Month: January 2018

Posted on

Set Sail

Lord, I keep distracting myself. Meditators say, come back to the breath. And You would say?

There is nothing wrong with thinking per se. Your minds are designed to think–to remember, to reason, to question, to quest, to analyze, to compare, to conclude, to dream and to plan. The difficulty for you arises when your mind and all its thinking is operating separately from your heart, or when your plans don’t sync with your values, or when your words and thoughts stand in opposition to your love or your joy or your peace.

You use thermometers to measure temperature and barometers to measure air pressure. Use your heart, use your relationship with Me, to measure your thoughts. Measure your thinking against My Peace. If your inner landscape agitates you, that is a good time to take a deep breath and press the reset button. If your habits and patterns of thought are drifting into negativity, worry, fear, or judgment, then it’s time to bring them back to confidence and joy. Course-correct.

Good sailors are always alert to the wind, the currents, and the bottom beneath their boat. Even if the wind shifts, they can make adjustments in real time to either keep sailing on course, or find a safe spot to moor. You need to pay as much attention, not to the subject of your thoughts, but to their effect on your mood and your day, as sailors pay to the wind. That will help you reset your sails so you can move by the wind of My Spirit.

Ok, Lord. Check my thinking. Check! √

 

Posted on

Going Sane

Lord, You know those trust games people play at team-building retreats? You close your eyes and let yourself fall back, trusting your team partner will catch you. Well, I just realized, I am doing that here. I mean, this is a practice in trust. Every day I show up, trusting You will show up. And then, encapsulated in that, I am trusting You are You, You are good, You will speak truth. And that I am not crazy.

With all the evidence you have, from all your years with Me, you’d be crazier not to believe, not to trust. I want to talk to you about expectancy. 12-step recovery programs warn about expectations, about putting trust in others.

Yes, they say that sets a person up for disappointment, and resentments. 

But the very foundation of a successful program in recovery rests on a key assumption and expectation: that a “power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

Yes.

So in this case, one particular expectation leads directly away from “crazy” — and that is trust and reliance outside oneself. When you rely on Me, you are relying on first, in the words of the program, a Power Greater. A Power Available. But I Am so much more, as you know, than a Power. I Am a Person, Who loves you. So you are not relying on a Power, you are relying on a Person.

Yes, right.

So let’s use this language for a minute. What in your life feels crazy right now?

Well, talking to You may seem crazy to others, but it is one place, sometimes the only place, that seems sane. The government shutdown, with lots of blame being shouted back and forth, seems crazy to me right now. It affects so many people!

Aren’t you glad My Kingdom, My Power, is not cut off?

Yes, Lord, I am. Thank you. It seems crazy to me the way women, a lot of women, are still being treated. It seems crazy to me that in our society we still have folks, right now, tonight, who are hungry and who are cold–right in this country, in this community. And I am talking about everybody from folks who should be in safe, caring institutions, who don’t have the mental or emotional resources to care for themselves; to people who are struggling with addictions; to those who simply need a break, who are eager and able to work, who can’t seem to make ends meet. God, we as a planet, we have so much need. And so much greed. That seems crazy to me. And You said, bring my burdens to You. So. There You go.

Do you remember the story you heard years ago? About how a person had a vision of heaven and hell? About how in hell all these people had long-handled spoons permanently affixed to their hands, and while surrounded by plenty of food, they were all starving, because the spoons were too long to reach their mouths? And then the person had a glimpse of heaven, and all the people there had the long-handled spoons, and how upsetting that was, because the people looked the same?

I remember. 

And what was different?

In the view of heaven, all the people were satisfied, because they fed one another. Their spoons could easily reach the mouths of their neighbors.

Yes. Now this is more a view of earth, than of the afterlife. It is a teaching vision, a teaching story.

So what is my part? Feed my neighbor, right?

You cannot do everything. But you can do something. The invitation you received today, to do a specific action to help ESL children in your community, the one you said yes to–that was well said. Everything in your heart leapt up to say yes to that opportunity. And then, you began to wonder how you would find the time, what others even in your own family might say in response, and you began to doubt the wisdom of your yes. But I Am here to say, thank you. You will receive so much joy from this yes, and you will give so much joy and so much hope.

Lord, it was wild! All those years ago, I had this thought, this “I wish I could” thought, and it was doing the exact same thing, only with Native American kids, out west!

And so it begins. Be at peace, little one. Every discerned yes only adds to the foundation of this life you so long to continue to build, in Me. Keep looking to Me for guidance, keep asking Me for direction, and I will guide you and bless you in paths that are perfect for you–perfectly fit to your longings and to your gifts. And remember, you cannot out-give God.

So I am not going crazy?

I would say you are going saner and saner–which may mean, you will look crazier and crazier to others, not all others, but to those who are farthest in outlook from Me.

Ok, Lord. And again, thank You.  

 

Posted on

Conversation

Well, Lord, I did a lot today. Spent a good amount of time at the page this morning, and I really appreciate being able to do that. You helped me clarify a number of things I needed to work out, details about the upcoming season mostly. So this was one of those days I needed some specific direction, and You provided it. Thank You. But that means I didn’t spend the time to talk to You for the world, so to speak. I needed to talk to You for me.

 

This life you are living, peeling back the layers and allowing folks a glimpse into your private world of prayer is making you feel vulnerable, and a bit pressured. You want so much to give value, give something worthy, something helpful.

God, it’s true! I do. I really do.

So here is your message for today, and it is very important. Critical, in fact. You need to talk to Me. That is the message. That is the message for you. And that is the message for your world. Ultimately, that is what this entire effort is about, convincing folks that they can have the same experience of intimacy with Me that you have. In that sense, you are not a prophet but you are an example. I say, not a prophet, because just as you cannot carry the world’s burdens, as we talked about yesterday, I also don’t want you to take on the mindset of having to hear a message tailored for the world, as if I were not going to speak to individuals, individually. So I really do want you to keep doing what we are doing. Keep having these conversations—some deep, in which you explore questions and issues of purpose and puzzlement, and some so seemingly routine, in which you ask, as you did this morning, for daily help, like figuring out a workable schedule with time factored in for everything that is important to you, including times to rest and relax and be creative. This is important for you and your life, so it is important to Me. And it is just the kind of direction so many need and yet they don’t ask Me for My help.

If you can continue to be faithful to share these daily conversations, one of the results will be that others will become bolder to ask Me anything, and tell Me everything. And I tell you, that choice causes more rejoicing in My Father-God heart than you can imagine.

So keep talking, keep listening, and keep being willing to share. And don’t worry about trying to be profound. As I told you before, just keep being real. You are doing more good than you know.

 

Posted on

Empath

You said I can talk to You about anything, and I can be honest.

Of course.

So I want to talk to You about Star Trek. I want to talk to You about that episode about the Empath. I always identified with her, how she literally absorbed whatever bad thing, whatever illness, was happening to her people. It was her destiny to do that, and ultimately it killed her.

Ultimately it killed Me, you mean.

Whoa, no, I didn’t. But, yes. I hear You.

So it doesn’t need to kill you. It already killed Me. And I already Rose, victorious, over all of it.

To save us from punishment?

To save you from enslavement. To save you from any power that would harm you, power that you would yield yourself to. To save you from choices, habits, addictions, anything whatsoever that would cause you harm, or prompt you to harm another.

So among everything else You are, You are the Empath?

I Am. And you cannot be, you must not be. This does not mean you have no compassion or show no mercy. It does mean you do not have the role of absorbing into yourself all that is false or negative and transforming it to the true and positive. That is my role; that is Divine Alchemy, Holy Chemistry. Your role is to see the end result, and you do that by asking Me for Vision. When you see through the eyes of My Heart for the world, you begin to envision what is possible, what is best, and right, and true, in any situation. This takes practice and a discerning ear, eye, and heart. But this is what is truly meant by the scripture, “let the same mind be in you that is in Christ Jesus.” You can share one mind, one body of thought, with Me. The only transformation you have direct control over is that of your own life. You can influence others; you can model a life lived in union with Me; you can speak and share from your life experience, but you are not meant to carry the weight of the world’s sorrows and sufferings. That is uniquely My burden to bear.

So when the world’s sorrows burden you, bring your burden back to Me, and let Me transform your mourning back into dancing. Let Me repair any breach such knowledge has made in your trust or your confidence in My Nearness and Goodness. Let Me continue, like Atlas, to carry the weight of the world. You continue to proclaim glad tidings of great joy!

If you try to absorb the world’s ills, the practice will only sicken and weary you, and cause your own light to grow dimmer with discouragement and despair. That is why Empath is not E.M.’s path. Yes, I used both your first and middle name initials. Clever, yes? You sometimes forget I can be clever, and humorous. Where do you think humor originated?

Intercessor and Empath are not the same thing. You can have empathy for others, and feel with others, without trying to feel FOR others. You can pray for them and comfort them, but don’t try to absorb their pains or weaknesses. Even if you could, that would merely prevent them from coming to their true source of ultimate help, strength, and transformation–which is Me. That is why I Am the Empath, because I Am also the One Who Transforms.

So rest easy, little one. You are doing well. You love your friends and family very well. Let that be enough.

Okay, Lord, I hear You. And thank You. This is not at all how I pictured this conversation going!

And that is why our times together are so important. You need to stay on track, and for that, you need Me.

Posted on

Red Light, Green Light

Lord, I want to keep producing a life focused on You, on Your goodness. I want to say, God is Good, God is Love. Not just, God is Powerful. So what do I say in the presence of folks who didn’t get a miracle: They hear, oh, your faith must not have been strong enough. Jesus healed here. What is wrong now?

Don’t think “your faith isn’t strong enough” as an indictment, as judgment; that is what you are doing, and that thinking sets up illness or an accident, or a death, as punishment.

I have told you before, a more accurate way to think is the analogy I gave. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My Voice, and opens the Door, I will come in…

I Am, Myself, always asking, always calling, always seeking, always knocking. I also said, ask and receive; seek and find; knock and it shall be opened to you. So this seems contradictory to your finite mind. Immediately you think of prayers unanswered, doors stubbornly shut.

This will not seem comforting this morning until you soak in its Truth. My perspective is infinity. Ultimately in Infinity, in Eternity, Doors swing open. Doors I, God, knocked on, all life long, swing open with the perspective and understanding Eternity provides.

There are people huddled in misery on their side of the door. Whether through their own repeated choices, or mental health, or trauma they’ve experienced, they are deaf–or making themselves deaf–to My Knock, My Call. That leads to choices that only prolong their misery, health-wise, financially, and in their relationships including their relationships to themselves. People ignore the still, small voice that would have prevented the accident or the disastrous relationship. Again, this is not a judgment, this is a statement of fact.

If every motorist on the road today decided to ignore the red light ahead, there would be a disaster at almost every intersection nation-wide. The real astonishment isn’t that tragedies occur; the real astonishment is that there are not even more of them, considering how few people on a daily, on an hourly basis, really listen for My Voice and are led by that Voice and the best values a life can have.

People forget–or disbelieve–I even exist. Or if they acknowledge Me at all, they forget–or disbelieve–I Am Love. The Earth and all it contains is Mine. My Heart shatters every nano-second at the way My Children treat one another, and treat what began as a beautiful planet to live and grow in.

You cannot hold all this. You cannot hold even a fraction of this. Don’t even try. Take a deep breath, and another. Remember, you are responsible for your choices. For listening for My Voice. For saying Yes to My Call, for opening the Door when I knock. For trusting when I seem to put a Red Light in your path, that a temporary delay or perhaps a turn is most beneficial to you now.

I Am still the Good Shepherd, the One Who Loves the Sheep. I will lead you to both green pastures and quiet waters if you listen and follow My lead.

Posted on

Within the Circle

Lord, I want so much to have this radical connection. I do. I mean…I don’t know. I want everyone to get along. But what if they don’t? What stand do I take then? I am thinking about the kitties, all the kitties. How Morgan wasn’t safe for the others. And then, Lord, I tamed him. Or You did. He heard my heart somehow. Back then, I thought at first I was hearing You tell me to forgive him, when he was fighting with the others.

Actually, what you were saying was that you would accept Morgan into the Circle if his behavior changed. Even then, you felt compassion for him. You wished you could help him. You were concerned that your actions would make him worse. And when he did change, when he did grow calmer, you welcomed him and loved him and gave him his first real taste of love, of safety, right before he passed.

Yours is the classic boundaries struggle. Listen to yourself. Listen to what you already know. It is okay to have a circle. It is okay to define the parameters for that circle, to set values for that circle, values like tolerance and gentleness. It is okay to draw a line of definition. Your circle expands outward, but the definition does not change. You are willing to let your circle expand–I Am saying to you, don’t distort its shape and purpose to make it a lasso. Keep maintaining your intention of connection and peace. Attract into your circle–of friends, of animals, of family, of customers, of clients, of artists, of collaborators–everyone and anyone who is of like mind and heart. Keep your heart steady and true. This is what you do. This is who you are. Live from that center.

What about forgiveness?

Forgiveness and tolerance are not the same thing. You can forgive and simultaneously refuse to tolerate.

How, Lord?

Think like this: every day, you gave Morgan another chance. You put out food in a place away from the others so he would not starve. At the same time, you guarded the others so he could not approach them until he was fully tamed. You did this all over again with your current feral, Torri. And you are doing it again, right now, with Sambo. And look what happened, look what is happening. Your willingness to both forgive, while not tolerating unacceptable behavior changed Morgan, changed Torri, and is changing Sambo.

What about people?

Forgiveness, as you know, means setting you free from being tied to punishing someone else. Forgiveness seeks healing and restoration. Forgiveness wants the best for the other person. Forgiveness does not excuse or make light of wrong. Forgiveness especially does not signal that bad behavior is all right, or is excused or excusable.

Like my prayer years ago: please don’t punish so-and-so on my account.

Exactly. Forgiveness practiced the way I intend it builds compassion, not doormats. It does not minimize or trivialize any wrong, any betrayal, any abuse, any suffering inflicted on another. Forgiveness makes a way for transformation and change. The true miracle in the story is that your actions and choices made a way for each of those kitties to make their own different choices, to be drawn to you by your heart, which truly wanted–and wants–the best for all of them. They sense that. Try this: try praying for your planet, your country, your leaders, anyone in your circle that you care about, anyone just outside your circle that you are concerned about, try praying that just as the kitties sense your heart for them, these people will sense My Heart for them. That, I promise you, changes everything.

 

Posted on

The Road Ahead

Lord, I have heard this thought: the minute you become responsible for another person’s happiness is the minute you cross the line into co-dependency. Is that right? Is that true?

There is a difference between contributing to another’s joy or happiness and becoming responsible for it. The moment you assume responsibility is the moment you hinder Me from working My full miracle in another’s life.

Really?

Part of My miracle might be you–and part might be someone else, and part might be those persons finding within themselves a wellspring from Me that was unrealized and unexplored before.

Oh. Well, oh. I never thought of that. Okay, I guess that makes me feel better. I can contribute but I am not responsible. Lord, I need to take this in, for everybody I love. So…what am I responsible for?

You are responsible for keeping your own lamp lit, and that is quite enough. Keeping your own lamp lit goes a long way to making the kind of contribution you long to make. Light your path. Look down your road–not so that others will follow you (though they may)–so that you can explore the territory I Am calling you to. I want you to carry a map and I want you to carry a compass. Carrying a map isn’t the same as actually going places and exploring them, but it’s a beginning point. I don’t want you to wander aimlessly; I do want you to have goals and purpose. And as you carry your map, I do want you to fill in details as you experience them.

Like a soul journey.

A soul journey and a literal journey, into new opportunity and new experience. Both/and.

And You are giving me a map?

Yes, the bigger map we talked about before.

Lord, I can’t see it.

That’s because I want you to draw it. I want you to believe I will inspire you, and I want you to draw it in advance; to draw it to you, and to draw yourself in, so you will know it is I speaking and inspiring you, and that I Am the One giving you this life.

First, you have to receive Vision. If you could really know that what you see, as vision, is from Me, then you would take it in, and live it out. You just don’t want the responsibility of creating a life for yourself if it’s not the life I have in mind for you. That is what stops you from dreaming or imagining. You–more than anyone else you know–need to know that the vision is true, and given by Me, to you. Then, you have faith and you have energy, but you need to receive a blueprint from Me. Otherwise all you have is a pile of lumber and you have no idea what to build with it.  I will give you clear, fresh vision.

 

Posted on

A Whale of a Thought: God’s Presence With Us

We are nearly two weeks in, in a New Year. Holiday revelry–whatever it was–is well past. I find this time of year both exciting–I can think, I can plan–and challenging (I can think, I can plan). I’m always wondering, at the bottom of every thought, where are You? Where are You in all my thinking and planning?

I’m right Here. Ever-Present, ever available. Humans tend to discount the idea of God being involved in little things, or they trivialize My Presence by limiting Me to being a Granter of Endless Wishes. Both are neither wholly wrong or wholly right because neither is a whole perspective.

Jesus was different from the religious leaders of His day, and different from many religious and spiritual leaders since, because He didn’t separate Himself from the crowds. He taught, He healed, He feasted, He provided miraculous resources for everyone who came. That’s the Mystery Jesus came to embody–God fully Divine, fully Holy and fully present.

You have done well to set aside these regular, daily times of conversation. But even you limit Me to these finite minutes. If you let yourself understand Emmanuel, the awareness of My Presence would forever erase doubt, banish fear, overcome anxiety.

-Be Not Afraid–for I Am with you.

-Be Believing – for it is I Who Am speaking with you.

-Be Anxious for Nothing – for I Am Here to receive your every care, your every concern.

Yes, Lord, but, pardon me for this, You are not a wizard and this is not a fairy tale. People die here. People get hurt here.

And I Am Resurrection and Life. I Am Healer and Restorer. If you, if humans could really experience My Presence, be aware of My Presence, for one 24-hour period, the world would be changed overnight. Like the influence of a powerful magnet, the awareness and experience of My Presence would re-align motives and character, would influence actions, thoughts and desires, and would solidify choices for goodness and kindness, for Love and Peace. the outflow would be tremendous Joy, overflowing Joy and Abundant Life, just as I promised!

Death, rather than being feared, would be seen as the Door to Glory it is. Life would no longer be lived in its shadow. All the focus would be on living Love, here in the human body, there in a deathless body. Life unto Life, all in Union with Me.

How did seeing the whale yesterday make you feel?

Exhilarated. Excited. Happy. Expectant.

A few minutes, with a great, huge creature, in all the vast ocean, which I made–as you recall–to sport and play, gave you all that?

Yes, Lord. It did.

Then imagine what a day, as you reckon time, in My Presence, would do for your soul. For your body. For your spirit.

Are You saying that’s possible?

I’m saying it’s essential.

Kaylee comes in, barks for dinner, Pete comes in, I check the roast. Essential.

And here I Am, as if you’d never left My Presence, because, hear Me, you never left My Presence. You cannot go anywhere I Am not present. To live the life you were born to live, it is essential you begin to live this truth. Not just believe it, not acknowledge it, not think about it, not ignore it, not forget it. Live this Truth. Today, tonight, tomorrow, the next day. Glory awaits humanity here. Thy Kingdom Come is not a futile, fruitless, impossible prayer! But you are living as though it is! Is God not Father? Is God not Holy? You strive for daily bread instead of asking for daily bread. Ask for daily bread so you can do your part in being daily bread, in feeding the world My Hope and My Love and My Peace and My Joy, My Kingdom, My Will, My Abundant Life. Do you really think I gave these words as meaningless, ritualized rotes, or as dynamic promises and prophecies? Live My Presence. BE My Kingdom Come, on earth, as in heaven.

Posted on

Oh Very Young

Lord, I feel like I’m missing something, some lesson, some message. Young, transformation, over and over and over. Like a Native American message–look for new growth, give-away to the young so the young can grow. I sort of think it’s beyond that, even.  I mean, that all seems obvious. But what are You trying to say to me?

To the very young, everything is wonder. Every day, every experience is fresh and new. The very young are receptors–they take in everything and learn and grow from all of it. Everything has a lesson to teach. They have not yet learned to judge, to sort experience. They are curious but not yet wise. Their very openness and wonder are their gifts. True Wisdom retains this wonder. True Wisdom contains this enthusiasm. True Wisdom is not cynical, not jaded. True Wisdom retains the expectancy of Very Young. There is a big difference between “getting older” and “growing elder.”

The Very Young are wide-eyed. Some are timid by nature and some are bold, but all know they are in a larger world, full of possibilities.  Most adults reach a point where they stop. They settle. They stop growing, stop learning, stop expecting anything new or wonderful. Most adults assume, this is it, I’ve reached as high or as far as I can. And they quit there, and begin concentrating not on growing but on maintaining, on not-losing, on not-sliding-backwards. They may have an occasional moment or experience that is beyond the box they’ve constructed and labeled “real life” but those are few. I never asked My Children to “grow up” in this way. I never said, the day will come when I, your Father, will no longer have anything new to show you, give you, tell you, teach you.

Some–you call them visionaries, explorers, inventors–refuse to grow up into this settledness. If not for them, you would, all of you, still be living in the Stone Age.

You already know, which has shaped your believing, a little, a very little, about potential. Don’t stop here. That’s the message. Don’t stop now. Don’t stop, period. In many ways you are already an Elder. But in so many other ways you are a Beginner. You have received that word as a negative rather than as the positive it is, in Me. You are remembering emotions surrounding the phrase “starting over” as loss. Starting over–after losing a relationship, after losing a child, after losing a job…going backwards…you have tremendous sorrow, tremendous grief, tremendous energy of loss, of defeat, around the thought of beginning. That is the source of your mixed emotions right now.

There is a lot that no longer fits for you, a lot more than you’ve been willing to admit or acknowledge. I want you to explore that with Me. Be honest, here. What no longer fits? What relationships no longer fit? What beliefs? What patterns? If you were moving into “smaller to grow larger” emotional space, mental space, what thoughts and feelings do you not have room for? What programs do you want to purge from your hard drive so it will run faster?

If you knew you’d remain healthy, and have financial resources, what would you do then? What would change? What would you dare? What would you dream? What would you try? Your largest dreams, selling a few stock photos to an ad agency for a hospital, is so small, I could make that happen in one day! Then what? I Am saying to you, now what? Don’t become “older.” Don’t settle. Don’t “be adult about this.” Be Very Young. Be filled with wonder, be creative, let your imagination take wing. Be Bold.

Posted on

Coin of the Realm

Lord, I can’t seem to get quiet inside. My thoughts are bouncing off tasks like pinballs.

 

The Coin of the Realm.

Okay, what does that mean?

If your coin is like a Peace Shield, whose likeness is on the coin?

Uh, Yours is, right? Some artist’s interpretation of You?

So you are an artist. You are interpreting My Kingdom, My realm, which for you is the peaceful connection, the call and response. The counterpoint.

Right…

So the coin of the realm for you is what you offer from those connections. You do give-away. Your blog is a huge give-away. You give-away your heart, your best self, in every encounter. There is a coin of the realm, and it is okay to receive this world’s coin in exchange for the treasure from My realm that you provide. You could, right now, be living a fully-connected heavenly life–but I need you, on earth. I need you to live that life on earth, where you are. I need you to be willing to barter, this earth’s food, this earth’s shelter, this earth’s technology, in order to sustain your physical life and health so you can share your spiritual and emotional life and health. And your venue is creativity because it is a gentle, still, small voice. It is not the loudest voice in the room. But it is very, very powerful. When you “share” the implication is that there is enough for you and for someone else to be nourished, to receive. Your sharing doesn’t mean giving all away. It is not a call to sacrifice. It is an invitation to others to come feast with you, to share the abundance of life with you.