GOD PERFECTS OUR CONSCIOUS LIFE

God can bring joy out of heartbreak...peace out of discord...love out of anything. -- from my post of November 16, 2014

Well, it's "prove it" time. My challenge to me: Prove that God can bring love out of anything.

I remind me that there are only two emotions: love and fear. Since I'm clearly not feeling love, this must be fear...on the hoof. Fear of dementia. 

I remember back in the day when The Big C was the common fear...so feared that we could not even use its name, cancer. That's where dementia is heading today...Alzheimer's in particular. We hesitate to speak the word aloud.

I was sharing at a meeting yesterday and, seemingly suddenly, my mind felt addled, and I could not think my way out of it.

That for sure scared me, but I have not been obsessed and fear-filled about it. No doubt because I shared the experience with a friend later...which cleared my blocked channel to welcome it.

Journaling about it this morning, without thought I wrote: I pray thank you...this, too, is for my benefit. I welcome whatever comes, and God will perfect it in my conscious life.

Can I even touch on how comforting that was/is to me? No, I cannot. But I do...I am. 

Oh! Blinding flash... there's God proving it...proving he can bring love out of anything, even fear of dementia. 

God just loves me...and right back at you, God!

Thank you.

PEACE OF MIND...GOD IS ON THE FIELD

For whatever reason, at some point recently...possibly in my half-sleep...and this, too, is for my benefit came to my conscious mind. 

It has been tagging itself on the end of my thank you prayer, and I feel comforted by that. Probably because my thank you means the most when I pray it for a perceived slight to me or I feel the world running amok.   

Over the years, we have learned that to upgrade our attitude is to upgrade our problem. From experience, we also know that is a slow starter. The real drag foot is wanting to, of course...wanting to upgrade our attitude...for that means our mind must change. Oh.

I am finding that this, too, is for my benefit is a quick starter. Say that our sense of dread comes creeping in...we do not immediately know the why of it, but we soon recognize, or remember, the cause. 

We shoot a quick thank you, and this, too, is for my benefit, and a sense of peace and purpose enwraps us. That sense is spiritual in nature and is the essential ingredient for an upgrade of our attitude. 

Dread, anxiety, doubt...all fear in a word...take a backseat to a sense of peace and purpose, and that is the key to peace of mind. Or, as Joel Goldsmith often said, God is on the field. Yes.

Thank you.

TO SEE THE VISION OF THE WHOLE

Unless there is a readiness to let go, we will not see the vision of the whole. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, September 28, 2023

 

Readiness. The readiness to let go. The word is not willingness. It is readiness. 

I just got a nudge-flash...all of our studying, pondering, writing, journaling, thinking, talking...to self and others...seldom brings us to the critical readiness point to see the vision of the whole. That can become the block to the critical consciousness...spiritually raised consciousness...we seek. 

We cannot enter into that vision on want-to alone...or on sincere striving, doing good, speaking holy words, etc. My go-to is the story of Saul, a persecutor of Christians, on the road to Damascus...he was knocked off his horse, blinded by the light, yadayadayada, and became Saint Paul the Apostle. Obviously, he was not an over-analyzer of God.

Our reality is that we are not looking to be a saint...we are seekers of a higher vision than our reasoning mind can grasp. We go to God for God, and that is all. It is the all that is God's blank to fill...ours is to continue prepping our self for a kinder, gentler way that will benefit our self and others who are seekers, too. God's will, God's way.

To get out of this repetitive cycle, we have to allow ourselves to be drawn into sacred space, into liminality. All transformation takes place here. There alone is our old world left behind, though we’re not yet sure of the new existence.-- Ibid., September 26, 2023  

Thank you.  

BY GRACE WE MAKE LOVE OUR OWN

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

I just seem to be rattling around in my own head, looking for a place to settle. For whatever reason, that quote soothes my unsettled feelings. 

It feels counterintuitive but it's the word "if" that comforts me. Take "if" away, and we're left with just another high-flying spiritual demand...or command: By grace you can make love your own, [so] do.

I feel a ways from there. Actually, that is the comforter, the "not there" feeling with no panic, no self-rejection, just the words,  ...if by grace you can make love your own, do. 

My sense is that has been sitting on my shoulder, waiting to drop in (for a spot of tea?), while I continued to circle looking for a place to settle.

There it is...answered prayer. I can, am, and do feel unsettled, yet my heart, soul, body and brain know no panic...or no fear of panic, more like. 

Hey! I think I have...by grace, made love my own. Believe it and own it! I do, yes I do!

God loves me sooo much.

Thank you.

GET CLOSE TO THE WOUNDS, GET CLOSER TO GOD

As compassion and sympathy flow from us to any person marginalized for whatever reason, wounds are bandaged—both theirs and ours. We’ll never bandage them all, nor do we need to, but we do need to get close to the wounds.  -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, September 23, 2023

I have known for some time this long and often painful initiation period of mine is me living between two planes...material consciousness and God consciousness.

Knowing that has been my great comfort but pain is pain and doesn't differentiate between good and not so good...but our spiritual condition can and does make a difference. There...tending to our spiritual condition no matter the material "facts" is the solution to all our woes. 

On occasion I find myself mindlessly repeating I am alone and so ashamed with no context...it just runs with no backup whenever. Egoic consciousness will cling to that phrase as if it is a lifesaver; God consciousness, however, transmutes alone and ashamed to empathetic love.

Empathetic love invites us to get close to the wounds. As most everything spiritual in nature is, that is counterintuitive...if it hurts, backing off is the reasonable, or reasoning mind, solution. 

We go beyond reason to get close to the wounds... to get close to God...where true healing occurs.

Thank you.

REALIZATION...BEYOND REASON...OF GOD

We must go beyond reason to love. -- Thaddeus Golas

We parrot what we have been taught; namely, God is love, ergo, we must go beyond reason to God. The catch, of course, is just repeating the words keeps us in the reasoning mind world of pretty words.

We must go beyond reason, yet trying to think our way out of reason, stays us in reason. The secret to transcending reason is realization. We can think God is love but unless and until inside our self we realize that, we are simply repeating words by rote.

I so appreciate the account of Howard Thurman stressing realization in coming face to face with God: The individual in the experience seems to come into possession of what he has known as being true all along. The thing that is new is the realization. And this is of profound importance.

Paradoxically, repeating those pretty words, God is love, keeps us heading in the right direction. If we are to be lifted into realization in this lifetime, repeating those words will not get us there, but we will feel peaced. That in itself is a beyond-reason pearl.

Thank you.

FORGIVENESS...GRACE RELEASED, II

[The following is a reprint of my post of November 11, 2013.]

My morning's blinding flash of the obvious: We will never know peace until we let go of our personal sense of right and wrong.

Our personal sense of right and wrong is our petty fears...not getting or losing ours, someone getting over on us, getting unfairly slapped down (has there ever been a "fairly slapped down"?)...any one of which, when we're in the midst of it, is our God. We focus totally on it and will not allow ourselves to know peace until we win or it loses.

More important to me today, though, in knowing peace is the fact that we lose, or never build on, our childhood sense of wonder at life itself. To me, that is simply encouraging our own intuition to blossom, to grow. It seems we are "sore afraid" of our own intuitive sense.

I have discovered that I am a very intuitive person. I like to think of myself as the Grandma Moses of spiritual growth...meaning I am unlearned, self-taught, simplistic..."no frills," in fact. But early on I intuitively knew a truth that set me on the spiritual path of my life. I relied on that and it has never failed me.

I also learned, however, to check myself out...because at first we can't be sure if we're getting God's word or our own wishing/dreading thinking. We learn to build on our intuitive thoughts, nourish them with spiritual readings, take careful first steps at trusting them...until we get that click-click, and we know.

We spend way too much time trying to rid ourselves of our uglies while ignoring God's pearl within. I'm convinced that it is within our intuitive sense that the capacity to forgive lives. It for sure doesn't live in the reasoning mind...or in my reasoning mind at any rate. I have never been able to think my way into forgiving any person even associated with my personal sense of being wronged.

I have forgiven, however, and even wondered how I got so blessed as to give that. Of course it was, of course it is, grace. Grace released and blessing the forgiver and the forgiven, and I am grateful.

Thank you.

THE UNBLOCK TO SELF...LIVING THE SERMON

Blinding flash of the obvious: It is self alone that is the block to God in our life. 

The unblock, of course, is the Sermon...our living the Sermon. Or, living the short version of the Sermon: Get over yourself.

Thank you. 

THE GIFT OF DISCOMFORT...PRAISE, REPEATEDLY

Sometimes I think we choose to be alone because it is safe. To be comfortable in our isolation is our greatest poverty. -- Ilia Delio, Franciscan scholar 

The Delio quote sent chills up my spine...truth does that. 

The first sentence, "we choose to be alone because it is safe," felt comforting; the second, "comfort in our isolation is our greatest poverty," shot that down.

The juggernaut is that aloneness is invited in by self-will to counter fear...of being left alone.

Browsing my blog, I came across this from an October 2015 post: Praise is our welcome mat...always out, always stepped on, still welcoming.

There. The solution to my juggernaut comes via praise along with love and laughter. I give praise, i.e., thank you, to God for my being alone for it is my gateway to happy.

The path to happy is through praise...the road to a head full of free is through praise...the way to a faith that works is through praise. -- same October 2015 post

Everything old really is new again...or, polished a tish, it's readily reusable.

Thank you.

LOVE THAT TRANSCENDS EGO HEALS

We have the capacity to heal this earth of its divisions, its wars, its violence, and its hatreds. This capacity is the love within us to suffer with another and to love the other without reward. Love that transcends the ego is love that heals. When we lose ourselves for the sake of love, we shall find ourselves capable of real love. -- Franciscan scholar Ilia Delio

I believe this is the love I felt...still feel...for Jim McG, a fellowship friend...it was pure, honest, unexpectant and a delight.

Jim died recently, and he is still sharing life lessons, or love, with me. 

He was young...60ish...military, and one did not know immediately if he was a private or a colonel. He loved his wife, his family...the whole fam-damily...the Chicago Cubs (and when they won the World Series, he all but held a parade of one right down the middle of his world), his cabin in the woods, and most anyone he came into contact with.

Jim was a shining light in my world, and I never told him...never entered my mind until after he was dead and gone. I regretted that until God (or Jim) let me see how that love I did not know I had is growing still...and stronger. 

I am made "wholer" by my too-brief contact with Jim McG. I pass it on.

Thank you.

FOLLOW HIS LEAD, DETOUR, FOLLOW, ETC.

To not resist is to give up self-determined objectives through God consciousness. - Fr Richard Rohr

As I too often say, resist not evil is my favorite phrase in the Sermon. It took some serious arm-wrestling with my Father and my ego to become willing to even consider that for truth. I got there fairly early in my spiritual growth...or I would not have sought still more spiritual growth, I suspect.

I wonder if that phrase, resist not evil, wasn't taught purely because it invites resistance...it defies common sense, or even higher intelligence if we're going to stay on the material plane. 

Fr Richard's quote above is the quiet word. We must go to God to not resist...but there's the point to life itself: We must go to God...period. 

We must get over our belief that agreeing with what we're learning raises our consciousness. It does not, but it heads us in the right direction. Staying in the right direction is to meet with a boatload of detours, U-bies, changes in latitude, changes in attitude (R.I.P., Jimmy Buffett, and thank you). 

Here's the paradox, the good news/bad news: We read a deep spiritual truth, we get it, we quote it, we teach it...and are no closer to the truth of it than we were before we heard of it. 

The good news is that we get it; the bad news is that we get it...and we stop. To get it is akin to our first taste of alcohol...we get it, we love it, we want more. However, alcohol has many different life uses from pleasure to practical to medicinal...our personal needs dictate its use, and learning which takes time, effort and want-to. 

The same goes for spiritual truth...for that matter, same goes for God. Our personal needs dictate our life's walk...and there is no wrong way to walk with God. Following his lead is all we need do which is what makes it so difficult whether we are going for the gold or are stayed in the material mind.

Following his lead, we will go down that wrong road again and again, getting closer all the while...not following his lead, we will do the same only getting no closer each time. Stayed in self, we stay in self.

We go to God for God, and that is all.

Thank you.

ACCEPTANCE CANNOT BE SELF-WILLED

Instead of the people being cast aside for their evil ways, the subversion takes place in God’s own heart. -- Sister of St. Joseph Catherine Nerney

There is the fix-it for all wrongs that we perceive as coming at us...specifically warped relationships. Instead of casting the other aside for wronging us, we look to God beating in our heart and the change takes place...we accept. 

By grace and by God we realize that only our mind needs be changed...or exchanged, in a word. Acceptance is the catalyst that exchanges our mind...from material (right/wrong) to spiritual (One'd).

Acceptance cannot be self-willed...but willingness counts, as in, being willing to be wrong without a thought of payback. Whoa...there's a whole new level to dread even as we know to pray for it.  

The material mind does not give up just because it needs to...way too often we find it still wanting hip, slick and cool. Love and laugh.

Love is the only thing that transforms the human heart. -- Fr Richard Rohr

Thank you.

LIFE IS FOR GIVING...SO FORGIVE

We cannot get there by any method whatsoever; we can only be there. The purest form of spirituality is to find God in what is right in front of us. -- Fr Richard Rohr

The surprise to our reasoning mind is that finding God in "what is right in front of us" is what is right in front of us is the crapola of our life at the moment...that which we are so earnestly praying God to remove, make not happen, beautify...for our benefit. 

Another mental mystifier is the finding of God is not a one-shot deal. We learn early on that God is within...within each of us and our little dog, Toto, too. "We learn" translated is "We hear, we say, we preach." Ah, but trust? There's the truth made ours by God alone...slowly.

This I can stand on: Often pure spirituality is God appearing to our eyeball as another Oh, No, being welcomed by our sincere thank you, and transforming us from fearful to peaced. All of which happens in an instant and takes our reasoning mind waaay longer to rely on. Which is at it needs be.

Finding God in what is right in front of us is for giving. Or,  for living one day at a time, fret-free and forgiving.

Thank you.

CRASH/BURN AND THE PEACE OF ACCEPTANCE

The paradox of crash and burn mirrors life itself. We try with a will to avoid life's rougher spots, but when we fail...when we crash and burn...we often find it is the very roughest happening that leads us to salvation.   

Common sense dreads the idea of crash and burn...we go to almost any lengths to avoid it. We pray obsessively for this cup to pass, yet when it does not pass, acceptance, the pearl beyond price, blooms in the ashes of that crash and burn. 

Face it, when we hit bottom and then go lower than we knew was possible, acceptance is all that is left for us spiritually.

Those who refuse spiritual aid often choose suicide. I was afraid I'd screw that up, too, and wind up a vegetable so I sit not in judgment. I'm just gutbucket grateful that I was led to a solution spiritual in nature that lifted me out of self into Self...for the benefit of others.

The paradox is that being led out of the ashes by God and by grace, we still try with a will to avoid our fear of crash and burn...and that self-determined objective is the bane. 

We learn to trust that Thy Will, Thy Way is the road to acceptance for that is the home of peace of mind. Since crash and burn has led us to God, what's to fear?

Thank you.

OUT OF SELF...FOR THE BENEFIT OF OTHERS

Out of the unknown came the word indolence. And there...I knew the exact nature of my woes, the root of my perpetual discomfort...indolence. 

I did not even Google indolence to get the exact meaning...my meaning is fear of moving out of self...reading about moving out of self while never making a move.   

Indolence is like surrender which meant "loser" until we surrendered...and it transmuted into acceptance. 

Indolence meant an unmoving self until it transmuted with the realization that physical movement is secondary...a spiritual change always benefits others. It cannot remain stationary...it moves out of self into Self into others more by our inaction than by our action. 

We are available to and for whomever reaches out. Often our thoughts are transmitted without our knowledge...our words are upgraded spiritually without effort. Face it, without God effort is just another self-determined objective.

My road to peace of mind, my forever goal, is through still more spiritual growth... specifically through the Sermon on the Mount, the first and last word on Out of Self for Others...God, plain and simple. 

Thank you.

IMPERSONAL LOVE...THE FOURTH DIMENSION

[T]he general dance of God, one with us in our brokenness...never ceases to stir within us, beating 'in our very blood whether we want it to or not.' -- Fr Richard's Daily Meditation, September 1, 2023

"The general dance of God" brings us to the concept of "impersonal love."

I came across a quote from William Law, an early English theologian, and I paraphrased a paragraph: By love, I do not mean any natural tenderness...but I mean a larger principle of the soul, founded in reason and [respect], which makes us...creatures of God and for his sake.

That is an apt description of impersonal love as the general dance of God.

Unknowingly, we are in...we live within...a state of impersonal love, or the fourth dimension to which we so earnestly aspire. 

Having nothing but honorable intent, our bringing impersonal love to the reasoning mind in order to understand it devolves its spiritual nature. We bring it down to our level to understand it, but understanding with the material mind can only dismiss its own dimension. 

It is "personalizing" love that sullies its character. Love personalized brings its opposite, fear in the form of hate, into our material world where dual thinking thrives in the general dance of God...beating 'in our very blood whether we want it to or not.' 

We must go beyond reason to love. -- Thaddeus Golas, The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

Thank you.

********

What we want and what we need are two "givens" in our life...bringing them together is the essence of our daily walk...with what we need always and forever coming out on top. Apparently it takes many lifetimes for us 

AH...WITHOUT OUR FINGERPRINTS ON IT, II

[The following is a reprint of my post of  December 23, 2019.}

Your task is to find the good, the true, and the beautiful in everything, even and most especially the problematic. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," December 23, 2019

There it is...another piece of evidence that "finding the sliver of gold" is the "next right thing" to do in any situation.

Except that I reject the idea that we must do the next right thing.

When we put that qualifier in, we either become immobilized wondering what is the right thing, or we give over to our ego to lead its puff-parade, resulting in our calling what we want to do the right thing...which almost invariably turns out to be waaay wrong.

I first heard the advice as "do the next thing" which makes a lot better sense to me. Because the next thing is rarely related to what our mind's race-race, run-run problem is. The next thing is usually something akin to "put on your shoes, comb your hair, walk the dog."

We come to recognize doing the next thing as buying time (which I contend is very likely the best advice ever). Any advice that boils down to "shut up, sit down, listen" has God's will written all over it. Face it, the time we buy in fret-free silence is our sliver of gold.

Then our task to find the good, the true, and the beautiful in everything, even and most especially the problematic, is done and done...and, best, without our fingerprints on it.

Thank you.

UNDESERVED SUFFERING...GOD'S WILL AND WAY

Undeserved suffering...now there's a concept that will wrestle us to the ground. I suspect that the egoic mind is of the belief that personal suffering is undeserved and thus unfair, but the suffering of another is deserved, for the other's benefit and only right.  

Yet, "getting" undeserved suffering is akin to "getting" the Sermon on the Mount...and didn't we deny that outright before we could even begin to wrestle with it? Then we used all our efforts trying to do it...the self-determined objectives we were seeking to be free of, we clung to...trying to do, trying to do. 

Paradox Alert! Relying on our own willpower to do the likes of turn the other cheek is a certain-sure road to resentment. Yet, we must try with a will or fall by the wayside to do just that. 

It is our inner knowing that finally frees us. We cannot get there by doing acts of charity, giving alms to the needy, volunteering weekly with "getting God" as our only motivator...but each is a welcome step forward.       

Trying to make sense out of God's will, God's way will keep us stuck in self...yet, try we must or live in the deadlands of self. 

Our failure in trying brings us to utter surrender, ah, through undeserved suffering. There it is, the blessed catalyst that lifts us out of self into Self...God's will, God's way.

Thank you.

SEEKING LESS, NOT MORE, IS OF GOD

Love, not knowledge, allowed Francis to enter into the great mystery we call 'God.' -- Ilia Delio

We cannot get to God by thinking of ways to get to God...or, we cannot get to God by thinking...period.

Yes, but...there always seems to be a "yes, but"...we must respect thinking. It is the gold, the glory, the mud and the sludge that paves the road we must travel to be opened to "the great mystery we call 'God.'"

There are times when wondrous words, thoughts, actions flow from us, and we feel humbled for we are very aware that we have just been gifted with a pearl.

Learning to say thank you to all that comes to us, no matter the appearance, is the essence of gratitude...of God.

Just as God's will, God's way, originally seemed to our reasoning mind to be the reverse of our perceived need, whatever comes today is wrapped in gratitude, and we question not.

Most important is the discovery that seeking more is of self, seeking less comes down to seeking for the benefit of others where, in the end, all sides benefit.

Thank you.

SINCERELY...GOD'S GUIDING LIGHT

We’re here for one thing, ultimately: to learn how to love, because God is love. Love is our origin, love is our ground, and love is our destiny.  -- James Finley

I ponder that still...specifically, to learn how to love. 

Reasoning mind just takes knowing how to love as a given. But it isn't...learning how to not hate, i.e., fear, is a tish easier. We stay on top of our own emotions...when any less-than feeling niggles at us, we pray thank you and find something there to feel right about...to mentally extend a good vibe.  

I wonder if the same isn't true for learning how to love...stay on top of our own emotions and pray thank you as we feel hugged by this person, pet, place or thing.

I do know this...sincerely seeking within our self to feel a hug for an unhuggable is of God. "Sincerely" moves us out of self-determined to spiritually guided. 

There...my lesson learned from trying so hard to work the Sermon, and those very words are the clue...right objective, wrong turn. Look inward not outward.     

I am the source of all of my woes...I Am the fount of all of my good. 

Thank you.

THE SECRET GARDEN OF GOD, II

 [The following is a reprint of my post of December 1, 2015.]

...you have to let God reveal your real faults to you, usually by falling many times, and by other people's opinions of you. -- Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 29, 2015

The secret garden of God fits on the point of a pin, is within, and is nearly always only accessible through our own falling and failing.

Every time we have a disagreement with another, we are in conflict with our Source within, our own Self. Until we get right with our Self, we will project our failings onto the other and call her responsible...obsessing on ways to hurt him the way we're hurting and/or to apologize for our hurt.

We waste so much mental, physical and spiritual energy trying to fix our own feelings so we can feel good about our self, and we do it by thinking of ways to hurt another...setting her straight, making him pay.

There is that secret garden within each of us that we can go to and in that instant be free. Finding that garden must needs be our singular search. All else is self on parade.

Thank you.

THE ENEMY...STILL US, II

[The following is a reprint of my post of  November 13, 2015.]

Our attack mind is born in resistance. It then balloons into mentally attacking anyone (including our self) who offers an alternative suggestion to our anger, our hurt, our self-centered misery.

That same attack mind cannot be tamed by the reasoning mind, i.e., "knowing better." It is tamed by giving in, giving over...agreeing with our adversary quickly in other words. We don't have to like it for our own, but we do need to understand it as right for our adversary. Our new words to live by: Be the first to give in.

Once again, as always and ever, the answer is acceptance...also known as surrender. Surrender to another person's niggling opinions or to our own obsessions, it makes no never-mind. Surrender is the first step toward peace...giving it and getting it.

Being conquered by our own devil [that means losing to it], we collapse, utterly beaten, and cry because our way is no more, unaware that this is surrender turning the corner toward acceptance. Our attack mind has failed us. Our accepting mind hasn't gifted us with knowing what to do, just what not to do. We cry because we do not yet know that the blessing is in not having a clue what to do about it.

That blessing is the exact moment that God is released from within to lead us to our better place.

Not knowing is the gift, the pearl beyond price. Our reasoning mind is forced to concede, it has met the enemy and it is us (and I still miss Pogo).

Thank you.

GO BEYOND REASON TO THE LEAST

Better than none, equal to all in need of God’s grace, and depending on God’s gifts for life itself, Francis and Clare found God in the least of these. -- Fr Richard's Daily Meditation, September 7, 2023

I cannot pinpoint when my search began for small, little, less, least...but it did begin and wholly unselfed. I do not recall being aware of such a life-altering change, but looking back I realize I was awakened to the radical change of my mind.

The "radical change of my mind" is the best part of my education for that means, not by self, by Self. 

Seeking still more spiritual growth, studying spiritual material, thinking with an upgraded attitude all open the door for the Spirit to flow out from within. Repeating the Father lives within when we barely grasp the concept is the Way. 

We do not get to God by reason, but the material mind does not give over, give up, give in without resisting every inch of the way. The brick wall is our want, masquerading as a need, to make sense of everything. 

All the while we are unknowingly growing deeper in spiritual awareness. Our trust in God is faith aborning...and faith is reaping changes in our life. Plain speak...it does not take knowledge, it takes faith for our eyeballs to see, then to send to our brain to know, then to send to our gut to accept that a kick in the pants is a pearl beyond price. 

God’s love for the world is expressed in solidarity with the least…. -- Ibid.

Thank you.

FRANCIS'S NEW UPSIDE-DOWN ORDER

Just yesterday, my post touched on my experience with the so-called "well-heeled" when I did not "show" well, and how I got the giggles out of it. I went on to mention that my trust in my Father had grown from that experience, which trust surely proves itself today. 

Reading this morning of Francis’s new upside-down order, I was astounded. Plainly put, his upside-down order and what I long ago named "mirror image" are virtually the same.

I have altered the following paragraph from today's Daily Meditation to describe my inner lesson after my surface chagrin: 

In re: "Francis of Assisi’s prophetic call to 'change sides' and embrace relationship with those on the margins above my touch, as Jesus did:  For Francis, the order of things was turned upside down, just as it had been for the apostles….Encountering the impoverished the Upper Crust; walking for a while in the world of the marginalized uber-wealthy, and being with the have-nots Haves of our world is a necessary aspect of the discipleship journey."

That this came to me so soon after my experience is Truth to my spiritual mind and a gobsmack to my reasoning mind. I probably need to note that I have never been impoverished nor have I ever known exceeding wealth...so I stand to learn from both sides.

My today's early journal entry after reading Fr Richard's Daily Meditation: This, then, is my BFO that I have known as 'mirror image'...that God's will, God's way is the mirror image of my will, my way, i.e., Francis's new upside-down order. 

Thank you.

UNKNOWINGLY & INADVERTENTLY...GOD'S GOLD

My God Calling is my treasure chest. Looking back on the notes I wrote at the time and seeing where I am today...where I have been led to get to me Now...is priceless to my Soul.

On this day in 1990, I wrote about finally standing up to my boss, the retired Colonel who loved to make mock...out loud and on purpose...of my incurable, progressive disease. This was during a time when pushing back could be to risk losing my job. Until the dark night of my Soul when I arm-wrestled with God...and God won. 

I called into work the next day, spelled out my conditions for returning to work...and, in short, the Colonel folded. Today I recognize in that dark night my trust in the God of my understanding grew taller.

Today, as I was jotting down my most recent experience which in a thumbnail is about me showing my bum in public, unknowingly and inadvertently to a gathering of Uptown and Polished People...and whose reasoning mind would invite that? But I did, and, after swallowing hard, I got the giggles out of it. Today I recognize that I grew smaller as my trust in my Father grew taller.

The great and glorious change is that today I realize that little, small and smaller still is our spiritual gift. My mentor taught that showing our bum in public is also spiritual...I've said that many times. Ah, but when the proverbial rubber meets the road...actually doing it, unknowingly and inadvertently...is the Tell. 

The Tell to the reasoning mind is to be avoided at all costs; to the spiritual mind, it is God's gift... another of-God paradox. 

In general, unknowingly and inadvertently are two words we avoid bringing into our life...and rightly so in the dailies of life. The hard lesson in learning is those two words are our invitation to God to do His thing. They are the rough and rocky (but golden!) road to still more spiritual growth. 

Thank you.

TRUST...A JOURNEY INTO BEING LED

We discover by experience that if we are faithful to our contemplative practices our practices faithfully lead us in the direction of a more daily, abiding awareness of the divinity of the life we are living. -- James Finley in Fr Richard's Daily Meditation, August 31, 2023

After reading Finley's quote, I felt confirmed in my feeling of being led...the confirmation that this is not a feeling, this is a fact...namely, that making myself available every morning (in what I call my quiet time) "faithfully leads me in the direction" of the Divine Light within, to a deeper awareness higher. 

Earlier this morning I read a note I wrote in my God Calling in 1987 saying, in effect, what I just wrote...I am being led. Now, realizing the nearly  40-year connection, I am awed.

To me right this minute, I am being led is the greatest of all spiritual promises. This, of course, is subject to change as everything does if it lives and grows, just as it was explained in Fr Richard's Daily Meditation on September 1st: But at a deeper level, the entire journey is one in which we are called over and over again to surrender to a self-transforming process not of our own making. 

Isn't that comforting? Truths we read one day, with a  hopeful heart that it is true for us, show up as fact in our life a day, a week, a month...when we are ready...later. 

Our life is not on our time schedule...our plans are but wants, a loose diagram of maybes...but our Father knows our needs, and that grows trust ever deeper. 

Thank you.

IN TRUST WE TURN THE OTHER CHEEK

As an unwelcome regret was nattering at my thoughts this morning, the reminder came to me that egoic mind's Oh No is spiritual mind's pearl of great price.

The cause of our remorses is a bane to the reasoning mind, but in God's light, the cause of our remorses is his invitation to go before us to make the crooked places straight. 

Face it, without regrets, or living error-free, where's the need for God's guidance? Even with God's guidance...or our take on God's guidance...we often wind up with the dreaded rues, regrets and remorses. 

I doubt any of us go looking for a reason to regret...at best, without a lot of thinking on it, we try to do good and decent acts. Or, my personal favorite, we try not to be as nasty as we want to be.

Taking the fear out of making a mistake requires trust...trust that loving our enemies is heading in the right direction...that agreeing with our adversary quickly is beneficial to both parties (namely, me). In short, doing our best to live by the Sermon on the Mount means getting slapped up the side of the head...so we can in trust turn the other cheek.   

Here's the boon and the bane of the Sermon...when we decide to trust it, it comes alive in our life. It takes as long as it takes to recognize the banes are the boons...and a tish longer to appreciate that. Ah, but when, not if, we do...glory hallelujah! And thank you.

Thank you. 

CAPITULATION TO THE UNKNOWN...GOD

My 5:00 AM blinding flash of the obvious: When we become blocked, it is our earnest prayers and silent entreaties that stay us there...i.e., keep us blocked.

Earnest prayers and silent entreaties are self-determined objectives that block the perfect objective which is of God. We must seek for nothing but pray thank you for whatever is before us. Just thank you.

The Lord, our Father within, knows our needs...this is our time of proving that. It cannot be proved by our thinking, feeling, doing, being...it is proved by our utter capitulation to the unknown. 

The despair of not knowing may well be God in disguise for it bursts forth, often in the presence of the one(s) we've worked so hard to appear "more spiritual than." 

The self hits bottom, the Self rises. Is this, then, born again? Without the fanfare and Jumpin' Jehoshaphats? 

My 6:00 AM reading validates my 5:00 AM flash: "[Merton] said to stop looking and to begin seeing... Because looking means that you already have something in mind for your eye to find; you’ve set out in search of your desired object and have closed off everything else presenting itself along the way. But seeing is being open and receptive to what comes to the eye…."

Thank you.

DARK INTO LIGHT...FREE, II

[The following is a slightly reworked reprint of my post of September 30, 2014. Interesting to me this is where I am being led today...more deeply, higher.] 

Blinding flash of the obvious: There is a higher consciousness...it is light and is of God, pure spirit. There is a lower consciousness...it is dark and it is the egoic or material mind, pure intellect.

It is our egoic consciousness that keeps us separated and insulated. It is that same consciousness that represents our security to us and keeps us from a higher consciousness thus we go lower...seeking surer mental security.

We keep ourselves isolated through that self-centered consciousness. However, if and when we come into a higher consciousness...into the light...that lesser consciousness becomes dissipated and cannot hold.

Our insecurities, fears and foibles are not and cannot be conquered, only masked, by our own efforts. Neither learning more nor fighting better will ever fully conquer those insecurities. The realization that our egoic consciousness needs light frees us from the fear of being. Just being. 

We are freed by the touch of God, the highest consciousness, which is all there is...all else is just illusion on the road to getting there. 

Thank you.