WE GET TO CHANGE OR DIE

It seems to me that God hears our prayers and answers them more through our less-than-wonderful behavior, our falling downs, then by our self-willing a show of purity and goodness...not that I have a boatload of first-hand experience in that area.

I do have personal knowledge of doing the right thing on purpose while holding on to mean, ornery and condemning thoughts, but, really, who doesn't?

That's where the Big U-bie comes into reality...we get to bless those ugly thoughts, and our self for having them, because they are our God-leaders. There's our u-bie, and that's the paradox. If we could rid our self of those uglies by willing them gone, we'd never go to God...he is too slow, a perfectionist if ever there was one, and he always lets the other side win, too.

However, we have finally realized and accepted that our singular want is for still more spiritual growth. There is no surer way of getting that then through humility...of which no one of us will ever have too much. Mean, ornery and spiteful thoughts are humility aborning. Get grateful.

Maybe that's how we can see our prayers get answered, by our crashing and burning with our self willed behavior. Which causes us to change or die...to change is to life in an attitude of gratitude; to die  is to live a life of blame and shame.

There it is...life without a spiritual base is a life of rues, regrets and remorses. That is death in disguise. 

Thank you.

NO MISTAKES...MISSTEPS, MAYBE

Blinding flash of the obvious:  I shall know Thy will.

I am comforted by my BFO,  I shall know Thy will, for I realize that my knowing will not come by my thinking in order to cause it to happen. It comes through consciousness. The presence is with us always whether we know it or not...ah, but more important, whether we believe it or not.

We seek still more spiritual growth in order to raise our consciousness. To keep raising our consciousness, we use our God-given reasoning mind to ponder spiritual principles for it has been written, All of our problems can be solved by spiritual principles.

The delicate balance between using our God-given reasoning mind and letting our God-given free will, the home of our ego, take charge is a part of still more spiritual growth. The fact is, though, just because I know for certain sure that my ego Lucy is edging forward, looking to get me to kick the football...again, doesn't mean I'll not go for it...again.

That, too, is still more spiritual growth...how else can we learn to love and laugh at our self?

If it is true, and I believe it is, that all paths lead to God, we make our decision to seek God's will then do what seems our best course of action toward getting our want. That's what I call "hold your nose and take a leap of faith."

We find out soon enough if our want is God's will. If it is, it will be perfected in us as time goes by. If, however, our want is not our need, we usually resist until we loose it and let it go. We are now open for our need to be perfected in us as time goes by.

I have heard it said that there are no mistakes in God's world. Remember Lucy? Maybe the occasional error in judgment.

Thank you.

I SHALL FEAR NO EVIL

I consider the valley of the shadow of death as that place of uncertainty that breeds fear of the unknown...where we do not know what to do or if we need to do anything. Where every thought of a possible solution brings the following thought of a possible and fearsome consequence. Where we are unsure of everything even the assurance that God performs that which is given us to do.

I awoke at 5:00 AM wondering if I am about to walk into the valley of the shadow of death.

At 7:00 AM, I read my daily "God Calling," the first paragraph of which is: I am your Guide. Strength and help will come to you; just trust Me wholly.

Don't tell me God doesn't hear our prayers...spoken pleas or mental fears, they're all prayers to God...apparently.

Thank you.

AWAY FROM SELF, TOWARD GOD

The secret to my happiness is to lower my standards for others and raise my standards for me. That's a blinding flash of the obvious from sometime back that reoccurs to me this morning...still as true as it was sometime back.

I like that my daily readings this morning are all centered pretty much on the same thing...the necessary disciplining of our own mind. "God Calling" certainly comes to the point: Deal with yourself severely. Learn to love discipline.

Easwaran quotes the Hindu proverb, Nonviolence is the supreme law of life. He goes on: ....when every trace of violence is removed from the mind, what is left is our natural state of consciousness: pure love. Who's kidding whom? That takes a boatload of discipline...to just get started, I'm thinking.

Ah...here comes gratitude to save the day. It is with a grateful heart and mind that I remind me that I have been at this for a while. I tend to think of myself as I was when first I got the word that love and discipline were interconnected...baffled, bewildered and bitchin' about it, actually.

I must admit, I got hope when I learned that this was to be not by my thinking or even by my control, but by my spiritual condition. Of course, back then I was still thinking of God as the great Santa Claus...I ask, he delivers. Which isn't all that far off...it's just that today I ask, then I accept whatever he delivers, i.e., what I need which is rarely what I had in mind, but is invariably better.

He delivers by guiding us to do his will...we just supply the willingness. And where do we get the willingness? Through discipline. Self-discipline. Love it now or love it later. That's our choices.

All it takes to turn us in the right direction, away from self toward God, are those two words, Thank you.

Thank you.

GOD'S BETTER INTERPRETATION OF LIFE ITSELF

I'm pondering this morning the 23rd Psalm's Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

What if goodness and mercy to God is my Oh, please God, no?  Why not practice making this possibility true to me?

There seems to be big changes coming and right now occurring in my life. In this past year, twelve people dear to me have left, one is my boy Ruckus who has doggie-dementia...he is clearly readying to return home. There are signs (or maybe just my imaginings) that it may be time for me to pack up and move on. The political situation is bringing my idea of brimstone and fire...bottom line, what if my money runs out?

I am happy that I'm not running flat-out scared, but I am keeping my mind open to the possibles of it all. So it felt good this morning to see a better way to stay fret-free: I can invite God's interpretation of my oh-noes. Which does not mean think on them until I find an acceptable reason for them...that's just analyze-to-justify, or more walking the mind-maze.

To invite a better interpretation, to me, is to thank God for my life just exactly as it is right this very red-hot minute. Fearful thoughts are ego's weapon; gratitude is the mental balm that disarms fear...so get grateful.

Gratitude, God's better interpretation. 

Thank you.

ON LIVING WITH AN OPEN MIND

 The Father knows our needs.

Letting the outcome of our inner risks taken be exactly the outcome that we needed...is that when we begin to grasp the mirror-image factor in God's will for us?

According to me, we must needs learn to trust that which appears to be a personal defeat...from an inner risk we took or for that matter from nature taking its course...is in fact our precious gift.

To me again, that is the nature of God's mirror imaging. No matter the end result, as in, not what we wanted, we come to know it for what we needed. There is the proof that what we wanted makes no never mind for we would not have learned our spiritual life lesson any other way.

Then too we are learning the art of letting go...or of divorcing our self from our own self-serving opinions. We get what we need not necessarily what we want even though what we want seems to us to be good, necessary and healthy...it's just that our want is self-driven, usually for our own feel-good (or better at any rate) reasons.

That there is better for us by letting our mind be changed is another of life's too-tough-to-grasp-first-time-round.

In truth, it is so simple. We only need remember: The Father knows our needs. Then stand on it.

Thank you,

NOT OURS TO FIX, OURS TO PRAISE

I had several idle thoughts this morning, thoughts about my busy mind that I realized was looking to build a resentment. Recognizing that, knowing the truth of it, turned my thoughts to gratitude. I am grateful that I no longer doubt for a minute that a resentful mind is always directed outward...looking for somebody to blame.

It seems only in acceptance of that first instant of feeling that somebody else needs to be blamed and shamed for my resentment am I released from my resistance. It is that acceptance, if not with a laugh at least with a smile, that turns me inward, seeking a spiritual fix.

This morning I got (again) that:

1. It is not for me to correct another's words or thoughts or attitude about me...it is for the other to recognize his or herself in their resistance.
2. It is not for me to figure out the why of the other's resistance. 
3. It is for me to welcome being their "whipping girl." (I am grateful, also, that I was taught to go for the harshest term for it keeps me focused on my problem, me.) There...that is me helping them to break through their own resistance to their own self.   

In turning to God with our own resistance, we are giving to God that which needs perfecting in us...it is not for us to fix but for us to praise for that is what is leading us back to God.

Thank you.