Guest House
This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
~Rumi
Thank you.
Sunday, November 17, 2019
OR, LET GO AND LET GOD
Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition. -- Artur Rubinstein
We learn, slowly, slowly, that it is better to make a mistake than to continue on a self-determined path to nowhere...nowhere being away from God.
At one time. when we found ourself in a quandary, the best advice we got was do something about something. Then the advice was "improved" and became do the next right thing. Ah, with that one word, right, our ego took over.
It is a hard lesson learning that ego is the condition, the condition that sets our happiness. Too late we remember that ego always legislates for self and that determines...or in fact limits...our happiness.
Our mentor's words echo in our mind, the very words we originally rejected: It is better to make a mistake than to continue on a self-determined path to nowhere. We rejected those words because...that doesn't make sense! Once again, slowly, slowly...we remember that spiritual truth rarely makes reasoning-mind sense.
Whoever, on first read, thought resist not evil was a good idea? Or, with no spiritual want-to, who this very day thinks it is a good idea. It probably isn't off the top...it is go beyond reason to love that clarifies its truth.
If we stay in our reasoning mind, all we'll get is reasoning mind answers...and it was our reasoning mind that got us in a quandary to begin with.
The best part of the Rubinstein quote: Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition.
Thank you.
We learn, slowly, slowly, that it is better to make a mistake than to continue on a self-determined path to nowhere...nowhere being away from God.
At one time. when we found ourself in a quandary, the best advice we got was do something about something. Then the advice was "improved" and became do the next right thing. Ah, with that one word, right, our ego took over.
It is a hard lesson learning that ego is the condition, the condition that sets our happiness. Too late we remember that ego always legislates for self and that determines...or in fact limits...our happiness.
Our mentor's words echo in our mind, the very words we originally rejected: It is better to make a mistake than to continue on a self-determined path to nowhere. We rejected those words because...that doesn't make sense! Once again, slowly, slowly...we remember that spiritual truth rarely makes reasoning-mind sense.
Whoever, on first read, thought resist not evil was a good idea? Or, with no spiritual want-to, who this very day thinks it is a good idea. It probably isn't off the top...it is go beyond reason to love that clarifies its truth.
If we stay in our reasoning mind, all we'll get is reasoning mind answers...and it was our reasoning mind that got us in a quandary to begin with.
The best part of the Rubinstein quote: Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition.
Thank you.
Saturday, November 16, 2019
THIS, TOO, IS GOD
Grasping the inner meaning in our still more spiritual growth is a slow process. I'm convinced that's why we are given the often snickered-at spiritual how-to books.
That's where I first realized what we see is always ourself, not to mention we are never angry for the reason we think. I unashamedly admit I "got" both of those a lot quicker and easier than I "got" resist not evil and if someone slaps you, steals from you, curses you...love anyway.
These how-tos may be, as some say, "spiritual pablum" but when spiritual pablum feeds you, eat spiritual pablum is my answer. That they do not take a lot of effort to grasp is the good news...that's what makes them such great starters. Rest assured, spinach will come.
I often say, the Sermon on the Mount is my inner guidebook, and I am blessed that it took as long as it took to grasp unto realization even the first level of its meaning. Doing it is a work in progress even as understanding the levels continue to grow me deeper. I expect that to continue until three days after I'm dead, please and thank you.
From wherever our spiritual insights come, the Bible, the Koran, spiritual pablum, wherever, there is but one meaning: This, too, is love, now laugh.
Thank you.
That's where I first realized what we see is always ourself, not to mention we are never angry for the reason we think. I unashamedly admit I "got" both of those a lot quicker and easier than I "got" resist not evil and if someone slaps you, steals from you, curses you...love anyway.
These how-tos may be, as some say, "spiritual pablum" but when spiritual pablum feeds you, eat spiritual pablum is my answer. That they do not take a lot of effort to grasp is the good news...that's what makes them such great starters. Rest assured, spinach will come.
I often say, the Sermon on the Mount is my inner guidebook, and I am blessed that it took as long as it took to grasp unto realization even the first level of its meaning. Doing it is a work in progress even as understanding the levels continue to grow me deeper. I expect that to continue until three days after I'm dead, please and thank you.
From wherever our spiritual insights come, the Bible, the Koran, spiritual pablum, wherever, there is but one meaning: This, too, is love, now laugh.
Thank you.
Friday, November 15, 2019
GOD AND HIS BAG OF LOVE AND LAUGHTER
We must deliberately choose to be instruments of peace—first of all in our minds and hearts. I know that when I regress into any kind of intentional negativity toward anything or anybody, even in my mind, I am actually hurting and harming them and myself. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 7, 2019
I seem to have regressed into intentional negativity toward two women in my life, both of whom seem to have regressed into intentional negativity toward me. How smart does one need be to see a red flag waving there?
I'm convinced that these are the type situations we invite into our life in order to use the tools within that are not of the reasoning mind.
My life is proof that I can go toe-to-toe with most anyone's mean, nasty and self-centered...it is emerging from that ego-space when spiritual growth takes hold. It is written, and I do believe, that unity must come first. Unity is our connection with the universe...with each person, puppy and posy, rock and rill, in and of the seen and unseen world.
My test, my goal, is to recognize my intentional negativity, own it so that I can release it before it takes root in my thoughts, and I begin to analyze how to fix it. This is where our rational mind earns its stripes...it can and must keep returning to the fact that God has already "fixed" any problem we can conceive. As in, there is no problem, there is just an ego-glitch in the way we are looking out at our world.
This I know to be true for I have experienced it: My world it is not mine to fix...I am not mine to fix. Who and what I am and what I invite into my life need no fixing. Same goes for any and all others.
The hard part for me this morning is letting that be true for the two women and their intentional negativity. Face it, the ego dies slow, and it leaves hardcore evidence behind.
Ah, and that, too, is of God. He has a whole bag of tricks. What'll you bet they all start with Love and Laugh?
Thank you.
I seem to have regressed into intentional negativity toward two women in my life, both of whom seem to have regressed into intentional negativity toward me. How smart does one need be to see a red flag waving there?
I'm convinced that these are the type situations we invite into our life in order to use the tools within that are not of the reasoning mind.
My life is proof that I can go toe-to-toe with most anyone's mean, nasty and self-centered...it is emerging from that ego-space when spiritual growth takes hold. It is written, and I do believe, that unity must come first. Unity is our connection with the universe...with each person, puppy and posy, rock and rill, in and of the seen and unseen world.
My test, my goal, is to recognize my intentional negativity, own it so that I can release it before it takes root in my thoughts, and I begin to analyze how to fix it. This is where our rational mind earns its stripes...it can and must keep returning to the fact that God has already "fixed" any problem we can conceive. As in, there is no problem, there is just an ego-glitch in the way we are looking out at our world.
This I know to be true for I have experienced it: My world it is not mine to fix...I am not mine to fix. Who and what I am and what I invite into my life need no fixing. Same goes for any and all others.
The hard part for me this morning is letting that be true for the two women and their intentional negativity. Face it, the ego dies slow, and it leaves hardcore evidence behind.
Ah, and that, too, is of God. He has a whole bag of tricks. What'll you bet they all start with Love and Laugh?
Thank you.
Thursday, November 14, 2019
LOVE STRAIGHT UP OR REDEFINED
An anecdote that I read many years ago keeps coming back to me. It is from The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment, and the author tells of his search for love...how to, in fact, love.
So he drops acid and goes on a harrowing, scarifying, ugly, awful, very bad trip in which a monster appears...comes after him...and he cannot run away fast enough and bad, worse, worst seems to be closing in on him. Finally, the bad trip is broken when he hears the monster say, What was it that you thought needed to be loved?
And isn't that...love...the answer to everything we resist? Or, not to put too fine a point on it, the answer to everything.
Which, I'm guessing, cannot be done until we redefine love and the act of love. Face it, love is a loaded word... it has high expectations built into it. The clarifying factor for me came with the realization that acceptance is love stripped of its promise of razzmatazz...fireworks in our heart, so to speak.
Acceptance neutralizes fear. We might not like it, and if we're being forced by life's circumstances to accept something, very often we're not liking it. But, as the overworked phrase goes, it is what it is. Quit the fight...move on. Who knew that could be a definition of love?
Love is just another emotion, and like the others it comes in a variety of guises and disguises. I contend that because it equates to "feels good," it leads in the elite category, and our subconscious allows only rainbows and roses as its standard-bearer. Which makes trying to think of ourself loving our personal monster a real stretch for our reasoning mind...love looking dumb in public? Seriously?
That's where love redefined comes to our aid. We can accept that we just said or did something less than brilliant by saying, with a smile, Oops and moving on. Or we can apologize if we've stepped on another's feelings. We can even love it and laugh...all are love, plain and simple.
Being the lead in the elite category, love encompasses love within itself. Proving love, straight up or redefined, is the answer to everything.
God is love. - John 4:8
Thank you.
So he drops acid and goes on a harrowing, scarifying, ugly, awful, very bad trip in which a monster appears...comes after him...and he cannot run away fast enough and bad, worse, worst seems to be closing in on him. Finally, the bad trip is broken when he hears the monster say, What was it that you thought needed to be loved?
And isn't that...love...the answer to everything we resist? Or, not to put too fine a point on it, the answer to everything.
Which, I'm guessing, cannot be done until we redefine love and the act of love. Face it, love is a loaded word... it has high expectations built into it. The clarifying factor for me came with the realization that acceptance is love stripped of its promise of razzmatazz...fireworks in our heart, so to speak.
Acceptance neutralizes fear. We might not like it, and if we're being forced by life's circumstances to accept something, very often we're not liking it. But, as the overworked phrase goes, it is what it is. Quit the fight...move on. Who knew that could be a definition of love?
Love is just another emotion, and like the others it comes in a variety of guises and disguises. I contend that because it equates to "feels good," it leads in the elite category, and our subconscious allows only rainbows and roses as its standard-bearer. Which makes trying to think of ourself loving our personal monster a real stretch for our reasoning mind...love looking dumb in public? Seriously?
That's where love redefined comes to our aid. We can accept that we just said or did something less than brilliant by saying, with a smile, Oops and moving on. Or we can apologize if we've stepped on another's feelings. We can even love it and laugh...all are love, plain and simple.
Being the lead in the elite category, love encompasses love within itself. Proving love, straight up or redefined, is the answer to everything.
God is love. - John 4:8
Thank you.
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
UNKNOWING...THE SOURCE OF PERFECT PEACE
When we live in the reasoning mind world, the source of all our woes are hidden in the subconscious, in that feeling that we must win. Or never lose. The way to be an always winner, of course, is to always be right. How to always be right? Know...never get caught not knowing. There. The reasoning mind on parade.
When we begin to seek spiritual growth, our consciousness is raised to unknowing...i.e., the source of perfect peace. That can only be, unknowing as perfect peace, as our trust in God the Father within deepens. We do not know how, we simply trust that all that comes to us is of God and for our benefit.
Getting there, trusting God has our back always and all ways, requires a changed perspective...from reason to righteous in a word.
Our life experience will prove that which we dreaded so much, upon arrival has been transmuted into our pearl beyond price...and that big-bucks lottery win we prayed for...uh-oh, it nearly drove us to debtor's prison.
Imagine...all that our changed perspective requires is an upgraded attitude...an attitude of gratitude. Find the sliver of gold in whatever comes, hang on to that with our prayer of thank you, and underneath we can know peace, love and joy.
There. That is truth as it has come to me. And we can never know exactly how that is...how it is that God is.
Thank you.
When we begin to seek spiritual growth, our consciousness is raised to unknowing...i.e., the source of perfect peace. That can only be, unknowing as perfect peace, as our trust in God the Father within deepens. We do not know how, we simply trust that all that comes to us is of God and for our benefit.
Getting there, trusting God has our back always and all ways, requires a changed perspective...from reason to righteous in a word.
Our life experience will prove that which we dreaded so much, upon arrival has been transmuted into our pearl beyond price...and that big-bucks lottery win we prayed for...uh-oh, it nearly drove us to debtor's prison.
Imagine...all that our changed perspective requires is an upgraded attitude...an attitude of gratitude. Find the sliver of gold in whatever comes, hang on to that with our prayer of thank you, and underneath we can know peace, love and joy.
There. That is truth as it has come to me. And we can never know exactly how that is...how it is that God is.
Thank you.
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
TO BE LOVED BY GOD AND TO KNOW IT
Blinding flash of the obvious: My need is my ask.
Pondering that, I understand my ask to be my prayer, but I wonder if my need isn't actually my answer.
There's a person in my life from my past that I know to walk on by...mentally, physically and spiritually. Wish him the best and keep on moving. Interestingly, out of the clear, I have received an e-mail from her asking to meet. After discussion with my mentor and my spiritual director, I decided to not respond.
Least said, soonest mended, said Charles Dickens a hundred years or so ago...and still good.
Somewhere around 3:00 AM this morning, I awaken to a brilliant thought...surely God-inspired. I could send him a Lucy cartoon I have which shows Lucy holding the football and Charlie Brown with a puzzled look thinking "Not again." How perfect is that?
At 5:00 AM I began to suspect that thought might not have been God-inspired...it may well have been my ego speaking to me. Then I heard, clear as a bell, Never get in a fang-fight with a rattlesnake.
Which led to the above blinding flash of the obvious, and I know this time for sure that my need is my answered prayer. And God's answer remains: Walk on by...mentally, physically and spiritually...think the best for her and keep on moving.
To be loved by God and to know it is all we need.
Thank you.
Pondering that, I understand my ask to be my prayer, but I wonder if my need isn't actually my answer.
There's a person in my life from my past that I know to walk on by...mentally, physically and spiritually. Wish him the best and keep on moving. Interestingly, out of the clear, I have received an e-mail from her asking to meet. After discussion with my mentor and my spiritual director, I decided to not respond.
Least said, soonest mended, said Charles Dickens a hundred years or so ago...and still good.
Somewhere around 3:00 AM this morning, I awaken to a brilliant thought...surely God-inspired. I could send him a Lucy cartoon I have which shows Lucy holding the football and Charlie Brown with a puzzled look thinking "Not again." How perfect is that?
At 5:00 AM I began to suspect that thought might not have been God-inspired...it may well have been my ego speaking to me. Then I heard, clear as a bell, Never get in a fang-fight with a rattlesnake.
Which led to the above blinding flash of the obvious, and I know this time for sure that my need is my answered prayer. And God's answer remains: Walk on by...mentally, physically and spiritually...think the best for her and keep on moving.
To be loved by God and to know it is all we need.
Thank you.
Monday, November 11, 2019
GIVING GOD A GIGGLE
[This is a reprint of my post of November 6, 2012.]
My friend is trying to save his marriage...he and his wife are going to couples counseling, he is going to a relationship counselor, has joined a boatload of prayer groups and meditation circles, does Zen mental exercises hourly, brings little giftees home to his wife daily...and those are just the things his friends know of. Self-determined objectives, every one. Each one has a hook, an effect that he wants.
Quite simply, he is going to God for the self-determined objective of having his marriage the way he wants his marriage to be, i.e., comfortable for him, without hassle to him. But it's too selfish sounding to let that be alive in his own mind, so he thinks of it as for his wife, for the sanctity of their marriage.
To outside eyes those look like the logs that are being laid as the foundation for the break-up, the divorce. They are the conscience-clearer, the "I tried my best," "I did all I could do," the "NOT MY FAULT."
None of the things he is doing is bad...each one is a good thing, in fact. IF he were doing them to be a better husband, to be a more loving person, to show forth God simply to show forth God. Not to get, but to give...to release self for the benefit of another.
All of this came to me this morning in meditation when I found myself trying to think of the best way to let a friend know she is wrong and I am right. A spiritual way, don't you know. Unselfish. Loving. For her own good.
Apparently I'm still believing that it is my job to give God a giggle ever so often.
Thank you.
My friend is trying to save his marriage...he and his wife are going to couples counseling, he is going to a relationship counselor, has joined a boatload of prayer groups and meditation circles, does Zen mental exercises hourly, brings little giftees home to his wife daily...and those are just the things his friends know of. Self-determined objectives, every one. Each one has a hook, an effect that he wants.
Quite simply, he is going to God for the self-determined objective of having his marriage the way he wants his marriage to be, i.e., comfortable for him, without hassle to him. But it's too selfish sounding to let that be alive in his own mind, so he thinks of it as for his wife, for the sanctity of their marriage.
To outside eyes those look like the logs that are being laid as the foundation for the break-up, the divorce. They are the conscience-clearer, the "I tried my best," "I did all I could do," the "NOT MY FAULT."
None of the things he is doing is bad...each one is a good thing, in fact. IF he were doing them to be a better husband, to be a more loving person, to show forth God simply to show forth God. Not to get, but to give...to release self for the benefit of another.
All of this came to me this morning in meditation when I found myself trying to think of the best way to let a friend know she is wrong and I am right. A spiritual way, don't you know. Unselfish. Loving. For her own good.
Apparently I'm still believing that it is my job to give God a giggle ever so often.
Thank you.
Sunday, November 10, 2019
GO BEYOND REASON TO FORGIVE
The reasoning mind cannot accept that extending love to evil will not make evil stronger...it may be the only thing that weakens evil purely through strengthening good.
How many times do we forgive a wrong-doer? Seven times? No. Seventy times seven, according to the Word. I'm guessing by that time, forgiveness will be our way of life, and we'll have quit counting and just forgive.
What if forgiveness is best served by silence? Maybe forgiveness does not require words, and if that be so, that would put the onus entirely upon our purified thoughts. The hardest part of that would be remembering that we are incapable of maintaining 100 percent purified thoughts. But isn't that the good news since that is what turns us and returns us to God?
The result though would show forth not only to the forgiven one, but to all with whom we come in daily contact. I have to say that is a win-win-win-win....
We must go beyond reason to love...and to forgive.
Thank you.
How many times do we forgive a wrong-doer? Seven times? No. Seventy times seven, according to the Word. I'm guessing by that time, forgiveness will be our way of life, and we'll have quit counting and just forgive.
What if forgiveness is best served by silence? Maybe forgiveness does not require words, and if that be so, that would put the onus entirely upon our purified thoughts. The hardest part of that would be remembering that we are incapable of maintaining 100 percent purified thoughts. But isn't that the good news since that is what turns us and returns us to God?
The result though would show forth not only to the forgiven one, but to all with whom we come in daily contact. I have to say that is a win-win-win-win....
We must go beyond reason to love...and to forgive.
Thank you.
Saturday, November 9, 2019
K.I.S.S. (KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID)
We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can -- namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us. - Saint Teresa of Avila
Such a simple sentence. If we could...or is it "would?"...live that single two-fold sentence, we for sure could and would live free.
Toward that end, a new insight for me: Being 80 is not nearing end of life, it is beginning the freedom of living shucked of my shackles...no longer constantly seeking to correct myself, but finally knowing God as showing forth through me. Whenever I do something that rings my own regret bell, I hit reset and rest knowing God is shucking another shackle of my selfwill.
Oh, blinding flash of the obvious: To think anything needs be changed is an ego trip...love it just as it is.
I tend to take my BFOs for serious since they so seldom match up with my reasoning mind. Fortunately for my own comfort, I no longer get in mental arguments, I just loose my resistance and let God do his thing.
Most of the time...I mean, who's kidding whom? Like with this one, to think anything needs be changed is an ego trip...love it just as it is. Well. In a perfect world, maybe. But....
And there goes me, all set to arm-wrestle with God.
To think anything needs be changed is an ego trip...love it just as it is. Underneath isn't that the heart, the how-to, of Saint Teresa of Avila's words? We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can -- namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us.
K.I.S.S.
Thank you.
Such a simple sentence. If we could...or is it "would?"...live that single two-fold sentence, we for sure could and would live free.
Toward that end, a new insight for me: Being 80 is not nearing end of life, it is beginning the freedom of living shucked of my shackles...no longer constantly seeking to correct myself, but finally knowing God as showing forth through me. Whenever I do something that rings my own regret bell, I hit reset and rest knowing God is shucking another shackle of my selfwill.
Oh, blinding flash of the obvious: To think anything needs be changed is an ego trip...love it just as it is.
I tend to take my BFOs for serious since they so seldom match up with my reasoning mind. Fortunately for my own comfort, I no longer get in mental arguments, I just loose my resistance and let God do his thing.
Most of the time...I mean, who's kidding whom? Like with this one, to think anything needs be changed is an ego trip...love it just as it is. Well. In a perfect world, maybe. But....
And there goes me, all set to arm-wrestle with God.
To think anything needs be changed is an ego trip...love it just as it is. Underneath isn't that the heart, the how-to, of Saint Teresa of Avila's words? We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can -- namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us.
K.I.S.S.
Thank you.
Friday, November 8, 2019
ON BEING FOUND, LED AND FED BY GOD
One thing will never change, however. Our faith is founded on the life and death of Jesus the Christ. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," October 30, 2019
Why do so many reject that? The rejection seems based solely on the words Jesus Christ...or, maybe more to the point, based solely on fear of the words Jesus Christ.
Yet, I know for myself, my entire resistance to religion was based on what I was taught at age 12 at my church...which was not Catholic and the teacher was not a nun. My church was just plain old down-home, no-frills, no-chills religion...boring in a word.
As I've aged and matured, I've realized my need to find a God of my understanding, and I know I've been led to learn about spirituality. Since I knew more about the Christian faith than any other (about most of which I knew nothing), I gravitated to the teachings in the Bible, King James version. And found that I couldn't make a lick of sense of anything written there. So I branched out.
Interestingly, the Sermon on the Mount was, and ever has been, waiting for me at the base of...I hesitate to say all, but it seems so..all the teachings and teachers that have found me. Since that came straight from Jesus the Christ, I clambered up the steps and knew me to be home.
Since I got over myself, I have no resistance today to Jesus Christ, but, no doubt the pearl beyond price, I have no problem with others who have a problem today with Jesus Christ. I keep being pushed, pulled, led and fed by friends, books and blinding flashes of the obvious, and I encourage any and all who choose to...clamber on up those steps with me.
Thank you.
Why do so many reject that? The rejection seems based solely on the words Jesus Christ...or, maybe more to the point, based solely on fear of the words Jesus Christ.
Yet, I know for myself, my entire resistance to religion was based on what I was taught at age 12 at my church...which was not Catholic and the teacher was not a nun. My church was just plain old down-home, no-frills, no-chills religion...boring in a word.
As I've aged and matured, I've realized my need to find a God of my understanding, and I know I've been led to learn about spirituality. Since I knew more about the Christian faith than any other (about most of which I knew nothing), I gravitated to the teachings in the Bible, King James version. And found that I couldn't make a lick of sense of anything written there. So I branched out.
Interestingly, the Sermon on the Mount was, and ever has been, waiting for me at the base of...I hesitate to say all, but it seems so..all the teachings and teachers that have found me. Since that came straight from Jesus the Christ, I clambered up the steps and knew me to be home.
Since I got over myself, I have no resistance today to Jesus Christ, but, no doubt the pearl beyond price, I have no problem with others who have a problem today with Jesus Christ. I keep being pushed, pulled, led and fed by friends, books and blinding flashes of the obvious, and I encourage any and all who choose to...clamber on up those steps with me.
Thank you.
Thursday, November 7, 2019
ON CHOOSING A TURNED-OVER LIFE
We must deliberately choose to be instruments of peace—first of all in our minds and hearts. - Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, November 7, 2019
The blinding flash of the obvious that takes so very long to grasp is making that choice is a longtime birthing...then it's the rest of our life a-growing. We can never stop deliberately choosing to be instruments of peace...mentally, physically and spiritually. Although life being life, we must and do take breaks...then get uncomfortable enough to realize we've yet again "broke" too long...and get back to learning to live a turned-over life.
To the reasoning mind, it seems almost too daunting to even try for. Kinda like a dirge with no rhyme nor rhythm, the reasoning mind will ever resist that. Isn't there a theory called survival of the fittest? Who's kidding whom? Common sense tells us we're not going to get there giving over, giving up, giving in!
Which is precisely how and why we've come to the realization that building trust in the Lord is our only hope of moving up to a deeper place within. We are seeking to find our Father which art in Heaven, and like new-born calves learning to stand, we wobble. we fall, we strain to get up in order to wobble, to fall....
The wonder is that's doing it right...that's building trust. We are learning to trust the Father in our need to deliberately choose to be instruments of peace...wobble, fall, strain to get up to wobble, fall...all the while praying our thank you.
The blinding flash of the obvious that takes so very long to grasp is making that choice is a longtime birthing...then it's the rest of our life a-growing. We can never stop deliberately choosing to be instruments of peace...mentally, physically and spiritually. Although life being life, we must and do take breaks...then get uncomfortable enough to realize we've yet again "broke" too long...and get back to learning to live a turned-over life.
To the reasoning mind, it seems almost too daunting to even try for. Kinda like a dirge with no rhyme nor rhythm, the reasoning mind will ever resist that. Isn't there a theory called survival of the fittest? Who's kidding whom? Common sense tells us we're not going to get there giving over, giving up, giving in!
Which is precisely how and why we've come to the realization that building trust in the Lord is our only hope of moving up to a deeper place within. We are seeking to find our Father which art in Heaven, and like new-born calves learning to stand, we wobble. we fall, we strain to get up in order to wobble, to fall....
The wonder is that's doing it right...that's building trust. We are learning to trust the Father in our need to deliberately choose to be instruments of peace...wobble, fall, strain to get up to wobble, fall...all the while praying our thank you.
The pearl beyond price is that we know the deep need for the spiritual, and we are led to desire living a life of giving over, giving up, giving in. And for others. (Which may be advanced spirituality, but we never know the day or the hour when the bridegroom may come.)
Thank you.
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
REALITY RESISTS NOT
They that have revelation must live it. Practice doing no harm...set an intention...it’s not just words that we speak, it’s a life practice that supports us in regularly aligning our heart and mind with our actions...set an intention and reflect on it often. This intention is about doing no harm in our speech, our actions, or in our thoughts. -- Fr Richard Rohr, August 3, 2019, "Daily Meditation"
It is a wondrous thing to be given a second chance...and a third chance...and a fourth, fifth, sixth...ah, a new chance as and when needed.
The more wondrous thing, though, is our ever-dawning realization that with each new chance given us comes a personal responsibility. That is, we must become living evidence of our earned inheritance.
We earn our second, third, fourth, etc., chances by our changed mind, the mind that now seeks to know and to do God's will rather than our own will. Say we feel slighted, cheated, publicly humiliated...are we willing to be still and know that I am God? Or, in self-speak, shut up and listen. Listen with an inviting mind, the mind that lets go of the fear that we will lose and they will win if we do not respond in kind...if we do not resist. Ah, the base of our changed-mind practice: Resist not evil.
Our actual willingness to follow God's will rests in our proving it. We prove it, as Rohr wrote, when we practice doing no harm in our speech, our actions, or in our thoughts...it’s a life practice that supports us in regularly aligning our heart and mind with our actions.
Resist not evil. -- Matthew 5:39
It is a wondrous thing to be given a second chance...and a third chance...and a fourth, fifth, sixth...ah, a new chance as and when needed.
The more wondrous thing, though, is our ever-dawning realization that with each new chance given us comes a personal responsibility. That is, we must become living evidence of our earned inheritance.
We earn our second, third, fourth, etc., chances by our changed mind, the mind that now seeks to know and to do God's will rather than our own will. Say we feel slighted, cheated, publicly humiliated...are we willing to be still and know that I am God? Or, in self-speak, shut up and listen. Listen with an inviting mind, the mind that lets go of the fear that we will lose and they will win if we do not respond in kind...if we do not resist. Ah, the base of our changed-mind practice: Resist not evil.
Our actual willingness to follow God's will rests in our proving it. We prove it, as Rohr wrote, when we practice doing no harm in our speech, our actions, or in our thoughts...it’s a life practice that supports us in regularly aligning our heart and mind with our actions.
Resist not evil. -- Matthew 5:39
Thank you.
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
GOD AS LOVE AND LAUGHTER
November 4, 2017, note to me in my God Calling: Trump...there is a crack in everything. [The rest of the line being, that's how the light gets in from Leonard Cohen's "Anthem."]
This morning's blinding flash of the obvious: What if President Trump is a modern-day Saul of Tarsus? Saul was not a wonderful example of human goodness, but when Christ-struck became Saint Paul.
Quiet-time thoughts: What if I am Saul of Tarsus waiting to be struck? If that be true, I had better do a lot more shucking of my shields. And, whoa! What if, at the center, in the Soul, of each and all of us, we are Saul waiting to be struck?
For better or worse, imagine that is the state and the nature of the material world...Saul in our reasoning mind, Paul in our raised consciousness. Doesn't that give impetus to our personal need to lay down our sword and shield? As opposed to study war more.
It is my hope that the majority of the people of the world (that's 51%) want to be better than we are...kinder, more loving and generous. If that could be, what's our most likely holdback? I can be but will you? If I give and you don't, will I get mine?
There's no guarantee I'll get mine according to my own yardstick, but love and laughter preclude me from being as nasty as I want to be about it. That is precisely why my decision to throw in with the God of my understanding, who may just be love and laughter, is a reasonable answer.
Win-win. God first, we follow.
Thank you.
This morning's blinding flash of the obvious: What if President Trump is a modern-day Saul of Tarsus? Saul was not a wonderful example of human goodness, but when Christ-struck became Saint Paul.
Quiet-time thoughts: What if I am Saul of Tarsus waiting to be struck? If that be true, I had better do a lot more shucking of my shields. And, whoa! What if, at the center, in the Soul, of each and all of us, we are Saul waiting to be struck?
For better or worse, imagine that is the state and the nature of the material world...Saul in our reasoning mind, Paul in our raised consciousness. Doesn't that give impetus to our personal need to lay down our sword and shield? As opposed to study war more.
It is my hope that the majority of the people of the world (that's 51%) want to be better than we are...kinder, more loving and generous. If that could be, what's our most likely holdback? I can be but will you? If I give and you don't, will I get mine?
There's no guarantee I'll get mine according to my own yardstick, but love and laughter preclude me from being as nasty as I want to be about it. That is precisely why my decision to throw in with the God of my understanding, who may just be love and laughter, is a reasonable answer.
Win-win. God first, we follow.
Thank you.
Monday, November 4, 2019
TRUST...RELEASE AND LET GO
In Thy Presence is fulness of Joy; at Thy right Hand there are pleasures for evermore. -- Psalm 16:11
Do not seek to realize this fulness of Joy as the result of effort. This cannot be, any more than Joy in a human friend's presence would come as the result of trying to force yourself to like to have that friend with you. -- "God Calling," November 4
There is a fundamental shift in worldview and values -- essentially, a new way of seeing -- which requires a shift in our perception of reality, and that shift is happening now, both as cognitive revolution and spiritual awakening. Nothing is static, and if you try to construct an unchangeable or independent universe for yourself, you will be moving against the now obvious divine plan and direction. -- Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," November 4, 2019, slightly reworked
Were entirely ready to have God remove all of our defects of character, then humbly asked Him to remove them. -- Anonymous, from suggested steps of the twelve-step program
For those of us born to be free of me, yearning to walk free of self in our own head, all of the above form the very how-to of doing just that.
Just consider, each says virtually the same thing. Each tracks back through the years, from biblical times to modern day to this very day. They are each about divorcing ourself from self-determined objectives, or our own opinions, wants and perceived needs, and marrying up with a Higher Power, or the Father that dwells within who does the work.
In short, they are each about the need for those self-determined objectives to be transmuted by God for God...not through our own reasoning-mind efforts of thinking, analyzing, managing, but through spiritual-growth detachment from those reasoning-mind efforts.
And there it is...that is our life's journey: Learning to hug them and kiss them and let them go...them being our family, our friends, our enemies, our defects of character, our.... Face it, if we can name them, we need to release them...and love and laugh.
Thank you.
Do not seek to realize this fulness of Joy as the result of effort. This cannot be, any more than Joy in a human friend's presence would come as the result of trying to force yourself to like to have that friend with you. -- "God Calling," November 4
There is a fundamental shift in worldview and values -- essentially, a new way of seeing -- which requires a shift in our perception of reality, and that shift is happening now, both as cognitive revolution and spiritual awakening. Nothing is static, and if you try to construct an unchangeable or independent universe for yourself, you will be moving against the now obvious divine plan and direction. -- Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," November 4, 2019, slightly reworked
Were entirely ready to have God remove all of our defects of character, then humbly asked Him to remove them. -- Anonymous, from suggested steps of the twelve-step program
For those of us born to be free of me, yearning to walk free of self in our own head, all of the above form the very how-to of doing just that.
Just consider, each says virtually the same thing. Each tracks back through the years, from biblical times to modern day to this very day. They are each about divorcing ourself from self-determined objectives, or our own opinions, wants and perceived needs, and marrying up with a Higher Power, or the Father that dwells within who does the work.
In short, they are each about the need for those self-determined objectives to be transmuted by God for God...not through our own reasoning-mind efforts of thinking, analyzing, managing, but through spiritual-growth detachment from those reasoning-mind efforts.
And there it is...that is our life's journey: Learning to hug them and kiss them and let them go...them being our family, our friends, our enemies, our defects of character, our.... Face it, if we can name them, we need to release them...and love and laugh.
Thank you.
Sunday, November 3, 2019
GOD'S COUNTERINTUITIVE VIEWPOINT
Old news strutting its stuff just as if it were new: To change our mind is not to change our mind from I'm right, you're wrong to you're right, I'm wrong...no, it is to have our mind opened to God's point of view. Which is akin to what F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about the rich being different from you and me.
It is not that God's point of view is different from ours so much as it is counterintuitive to ours. As in, our perceived nightmare becomes God's pearl beyond price when our mind is changed...upgraded if you will.
For example, we pray for God to relieve us of the bondage of self when to pray aright is to thank him for relieving us of the bondage of self. It must be thank you first if we want to trust...if we want to build our trust...that he has already done for us whatever need be done.
Same goes with our prayer that God take away our difficulties that victory over them may bear witness to those we would help of his love, power and way of life. We have come to experience the truth that all our problems have already been solved, and we pray our thank you for that...that it has been done.
Our job henceforth...prove it. ("Henceforth" means for the rest of our life, I'm betting.)
In truth, I hope so...in proving, we trudge the road to surrender for it is only through surrender that we come to acceptance. Even as we often stumble-bumble, we walk forward unbroken, blessedly unfettered by our own self-will.
We will wonder, we will question...if we're doing it right...but underneath is the certainty: We have made our decision, God's will is preferable to our will, we're going with God's will.
And we rightly thank God, that he has already gone before us to make the crooked places straight.
Thank you.
Saturday, November 2, 2019
THE PRAYER
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Thank you.
Friday, November 1, 2019
OUR BENEFIT IS FOR THE BENEFIT OF OTHERS
...real faith is the prayer that is so sure of a glad response. -- God Calling, November 1
There. That is what I am building today...real faith. I know I am in the building process by my many missteps, flapping gums, and perplexities...the perplexities being what was I thinking? in regard to my missteps and flapping gums.
I am comforted by my faith that God knows everything I am thinking, feeling, doing, being...and that's before I think, feel, do or be. God knows, has a plan for that, and already has worked it for my benefit. I call that the safety valve inherent to free will. It is our faith that opens the safety valve, allowing us to step out of our reasoning mind where we get stuck in rues, regrets and remorses...and that can be before, as and after we actually take action.
We read, memorize, repeat for others to hear, and quote often to ourself that He goes before us to make the crooked places straight...also, God can and will intervene in my life in my behalf...but until we actually move our feet forward, our head will keep us stuck in the words.
It is our moving feet that takes our free will out for a walkabout. Our reasoning mind will decide whether we do the next right thing or not...our faith trusts God will have already perfected the outcome. So we do...and dimdam if it isn't the exactly wrong thing!
Ah, here comes spiritual insight to save our day...we realize the exactly wrong thing as God's opportunity to make the crooked place straight...and for our benefit. Our changed mind knows our apparent mistakes are our building blocks in growing our faith.
Our faith begins to root with the glimmer of the reality that God's will done in our life is preferable to our will done in our life. When we make a decision for God's will over our own will, in effect, we decide to return our free will to God in exchange for his will.
The rest of our life is in growing that root knowing it for our benefit by being of benefit to others.
Thank you.
There. That is what I am building today...real faith. I know I am in the building process by my many missteps, flapping gums, and perplexities...the perplexities being what was I thinking? in regard to my missteps and flapping gums.
I am comforted by my faith that God knows everything I am thinking, feeling, doing, being...and that's before I think, feel, do or be. God knows, has a plan for that, and already has worked it for my benefit. I call that the safety valve inherent to free will. It is our faith that opens the safety valve, allowing us to step out of our reasoning mind where we get stuck in rues, regrets and remorses...and that can be before, as and after we actually take action.
We read, memorize, repeat for others to hear, and quote often to ourself that He goes before us to make the crooked places straight...also, God can and will intervene in my life in my behalf...but until we actually move our feet forward, our head will keep us stuck in the words.
It is our moving feet that takes our free will out for a walkabout. Our reasoning mind will decide whether we do the next right thing or not...our faith trusts God will have already perfected the outcome. So we do...and dimdam if it isn't the exactly wrong thing!
Ah, here comes spiritual insight to save our day...we realize the exactly wrong thing as God's opportunity to make the crooked place straight...and for our benefit. Our changed mind knows our apparent mistakes are our building blocks in growing our faith.
Our faith begins to root with the glimmer of the reality that God's will done in our life is preferable to our will done in our life. When we make a decision for God's will over our own will, in effect, we decide to return our free will to God in exchange for his will.
The rest of our life is in growing that root knowing it for our benefit by being of benefit to others.
Thank you.
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