PROVED NOT BY RATIONAL LOGIC

This is the nature of mature, mystical religion—simple and clear. ...reground religion on one lone conviction—a divine love that can only be experienced and not proved by rational logic....Anything that gets in the way of this divine and absolute love must be shaved away. -- Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations, March 13, 2025

The need for divine and absolute love means nobody, no thing, nothing goes unloved. 

Mentally, here comes Donald Trump leading my prove-it pack.

I am about halfway convinced that at this time Donald Trump was led by divine grace to his place in this world, and led not by a spiritual urge, but by his self-obsession...a degree of which is in all of us. 

That degree of self-obsession is fear, and that fear is God in disguise...which opens me to my self-identifying hook that I hang my prove-it on. 

If not for the fairly constant failure of self-determined objectives, it is unlikely we would ever seek a God of our own understanding. That is, a higher Power, a power greater than ourself, to peace our mind. The very idea is too "whoo-whoo" for the rational mind. (I have an ongoing debate with myself as to whether God is in "rational.")

Our acceptance of the fact that anything that gets in the way of our need for the God of our own understanding may well be the hardest fact and act we will ever meet. It helps when we accept that we will never make 100 percent, 100 percent of the time. 

The grace of God, our sincere want-to prayers and upward actions will keep us heading in the right direction...with the touch-and-go of God bringing the occasional pearl beyond price.  

Thank you.

WORST TO FIRST...WITH GOD

I have thought, talked, written...a lot...about the worst day of my life turning out to be the best day of my life. 

Back in the day, coming to my spiritual awakening, I had to be entirely broken without a hope or a prayer...without a self-determined objective, in short. Mentally, I had nowhere to go, and mentally was my go-to, my imagined safety and security. 

That blessed day I felt naught but sick, sad and sorry...as it turned out, God in disguise was there all along. Unknowingly, I was given the gift of reverse thinking (my term). In five short/long years I came to realize my crash and burn began my spiritual awakening. 

As Fr Richard has written, the Word we heard mainly fit the downtrodden as opposed to the uptown people. No doubt that was my first acceptance of the idea that my "bad news" might be beneficial, a gift from God in fact.

Ever since I heard the word that nothing turns us to God faster than fear, this thought has flitted in and out: Fear of the perceived "bad news" is God's will, God's way hovering in the shadows, awaiting our invitation to enter.

Grace doesn't enter with a brass band...she enters silently, sacredly, and most often we do not recognize her until we look back...in gratitude.

My now watchword: Fear is here, God is near...get grateful.

Thank you.

 (aka, our crash and burn) to raise us up. 

A CHANGED MIND...A CHANGED LIFE

His message of good news is not likely to be sought after or heard by the comfortable and the secure, he seems to say, but by the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed—which fully explains Jesus’ behavior throughout the rest of his ministry. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, March 12, 2025 

Fr Richard's column today sets out my core belief; namely, that the spiritual message of good news is the reverse of what the comfortable want...and is heard best by the hopeless, the helpless...the down-and-out.

In essence, that is the message I got long ago, that the reverse of my wants (my will, my way) is the heart of the higher Purpose for us...God's will, God's way.

As life has turned out for me to date, the way higher began with the crash and burn of my will, my way, all hope, any prayer...even down-and-out seemed like a step up for me. To be sure, life for me has been as daily as it would have been sans spiritual growth...only I have lived at peace, not peeved. 

Lesson learned: Only our mind needs to be changed.  A changed mind, away from self toward Self, brings a feeling of serenity into our life. Turned by the Spirit toward the spiritual, we live happy, joyous and free. 

Hear our hallelujah!

Thank you.

THE GIFT OF FEAR, THE GRACE OF GRATITUDE

God does not stay at a distance from us but constantly seeks to transform our lives by asking us to awaken to the divine presence. -- Theologian Serene Jones

I learned long ago that nothing turns me to God faster than fear. This is easy to forget when fear is riding herd...and that, too, is God's will, God's way. 

Fear cannot be swallowed. ignored or dismissed. It is allowed to live in us for us to realize that fear is another of God's tools bringing us home to Him.  

It is my fear that is riding me now. Fear it is that God is using to transform me by awakening me to His presence.

To laugh in the face of fear is to not understand the situation. To fall to our knees and pray thank You in the face of fear is God in our life.

To ponder: Maybe fear is God in divine disguise to turn us to the grace of God.

Thank you.

ON PAYING THE CONSEQUENCES...GOD-GUIDED

My blinding flash of the obvious this morning: I must pay the consequences for my inactions. 

I cannot deny to myself that it was my decision to not get doctor-ordered checkups...probably decided by depression which I still deny as real to me...yet use it as an excuse. 

Add to that my inaction by not getting and maintaining socialization...simply calling others to chat, invite to lunch, etc. I am inactively aware that my reaching out is what I need to do now more than ever.

From my eyebrows up, I can say that all of this that I am seeing is already healed by the Father within. But those are just so many words, unrealizable, of course, until after the fact.  

To benefit I must walk it through in real time...call for doctor appointments, go to doctor, take all the materially necessary steps...and stop any CYA excuses from leaving my mind for a walk-around. 

This is for my own benefit...benefit being for my own spiritual growth. 

The question is whether I will do it...this is an unanswerable question until I do or do not do that which I have committed myself to. 

Uh-oh...comes the light: When our answers are found in looking back, we're going down that wrong road again. When we do what we are committed to do, our mind is centered in the Now where regrets are invitations to change.  

Thank you.

GOD'S GOLDEN GOOSE...THANK YOU

As the mystics have often said, God 'hides.' Every moment is not obvious as God, as grace; it looks quite simply like another ordinary moment. But our willingness to recognize it as gratuitous—as a free gift, as self-revelatory, as a possibility—allows it to be that way. God’s hiding ceases. God and grace become apparent as a gift in each moment. And those who learn how to receive gifts keep receiving further gifts. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, March 9, 2025

When I read Fr Richard's Daily Meditation, I felt gobsmacked for that is precisely what I have been assuring myself is true, praying that it be true...with God hidden in the underbrush of the reasoning mind where fear abides. 

As we can expect, this came at the exactly right time...just after I had journaled, I am feeling fearful...of losing my mind, of dementia, Alzheimer's, Lewy Body Dementia. 

God's direction: Focus our gratitude there...on God hidden in our fear for our benefit.

Long-time question: How can thank you be the only prayer needed? 

Question answered: By nonresistance. In nonresistance, there is naught but God. 

I chose to believe, admittedly a tish shakily, that the Lord hears my prayers and ensures they are my reality, not just my words. (I feel grateful for the "shakily" for that is the golden goose that keeps me coming back.)

Thank you.

RISE IN GRATITUDE, HOME AGAIN, NATURALLY

Blinding flash of the obvious: Our fear is our greatest friend.

When we fight fear, we lose...and there it is: God's gates open to let us in...powerless, defeated, and...unknowingly...already on the rise.

We rise in gratitude...thank You, our forever watchword, welcomes God's will, God's way, and we are Home again, naturally. 

Thank you.