"My only desire and my one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God's deepening life for me." (Principle and Foundation)
God's grace (unearned gifts) is always present and available for me to take. I just need to take it through love. When I love others, I access God's grace and I allow it to fill me and guide me. The love of God is real and powerful and guides my daily life, it guides the tone and content of my every conversation. I am blessed when I am mindful of what I say and how I say it, of what I do and how I do it. If everything I say and do is guided by real love and an awareness of glorifying God, then I know I am truly living and I am truly alive in the fullest sense.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
I shall listen to you
"When you call to me and come and pray to me I shall listen to you." Je 29:11-12
"I remember that God continues making me and has hopes for me and desires that I keep growing in love until I love as completely as God loves." Loved by God
"God who loves us creates us" Principle and Foundation
These passages resonate with me today. The notion that God listens to me is of great comfort in that I know that my prayers are heard and that I am guided to those prayers by the same God who hears them. If I listen carefully, I can discern the kind of prayer that makes sense for me. This gives new meaning to the words and thoughts I pray, because I am reminded that God is truly listening and that I need to choose my prayers carefully, and always be of right mind (or at least aspire to be.)
The second quote reminds em that I can never love too much, that I can always grow in my love of self and others. I think about Paul's letter to the Corinthians in defining what love is, and I am reminded of how incredibly challenging it can be to love myself and others. The first descriptor Paul offers is "patience." One thing this last week and a half has taught me how to do is to slow down. I tend to want to speed up and go go go. The fact is that I am developing a new appreciation for the expression "Go slow to go fast." When I sit with the same prayers or bits of scriptures and seek the deeper meaning, I am truly reaching levels of valuable insight. Depth over breadth is at work. I understand the power of this truth.
The third quote is extremely powerful because it speaks to the ongoing nature of my creation. I am in the process of creation. I am being created every day. I am reborn and renewed on a daily basis, and that process is ongoing. I have the power of newness and possibility within me. This gives me tremendous personal power, to know that God is creating me every day. I can change, I can learn new things, I can grow, I can do anything. I am blessed in knowing this - it is incredibly edifying. I can stand up and say, "I count! I matter! I'm relevant - always! I'm here!"
"I remember that God continues making me and has hopes for me and desires that I keep growing in love until I love as completely as God loves." Loved by God
"God who loves us creates us" Principle and Foundation
These passages resonate with me today. The notion that God listens to me is of great comfort in that I know that my prayers are heard and that I am guided to those prayers by the same God who hears them. If I listen carefully, I can discern the kind of prayer that makes sense for me. This gives new meaning to the words and thoughts I pray, because I am reminded that God is truly listening and that I need to choose my prayers carefully, and always be of right mind (or at least aspire to be.)
The second quote reminds em that I can never love too much, that I can always grow in my love of self and others. I think about Paul's letter to the Corinthians in defining what love is, and I am reminded of how incredibly challenging it can be to love myself and others. The first descriptor Paul offers is "patience." One thing this last week and a half has taught me how to do is to slow down. I tend to want to speed up and go go go. The fact is that I am developing a new appreciation for the expression "Go slow to go fast." When I sit with the same prayers or bits of scriptures and seek the deeper meaning, I am truly reaching levels of valuable insight. Depth over breadth is at work. I understand the power of this truth.
The third quote is extremely powerful because it speaks to the ongoing nature of my creation. I am in the process of creation. I am being created every day. I am reborn and renewed on a daily basis, and that process is ongoing. I have the power of newness and possibility within me. This gives me tremendous personal power, to know that God is creating me every day. I can change, I can learn new things, I can grow, I can do anything. I am blessed in knowing this - it is incredibly edifying. I can stand up and say, "I count! I matter! I'm relevant - always! I'm here!"
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Jeremiah 29:11-14
God's plans for me are peace, welcoming, a return to the fold. I know that I must act in accordance with these plans. I know that God's plans are clear and laid out plain for me. I have to come to those plans, come to the love, return to the fold. Wherever I have exiled myself, to places of fear, anxiety, impatience, intolerance, anger, self-loathing - these are the real exiles of the spirit where I allow myself to reside - and they are manifest in my relationship to self and others. When I remember God's plans for me - peace, hope, love - then I can do away with these places of exile and be fully human and more in God's image as I was created. This is how God intended me to be.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Hope
"Hope only makes sense when it doesn't make sense to hope." Upland Hill Connections Winter 2010
"In hope we already have salvation; in hope, not visibly present, or we should not be hoping-nobody goes on hoping for something which he can already see." Romans 8:24-25
The universality of hope is a powerful reality that drives sour daily reason for being. I get up every day with hope in my heart. A spiritual restlessness, yes, coupled with strong hope and a belief that we are moving, as the Baha'i believe, to an ever evolving planet towards the divine.
"If God is for us, who can be against us?" R8:31
The ability to feel the power of the spirit without moral certitude or judgment is the balance i seek every day. I know the spirit lives in me, radiates through me and fills em up every day. I seek to spread this light, this spirit, this gift to all those I encounter and to uplift all people. This is God's mandate for me. I must fulfill my destiny as a Christian to realize my gifts and put them to use., They do not come from me , they do not belong to me . I am merely an agent. I have been bequeathed gifts and talents that have been in my family for generations., I am merely a conduit, a vessel, an agent of God's will. Everything I do is for the greater honor and glory of God because I come from God. I am of God and all I am and all I do is dedicated to advancing love. Faith, hope, and love. The more, the better.
"In hope we already have salvation; in hope, not visibly present, or we should not be hoping-nobody goes on hoping for something which he can already see." Romans 8:24-25
The universality of hope is a powerful reality that drives sour daily reason for being. I get up every day with hope in my heart. A spiritual restlessness, yes, coupled with strong hope and a belief that we are moving, as the Baha'i believe, to an ever evolving planet towards the divine.
"If God is for us, who can be against us?" R8:31
The ability to feel the power of the spirit without moral certitude or judgment is the balance i seek every day. I know the spirit lives in me, radiates through me and fills em up every day. I seek to spread this light, this spirit, this gift to all those I encounter and to uplift all people. This is God's mandate for me. I must fulfill my destiny as a Christian to realize my gifts and put them to use., They do not come from me , they do not belong to me . I am merely an agent. I have been bequeathed gifts and talents that have been in my family for generations., I am merely a conduit, a vessel, an agent of God's will. Everything I do is for the greater honor and glory of God because I come from God. I am of God and all I am and all I do is dedicated to advancing love. Faith, hope, and love. The more, the better.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Reflection on Psalm 23
Yahweh I know you are near
Standing always at my side
You guard me from the fall
And you lead me in ways everlasting
Where shall I run from your love?
For you know where I sit and where I stand.
Protecting me from death
Keeping me from harm
God as protector is a powerful image that reminds me of how to live. The key for me is the absence of fear. I have been beholden to fear for a considerable part of my life. As someone who live with bipolar disorder, half of the disorder is anxiety, which is, fundamentally, fear. Only through reflection in the spirit have I learned to dispel fear from my life, to turn fear into faith.
"Fear is useless, what you need is faith."
http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=33432
When I flip my fear into faith I am more content and more calm. I can faith any hardship, any issue with peace. I can live, truly live as God intended me to live. What a blessing that is, indeed!
Standing always at my side
You guard me from the fall
And you lead me in ways everlasting
Where shall I run from your love?
For you know where I sit and where I stand.
Protecting me from death
Keeping me from harm
God as protector is a powerful image that reminds me of how to live. The key for me is the absence of fear. I have been beholden to fear for a considerable part of my life. As someone who live with bipolar disorder, half of the disorder is anxiety, which is, fundamentally, fear. Only through reflection in the spirit have I learned to dispel fear from my life, to turn fear into faith.
"Fear is useless, what you need is faith."
http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=33432
When I flip my fear into faith I am more content and more calm. I can faith any hardship, any issue with peace. I can live, truly live as God intended me to live. What a blessing that is, indeed!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Reflection on Psalm 139
Yahweh I know you are near
Standing always at my side
You guard me from the fall
And you lead me in ways everlasting.
There is great comfort in knowing that God is near. Each moment of each day I feel the presence of God and know that there is no obstacle too great that comes up in daily life that God and I together cannot handle.
In fact, the notion that everything that happens in my life, whether pleasurable or painful, disconcerting or harmoniuos, is a gift, brings me great comfort. Beyond comfort, however, is the realization that this is the essence of the "attitude of gratitude" that is, to simply discern those things that are beyond my control (serenity prayer), accept them, give thanks for them, know that "everything is part of God's plan" and to move through my day with the Holy Spirit radiating through my heart. This, for me, is one of the keys to human happiness and true peace, to accept. I understand more and more the meaning of the word "submit," and it makes sense why "Islam" means "to submit," although I need to study the connection more.
"Where shall I go to escape your presence?" (Ps 139) God is everywhere and God never leaves you/me/us. I have lived long enough to know this is true. Of course that doesn't mean life is easy. God is here, there and everywhere. I feel God most when I am thanking God for what I experience and have. I feel God least when I am selfish and cursing whomever or whatever because things aren't going my way. This, to me, is a personal incaration of evil - selfishness.
Selflessness, or others-thinking, is love, and that is what I strive to attain more and more. When I tend toward judgement and lean toward comparisons and "I can do this and you can't" or "I have this and you don't" or "At least I am/have/do... and you/he/she isn't/doesn't have" etc then I am caving into the temptation of anxiety which has consumed me for far too much of my life.
I am ready to live more fully the words of Psalm 139:
God, examine me and know my heart,
test me and know my concerns.
Make sure I am not on my way to ruin,
and guide me on the road to eternity.
Standing always at my side
You guard me from the fall
And you lead me in ways everlasting.
There is great comfort in knowing that God is near. Each moment of each day I feel the presence of God and know that there is no obstacle too great that comes up in daily life that God and I together cannot handle.
In fact, the notion that everything that happens in my life, whether pleasurable or painful, disconcerting or harmoniuos, is a gift, brings me great comfort. Beyond comfort, however, is the realization that this is the essence of the "attitude of gratitude" that is, to simply discern those things that are beyond my control (serenity prayer), accept them, give thanks for them, know that "everything is part of God's plan" and to move through my day with the Holy Spirit radiating through my heart. This, for me, is one of the keys to human happiness and true peace, to accept. I understand more and more the meaning of the word "submit," and it makes sense why "Islam" means "to submit," although I need to study the connection more.
"Where shall I go to escape your presence?" (Ps 139) God is everywhere and God never leaves you/me/us. I have lived long enough to know this is true. Of course that doesn't mean life is easy. God is here, there and everywhere. I feel God most when I am thanking God for what I experience and have. I feel God least when I am selfish and cursing whomever or whatever because things aren't going my way. This, to me, is a personal incaration of evil - selfishness.
Selflessness, or others-thinking, is love, and that is what I strive to attain more and more. When I tend toward judgement and lean toward comparisons and "I can do this and you can't" or "I have this and you don't" or "At least I am/have/do... and you/he/she isn't/doesn't have" etc then I am caving into the temptation of anxiety which has consumed me for far too much of my life.
I am ready to live more fully the words of Psalm 139:
God, examine me and know my heart,
test me and know my concerns.
Make sure I am not on my way to ruin,
and guide me on the road to eternity.
Reflection 2.2.10
2/2/10 Reflection
God, Israel’s protector and liberator: Isaiah 43:1-7
God is all powerful and reminds me that I am an instrument of God. I can remind people of God’s love each day through my actions, words, and deeds. No worry, trouble, fear, or anxiety is too great for the power of God. If I deliver myself to the lap of God, the hand of God, I will be free, and I can help others to be free if I remember this. I know that I have been given the gift of discernment because God loves me . I know that I am accepted, embraced, cherished, and uplifted to serve God’s creation, for the greater honor and glory of God, which is, practically, speaking to love all people.
I wonder about inclusiveness, of ALL people the world over. My understanding is that God loves all people regardless of their religious affiliation, regardless of their faith background or level of faith. I am not elevated or better than anyone because of my levbel of devoutness, in fact, I am no better than anyone for any reason. I am. I simply am, and in order for me to be the most happy, I need to love. To love fiercely and unconditionally, to love with passion and power to love until I can’t love anymore and then continue to love again. That is to be happy and not is to love in God’s image, in the best way a mortal human can.
I wonder about who to pray to, father, son or holy spirit, and when. Same God, three parts like me the father, son, brother, spouse, teacher etc., Same me, different incarnations, different roles. I guess it really doesn’t matter – the prayers will be heard. There’s no wrong way to pray. The intention is what matters. Peace.
God, Israel’s protector and liberator: Isaiah 43:1-7
God is all powerful and reminds me that I am an instrument of God. I can remind people of God’s love each day through my actions, words, and deeds. No worry, trouble, fear, or anxiety is too great for the power of God. If I deliver myself to the lap of God, the hand of God, I will be free, and I can help others to be free if I remember this. I know that I have been given the gift of discernment because God loves me . I know that I am accepted, embraced, cherished, and uplifted to serve God’s creation, for the greater honor and glory of God, which is, practically, speaking to love all people.
I wonder about inclusiveness, of ALL people the world over. My understanding is that God loves all people regardless of their religious affiliation, regardless of their faith background or level of faith. I am not elevated or better than anyone because of my levbel of devoutness, in fact, I am no better than anyone for any reason. I am. I simply am, and in order for me to be the most happy, I need to love. To love fiercely and unconditionally, to love with passion and power to love until I can’t love anymore and then continue to love again. That is to be happy and not is to love in God’s image, in the best way a mortal human can.
I wonder about who to pray to, father, son or holy spirit, and when. Same God, three parts like me the father, son, brother, spouse, teacher etc., Same me, different incarnations, different roles. I guess it really doesn’t matter – the prayers will be heard. There’s no wrong way to pray. The intention is what matters. Peace.
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