TO OVERCOME RESISTANCE, LOVE

 Mini blinding flash: 'Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me'...they do not punish, they enlighten.

I found my head totally entangled with an opinion of mine this morning. An opinion for the good of my Fellowship, adverse to a non-member taking dishonest advantage of the Fellowship. When I heard me thinking of the various heavy-hitters I could call in to back me up, a glimmer of light clicked on, with your resistance is your bane coming through. 

I let that perc as I journaled, and shortly that pinpoint of light opened a blinding flash of the obvious: You need to overcome your resistance with love. 

I was thrilled from my toes to my nose to have such direct instruction...and clearly not by my thinking...gave me leave to change my mind, to upgrade my opinion as it were. I realized that I needed inside help, as in, how, in the name of God and all the sainted popes, do I love this?

Came the clarification: Still more spiritual growth is inviting me to go higher more deeply...first in  importance to my reasoning mind is to acknowledge the problem to the other, that their actions represent a potential but real harm to the Fellowship. Second, for my peaced mind, make my point lovingly without anger but with a spirit of love. This can only be done by trust in the grace of God and the Fellowship itself. 

All of this is God's job, he does it perfectly, we just need to get out of  stay with him in his way and let him. Ah, another still more spiritual growth level of learning.

If you want a better world, tell a better story, even about the possibility of embodying justice without vengeance...restorative consciousness. -- Gareth Higgins, Fr Richard's Daily Meditation, January 31, 2024

Thank you.

NECESSARY SUFFERING...OF GOD

God offers us quiet, contemplative eyes; God also calls us to prophetic and critical involvement in the pain and sufferings of our world—both at the same time. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations, January 13, 2024

Necessary suffering. There was a time and not too long ago, from my eyebrows up, I was in complete agreement with the idea of necessary suffering. I have written about, mentally preached on, considered, rejected, committed to, reneged...repeatedly...the concept of necessary suffering. 

Today I feel as if I am in the midst of necessary suffering, meeting it with thank you every step of the way, and not praying for it to be lifted. I am coming to believe...or at least suspect...that necessary suffering is what we experience when our consciousness is being raised, and we do not know the  outcome...the where, when, how for us personally.

My mind is still shooting suggestions but is not manufacturing solutions for which I praise God. 

Face it, suffering does not have an inviting rep...the name says it all. Here's where the difference in material mind and spiritual mind earns its wings. 

The material mind rejects necessary out of hand and takes suffering personally, knows it as hurtful and therefore wrong. Spiritual mind knows necessary suffering as the ways of God which are not for our creature comfort but for our benefit while being for the benefit of others, too.

That's where I am now...feeling kinda cool 😎...look at me, I'm in the midst of necessary suffering and not kvetching about it.

The Lord loves us so much...where else could he get his grins?

Thank you.

COUNTERINTUITIVE...TO GO BEYOND REASON

To be truly secure, we must begin to find a source of security within ourselves. --  "Words to Live By," Eknath Easwaran, January 29

Ah, that "sense of security within ourselves" is our past lessons learned. That which, when the same-old-same-old comes calling again, we forget we had learned.

Comes the recalled lesson, growing deeper to lift us higher: We mentally chew our perceived foe a new one, then we edit that and "forgivingly" chew them a new one, then we repeat...until one fine secular moment we're flashed into spiritual awareness, and we know the answer: Agree with your adversary quickly. 

We will know this as our personal truth for this situation, and we will recall when we had a like experience before. We received the same answer which proved right as love came from it. 

The mini miracle is we do not beat up on our self for having forgotten. The major miracle is we intuitively know that forgetting in order to remember is God's will, God's way...counterintuitive is solidifying its part in our life.

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

Thank you.

GRATITUDE...ANOTHER HIDEY HOLE OF GOD'S

Most important was the discovery that spiritual principles would solve all my problems. -- Anonymous

That is one of my favorite quotes. It became a favorite when I took the time to understand it. 

Say I am diagnosed with Stage 4 liver cancer, spiritual principles are not going to be the healer of the cancer. But the cancer is not my problem. Fear of the cancer is my problem...fear of all I'm projecting that it is going to put me through. 

Fear of the future...fear of the projected pain...fear of death...fear. I tend to believe that fear is the source of all our woes.

Spiritual principles, hear my plea! And my plea is thank you. Nothing lessens the power of fear like thank you or welcome!

God lives in gratitude...grow an attitude of gratitude, and cancer may or may not still be with us, but we'll be reasonably fret-free about it. (Just as an aside, going in for chemo treatments requires trepidation at least...if we're doing it right.)

I do not now have nor have I ever had cancer, but I do have an incurable, progressive disease which, I am convinced, will kill me if I forget about gratitude. 

Such a small adjustment to make to live happy, joyous and free. Plain and simple, we change our mind. That starts with thank you...and who is the "you" we're thanking? A Power greater than our self. God.

Thank you.

IN THE END, ALL THAT MATTERS...II

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 29, 2009]

“In the end, all that matters is what you have done for Christ.”

Some years ago, I saw that message, framed picture-like, at the home of a lovely lady who was my mother’s friend.

I’ve thought of that message over the years, and it becomes truer to me as I open my mind to it…true for all, when one realizes “for Christ” as for God, for Allah, for Buddha, for Mohammad, for Mary, for Self, for Spirit, for….

In the end, all that matters is what you have done…selflessly…for others.

Thank you.

REMAIN CALM, TRUST GOD, LOVE AND LAUGH

The following is an example of my favorite thing, i.e., proof of God in my life...personally:

Some years ago, a friend and I were in a rather heated "debate." She was adamant that she heard me say whatever, and I was equally adamant that I didn't either! 

Out of my mouth, which shut the debate down, came God's gift: 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.

This comes to mind this morning because I am obsessing about what someone quoted me as having said which quote isn't even close to what I said...and, not to put too fine a point on it, but only a stupid person could think that I would say something so stupid. There, end of clarification. 

I was well into a mental letter/text/phone call to her to set her straight when God gifted me yet again. I picked up my "God Calling," and read today's entry: Keep your Spirit-Life calm and unruffled. Nothing else matters. Leave all to Me. This is your great task, to get calm in My Presence, not to let one ruffled feeling stay for one moment.

I read that and knew again and again and yet again that God is with me, within me. 

I prayed thank you as my thoughts spoke to me...It was a remark. It was only a passing remark. Does a remark really merit a nuclear response? And when did a nuclear response ever get classified as spiritual? What am I so afraid of that I am allowing that remark 'truth' status? I've only got one job: Remain calm, and trust God.

God goes before us to make the crooked places straight and has our back at the same time. No matter what is appearing, we love and laugh. When we're doing it right.

Thank you.

OUR SOUL, OUR LEADER

4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  5. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  -- Matthew 5:4-5

I keep being returned to those two revelatory statements. I am comforted that they are the basis...the foundation...of my faith. 

My experiential truth with Matthew 5:4: To me, the valley is heart-pounding, mind-muddling panic attacks. The first time I experienced the miracle, it came by way of a full-blown panic attack with me stuck on the Metro under the Potomac River. I became calm, released from my panic, and I knew not how or why. That was my first spiritually driven thank you. My being given to anxiety, it is today the pearl that releases my fear of fear...God is with me.

Then, with 5, I had a blinding flash of the obvious: One moment I was ho-humming along, and the next Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies flashed in my mind. I could see that it is God that prepares the table, God that puts my enemies at that table, God that seats me with my enemies there. It is not me making bad decisions, me being self-centered again, me being...me. It is not me...it is God, and I need not know more than that. Trust, and be not afraid.

That realization opened the secret to a peaced mind: God works not in reasoning mind consciousness but in raised consciousness...sometimes counterintuitive, sometimes a higher consciousness than humans can grasp...or this human at any rate. 

That's another reason we need never worry, fret or stew...when, not if, wrong, promptly admit it, pray for peace and keep on trucking.  

There is a journey you must take. It is a journey without destination. There is no map. Your soul will lead you. And you can take nothing with you. -- Meister Eckhart 

Thank you.

ON LIVING DEFIANT JOY

Enough. Enough reminds me of my long-ago blinding flash of the obvious re the 23rd Psalm's 'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.' My flash: I shall not want because I have enough, I shall always have enough...the Lord is my shepherd.'  

Since I had that BFO, I have lived there to the best of my ability. The hardest lesson to live is the "chaos and suffering" required to live there. "Necessary suffering" is not a catchphrase, it is a spiritual fact. Of God. For our benefit. 

As Brian McLaren has written, We have to prepare ourselves to live good lives of defiant joy even in the midst of chaos and suffering. 

Defiant joy. Well, now. There's a whole new perspective aborning. 

But it's not really...it is the perspective we glimpsed years ago that we walk...crawl, skip, totter, cartwheel...each day. We recall our "enough" BFO; then our Thou prepares a place before me in the presence of my enemies bringing the divine insight: THOU prepares the place. Prepares the place for me. 

There's our assurance, our insurance, our pearl beyond price: Our enemies have been defanged and are now being used by God to raise our faith deeper.

We needed only to change our reasoning mind...from fearful to grateful. Ah, and there is defiant joy leading the way! Thou prepares the place and the pace...we follow, loving and laughing...with defiant joy. 

And we were afraid spiritual growth would be boring...that old age would be the rocking chair's got me...that which we had not before heard of, defiant joy, would be so defiantly joyful!

God is so good to us.

Thank you.

ON LIVING THE SPARK OF DIVINE WITHIN

Our supreme purpose in life is not to make a fortune, nor to pursue pleasure, nor to write our name on history, but to discover this spark of the divine that is in our hearts. —Eknath Easwaran

I first posted that in 2018, yet on the occasions since when I come across it, I feel gobsmacked. Each time, it feels like new information...or, more like revelation. It feels like revelation. 

That may well have been my dearest desire since I was twelve years old...my dearest unknown desire. I'm guessing that idea was my first felt connection with the God of my understanding...felt but not realized. No, realized, but just enough to start my search for the spiritual...which was enough. 

It is a particular comfort today since I have been writing lately about discovering the spark of the divine within me. 

Oh wait! Mine is not discovering the spark of divine, it is living that spark. 

I was gifted with the spark of divine within me long ago...today, apparently, I am continuing my "down-and-dirty" dig, scrap and slap...love and laugh...journey upward.

God loves...or, Truth: God is love. 

Thank you.

PEACED THROUGH FAITH-ALLAYED FEAR

It is on things like this that faith is built: Yesterday my post was Living Our Faith in God, and I shared my belief about life...with God, all is for our benefit, without God, all is for our benefit, but we don't know it.

Fr Richard's Daily Meditation today was written by Dr. Otis Moss III. His question: Do we have the spiritual audacity and the practical means to turn chaotic energy to our own purposes? His premise is that faith amid chaos is necessary, reliable and the better answer. 

I substituted "fear of dementia" for "chaos," and found myself in agreement with that particular writing. 

What a gift! 

This furthers my experience with my daily reader, "God Calling." It seems it has a direct line into my heart, my soul, my body and my brain. As I read, I realize that a fear has already been specifically addressed and allayed. 

Then this morning, here comes Dr. Moss of whom I've never before heard. Per Dr. Moss, Faith can sustain us in chaos. Chaos...a near-perfect description of fear of dementia. 

Dr. Moss gives a how-to for moving faith from our head to faith on the hoof: [Y]ou take on the confusion and the violence and you refine them, purify them into something new...put it into service for good.

The best, best, best part for me is I came to all of this before I read any of the things that are giving me solace now. My daily readings, Fr Richard's Daily Meditations, and my blinding flashes of the obvious are all affirming, confirming, firming me in my already present faith in God the Father within doing My works. 

If dementia is mine, I have faith that God has me in the palm of his hand, and I am peaced.

Thank you.

ON LIVING OUR FAITH IN GOD

I fear I have dementia. 

The operative word there is not dementia...it is fear, of course. The wonder is the time it took me to realize that.

Yesterday the fear of dementia rode me hard. As I have noted before, and re-realized this morning, during this period with apparent evidence of dementia present, "God Calling" has doubled and tripled with its message of "have no fear," "trust Me," "I Am your protector and protection," and "I cannot be overcome."

What I know from my previous experience with incurable disease is that it does not mean that dementia will not come to me or it will be lifted from me. It means that if dementia is mine, I can trust God that it is for my benefit...I can trust God to take perfect care of me in my new consciousness on the plane of dementia. 

Steeped in gratitude, I do trust God within me for whatever life brings...for we are ever being raised deeper to love at a higher plane. 

Even now, right Now, I trust that God is raising my consciousness to the plane I have long prayed for: God consciousness.

On the other hand, I may be experiencing 80+, or old-age forgetfulness. If that be the case, all the above applies...only doubly since I'll tend not to take it as seriously. 

God loves me so much...us, God loves us so much.

Thank you.

LOVE...OUR SPIRITUAL GIFT, OUR LIFE'S GOAL

The times when we meet or reckon with our contradictions are often turning points, opportunities to enter into the deeper mystery of God. —Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations, January 20, 2024

All of our answers are spiritual in nature, and all are within us...our need, our peace, is in releasing them. We are told to let go and let God...our failure is in trying to let go and let God.

God is not in the comfortable, the easy, the Money, Honey world...those being the solutions of our best thinking to life's quirks and unsuspected curves. No...as noted by Fr Richard from December 24, 2022: Where is this God being revealed? Not in the safe world, but at the edge, at the bottom, among those where we don’t want to find God, where we don’t look for God, where we don’t expect God. 

Whatever our worst fear is at the moment, know this: Fear is fed by our wounded ego. When we fight it, shun it, ignore it, we lose; when we resist it not, it is turned over to God...fear's Good Samaritan. 

God is love...and all we need to loose fear and let it go is love. Our spiritual gift, as well as our life's work, is proving that.

All things work together for good.... 

Thank you.

ALL WE NEED DO IS LET GO AND LOVE

[The God-experience] is totally counterintuitive. Our dualistic, logical mind can’t get us there. It can only be known experientially. -- Fr Richard's Daily Meditations, January 19, 2024

I love when this happens: My blog of January 11th was all about my long-ago realization that authentic spiritual growth is counterintuitive, and Fr Richard's quote today confirms that. 

Counterintuitive spiritual growth requires we detach from our reliance on our reasoning mind (but keep it for housework) and lean into unknowing. 

I wonder if that's why atheists cannot allow for God in their lives...unknowing is the proverbial bridge too far for their reasoning mind. This is understandable...it's dicey enough for a spiritual seeker much less a denier.

To simplify detaching from our reasoning mind as the final word, we learn to allow any "good idea" that floats across our mind to be suspect...to do nothing with it till we check it with another seeker. 

On the other hand, any "Oh No" fact that presents itself, we know needs our thank you and that is all. That is where the hard work of detachment comes in...not working it. 

Let go and let God means precisely that, and all we have to do is love. Whoa! That explains why the song I sing in my head is Hard ain't it hard, Lord, loving you.  

The source of spiritual wisdom is to hold questions and contradictions patiently, much more than to find quick certitudes, to rush to closure or judgment as the ego and dualistic mind want to do. -- Ibid.

Thank you.

GOD LIVES IN THE MYSTERY OF PARADOX

Blinding flash of the obvious: God lives in the mystery of paradox...it does not make reasoning mind sense...it is ethereal, unseeable, untouchable, silently heard.

What is paradox to us personally? What personal example of paradox do we have? A paradox in my life is the harder I tried not to overeat, the heavier I got. 

Personally, I accept the Beatitudes as perfect paradox...beginning with Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

The miracle to me is, after hearing that first "blessed," many did listen...some did take him seriously.

As Fr Richard has written, Wisdom arises from living with paradox. 

The rest of my story: I surrendered, I am no longer a glutton, and I am happy, joyous and free...the majority of the time. There...paradox proved righteous.

Thank you.

...it does not make reasoning mind sense...it is ethereal, unseeable, untouchable, silently heard.

*********************************************

..and my paradox does prove that.

BFO: God lives in the mystery of paradox...it does not make reasoning mind sense...it is ethereal, unseeable, untouchable, silently heard.

@1/17/24 Richard Rohr believes wisdom arises from living with paradox.

Jesus, as the icon of Christ consciousness (1 Corinthians 2:16), is the very template of total paradox: human yet divine, physical yet spiritual, killed yet alive, powerless yet powerful....Jesus reveals the great cosmic mystery and calls us to see the same truth in ourselves and all of creation.

@1/18/24 Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, quoting a parishioner: “I’m living between Oh Lord and Thank you, Jesus.

FIGHT NOT...WELCOME AND HEAL

Making amends to those we have hurt in our life is essential to our living a spiritually peaced life. The hard lesson to learn is the difference between an apology and an amend.

I am sorry is an apology with as many added frills and phrases as we feel necessary...I didn't mean to or I wasn't thinking, etc. An apology is nice and no doubt necessary, but it is not an amend.

An amend requires that we dig deep within our self to find our justification for causing pain to another. (Pain inflicted on our self is dealt with by taking our own inventory daily, then realizing unto trusting that God's will, God's way is on it.)

It is the wound we inflict on others that requires our humble acknowledgment. That is the ego buster...humility. 

We can never be free of the source of our wounding until we recognize and accept that source as our own selfish desire for egoic betterment plain and simple.   

 We are aware...or soon learn...that which caused the wound to one has previously or soon will cause pain to others.  Pain exacted by our self-centered fear...which we identify as justifiable anger and/or hurt. 

Justifiable is rarely justifiable...it is a cover for doing to another what we feel (fear) they have done to us.

Here lies the nut of paradox, one of God's hidey holes. Fighting the source of our pain brings pain; welcoming the source of our pain heals the pain. Resistance is painful; nonresistance is healing. 

Short form: Resist not evil.

Thank you.

ON FINDING PEACE IN AN UNPEACED SELF

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

Blinding flash of the obvious: This day is every day...every day we must choose...we must commit daily. 

Thank you, Lord, that I am exactly as you want me right this minute. 

My God-goal is to discern my perfection in my self-determined rues, regrets and remorses. 

To know God in our fear is to be fear-free.

Thank you.

GO WITH GOD AND BE PEACED

I saw 60 Minutes last night...specifically, the segment on the brain, on the work by medical professionals to cure Alzheimer's by ultrasound and way more incredible high-tech thingees. It was very positive and gave much hope. The hope of a cure coming true for all dementia looms large.

I am reminded this morning of the story in the Bible of a believing person bringing Jesus someone suffering from a twisted mind...Jesus laid his hands on the person, and they were cured. (I am not Bible-literate so that is my memory's take on what I first heard in Sunday school in the '50s.) 

The holdback for you and me for today's medical cure is Money, Honey. 

The holdback for you and me for Jesus' cure is Believing.

Most of us have enough money to live as comfortably as we are able...meaning we don't qualify for the Money, Honey hook. 

And many of us have a belief...maybe a want-to belief, but that's heading in the right direction. Our inner egoic thoughts, however, are...I am never going to have enough belief...enough to bring me an instantly cured cold much less a cure for a biggie.  

I ponder this: We have a choice...we can throw in the towel on getting enough money or belief and live a self-directed, less-than peaced life, or we can choose one and see how far it gets us. We may hit the billion-dollar lottery...or not and go broke trying; we can pray thank you for our belief and build on that which will bring us peace of mind...the pearl beyond price.

According to me, we can never go wrong with spiritual seeking...bottom line, God. We can, however, cause more inner pain by seeking only for the benefit of self and thinking it godly.

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

Thank you.

IT IS OUR CHOICE, II

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 27, 2012.]

It is the material (reasoning) mind that we reflect when we fear, judge, gossip and whine...it is not personal to us. It only becomes ours when we personalize it, clinging to it to let it go. We make it our tar baby.

We have a choice...to live in the material world or the spiritual world. But we must remember the hook: We cannot move freely back and forth.

Once we make the decision...i.e., surrender to living consciously in God consciousness...we no longer have the option to choose the material mind for an hour or two or three so we can feel comfy and "fit in" or get back at or get over on...and then move back to the spiritual mind. No. Our new goal must be to fit in here on earth, living comfy in spiritual consciousness. That is the lesson learned...to be in the world but not of it.

We have a choice...material mind or spiritual mind? 

Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve.

Thank you.

ON LIVING OUR IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

We must allow our imaginations to begin to live within the world...where our hope really resides—not with us, but in the power of love and renewal that lives within the universe, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. —Sallie McFague, Fr Richard's Daily Meditations, January 13, 2014

This is my fondest dream...hope...desire: To live within the world where hope really resides —not with us, but in the power of love and renewal that lives within the universe, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God.

To have our fondest dream come true, we need imagine living in that world...then let It lead.

It seems that only in looking back do we realize how simple this impossible dream has been...as we live it.  

Thank you.

CHAOTIC THOUGHTS ARE GOD'S OPPORTUNITY

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. -- The Buddha

I reread The Buddha's truth this morning and recalled my recent thoughts on dementia...how it seems to be rampant today...why? Why now? Is the chaotic state of the world the source? 

We, the people of the world, have all gotten more afraid...maybe since WWII and The Bomb. We have sought outside sources to protect ourselves, seldom looking within and rarely believing when we do. We've looked outside, seeking ways to defeat our fear rather than ways to surrender to love. 

Unknowing, our minds have lived under strain...always looking outside for a fix, a cure. The medical field and Big Pharma have produced meds, drugs, or any panacea to sell to us to relieve the anxiety, alleviate the fear. 

We gobbled up the promises, usually seeking bigger, more powerful drugs to stem the fear...many of the drugs with side effects that led to worse ails and ills. Until, with or without drugs, the strain has brought us to the "incurable" diagnosis...dementia.

I believe in an ancient but ever-new way to treat this incurable disease. Note, to treat not cure. Go within. Seek the Father, the Power greater than our self that lives within us. Lives there, always ready to do for us what we cannot do for our self. 

The Power is Love, the handmaiden of nonresistance. Resist not fear. Resist not incurable disease. Resist not evil.

Nonresistance will not take away the incurable disease...it will take away the fear of it. Love takes away the fear, we live peaceably with the incurable. We worrit not for now the incurable is God's opportunity to shine...and shine he can, will and does.

Thank you.

COUNTERINTUITIVE...GOD'S WILL, GOD'S WAY

With these counterintuitive sayings [i.e., the Beatitudes] and others like them, (the Sermon) enrolls us in advanced classes in the school of gratitude.... Here is the deepest lesson of gratitude, then. We are to be grateful not just in the good times, but also in the bad times; to be grateful not just in plenty, but also in need; to maintain thankfulness not just in laughter, but also through tears and sorrow. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations, November 23, 2022

I have long believed that God's will, God's way is counterintuitive. When we start down the path of spiritual growth, we find our self having insights not of our own, of being drawn to authors we never heard of...not resisting learning but not knowing what or why.  

In the early '70s, I was gifted with Joel Goldsmith's "The Art of Meditation." I had never heard of Goldsmith, I'd barely heard of spiritual growth, so it took a long time for me to read the book all the way through. Somehow, I knew that each page was important to me, I just did not know what I did not know. I'd read a page or two, love it, put the book down, come back a month or so later, read a page or two, love it, etc. 

Looking back, I see God in my life...that I kept coming back to read a new page every month or so?Then walking away for another month or so? Then coming back again?  Don't tell me God isn't in my life...and patient.

I have come to see that as my consciousness-raising time...my spiritual education in God's will, God's way being counterintuitive. We need to hold on to our reasoning mind, we're going to need it, but more importantly, we need to open our mind to our consciousness being raised. 

This is not an easy process, nor is it painless...letting go of a self-determined life at first feels like tearing the skin off our bones. Especially when we're not certain sure that this is even a good idea.

The gift of coming into higher consciousness is well hidden and takes time...I thank God every time I recollect that I am on the right road heading in the right direction. 

One thing I have become fairly certain of is this: If I have a terrific idea that will benefit others, with kindness flowing, and will get me a bit of glory into the bargain...it is a self-determined objective and likely will have less than wonderful consequences. If I find an opportunity dropping on me that will benefit others and requires me to put myself out for the others and seems like more work than not...God's will, God's way, count on it.

Counterintuitive...bless it. It is our road to an exchanged mind.

Thank you.

LIVE FOR THE BENEFIT OF OTHERS

When you really plug into consciousness, maybe it feels like it’s coming through your brain, but it actually comes through a whole-hearted surrender to the moment—a surrender that encompasses everything and eliminates nothing. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations, September 7, 2014

Geez, to "really plug into consciousness" has been my spiritual goal since I first heard of consciousness. Daunting albeit exhilarating is the inner yes that I am still looking to "plug into consciousness." 

My blinding flashes of the obvious are my proof of purchase so to speak. It's just that my reasoning mind holds dear its pride of ownership. When a BFO slips through momentarily, I feel graced. Grace, we find, doesn't hang around...a quick hug, kiss and off she goes.

I wonder if those fleeting moments of grace aren't the building blocks to consciousness...maybe they are not fleeting so much as just not intellectually present. That's the call that keeps us seeking...kinda like the scent of bacon frying on a winter's morning...what else gets us up and ready to go so quick, fast and in a hurry?

This feels like a breakthrough. I have spent years trying to hold a raised consciousness, but I'm seeing that I wanted to feel 100 percent of the time a surrender that encompasses everything and eliminates nothing. 

A BFO is wonderful, but a flash is a flash, it's not lasting...according to my reasoning mind. Comes the confirmation...those are the building blocks of raised consciousness. They come in a flash, settle in our consciousness and do our thinking for us whenever we give over, give up, give in. Or live by spiritual principles. For the benefit of others.

God loves us sooo much.

Thank you.

THE 23RD PSALM LIVES...THANK YOU

Thus, “mysticism” is simply this awareness of God’s presence in and through and with everything for its well-being…. Curiously, this faith in God can free us to live lives of radical change. ... it is the only thing that can. ... this hope frees us from the pressure of outcomes so that we can add our best efforts to the task at hand. -- Theologian Sallie McFague, Fr Richard's Dail Meditations, January 9, 2024

McFague writes about saving the planet, I am using her words and ascribing them to building hope, faith and trust daily. 

The promise is that we can come to live lives of radical change dependent on our faith in God, and that faith is the only thing that can get us there. We believe that, but it is looking for future examples that cause us pause. A possible bankruptcy, a likely operation, a what-if breakup...and we relearn, God is not in tomorrow's frets...that's faith's job.

It is only by looking back that proof is available to us. Here's the place where we change our mind...from begging, please, please, please, to grateful, thank you. With our first heartfelt thank you we have hope...this hope frees us from the pressure of outcomes...we have begun to build trust.

Although trust is the result of hope believed in, it often goes amiss...a miss by a mile. Our dearest hope maybe God's I have something better for you. That's trust aborning. If we're doing it right, we cry, kvetch and feel right put upon...then God's words, thank you, tumble out of our mouth, and we are righted. 

Looking back we see God's outworking of sticky situations in our life. Even as we realize that and give God all credit, we are looking at the next uh-oh with fear-breathing dread. 

This is where we make our inside change...where we put our eyebrows-up faith to work by bringing it down to our heart, our gut, our soul. We welcome that which we dread as we recall Thou prepares a place before me in the presence of my enemies. Oh! It is God who prepares the dreaded place before us. Ah, the peace...I shall fear no evil for Thou art with me.

The hope we have lies in the radical transcendence of God…. God’s transcendence—God’s power of creative, redeeming, and sustaining love—is closer to us than we are to ourselves. -- Ibid.

Thank you.

AH, OUR TRUE HOPE OF HEAVEN

The only way out and through any dualism, including that between action and contemplation, is a kind of universal forgiveness of reality for being what it is. This becomes the bonding glue of grace which heals all separations that law, religion, or logic can never finally or fully restore. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations, January 8, 2024

Fear. Since we live with it, whether we know it or not, we need to welcome fear. What trips us up is believing what we are afraid of is the problem. It is not. The problem is the gift.

Fear, left unattended, will eat us up...fear, attended by our self alone, will tell us pretty lies and eat us up. 

I have a free-floater going right now. Just yesterday as I was mind-wrestling with my thoughts, secretly praying that the feared problem be lifted, I had a blinding flash of the obvious: This problem is my crucifixion. Jesus had to experience his...after praying that this cup pass but if it be God's will, bring it.

And bring it, He did...which turned out to be the pearl beyond price. A sense of peace enwrapped me! Now, to bring myself back there as needed. 

From my own prior experiences, I know that fear of any problem will keep coming like a blinking sign until, strictly through a Power greater than self, we can hug it and kiss it and tell it we love it...and mean it. 

As Jesus experienced, this will not lift the problem, it will let us walk with God and the problem in peace...loving and laughing.

God's will, God's way is our true hope of Heaven.

Thank you.

ON LOSING TO GET...BY LETTING GOD

Every day Jesus would follow that same rhythm: withdraw for solitude, but then come back to engage by healing, feeding, caring, welcoming, binding up the wounds of this world, and implanting in people a vision of resilience, engaging with a world on fire.  -- CAC teacher Brian McLaren, Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, January 7, 2024

For many years, I pondered...all but wore my brain out...trying to figure out my part in aiding our broken world. I kinda lived with the inner tormented wail of "What can I do?"  

Most if not all of my friends volunteer...and volunteer at various places meeting a multitude of needs. I do not, and to go a step deeper, I have never. 

One fine day I realized that I am and have ever been available...to listen, to share my experience, to give what I have to give...spiritual aid, I reckon, not to be putting on airs. I saw that I was gifted early on with the unselfed acceptance that my words, my person, give comfort to those who come to me. 

 

Putting words to it diminishes it, but I must be clear: I know and I have ever known this has nothing whatsoever to do with me, the self of me. That's why I have a mentor and freely rely on the sage advice of friends when I'm stuck in the bondage of my reasoning mind.

Most importantly...the largely unrealized fact by the majority of people is that this is what we all have...are all gifted with. We cannot build it, we can only uncover it. It is the Father within.

Let go and let God...let go of self-determined objectives, let God fulfill our needs.

Thank you. 

Thank you.

THE GIFT OF DEMENTIA...JUST SAY THANK YOU

Dementia. Ah, dementia. The new fear for the really grown-up today.  

I was given a spiritual gift in 2023 when I made the decision to let my Father do my thinking and my speaking for me...or more to the point, I decided to try to give my mind and my mouth over to God. 

I shared this with some friends, and we have decided that if dementia is to be ours, that might be the best way to go. We would hope to meet it with full-out trust in the Father within...I am that I am.

Our reasoning mind may have already passed us on to the next level of consciousness for that is all dementia is, the next level of consciousness. Here, too, free will reigns...the choice: We can go with mindlessness, or we can trust that the Father within is now doing our thinking, speaking for us.

I had a major incident yesterday that I did not recognize as the new behavior...it simply felt like a very embarrassing public mistake. That, I'm guessing, is going to be the hardest part of this new way...letting go of egoic embarrassment by accepting that was God in charge. No shame attaches, just thank you.

Lesson learned: If it doesn't feel like a mistake, I don't notice it until sometime later, maybe as I look over my day and stumble over a deeper thought I'd expressed. I'm heading in the right direction...may get there three days after I'm dead. 

Trust. Love and laugh. 

Thank you. 

LIVING LOVINGKINDNESS, II

[The following is a reprint of my blog of December 22, 2008.]

I was thinking this morning of lovingkindness, and what a peaceful word that is.

Then I thought simply of kindness, and a little prayer started to form, in effect asking for more kindness. Before the prayer formed, the answer was there…I already have all the kindness there is to have…all I need do is show it, put it out there, use it.

This is not new information, of course. I learned long ago that as long as I keep asking to be kinder, more loving, more generous, less judgmental…all the goodies…the more I deny the kindness I have, the love I am already filled with, and so forth.

The real problem is the fool-myself Catch-22…I feel downright righteous about asking for all these fine-sounding, God-approved things, totally ignoring the fact that all that I seek was bestowed in me before conception.

It is the act of giving over to another, in lovingkindness, that primes the pump for all the goodies to flow. And it is the lovingkindness that requires still more spiritual growth. My human nature, my ego-victory mind, does not give over just because I want to. To give over by keeping my mouth shut (and thinking judgmental thoughts) is just breeding a resentment.

Living lovingkindness, then, is the goal.

Thank you.

INHERENT GOODNESS IN NECESSARY SUFFERING

The spiritual experience is about trusting that when we stop holding ourselves, Inherent Goodness will still uphold us. Many of us call that God, but it isn’t necessary. It is the trusting that is important. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, December 16, 2022 

Trust. Trust is my Now watchword...changes are taking place within us Now, always Now, whether we know it or not...which we seldom do.

The phrase when we stop holding ourselves is the sliver of gold...seemingly a throwaway line used to prop up the promise of Inherent Goodness doing for us.

Face it, when we stop holding ourselves means when we crash and burn...when we give up hope of our self-determined Heaven. After we've gotten a taste of spiritual growth, we want to go there...usually by trying to make an end-run around crash and burn by quoting all the "right" words...talking God and staying stuck in self.

It is our failure to save our self our way that invites necessary suffering into our consciousness. That is not punishment, it is trust aborning...trust in the spiritual path opened to us. That glimmer of trust is the first crack in a self-determined objective's hard shell.

Trust, unlike hope, is hard-won...hope springs eternal, but trust must've been born in Missouri for it is the Show Me of all spiritual growth. At that, I'm thinking trust is God's go-cart...it gets us where we need to be when all else is coming up short.

Trust does not come easy...if it comes easy, it is either wishful thinking or a true miracle. Only God can quiet our quest for truth. Trust that.

Thank you.

ACCEPTANCE...SURRENDER, BETTER DRESSED

Only after God has taught us how to live 'undefended,' can we immediately stand with and for the other, and in the present moment. It takes lots of practice. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, June 30, 2014

To live undefended...there's the price we pay, the gift beyond knowing. 

The paradoxical price: The reasoning mind resists because common sense knows better, and the spiritual mind seeks to accept because we must go beyond reason to love.

We come to accept that spiritual growth is counterintuitive. The Sermon on the Mount makes the case, as in, if someone slaps you upside your head, turn the other cheek or if someone steals your cloak run after them and give them your coat or, the biggie, resist not evil.

Each of those statements...face it, all of the Sermon...requires one thing...that we change our mind. Or that we exchange our mind. 

Our material mind will not get us there...cannot, more like. We are born into the material world, the world of opposites...good or bad, right and wrong. The majority of humans live there even with "heavenly" assistance...sincerely seeking God, finding the God of our own understanding, deep spiritual study. 

Here's the great paradox: We believe from our eyebrows up, we live a more turned-over life than we ever dreamed of, we want the best for others, friend or unfriend, and still in an off minute or longer, we find our self "doing wrong," say sitting in judgment, and feeling less than good about it. 

Blinding flash of the obvious: That is neither right nor wrong...that is the necessary turn-around for us to seek God's will, God's way. 

We may recognize our error, even admit it, but accept it? God's perfect road to acceptance is through surrender. Surrender means crash and burn. We lose. We're lost and wondering, where's God now?

Undefended, stripped bare of self-will, all hope of our way gone, and utterly unaware, we've gone to God for God. That is acceptance.

Thank you.

ON NOT KNOWING...WE LOVE AND LAUGH

The important thing is not the truth or what’s good for the whole, but what’s good for the small part of which I’m a part. - Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, January 1, 2024

My thought on first reading that quote was, I don't think so! Which proves I need beware of my ego's first thought which was "How egotistical!"

My second thought is about bringing good to a less-than-thought. This time, I trusted spiritual growth to lead me to an open mind for a new take on a judgmental thought. 

Much of what we initially resist, when we take another look. brings us to a deeper understanding...ah, acceptance, and our minds are changed.

I now recognize that quote as akin to the truth that we must take care of our self first or we'll not be fit to help another. By "take care of our self first," we learn we must take the action...we must turn the words we love to quote into actions that require ego deflation in depth. 

Another awakening...growing spiritually is to first take care of our self by putting others before us...giving so the other may get, listening, offering to lend a hand when it is not convenient to us. Staying stuck in the material mind, or the egoic mind, all those actions are...face it, unnatural. That is the nature of ego...put no one before self.

Here's my own Great Lesson: There is a balance to living. We cannot...are not supposed to...figure that balance out all on our own. We are in a new way of thinking, feeling, doing, being. We ask the help of God in others, we trust by following their directions. When wrong, we promptly admit it...and find that was the gift, being wrong so we could admit it and learn. 

When, not if, we get to the "right" answer, know this: We're going down that wrong road again. Spiritual growth is trying, not knowing, knowing we don't know, not believing we don't know, trying, not knowing.... 

Until three days after we're dead, according to me. Clearly, I cannot know...my three days haven't started yet.

The sliver of gold is we are now enjoying not knowing, offering a hand, learning to love and laugh...with, never at.

Thank you.

GOODBYE '23, WELCOME '24, AND THANK YOU

As we meet the new day, week, month, year...    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯   

Interestingly, the word given me for 2024 is trust. 

One of my favorite quotes, from Ginger and where she got it, I know not, is: Knowing nothing, I speak freely. 

My hopeful expectation for this coming year is to speak freely in trust of whatever my words or my acts may be, they be with love, and I continue to deepen my grateful thank you. I trust that all is God-sent and is for our benefit...mine and whoever else receives it.

Also, as 2023 closed down and I lay half asleep last night, this flashed: I fear receiving love. Oh. That is pretty much the opposite of what I thought my fear was...is. My 2024 just got a tish more...let's go with "interesting."

Here's the promise...more will be revealed, trust. I am being shown even as I ponder. 

Thank you.