Move Towards God

Ever feel like God is so far away? I know that we all think, "God where are you?" at times. We feel like we have been left alone and somehow God must not love us, because if God did we would not feel like this. When we feel this way we need to use it has a warning bell, an alarm, a trigger that we must not be acting or thinking in ways that match us up with God's spirit. We must stop and take inventory of what we may have been worried about, angry about, scared about, and change our perspective.

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

Philippians 4:6-9

Worries can be our alarm bell that it is time to rejoin God in spirit. How? Fill your mind and meditate on being a peaceful person, a loving person, on what you have, on what you are thankful for, on what is beautiful and good. When we do this we rejoin God, we rejoin Spirit and then we can relax, settle down, because we get a sense of everything working together - harmony. Some notes (circumstances) by themselves sound really bad. However, when you place those notes with other notes, the result is a beautiful harmony.

So today move towards God. Allow what you are concern, worried, scared, angry about to move you toward God, not away from God. All too often we use those feelings to act out some behavior that is not good for us or others in our lives, we do not live in harmony, but torn up and tied up in knots inside. Work on turning those things into prayer and meditations that lead you toward God, to think like God on what is good and beautiful.

Namaste'

Awareness

Our base nature is what we call "fight or flight." I think that this is our base nature physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Fight or flight comes from a place in our brain we call the fear center of our brain. It is that part of us that protects us from things that can hurt us, or from things that have hurt us. For instance, if you are speeding down the highway at 65 miles an hour and the traffic in front of you comes to a sudden halt and you slam on your brakes and come within inches of the car in front of you - you feel shaky, anxious, nervous and it may take you a little bit to feel "back to normal." This is the biological response of flight or fight. If you have ever had the experience of going to eat dinner somewhere and then getting sick right after that and a month later someone ask you to go back and eat there again - what do you say? "NO" And why, because for a brief moment you remember getting sick, you smell the food, and you do not want to go back there. This is your brain reminding you that you got hurt there and do not do that again!

This is how most of us go about our lives, living out of this base nature, this gut level response, reacting to the things around us without much thought. It is our fallen nature. Look at the story of Adam and Eve. What was their first response after they fell?

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

Genesis 3:8-12

They reacted with "fight," they argued about whose fault it was, and they also reacted out of "flight," they hid from God.

Why I am saying all this and taking the time to explain it? I believe that our lives, living the way of Jesus, should be lived in overcoming this base nature. We need to be more aware of the world around us and learn how to slow down these reactions and learn how to be more loving, kind, and compassionate with all we encounter. This is hard to do if we are reacting out of fight or flight. We are not aware of the reality of our lives if we live out of this base nature. We are blind to the reality of God, the reality of how we are taken care of by the Creator, and we are blind to how to make decisions that are good for us and will lead to a life of peace.

Spend some time each day in silence to notice your thoughts, how much of them are spent in fear and worry and anxiety about what may happen and what we need to hide from or fight about. This is what a quiet time should be: yes reading the scriptures, prayer - but also some time of meditation to observe your thoughts and learn how to take them captive, thinking like God. When we can overcome this fallen, base nature, our lives can become a place where anything we dream or think of is possible. We are connected to God then, we are free from fear and anxiety and then "with God all things are possible."

Namaste'

Let Go

We hear this phrase. We all have different ideas about what this may mean. For me it means that we need to let go of the need to control the outcome of our lives. When I worry it tends to be about my life is not turning out like I think it should. I am very attached to the outcome of my life and it must turn out how I think it should for me to be happy. I really need to let go of this idea and live in the present moment that I have. Jesus put it like this:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"

Matthew 6:25-26

I need to renounce the need for me to make my life turn out the way I want. This is selfishness, this is ego, this is my attempt to control life. It brings worry, anger, frustration, depression, and sadness. Renounce this and enjoy life. Live in your moments, let go of the outcome of your life. Let God, the infinite organizing intelligence, order your life and care for you. Live carefree in the care of God. It can be amazing when we allow things to be and happen how peaceful we can feel. When we have to make the outcome be a certain way we feel pressured, hurried, angry. Then when it does not turn out like we thought it should and we worked so hard to make it so, it is a blow to our self esteem and ego.

Let go, renounce the selfishness that we want to live with. Live each moment serving God and others. Throw yourself into life allowing God to care for the future.

Namaste'

Void

We all are so busy. We get up hit the floor with our feet and never stop until our butt hits the bed at night. We get up and we do it all over again - everyday! Life is a hurricane, a wild fire, full of wind and blowing us everywhere. We struggle to find God, to hear the voice of God and to trust our intuition. There is never any void in our life for us to listen to anything, much less the still, small voice of God.

Then he was told, "Go, stand on the mountain at attention before God. God will pass by."
A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God, but God wasn't to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but God wasn't in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn't in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper.

I Kings 19:11-12

Some of us get so afraid of the void. It is silent, there is nothing going on, it forces us to confront and think about things we have been attempting to avoid. We all say that we can't wait for the weekend, but when it comes we stay busy and avoid any silence or void. We get bored, tired, sleepy so we get busy with the television, the radio, people, food, whatever will drown out the silence. Empty spaces can be intolerable until we learn the power of silence.

We are addicted to stress, mentally and emotionally, we need a fast, quick fix to our issues. Really we need to clean our system and stop overloading it with all the noise and chemicals from our brains having to be constantly simulated. The void is where God is! God is not in the hurricane of our lives, the fires, the trials or the winds. God is in the silence between or after these things. Like that say with music - it is the space between the notes that makes the music. If there were no pauses, or space, between the notes the music would not be so beautiful.

So take time daily, weekly, to sit in silence and hear the voice of God. We need to understand our thoughts and direct them to our true purpose. The purpose of prayer is the alignment of the mind with the thoughts and the will of God. Then we can live out the true purpose of our lives to make the world a better place. This spiritual work is not easy. It takes the willingness to surrender to feelings that seem, while we are in them, a defense against a greater pain. Spiritual work means that we must surrender to God in the silence and let our perceptions of all things change.

Namaste'

Look Deeply at Self

Why does Jesus say this:

"Here's another old saying that deserves a second look: 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.' Is that going to get us anywhere? Here's what I propose: 'Don't hit back at all.' If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

Matthew 5:38-40

This is so difficult for us because we all want things to be our way and work the way we think they should. We fail to realize that if someone hurts us the reason we are angry or hurt is not their fault. We need to realize that it is coming from our heart.
We need to look deeply at our hurts and see what they are saying about ourselves. What are we trying to protect? What are we so scared of? Why makes us want to please everyone? Our hurts come out of the most sensitive areas of our lives. Think about it – why is it that someone could say or do something to us and we shake it off like it was nothing, barely giving it any attention? However, there are other times when we “go off” at someone for hurting us. What is the difference? I think it is because it strikes at our ego, at our core. Our hurt speaks something about ourselves, not the other person. It is letting us know that there is a part of our ego that has not been put to death yet, instead of seeing it as a wrong that should not have happened. We need to question ourselves, meditate on our hurts, have compassion within ourselves and understand what we have not let go of in our life that creates this suffering.
This is humbleness. This is understanding that no one can hurt us but ourselves. This is the true meaning of love others as your love yourself. We need to be careful that we do not let boast about our humbleness. We need to be humble and say nothing about it. If we need to let someone know about our humbleness, it is our ego still at work to find some recognition of the self. The person who has to tell others that they are humble, they are not truly humble, they need to be carefully watched. We still try to find some comfort in feeling good and letting others know that we are “good” so that we can gain their praise.
If these steps can be followed then we will not allow ourselves to be upset by what people are saying about us. We begin to understand that they are not talking about us, and that they have to say is not important. It is only important to the extent that it hurts us and God’s work in revealed through them and their relationship as a place within our self to work on. There is no way to please everyone and make every circumstance come out the way would like. This brings real chaos, the attempt to make sure everyone and everything likes us and goes our way. It would be like attempting to make the train go to a different concourse at the airport rather than accepting that this is where this train takes us. It would be like trying to get the flight moved to a closer concourse for our convenience rather than just accepting that we have to walk that far.
People love us and they leave us, we are all quite “fickle.” Do we accept that and learn from the relationship anyway or do we push it to make it what we want it to be? We must learn to love without attachment to the outcome. We must learn to trust that even though this feels like total chaos, underneath there is an organizing intelligence that never leaves us or forsakes us. It is the Infinite God. See God in all the people you encounter – your friends, your family, your ex, your boss, your coworker – They do nothing with the organizing of God to teach us something about ourselves and to push us to letting go and living in complete abandon to life.

Mission of Love

I hope that we all understand that we have a mission everyday - love. We usually think that we have to be a pastor, a missionary, volunteer somewhere, or give to something to be able to show love to others. We are under the assumption that there is a mission field somewhere that we must conquer and it must be done through some great calling. However, I want to challenge you today that you are in your calling. Everyday you are in a place to be on a mission of love to whomever you encounter. Jesus was on this mission everyday.

In John 4 Jesus comes to a well and rest as his disciples go to town to buy some lunch. Jesus is just going to sit and rest, but he encounters the woman at the well. Most of us know that story. He offers her water that will quench her thirst forever and tells her somethings about herself that he could not have known. He fulfills his mission of just loving her right then. Later on in the chapter is records this:

In the meantime, the disciples pressed him, "Rabbi, eat. Aren't you going to eat?"
He told them, "I have food to eat you know nothing about."
The disciples were puzzled. "Who could have brought him food?"
Jesus said, "The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. As you look around right now, wouldn't you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I'm telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what's right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It's harvest time!
"The Harvester isn't waiting. He's taking his pay, gathering in this grain that's ripe for eternal life. Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant. That's the truth of the saying, 'This one sows, that one harvests.' I sent you to harvest a field you never worked. Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others."
Many of the Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him because of the woman's witness: "He knew all about the things I did. He knows me inside and out!" They asked him to stay on, so Jesus stayed two days. A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they heard what he had to say. They said to the woman, "We're no longer taking this on your say-so. We've heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He's the Savior of the world!"

John 4:31-42

So today open your eyes to the mission field you have right in front of you. You are on a mission of love. Love is contagious and if we could just love those that we encounter as we sit, walk, shop, talk, and live with - the world would follow and know how to live. So many people today are just wanting to be loved, accepted, and cared for - just for being them. This is the field that is ready to harvest, that has been worked on by others and all we need to do is act in loving kindness to those around us. We must being this within ourselves first (see post from last week of loving yourself) if we are to love others.

You do not have to be a "minister" of some sort, or volunteer or time to some organization, or be a missionary somewhere - although these are all great things. We just have to be ourselves in the place God has placed us right now, in the job we are in, in the relationships we have, with the people encounter. I can sell hot dogs on the side of the road and fulfill this mission.......

Namaste'

Tied up in Knots

Ever felt "tied up in knots" inside your heart, your emotions? Ever wonder what that could be about? What makes us worry, get anxious, angry, frustrated, sad, depressed, and scared? I think that Jesus had an answer:

"What I'm trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don't be afraid of missing out. You're my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.

Luke 12:29-31 (Message)

And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

Luke 12:29-31(NIV)

We get so "attached" to things. We want, we need, we think that we must have "things" (which can be getting things or having circumstances go our way) happen the way we think they should. Attachment to these things "ties us up in knots." Have you have run over a rope or string with a lawn mower? It gets all tied up around the blades and it can take a very long time to get it undone and be able to use the mower again.

This is also true of life. When we get all tied up in knots worried/attached to/about the things in the world - how will the bills get paid, what will I eat today, what will happen tomorrow, this better turn out right, they better love me, I can't believe that happened, etc -we cannot live our lives with joy and peace. We get all tied up and it takes hours, days, weeks, for us to get untied and feel better. Life is not fun. Our focus in on being a dictator, a possessor, a ruler of our own lives.

We do not have to be the dictator of our lives. We do not have to be attached to the outcome - it is not ours to determine. We need to live fully in the moments given to us and just love. Love - acting, saying, and doing loving things - with everyone we encounter each and every moment is being "steeped in God-provision, God-reality, and God-iniative." This is the kingdom of God right here and right now. If we love, show compassion, show kindness in each of our moments we will see that our life is never in knots on the inside, "things" take care of themselves, and we will have what we have always wanted - peace and joy - but not by trying to control our circumstances. Rather, we allow God to order our lives through what feel like chaos and we just have the right thoughts and actions of the kingdom of God in each moment, living mindfully so that we don't run over those ropes.

Namaste'

True Communication

So what is true communication? What makes communication real and meaningful to ourselves and those around us? I think that Jesus gave a great example of what true communication looks like and how powerful it is:

Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone." Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.

John 8:6-8

Here Jesus is "badgered" by people wanting an answer. What does Jesus do? He just listens. He practices deep listening. He bends down and draws in the dirt. He just listens to the scene around him, paying attention to what everyone is saying, but not responding. This is deep listening - hearing without judgement or wanting to respond or making sure our thoughts and feelings are heard. We all too often to this - desperately want to be heard without deeply listening to what others are saying to us. We do not truly get to know and understand what the world looks and feels like to someone else. This comes from our lack of truly being able to hear and understand ourselves, to deeply listen to ourselves.

Here Jesus also practices loving speech. He does not blow people out of the water, but lovingly listens and then ask them to throw a stone if they have not committed a sin. At the end of the passage, Jesus says "where are they? Does no one condemn you?" Neither do I," said Jesus. "Go on your way. From now on, don't sin." Jesus was loving speaking to her and others. He displays his loving speech after deeply listening to the situation and not just reacting, but taking his time and speaking lovingly to all involved. Even through all the questions, the pressure, and the attempt to trap him, Jesus is able to have true communication and resolve this with love.

So today try to have true communication and deeply listen to yourself and others in each situation that you encounter. Take a few deep breaths and listen. Sometimes it may even mean that you have to step away for a few moments or days even to really be able to listen to yourself and others. Then practice loving speech. Let them know you hear them and talk about how you feel. In the world of psychology we call this assertiveness. Let someone you understand what the world looks like to them and talk about how you feel. This is true communication. You listen deeply and use loving speech. You talk directly to those that have hurt you or need to hear from you directly. This is the way of Jesus.

Namaste'

Infinite Organizing Intelligence

God is infinite organizing intelligence. What does this mean? It means that this verse is something that you can trust even though it is one of the hardest verses in scripture to believe and understand:

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Romans 8:28 (NLT)

That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Romans 8:28 (The Message)

At times life and the things that happen in our lives sure seem like chaos. We think to ourselves, and even ponder out loud, "how can this be happenning, how can this be something that is good for me, what in the world is God doing?" It can all feel like total chaos because it is not working out the way we think it should. However, I have to believe that underneath all these things that look like chaos, there is actually some order to them. There is a God that is underneath what looks like chaos and actually making order out of it.

For example, if we were able to go to Hartsfield International Airport and just sit and watch people come and go, it would seem like total chaos. People would be coming and going, running to the next flight, waiting in line, staring at the boards trying to figure out what gate they need to get to, where they need to pick their bags up, where are they going to meet their friends they have to pick up, what train to they need to get on to get to the right concourse, and which car rental company counter they need to get to. It all would look like complete chaos and we would wonder how anybody finds their way to the right place here.

However, everyday thousands and thousands of people find their way through the airport to the right flight, the right car, and the proper place to be picked up or pick up their love ones or business partners. Why, because underneath this seeming chaos is order. People know where to go, they know how to get through the lines, there are directions for everyone, and people making sure people get to where they need to go. If there was an announcement saying that flight 11 was leaving from concourse C instead of concourse B, you would see this massive shift in movement - people changing trains, changing the direction in which they were walking, etc, - it would look like complete chaos. But of course there is complete order underneath it all and everyone is moving with a definite purpose to where they are going.

This is what I know about God. What seems to be chaos is actually not underneath. God is there making it all orderly and organizes it. God organizes it infinitely and is intelligence to do so. I have to trust this, that God is making order - working all things for good - despite it looking and feelng like chaos. So trust that God is underneath it all, or over it all, making order out of the seeming chaos of life. This does not mean that we do not grieve, cry, or not have to experience frustration, anger, sadness, hurt, rejection, or pain. It means that we can face these things with some hope and a perspective that allows us to pass through these things with hope. What other choice is there? It is either this or it is all random chance...........

Namaste'

Be Loving with Yourself

We all know what the greatest commandment is right?

Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."

Matthew 22: 37-40

I often ask people, "why would Jesus tack that little thing on the end, the love yourself part? I mean would not be good enough to just say love God and love others? Why add myself into that?" I believe it is because we cannot love others well if we do not love ourselves. If I do not care for myself, love myself, by getting enough rest, setting limits on my work and what I can or cannot do, eat right, excercise, take care of my worries and anxiety in healthy ways, realize what I do and do not control, live seeing the world as a safe place, etc -I come home a grumpy old man that my wife and child want nothing to do with. I can't love them very well. Not only because they do not want to be around me, but I have nothing to offer them in the way of love because I am spent, worn out, tired, exhausted, angry, worried, distracted, and on the list goes.

I must take care of myself. I must love myself if I am to be in any shape to love someone else. I must forgive myself for my mistakes, be easy on myself, if I am to offer this to others. I must be peaceful with myself, not hard or angry with my self, if I am to have any idea of what it is like to be peaceful and loving with others. Loving myself this way helps me to learn compassion and when I am compassionate with myself - I have a gift that can be given away to others. I understand that they need what I have needed and given to myself. I want to give it to them.

In loving myself I am loving God. This is how God loves me, thinks about me, and acts towards me. This is how I need to treat myself, just as God does, this is also loving God with all my "passion, prayer, and intelligence." We can then think like Jesus and act like Jesus seeing people understanding them and that they are just like us. We can do what Jesus did here:

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion....

Matthew 14:14

Namaste'