THE POINT OF UNEXPLAINABLE

Blinding flash of the obvious from 2014: At the point of unexplainable is where the miracle of God appears.

Here comes another God gift...I wrote that BFO in 2014, and Rohr writes in  his "Daily Meditation" this morning, Thinking creates the separate self, the ego self, the insecure self. 

"At the point of unexplainable" is where the reasoning person starts thinking, studying, pondering, analyzing...because to our reasoning mind it is unexplainable and needs an explanation. Duh. 

To the one seeking still more spiritual growth, when we come to the point of unexplainable, and recognize it, we pray our thank you prayer. Then we trust we will be shown the miracle soon, later, in this lifetime or in the next. 

This is another level in beginning our fret-free life...which we will pitch, recover, toss again, recover...until at some point we realize we have not worried about anything for...and we can't remember when. Which, if we're doing it right, will worry us...until we get the point and laugh with God.

Howsomever, thinking gets a bad rap according to me.  There's an out-of-favor slogan that I love,  think, think, think. It's been left behind because many conflate thinking and worrying...think translates to worry which they are already trying not to do. 

We need to think...face it, we live in the material world. We must hone our mental faculties precisely because we live in the material world. 

There are the few, the sacred few, who on first reading the Sermon on the Mount, the Bhagavad Gita and the like understand and live the Word. 

That is neither you nor I, and it's unlikely to be us in this world or the next. It is, however,  the road we choose to walk and all seekers of still more spiritual growth must walk to get...ah, to get still more spiritual growth. 

There. That is the road to the point of unexplainable where the miracle of God appears.    

Thank you.

AND GOD SMILES

Recent blinding flash of the obvious: My attack thoughts say more about me than my perceived attackers' actions say about them. 

Pondering that, I realize the attack thoughts I hold against my nemesis du jour tell me who I am...namely, my nemesis du jour.

Plain words, what I'm thinking Gertrude is thinking about me and, specifically, how I'd like to take old Gertrude down, is the yardstick for measuring how well I am living resist not evil, a favorite measurer of mine.

In this morning's BFO I knew my most recent Gertrude as my spiritual kin, and I felt comforted.

I suspect my journey now is not about finding friends I relate to, which is never a negative, but to be open, non-resistant, to whomever comes into my life bearing negative vibes. 

In order to honestly welcome that, there can be no self-determined glad handing the person...it's all about me opening mentally to the negative vibe I feel...to let it flow out from my resistant mind. 

This is all about changing my mind...and that rests entirely on my willingness to rely on God.  Not to change them but to change me, to upgrade my reaction from self to Self. 

An adage I hold dear comes to mind, Bless her/him, change me. I can stop the quoting it and expand the living it now.

It is exciting to me to realize again that most things we think we're starting to work on changing have already been changed. That's how we come to recognize them as in need of changing.

There's God, already got us fixed even as we walk around seeking still more spiritual growth so we can fix us. Who's cleverer than God? 

Thank you.

PROVABLE POWER...BUT WE MUST PROVE IT

Well. I learned this morning through Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" that there is a Welcoming Prayer. I've considered Thank You to be just that, but a nice part for me is I've been doing the welcoming shtick for years...I did not know it was a prayer. 

The fact is, my hated anxiety got turned into my angel purely through my welcoming experience one morning years ago. I was on the Metro heading under the Potomac River when I felt anxiety about to storm my soul. Since there's no escaping the in-motion Metro, I know not how I knew to just silently say, "Welcome, Anxiety, sit right here with me." Which I repeated all the way under the Potomac. It did not hold my anxiety at bay which was all I dared hope for...it disappeared it for that moment. 

After that, I used welcome. make yourself at home to any perceived and dreaded event or even thought until I came across Meister Eckart's Thank You prayer...which consists of Thank You. And it does indeed suffice. Clearly, neither prayer disappears our nemesis du jour forever, but they do walk us through our fear to peace Now. 

I confess I have never stopped recommending that others use "welcome" because, face it, saying Thank You in the face of a perceived disaster is a tish daunting to start with. Even with Meister Eckhart's pedigree backing it up. 

To the reasoning mind, "Welcome" is a nice starter, "Thank You" is an understandable finisher...don't push it. 

Hey! That could be the secret code for still more spiritual growth...push it. Push away our want to study, ponder, analyze. As is explained in Rohr's "Meditation," Any kind of analysis will lead you back into attachment to your ego self.

Welcome and Thank You...the provable power of resist not evil. Ah, but provable only if we use them.

Thank you. 

TRUST IT: GOD KNOWS OUR NEEDS

As we are born into the material world, the world of either/or,  we are given by God free will to choose whether to journey through life seeking to "take care of myself," or to ever seek spiritual growth, trusting that God knows our needs. 

Free will is God's gift to us so that whenever in our life we have a choice to make (and when don't we?), we are free to use our will or to seek God's will. 

Those of us who choose to live by our will alone often suffer crash-and-burn, leaving us feeling all alone and utterly hopeless. Often it is by looking back we realize that was the moment we made the involuntary decision to seek help from a Power greater than ourself...the beginnings of our spiritual growth. 

A big reveal: We do not need to believe in God to be a good and decent person. But, who's kidding whom, few of us are overly good and decent without a Higher Power to guide us...because what do we know about good and decent when "what's in it for me?" has been our only guide.

Paradox: We discover by seeking still more spiritual growth that being a good and decent person is the lowest bar and the highest standard. 

The lowest bar, we just try not to be as nasty as we want to be...and that counts. The highest standard? Without thought, we come to give over, give up, give in. I suspect that's why we must needs keep coming back...until we get it right.

Thank you.

SIDEBAR: I'll note this morning that I have a new power greater than myself...I got me a dog! Who has already totally rearranged my morning by refusing to eat dog food...people food, please. I'm hurrying now so I can get to the store and buy some yams, brown rice and kidney beans...I've been down this road before. My first dog refused to eat dog food, and I was scrambling eggs, serving it on toast, before I accepted the vet's word: "No dog ever starved to death with food in his bowl before him."  But I'm not serving eggs on toast anymore...I have my standards.

ON TURNING GUILT INTO GOLD

I am reminded this morning of the story in Genesis of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers...he lucked out, they didn't. Even as he found favor with the Pharaoh, they were bouncing on the bottom, getting flattened by life. (Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waiting for a train...quoting Janis, thinking Joseph...sorry!)

The brothers, all apologetic, come running to Joseph, admitting they were no-good and rotten for doing him dirt and crying for help. And Joseph said, in effect, they meant it for ill, but God meant it for good. 

Those of us who had to crash and burn to find the God of our own understanding seldom got up taking any responsibility for our fall...we had someone to blame. Face it, having someone to blame is perfect peace...in the moment. Trouble is, it just leads to more personal pain in the form of self-hate. 

Until we make our U-bie and start our journey seeking grace through spiritual growth, we will look out there for someone to blame. That's akin to picking up mud and slinging it in our own face.

Joseph's story...his punchline...is the harbinger of peace. When we accept responsibility for our fall(s), we become accountable and lose the desire to blame and shame ourself and/or others. There it is...we know peace.

By God's grace, we are invited to let off the hook the very person or happening that we, in our guilt, have blamed. Quite simply,  we see it from another angle...from my view to My view. Turns guilt into gold every time. 

Thank you.

OUR JOY COMES...DISGUISED

Any conscious attempt to engineer or plan our own enlightenment is doomed to failure because it will be ego driven. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," August 17, 2020

....so the difference...is between a self-determined objective and the perfect objective which is of God. -- Anonymous

Our spiritual learning will in time lead us to the realization that our want, our self-determined objective, stripped of all its frou-frou, built by the words of spiritual giants, is for naught. Pretty as a picture, all the while marching us down that wrong road again...that road of ego-bred, ego-led. 

In the early days (which, if we're doing it right, will come, come back, come again) we will recognize that the other's perceived need is more important for us to seek than our perceived need. 

Our Father knows our needs will begin to hum within us...kinda like a tuning fork. 

As we stay our focus, a blinding flash of the obvious will inform us that our self-determined objective is in the process of being transmuted..from my want to My need, i.e., for the benefit of others. And others, growing in spiritual strength, will realize their need is for the benefit of us. 

It's a great gettin' up morning when we consciously awake, arise, and walk free-of-me in our head, our heart and our soul. For we realize unto acceptance that no one's needs are met by self...they are of God, and already perfected within each of us. Now our joy comes in living that. 

God comes to you disguised as your life. -- Paula D’Arcy

Thank you.

EITHER WAY, GOD HAS OUR BACK

My most vigilant spiritual practice is finding the seconds of solitude to get quiet enough to hear the Wise Woman in me. She helps me show up to the labor as my best self. The voices we spend the most time listening to, in the world and inside our own minds, shape the way we see, how we feel, and what we do. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," August 25, 2020

The thought occurs, with all the alone time this pandemic affords me, why am I not hearing "the Wise Woman," for me, my BFOs, a lot more often than I am? 

The answer undoubtedly is: First, "get quiet." We choose the voices we spend the most time listening to...it is our choice, it is not God's will, or evil, or Joe Blank the Ragman choosing for us or against us. It is me using my free will...that which I so earnestly say I desire to return to God in exchange for his will.

Ah, here's the conundrum, or the paradox if you will. All the "doing it wrong" to our reasoning mind is God's way for us to get righted. The wrong we do that feels like a thorn in our thoughts is God turning us around...unselfing us. And it takes as long as it takes. 

I know, from experience, that to self-will my turn around is to keep heading down that wrong road. For who gets quiet and seeks to hear our Father's voice when we know what he's going to say? Love your enemy, let 'em slap you upside your head, yadda yadda yadda...so just act as if and get it over with. Or, self-will meet brick wall. Did I mention, I know this from experience? Enough said.

At any rate, I find that it is by coming to my full reckoning, acceptance, of this Wrong-Way Corrigan approach that I am calmed...I've given over, given up, given in. 

Best for last...I may be getting a new dog. All my troubles, Lord, soon be over. Or, all my troubles, Lord, just got a new suit of clothes. Either way, God has my back. 

Thank you.