Humanity

We all like to look at others and judge their behaviors and make assumptions about what may be going on with them internally. We make these kind of assumptions and judgements most of the time while totally forgetting that we have been given mercy, grace, and compassion by our Creator. We accept it from God, but oh how hard it is to give it to someone else that needs it and may even be asking for it.

At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, "Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?"
Jesus replied, "Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.
"The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn't pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market.
"The poor wretch threw himself at the king's feet and begged, 'Give me a chance and I'll pay it all back.' Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.
"The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, 'Pay up. Now!'
"The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, 'Give me a chance and I'll pay it all back.' But he wouldn't do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.
"The king summoned the man and said, 'You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn't you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?' The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that's exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn't forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy."

Matthew 18:21-35

People around us everyday are needing and asking for mercy. They are our fellow humans. They have experienced the same heartaches, troubles, pains, and frustrations that we all have. Those experiences may have happened in a different context or situation, but the feelings and the outcomes are just the same. When we get there we ask for God's grace and mercy to carry us through and God is quick to do so, unconditionally. What happens for us when we encounter someone who needs mercy? I know that at times I am quick to make judgements and demand that a person act differently. Really I need to have compassion for them. We are all a part of humanity - no matter our religion, our nationality, our backgrounds - there is a fellow human being created in the image of the almighty, loving creator that has not hurt or suffered in some way. We have all been there! Humanity - compassion - is accepting this person, offering mercy to this person, and understanding that you have been there too! It may be a different situation than you have been in, but you know what it is like to hurt, be angry, feel slighted, to have things not turn out like you want, to lose a loved one, we all know these things.

Remember this today as you walk the way of Jesus. Forgive, love, and show your humanity by having compassion for those that would normally make you angry. Look at them and see yourself, God's image, and their humanity. Accept as you have been accepted. Love as you have been loved.

Namaste'

Perfect

Have we really every thought about God's love and God's creation being perfect just as it is? We try so hard to change things that are happening in the world, the events that are happening to us. Really though, they are just perfect as they are. Why is that? I believe it is because God is on the throne of the universe. God makes the heavens, the galaxies, the universe move all around us in perfect order and there is no concern about it. The same is happening in our lives, our life is moving and going forward and we are continuously taken care of by the Creator.

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.
My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!

I John 7:12

Allow yourelf to just love because you are confident that everything is as it should be, even those things you are experiencing as suffereing and hardship. Love is the only way that you can know God, allow God to love you. Everytime we think that "God must not love me because things are not working like I think they should" we miss God's love, the perfect love, and life becomes hard and frustrating. However, if we think "everything is as it should be, God loves me and came to love me" life can become much more enjoyable and we will focus on what is right with our life. Things become perfect. We accept the "wrong things" because we know we are loved perfectly. Accept that traffic today as perfect, your situation as were you need to be right now, not that we do not need to work on bettering your situation, but it is sure hard to find solutions focusing on what is wrong. We are perfectly loved and cared for. Know it today and accept what is happening in your life. See how things can change and how much more patience and peace that you have.

Namaste'

Feelings

How often so you test your feelings to see if they are true? We must use our thoughts at times to be clear about what we are feeling and why we may be feeling this way. What we think about will be what we become. What do we need to become? We need to become a life filled with love.

So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.

Philippians 1:9

Living appropriately means using our head, our thoughts, to test how we are viewing the world around us. This is the way that we live a life, have the mind of Jesus. Test your thoughts. Do you hear yourself saying things like "always, never, all the time, everytime, etc?" To avoid the extremes is to live a life that is sincere and intelligent. So try that today. Notice your feelings and test them by thinking, "If this is how I am feeling what was I thinking just before this?" I bet that you will find some extreme kind of thought leading to the feelings of anger or anxiety.

Namaste'

Doing

We all think that somehow we are in charge of our life. Really we are not. I have heard a quote that says "We are not doing anything, we are all being done." I love the quote because it reminds me that I am not really doing much of anything to have impact on my life, God is the one in control of life.

God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.

Romans 8:29

God has already decided from the beginning what he was doing. God has started this whole thing and will bring it to completion in the way God wants. Allow this thought to calm you today. Remember that there is not much that you are doing to control your life. God loves you and is doing everything. We need to just relax in God's love. We do not need to worry about doing more and getting God to love us so God will enter our lives. God is already in our lives. God is already doing in our lives. Do we recognize it and accept is the real question. We fight so hard to say that God is not working in our lives, or we fight so hard to say that God has to work in our lives. Then we act like we have to work to make that happen, or we are powerless to have God come and help us. Neither are true. God is doing. Allow God to be doing. Relax and do what is place in front of you at each moment to do. Do not go about trying to solve the next moment, or the moments of tomorrow because then you don't allow God to be doing, and then you create worry and anxiety within yourself.

Think that things will work jut as they should. Think that God is already out ahead of you working things out to be as they should. Think about how you can relax and let go of your life and place it in the hands of the Creator of this massive universe. Practice confidence, patience, and faith. Let God do, let yourself be.

Namaste'

Eyes Wide Open

How do we live our lives? Do we live with our eyes squinting like we are blinded by the sun hardly able to see anything? Do we live with our eyes wide open making sure that we see as many things as possible? We have been asked to live with our eyes wide open.

"Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
"Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!

Matthew 6:19-23

We forget that our eyes are the things that let in what we see. I think that our thoughts actually influence what we see and how we see it, so the eyes really are the window to our souls and how we will live our lives. How do you see your life? It is a life that must be lived with eyes squinted like you are trying to find something very small on the carpet or floor? We have all done that before, we squint to find something very small that we have lost on the floor or in the grass outside. We do this when we are looking for just one particular thing so that our field of view can be narrowed and we can focus on only one thing at a time. Squinting actually changes the shape of the eyes and the amount of light that comes in the eye, it can help us focus on one thing at a time. So what are you squinting at or for? What are you expecting to find and get that will finally make life worth living for you? The more you "squint" for it the darker your life becomes because you are limiting the amount of light that is coming into your life. Your heart is focused on only that one thing. Jesus says "what a dark life you will have!"

Or is your life lived with our eyes wide open so you can be filled with light. If you can change your thoughts and see things differently your eyes can be opened. We can see more, know more, and experience more of life. Your body, your mind, can be filled with wonder and belief when you let go of the attachment to something or someone. When we stop looking for that thing we lost in the grass or on the carpet, we no longer squint and light is allow to enter our body again. We can see the whole room and the whole outdoors. When we "let go" and tell ourselves that it does not matter that we lost it, we are freed and life can return. Live today with your eyes wide open. Look around at all the wonderful things God has given for you to experience and your life will be full of life and light! Let go of those things, that thing, you think you just "got to have" and stop squinting, stop pulling the blinds on life. Enjoy today and let the light in! Change how you look at things and the things you look at change.

Namaste'

Neighbor

One definiton of of neighbor that I found in the dictionary is "a fellow human." Think about that today, that everyone that is human is your neighbor.

Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?"
He answered, "What's written in God's Law? How do you interpret it?"
He said, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself."
"Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you'll live."
Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define 'neighbor'?"
Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
"A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I'll pay you on my way back.'
"What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?"
"The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded.
Jesus said, "Go and do the same."

Luke 10:25-37

So to be a little challenging today, what would you do if there was a muslim laying on the side of the road that needed your help? Think of someone that you have a prejudice against and put yourself in the place of the person walking by and think about what you would do? I know that most of us think, "I would never pass anyone by on the street that was hurting!" However, how do you react to the person in line in front of you that needs that little extra change to pay their bill and you are frustrated? What are you thinking about them, especially if they are a person of another culture or race? I think that we all have a tendency to not think of EVERY human being as our neighbor. Imagine what would happen in your community, your state, your world, the entire world, if everyone treated every human being as their neighbor. Treat people kindly, this is what Jesus is not only saying to this religious scholar, but to each of us. We must go and do the same. Treat everyone, every neighbor, every human being that you come in contact with today with kindness. Attempt to drop any thoughts you have about anger or judgement towards them. Remember that they hurt like you hurt, look for acceptance like you do, and just need to be treated with love and respect like you do. Let your heart go out to your human neighbors today.

Namaste'

Barn

What are you storing in your barn? We have a tendency to store up things in our garages, our houses, in storage units that we rent, and inside our own lives. However, most all these things will not be used by us, will soon be waste, and will not even be used by those we leave it for. We spend so much time accumulating stuff and things, both material and emotional, that we have room for nothing else. Listen and read this parable Jesus told:

Someone out of the crowd said, "Teacher, order my brother to give me a fair share of the family inheritance."
He replied, "Mister, what makes you think it's any of my business to be a judge or mediator for you?"
Speaking to the people, he went on, "Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot."
Then he told them this story: "The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself: 'What can I do? My barn isn't big enough for this harvest.' Then he said, 'Here's what I'll do: I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I'll gather in all my grain and goods, and I'll say to myself, Self, you've done well! You've got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!'
"Just then God showed up and said, 'Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it?'
"That's what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God."

Luke 12:13-21

We never know what is going to happen to us. We miss so many moments of our lives because we are busy "filling the barn" with things that will not matter. We even fill our barn with self. We fill it with our anger, frustration, and disappointed when things do not turn our like we think they should. We fill our barn with hurt and anger when people do not approve us of somehow. All this too will be stuff that fills the barn that will not matter when we leave this earth. We can be much more productive and satisfied by filling our barns with God daily. How do we do this? We are thoughtful, kind, loving, caring, serving, and with a mind more like Christ everyday. Fill yourself with God thoughts everyday. Fill yourself with God actions everyday. This will bring you peace that passes understanding.

Namaste'

Thoughtful

How thoughtful are we really? Look at the definition of the word thoughtful -

1. Engrossed in thought; contemplative.
2. Exhibiting or characterized by careful thought
3. Having or showing heed for the well-being or happiness of others and a propensity for anticipating their needs or wishes.

So how often do we really take the time to be "engrossed" in thought? How often do we show others that we are careful about the choices that we make and the things we think about? The last definition is my favorite, because how many times do we really give others the importance in life to let their well-being and happiness come first, much less anticipating what they may need because we are being thoughtful? In our fast paced, rush around, get things done right now culture, it is really hard for us to sit down and be thoughtful. We all wonder why people are no longer nice and kind, why people seem to be so rude and uncaring. I believe it is in part due to our failure to be thoughtful.

Life ascends to the heights for the thoughtful—it's a clean about-face from descent into hell. God smashes the pretensions of the arrogant;he stands with those who have no standing.

Proverbs 15:24-25

Life can be lifted up and to the highest places for those of us who make a determination to be thoughtful. Life is smashed for those of us who wish to be arrogant and proud, not thoughtful. Being thoughtful and methodical about our lives, leads us places of kindness and love. I believe that Jesus was thoughtful. Jesus looked out for the needs of others. Jesus could anticipate them. Now you may say that this is because he is God, and this is true. However, I believe that we are commanded to have the same mind in us that was in Christ. We must be thoughtful ourselves. I know that if we are thoughtful about ourselves, taking the time to be contemplative and careful about who we are, that we will be able to anticipate the needs of others and look out for their happiness. Why? Because when we know ourselves in this kind of intimate way, when we know how we hurt, why we hurt, what makes us happy, and what makes us angry; we begin to see ourselves in others and we can anticipate when someone is hurting and what they may need. We know what this feels and looks like in us and we can recognize it in others.

Practice being thoughtful today. Be thoughtful about yourself, your feelings, your thoughts. Before you do anything today - eat, drink, speak, write, walk - be thoughtful about your actions before you take them. Watch as you begin to be more aware of yourself, how much more aware you become of others and their needs. Life begins to slow down to a pace that is characterized by patience, love and kindness. Watch your life ascend!

Namaste'

Creativity

I had a wonderful thing happen to me the first day of vacation. My son told me what it was like when he was with God before he came into this world. I simply asked him to tell me what it was like with God before he came to be with us. His response was simply wonderful and creative. "Well, it was like being in outer space and God had hands like tiger paws, feet like fire, nose like smoke, eyes like trees with stones in them, a face like a beautiful angel, ears like a beautiful tiger and a belly button like flowers." He then proceeded to say, "and I was a tiger." I went inside and had him recite the same thing to my wife and wrote down as he told it again. Now I know this is a four year old imagination, but he gave such a quick response and his creativity is still alive within him that it makes me think if some of it could not be true. It also got me thinking about how we each lose our creativity as we grow older and forget what we really came to earth for.

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

Galatians 6:4

So today give careful exploration to your life and who you really are. We are really just responsible to be our best and to do what God has created us to do. If we caught up in being impressed with ourselves or our own success, or caught up in worrying what others think about us, we miss out on what we have been placed here to do. We cannot access our creative "juices" if we are concerned about these things. You see my son is just not worried about those things and he still remains this creative, wonderful human being. As we grow older though we begin to get obessed with our own success and what others think. We lose the truth that Jesus is talking about here:

But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

Luke 18:16-17

Be a child today and just enjoy the wonder of it all. Be a child today and be creative and know that anything that you think about you can create in your life. Be a child today and do not worry about others opinions or your success. Be a child today and just be. Enjoy today.

Namaste'

Humble

How hard it is to be humble. Oh the great reward for finding the ways to be humble.

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." I Peter 5:5

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:1-3

I wonder if we realize that we are poor in spirit. All too often we do not want to be poor in spirit. We work hard to be "better than" and to hide behind our "good deeds." We like to look at the rules and say to ourselves and others that we follow those rules and God is proud of us. However, these two verses tell us that it is those how realize that they are "poor in spirit" and are just like everyone else God's kingdom become ours. We all learn from each other. We all have something going on in our life that makes us poor and weak. We all rely on the Creator to sustain and provide for us. How poor we are and how often we do not recognize it. We miss out on the kingdom of heaven that is right here right now in each moment we live because we are attempting to not be poor in spirit. We work so hard to please our ego and have as many things, as many good opinions, and as many good feelings as we can. When this happens to us we forget about being poor in spirit and become driven to live in the next moment and not this moment. The drive to please ourselves and to avoid being poor in spirit (humble) leads to a losing of a connection with God, not a gaining of God's affection and love towards us. It is not that God moves away from us, but we move away from God by acting and thinking in ways that not like God. Be humble and poor in spirit today. Do not resist God, but rather embrace God and let God take care of you. Let go of your ego and just be.

Namaste'

Conformity

We all try it don't we. We attempt to conform to the ways of others so that we cand feel good and accepted. We follow after others without thought to what is really going on and if what we are following in that person is really something that we should be following. The world is all about conformity and "falling in line." However, God is all about doing something different. God is all about non-conformity and doing something that is different and makes others say or think, "they will never be able to do that," or "what are they doing?" Jesus did not come and conform to his world. He came and shook up the religious establishment and did not just "fall in line." Jesus even said:

"Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?"

Luke 6:39

I just read Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay on self-reliance. He writes "conformity is just playing a game of blind man's bluff." Remember the verse from yesterday:

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Romans 12:2

So today do not just conform. I am not talking about going out and being purposefully rebellious. I am talking about questioning your own motives for doing what you are doing, asking yourself why you make the decisions you do, and begin to make decisions that are good for you and ones that honor the call and gift that God has placed in you since your birth. Do not conform, but be transformed and transform those around you. Conformity means that we all lead each other off a cliff and into an abyss. The abyss is a place where God is lost and the wonder of knowing our Creator is never felt. Fun and excitement gets lost because we all stand around thinking that we must conform to what we are taught and get in line. I know that what God places in each of us as our passion to be lived while we are here usually goes against conforming to live it out. Don't become so used to the culture around you, even your church culture, that creativity gets lost. Let God bring out the best of you and be mature.

Namaste'

Renew

Did you know that you can change the way you think. You can actually renew your mind. Your brain is a flexible, moldable, ever changing part of you. Researchers in the science community have actually been able to prove that the neuropathways in the brain can change as a person practices a different way of thinking, finds new beliefs, and looks at the world with a different understanding. Search this on the web and see how many different studies you get about the ways to change the brain. I love this because it confirms what the bible tells us about about renewing our minds. I will put it here in three different versions.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2

Today do not go about your day copying others in the world that wake up and dread the day, worry about the future, get stuck in worries about a bad economy, angry because things do not go their way, no be transformed as you practice changing those pathways in your brain through prayer, meditation, and look at life through a totally different lense. This will bring you maturity, humility, joy, and peace beyond understanding. This change takes time, and will not happen at the instance that you begin your practice. It is called training and it takes some time, but those who are willing to put in this time and effort, the time and effort to connect with God daily, challenge themselves to think differently, and take the time to monitor their thoughts will be able to find God's perfect will.

Namaste'

Longing

If you have been in the desert for hours I wonder how much you would long for your thirst to be quenched? What would it be like to spend all day in the hot sun and then finally get a drink of cold water? How much would you long and wish and hope for something cool and wet to touch your lips, mouth and throat? What would happen if we longed for God in that manner? How much would we search for God in everything we encounter, rather than look for the ways that we think that God does not show up? We begin to know God when we long for God the way we would for water when thirst is great.

My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in your word.

Psalms 119:81

You will know and find God when you long for God. When you long for God you begin to look for God everywhere you go and in everything you do. Since God is everywhere, you will find God. It is when we do not long for God that we do not find God. It is when there is no longing that we are looking for all the ways, the evidence, that God is not there or not here. It is only when I get thirsty enough that I begin to look for water and when my search ends I am completely satisfied and it is the best water I have every had. Long for God today. Desire God today. Be satisfied at every turn when God is there. A longing for God will create the behaviors and actions that lead you right to our Creator.

Namaste'

Marvelous

What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we're called children of God! That's who we really are. But that's also why the world doesn't recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he's up to.
But friends, that's exactly who we are: children of God. And that's only the beginning. Who knows how we'll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we'll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus' life as a model for our own.

I John 3:1-3

Do we see God's love as something that is causing wonder or astonishment? This is the definition of marvelous. To think that we are the children of the Creator, what wonder that is to think that God counts us as children. Remember today that Jesus is the model for our life and practice love, kindness and forgiveness today. Allow others first place today, be curious about your reactions, and find time to be quiet today and listen to your thoughts and God. Remember there is no reason for worry - you are a child of the Creator who does nothing but serve and provide. Allow God to provide and serve you in whatever way that is as a child. The things that happen in our lives that we do not like, we need to accept. It is much like telling my son that he needs to go to bed when he does not want to, not buy him a toy when he wants one, or not let him eat something that will not be good for him; he gets upset and wants to beg and plead for it. We do the same with God, but remember you are a child of the Creator and the Creator would do nothing to harm us. Go with the flow of life and allow God to take you where God will. You are a child of God and God's love is marvelous.

Namaste'

Curious

How often are we really curious? How often are we eager to learn more about our own reactions? We usually spend our time only be curious about other people's reactions to us. We ask ourselves, "why are they so mad," "they are so judgemental," "they are being so rude." on and on we go sometimes about others around us. Are we really ever curious about our own reactions to things and to people? Do we really want to learn more about our own reactions and where they come from? We heare Jesus remind us that what goes on outside of us and what we see happen around us is not as important as our reactions.

Jesus replied, "You, too? Are you being willfully stupid? Don't you know that anything that is swallowed works its way through the intestines and is finally defecated? But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It's from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That's what pollutes. Eating or not eating certain foods, washing or not washing your hands—that's neither here nor there."

Matthew 15:16-17

When someone around you "makes you angry" the challange is to not to be curious about their reaction, but to be curious about your own. Ask yourself, "why did I reacted like that?" "Where did that come from within me?" When we are curious about our own reactions and are eager to learn more about them, real change can happen. We begin to react differently, arguments stop, frustrations stop, our relationships improve, and we find joy because we find control over ourselves and our reactions. So today when your heart jumps up with a reaction that is angry or upset, or frustrated ask yourself "where did that come from and why am I reacting like that?" Then ask yourself how you saw the event or other person in your life that you are reacting to and she if you could change that thought. I guarantee that a different "reaction" comes out and you now are more mindful about yourself. Your relationships begin to change because you are more intentional about your actions and thoughts. Compassion and understand of others grows as your spirituality deepens. Be curious today about yourself. Allow God to challenge your in your reactions.

Namaste'

Greatness

What defines greatness? How does someone become really great? Greatness can be defined as of outstanding significance or importance, chief or principal, superior in quality or character, noble, powerful or influential. Most of us think that to achieve this kind of status we must work hard, get ahead, and push our way to the front. We are taught early in life that we must strive to be the best, work hard at getting ahead, demand our rights, and be the "head of the class." Our culture lets us know that this is the way to greatness - you must be pushy, bold, demanding, hard, and out spoken. This ideas is really the opposite of what God says about greatness:

He said, "You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It's not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage."

Matthew 20:25-27

To be great I must be a slave?! I can hear Jesus say "Yes." We are bound to others around us. We are bound to the God that created us. We are bound to find happiness and joy in acting like our Creator. God serves. God endlessly serves. God is bound to service of the universe that was created. God show mercy, provides life, and keeps the sun and earth turning each day. God just serves. Jesus came and just served. Jesus loved and served those around him. He gave and served with his life. Jesus just served. The Holy Spirit just serves. The spirit comforts, loves, and gives peace. The spirit just serves. We are created in the image of God, I wonder what our greatness lies? Just serve today. Become a slave to others. We are bound to it to find real greatness and joy.

Namaste'

Condition

Do you realize that you have conditioned yourself to think and believe the way that you do? I know that we all like to think that someone or something else has conditioned us to think and behave the way that we do. Really though, we have decided to take on patterns of thinking, believing, and behaving. We decide, we condition ourselves to believe that there is no other way to think, behave, or feel. We blindly take on thoughts and behaviors, never challenging them, never wanting to look at them, never wanting to really see if there may be another reality other than the one we think we see.

But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

Ephesians 4:20-24

Everything connected to the way that we have conditioned ourselves has to go! This is the essence of discipleship and spiritual growth - a life renewed from the inside and working itself out into our conduct. We begin to recondition ourselves to the way that God thinks through practice, reading, meditation, and practice again. God then can reproduce his character in you. This cannot happen unless we are willing to let go of our own conditioning that says "can't," "won't," "don't," "too hard," and "will never happen." You believe that, you have let others and situations in your life condition you and most of us blindly accept it as truth. Look closely at Christ and no longer just accept your condition and your conditioned response. If you have taught yourself something you do not like this means that you can teach yourself something different. You can longer use ignorance to say to yourself I just "can't." God say you can and you must to have an "entirely new way of life - a God-fashioned life."

Namaste'