EGO ALWAYS LEGISLATES FOR ITSELF

Things we learn, love and forget in a heartbeat [both from God Calling]:

1. "It is not necessary that you see Me as others see Me...it is necessary that you see Me, each of you, as supplying all that you personally need."
2. "It is not circumstances that need altering first, but yourselves, and then the conditions will naturally alter."   

I suspect that the truth in those quotes is so easily forgotten because it is filtered through our reasoning mind...our ego-based reasoning mind, with our free will as its advocate. 

Our ego will ever legislate for itself, God's promises be damned.

Thank You.

PRAYERS WITH TEARS

Isaac of Syria spoke of “the attainment of a merciful heart” as necessary to any spiritual life. He also said, in part, that the attainment of a merciful heart comes from constantly offering prayers with tears for the enemies of truth.

“Prayers with tears.” There is spiritual power in those three words. Prayers with tears not for me, no more prayers for me, but prayers with tears for the enemies of truth. Not my truth, but the truth of the God of my understanding.

I’m not capable of seeing where I can even start on that in my life. I am grateful to simply know it for truth…and necessary for me to personally aspire to, to walk toward.

Thank You.

IF WINNING IS THE ONLY THING

It seems to me that divorcing ourselves from our own opinions is the essence of fourth dimensional thinking. It goes against our "human condition" thinking. Most if not all fourth dimensional thinking goes against human condition thinking. It is not of the human condition...it is a raised consciousness, a whole 'nother mindset.

The question is, of course, why do we hang so tough to the human condition, i.e., our ego-based reasoning mind? All our ego wants is to prove its superiority, and all fourth dimensional thinking wants is to give and receive peace. And, for most of us, peace of mind is always at the top of the list of our most desired thing in life.

The lesson we must learn is to give over...to give in without giving up...to concede with grace. I'm a believer that that cannot be done without first coming to live our belief, our trust, that God has our back. We no longer need live in the belief that we are our own and only protector, that we must fight not just to protect ourselves but to win.

We now get to realize that if winning is the only thing then it must enfold both (or more) parties. All sides must come out the winner...if, indeed, winning is the only thing.

Thank You.

LAUGH...A LOT

I read today (as I have read every June 27 for the past 20 years and never before noticed) that "Activity is not achievement." (Words to Live By, Eknath Easwaran)

I note it today probably because friends who are considering retirement ask me, "What do you do all day?"

I tell them: "Anything I want to." Which is not all that satisfactory to them, but it is the truth. The underlying truth being that I have learned over my years that I need to have one direct, all-encompassing goal to live by, and all I do or think of doing is tied to that one goal.

Many diverse opportunities come to me most everyday...I take whichever keeps me headed toward my goal.

This is not done consciously. In fact, I only realized it as I thought about it recently, as I looked back over my day and days. It, no doubt, started out as a conscious act, but now it is...I guess it qualifies as "muscle memory," brain-muscle memory. Hold to the goal, and all else falls in line behind.

Those friends who are on the fence about retirement usually say that they have to have structure in their life, they need the discipline of structure. They immediately start looking for places to volunteer, activities to become involved with...neither of which is a bad thing. The end result is seldom satisfying though. When one is just filling up one's hours to get through the day, that is the only feeling of accomplishment one's likely to have at the end of the day: Glad this day's over, 'night now.

The proof of my goal working for me is that I have never been happier. I've never been more available to others, never been more called upon by others. And we laugh...a lot. There. That's God's proof.

Thank You.

DISTRACTIONS...THE WAY TO PEACE

I just had an interrupted meditation instant and remembered a long-ago gift. At 6:15 AM, the contractors next door who are in the building process started up all their machines. In my opinion they should not be allowed to start until at least 7:00 AM. Just that thought flashed, and a zillion furious thoughts followed...they could not wait to rush in and take over my meditation.

Fortunately, I remembered my very first guided meditation when the sirens of several fire engines started, seemingly right in the next room. The spiritual director quietly instructed us to fold those sounds in to our meditation, to become one with the sounds so that we could release them in peace. I was unable to do that, but the seed was planted, and that has been my goal with distractions of any kind ever since. Sometimes I succeed better than other times, but it is ever my goal.

Remembering that, I was led to Fr. Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation of May 6, 2012, where he wrote of distractions as a way 'to look over our shoulder' for God:  "The 'shoulders' of the distraction become your necessary vantage point and they create the crosshairs of your seeing. What you quickly and humbly learn in contemplation is that how you do anything is how you do everything. [His emphasis.]"

The goal, then, is not to avoid distractions, problems, but to hold onto the distraction, "but not let it hold onto you." A problem is just a distraction in a hair shirt.

We learn early on that we must walk toward our fear. That's all a problem is...a self-centered fear that we give life to by resisting it. What we need to learn is how to hold on to it by giving it over to the Father within...S/He returns it as the peace which passes all understanding.

And our reasoning mind will never understand that. We must go beyond reason to love.

Thank You.

GOD IS NOT AVAILABLE ON DEMAND

Got myself a new car. Am happy with it...more happy that I'm shut of the old one. But the hassles that go with getting new/getting rid of old just drive me...period.

I fully realize why being rich as Midas would not be a bad thing...I'd never again have a hassle. I'd just throw money at it. That action that I condemn so vocally all the sudden sounds like a really good thing.

I cannot believe the number of DMV offices that are closed. I had to renew my driver's license this past March, and I wondered why my new one simply arrived in the mail. There's no office to go to in order to get it done. I think my picture on it is 10 years old which is hard to hate, and I'm not complaining. I looked better ten years ago...or maybe not better, but younger...plus, it saved me a hassle!

But getting my license plates returned...sheez. In truth, I haven't had that big a hassle yet...I'm just dreading it. I found one office that is supposed to be open but I just know when I get there it'll either be closed this day or was open for an hour and just closed  or won't open for another three hours.

Here's me, once again, married to my reasoning mind when the flea bites of life come. And I know that I have the very real option of turning my thoughts to lilies of the valley, i.e., peace in the valley of my mind, of simply moving forward, hoping (not expecting, but hoping...softer let down) for the best outcome.

There...the unbelievably humongous and difficult turn has begun to take place. I'm feeling a crack in my it's-not-fair armor, the armor I call "hassle."  Spelling all my objections out for me to see...rather than having a constant irritating screech in the back of my mind that I'm afraid to look at because it must be bad to sound that awful...solutions come to mind, options open up. God is on the field...I've been benched.

I can drive over, and if any or all of my dreads are true, go to the post office and mail those suckers in. But I can't mail them without checking because then I wouldn't have done my part...and God is not available on demand.

Thank You.

GO TO GOD OR GO MAD

All the spiritual belief in the world is useless if we're not living it. I have a friend whom I love dearly who hears any word of spirituality, and she rolls her eyes and calls it, in effect, God claptrap. She is not an atheist, she is a good church-going...and devout...Catholic.

And I'm referring to myself when I say all the spiritual belief is useless if I'm not living it because what is becoming clear to me is I am resisting her resistance to any credit given to God for life changes.

For example, just yesterday I shared an experience I'd had some 30 or 35 years ago. I was treated very shabbily (by anybody's standards), and I knew I had to let it go p.d.q. I went over to a friend's house and cried and talked and talked and cried, and she walked me through finding my part in it. I walked out of her house some six hours later absolutely free. And, in the telling yesterday, I mentioned God and grace...this peeved my friend no end.

I think she couldn't quite believe I was able to walk free...that, in fact, I was "stuffing my feelings." She did not use those words, but she was irate about the whole story. To me, she got caught in the  same thing I knew I'd get caught in if I didn't do something to release it fast...the fact of the ugly unfairness of what had been done to me with nobody getting punished.

That is life's velcro...ugly unfairness is going to happen, and it will attach itself to our ego-victory mind. It truly is our reaction to life's velcro that determines whether we walk free in our own mind. To me, it's go to God or go mad.

Which returns me to my dilemma...my resistance to her resistance. It's like justified anger...it  does not matter that I believe I'm resisting the "right" thing...she thinks she is, too!

Actually, yesterday's incident is God's gift to me. Here is a friend I love who fundamentally disagrees with my foundation...my basis in life. And I disagree with hers. God's gift is knowing that all I need focus on is the fact that our disagreement does not change by a hair our equal freedoms to our foundational beliefs, that resistance only muddies the fact in our own minds.

Apparently, resist not evil begins with not resisting another's resistance.

Thank You.