LISTEN...HEED...BE AT PEACE

It is a fine line we must walk between seeking self-determined objectives and seeking God's will.

Relying on self-determined objectives is like relying on a boat without a rudder. They give us that wanted sense of security ("I am so lucky that I've got this boat!") but they take us into eddies, over falls, into stagnant waters...and, on that rare occasion, to our desired port. Where, too often, we find their true colors are brown and puce...giving us our misbegotten proof that there is no God...to whom we haven't listened in years. Talked at a lot, forgot to listen.

Back to that fine line that we must walk...it is necessary in life to have a realistic idea of who we are, where we are, who and where we want to be, and then to aim in that direction. The tripwire being the word "realistic." That's where our life work begins. Getting a realistic idea of our own self...getting real so to speak.

This truly is a lifetime work. Because, if we're doing it right, we will change...sometimes it seems like we will change about four minutes after we find out who we are and where we want to be. Which doesn't necessarily mean we did it wrong to begin with...or maybe it does mean that and that wrong way was necessary to our spiritual growth. A lot of my wrong ways were the result of my not asking God for his directions, thus becoming the roundabout way I needed to take to get me where I am today.

And today I'm just as happy as if I had good sense. Which proves there is no wrong way to get to God.

Thank you.

SURRENDER, ACCEPT, LOVE

We live by grace but it is our response to it that determines our attitudes, our believes, our thoughts, actions, reactions. Thus, if we hope to live free of our own self, acceptance becomes the answer with every breath we take to everything we see, hear, feel, sense. Acceptance is surrender tempered into love. To live happy, joyous and free, just say "Yes."

Our reasoning mind, linked with our ego, will respond with dire predictions to "just say 'yes'"...and rightly so for the reasoning mind. But we must go beyond reason to love. For this, we have changed our minds...exchanged our reliance on our reasoning mind for reliance on God within us ever present as grace. We know now that grace is ever present within us for where else would it live? Where would we go to get some but to the Father within?

It is our response to our own life experiences that gives grace feet...the feet of faith. Faith in the ever growing goodness of grace no matter what comes, or what it looks like aborning. We change our mind, our reaction, to any perception of a problem.

No matter what it looks like aborning, it is good...it is good. Pass it on.

Thank you.

KNOWING GRACE IN THE GRAY

We who refuse to be grateful for the gray days will never fully appreciate the uncloudy skies.

Thank you.

CHOOSE YE THIS DAY....

"....all My Hosts throng to serve and protect you. * * * Try to picture a bodyguard of My servitors in the Unseen waiting, longing, efficient, to do all that is necessary for your well-being." -- God Calling, July 11

Blinding flash of the obvious:  We do not receive this wondrous gift by continuing to live our old fearful, cynical, doubting ways...we hear this promise and expect to be lifted straight out of the doubt and dirt of daily living...but it is our daily living...we are the ones who choose daily to live there. Lift up our eyes, lift up our thoughts...wait not for gold to pave our way, know that our own personal Hosts throng to serve and protect us...even as our reasoning mind's eyes are seeing a muddy road, our consciousness experiences the grace of God, doing all that is necessary for our well-being...we are touched by aught but love. It is ours to choose.

Thank you.

FEELING LIKE JOB...LIVING IN GRATITUDE

I just got a jolt. Opened my God Calling, and noted that in 2005 I wrote, "I feel like Job" and listed the reasons why. Under that in 2010, I wrote "Ditto...I feel like Job again" with reasons listed. This morning, I was pondering the past few weeks and "I feel like Job" came to mind.  Which I wrote, noting the every five years thing...I must have an affinity for Job in July.

This year's list is based on physical ailments rather than mental meanderings...which is either the good news or the bad news. My macular degeneration has acted up recently, my dry eye is causing me headaches galore, I've recently been diagnosed with sciatica in my right hip/leg, my left knee is almost completely shot, and I spent yesterday in the ER with stabbing pains in my stomach...I've got an ulcer.

And here's my God news: First thing yesterday, I called my beloved Linda who gave me a ride to the ER and picked me up from there; when it took considerably longer than I was counting on, I called Mark, my beloved condo manager, and asked if he'd take Ruckus for his afternoon walk, which he did...cheerfully; another beloved friend has sciatica and we share often with love and compassion; another has macular degeneration and has just received good news which I take as if it were my own; another beloved friend calls me almost daily and lets me ramble on and on and on; a couple of other beloved friends call me almost daily, and I let them ramble on and on and on.

And the best God news, I got home yesterday to my beloved Mac's monthly Reflections. This month he quotes Matthew 22:34-40 wherein Jesus gives his two great commandments about loving God wholly and your neighbor as yourself. And Mac asks, So how do I know whether I love God with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind? Loving my neighbor as myself is probably a good place to start. There. Job shoulda had such a friend.

Blinding flash of the obvious! I'm betting that's why I have a Job check-up every five years...so I'll look deeper at all the love I get and give on a daily basis without ever a conscious thought about it...which is as it must be when we're living in grace and gratitude.

Thank you.

LIVING AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

I just picked up a book at random, opened it, and the first thing I read: "The world's response to us is the result of our reaction to it."

This is not new news. It's the same old same old to my brain. That being true to me, why do I continue to get peeved at my world? At certain people in my world, specifically. Take Gertrude...please! Old joke, old joke, old joke.

If I believe the first statement, then I must believe that my response to Gertrude is the result of her reaction to me and/or Gertrude's response to me is the result of my reaction to Gertrude. We keep the rocking chair rocking, going nowhere, getting nothing but a resentment.

I am reminded of a statement made by Eknath Easwaran about our mental atmosphere becoming polluted by negative thinking: "Although a selfless man or woman may seem to go through the day doing nothing extraordinary, without them nothing would revitalize the atmosphere in which we think."

Being selfless is something we do without thought. If we've got to think about it, it's not selfless. I'm guessing we begin to be a selfless person by simply changing our mind.

Thoughtful without thought is the gift that comes from developing an attitude of gratitude...and living there. We become a grateful person, and God is evident in our lives.

Thank you.

STOP, NOTE, PONDER THE HIDDEN WONDER

It is important that we ponder, silently, in grace and gratitude, our many little giftees...those blinding flashes of the obvious that come unbidden without thought or prayer...they simply flow forth from within.

Unless we stop, note them, and ponder their hidden wonder, they get lost in the ether. They are our steppingstones to heaven.

According to Saint Paul...according to me.

Thank you.