GOD HAS MY BACK

[This is a reprint of a blog of mine from August 28, 2008.]

In my quiet time this morning, I read a reference to the Bible verse that advises us to take no thought for what we shall eat, what we shall drink, what we shall wear, that our Father knows our needs…seek Him first and get our needs met in His (plenty of) time (paraphrasing, of course).

And the thought popped that I have never seen a naked “bag lady.” The very term “bag lady” negates the possibility…chances are, if she’s toting bags, she’s got something with which to cover herself.

I then imagined me as that bag lady. I’d be praying for something to eat, drink, wear while eating out of dumpsters, drinking rain water, wearing rags…never realizing that these are my answered prayers, that if I’d give God His head, I would do considerably better…or at least not any worse.

My take then is how deep within am I willing to know God. Like the bag lady, the dumpster and the rain water, I already have all that I need. It is simply to seek deeper within to find better, to what already is, God. 

God has my back. Mine is to believe, trust, live that fact, knowing and showing care and concern for others by not imposing me or my wants on them. 

If/when I feel disrespected by another, I get to thank God for having my back, knowing that my good will come to me and that to return disrespect for disrespect is to pick up mud and throw it in my own face. God can…and will…do better.

Thank You.

MORAL DILEMMAS...UGH

I hate moral dilemmas. That used to be because I didn't have any morals. Then I got me some. Which didn't make the dilemma any more welcome...a dilemma is a dilemma, "an undesirable or unpleasant choice," according to Websters.

All this is over some probably nice person parking their car in my parking space...my paid-for parking space. There are ample other parking spaces all around, clearly marked "VISITOR," which mine isn't.

My moral dilemma is: Do I call Towing or not? I parked in a visitor space, one space over from mine, I've been everywhere I plan to go today so I'm home, it isn't hurting me to let it go. However, the intruding parker does not have a visitor's pass showing the unit number of the person they are visiting, which is required, so they might not even be here in my building. Doing nothing and having something less than wonderful happen because I did nothing now falls on me.  I, in effect, give permission by doing nothing.

But what if it's some body's parents just visiting here with no harm intended, no harm coming?...and they walk out to find their car gone? I know the tow people are located in a whole different time zone, and it costs a bucket of money to get your car back, etc., etc., etc.

Geez...I'm doing nothing...purely because it is easier, and so there to moral dilemmas.

Thank You.

LET GO, DETACH, ACCEPT, GIVE OVER

Becoming entirely willing to take directions in order to change our own selves begins with becoming willing to change our minds...about our own selves, about our defects of character.  (A defect of character is simply a trait we like in ourselves that puts others off...thus becoming the source of our woes).

There are many self-help books in the world...many of which are excellent guides to our changing for the better. That same "many books" seldom work, or seldom work for long. Simply because we're unwilling to use that which we find in them. It's like being given our first arithmetic book, reading that 2 + 2 = 4, and not agreeing with that. So we continue to use our idea that 2 + 2 = 3...and defending it. That is the way to remaining lost, confused, hurting, and blaming God, parents, family, friends, foes...the inevitable endless list.

I remember when I got my basic and best book of instructions. I was told, "All your thinking has been done for you." The happy news is that my primary job for the rest of my life has been learning to do what that book says to do; the less-than-happy news is it's all about ego-reduction in depth...giving over.

All I need do, whenever my ego is resisting whatever comes my way, is talk with a friend who points me to my book of instructions. I invariably find my how-to...my how to deal with this current problem which to my eyes is different than any problem I have ever had before, and I find my answer...let go, detach, accept, give over.

The answer changes to meet my changed circumstances, and the answer is always the same...let go of your desired result and seek to know and do God's will. That's it. It is not complicated. There is no profit, no growth, no peace in complicating it (which is simply trying to make the instructions fit what I want rather than what I need.)

Thank You.

LOOK IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION

Learning to love is not about learning to love others.

It is especially not about learning to love another for that is just transference of feelings onto another in hopes that that one will make us feel whole, complete, right, better than we are...than you are. In short, seeking for someone to love is the ego's search for someone else to make us feel good 100 percent of the time day and night 24/7 forever and ever.

Learning to love is to look in the opposite direction...realizing there is nothing to learn.  Love is simply  opening ourselves to let the sun within shine out.

It, love, is a power, already within us/without us. When we let that power flow forth, we detach from our fear-based self interests, accepting that which we fear is in our self interest. By walking toward it, arms outstretched in welcome, we find that it is not coming toward us, it is coming from us. 

It is love...love of rabbits and rattlesnakes and rusted-out cars, tiaras, tears and track meets...and all in between, in front, behind, beside, within, without...it is love and it is everywhere.

There is no place we can be that love is not...which does us no good at all until we become willing to give up all hope of ever getting love, still willing to give love anyway. We find we want to give love more than we want to get love. Which is when we get it.

Thank You.

DIVORCE OURSELVES FROM OUR OWN OPINIONS

At one time I believed that our rues, regrets and remorses were the bane of our lives, to be dropped, walked away from, forgotten...and yet who has ever been able to simply drop one rue, walk away from one regret, forget one remorse?

I now believe that our rues, regrets and remorses are our angels. I believe this based on my experience with my anxieties which I used to plead with God to remove. When I became willing to change my mind, in other words, to listen, I accepted my anxieties as the golden goose that would keep me moving toward spiritual solutions...as nothing else could.

I read often that the old self must die in order for the new self to be born. The way there, it seems to me, is for the things of the old self to be transmuted...our rues, regrets, remorses, are not forgotten, but made golden, ever to be our touchstone of humility. The way of love and laughter.

Our spiritual abundance is the gold that has been transmuted from our rues, regrets, remorses...never again can we, need we, writhe in regret...gleefully can we sing "Thank You" for every old way of being.

By simply changing our minds...by divorcing ourselves from our own opinions...in exchange for still more spiritual growth, we have been made new.

Thank You.

CLOSE ENOUGH TO PERFECT FOR ME

As all reform is from within out, you will find the outward has improved too. To do this is to release the imprisoned God-Power within you. -- "God Calling," October 16.

Learning to be in the fourth dimension for most of us...for me...is a real stretch. It is a difficult thing to remember that we go to God for God...that is all, nothing more nor less. We go to God for God. Perceiving a problem that needs to be fixed is a denial of God. We go within and let God speak or not...we do not seek solutions, we praise God for everything that is right this very minute.

In our third dimensional world, there will always be problems because it is a dual world, a good/bad, black/white world. The good news is that we have been given all the tools we need to live in the third dimensional world happy, joyous and free. This is the way of ego-reduction in depth, the way of giving over without show when we think we're right, the way of being true to the Force within rather than our own self.

The spiritual axiom, whenever I'm upset no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with me, is true...our gift is in proving that to ourselves.

Another gift is learning to accept and prove, whenever we feel slighted, disrespected, that we have made a decision based on self that placed us in a position to feel hurt. Our joy is in finding that decision that we made and taking responsibility for it...in order to let the other off the hook for that is the exact moment we are free, let off our own hook.

I wonder if learning to live by spiritual principles in the third dimensional world is as close to being in  the fourth dimension as we get? Any closer is purely God walking. Nothing wrong with that, but I'm guessing it's God's choice, so we live by the spiritual principles in our third dimensional with love and laughter. Which is close enough to perfect for me.

Thank You.

TRUST GOD AND DO BETTER THAN YOU WANT TO

...to be in the world but not of it is to lead an active, interesting, creative and profitable life and still not seek selfishly for gain, for reputation, for glory.... Joel Goldsmith, "The Heart of Mysticism" at p. 399.

I like that definition of "to be in the world but not of it." It's sometimes hard getting a fix on how one can be in it but not of it. It's the "seeking selfishly" that turns it around.

Doing for others in order to look good because we're doing for others is of the world. All we wind up with then is a count of the number of people we've helped...and that's just our count, because those we're counting may not be counting themselves as having been helped all that much.

We've often heard if our supply seems to be blocked, give something away. Giving to charity, looking to get twice the amount back...or any amount back...will not get us there. It usually just depletes the small amount we're thinking we have.

It seems to me that "to lead an active, interesting, creative and profitable life," is purely a by-product of leading a life stripped of ego, a God-centered life in a word.

I need to remember, of course, that there is no 100%. A life stripped of ego for me is to daily recommit, with the occasional failure expected, to being not as nasty as I want to be, to let the other driver go before me when we're at a yield sign in his lane, or the person with fewer groceries in her cart go before me (but not more groceries...I'm not a fanatic about it).

It's all about learning balance which is not an inborn gene...or it wasn't for me. Learning to trust God and doing better than I want to when I'm not feeling it is being in my world but not of it.

Thank You.