Category: Choices

Posted on

List What You Love

I have some time-space in my days. What should I be doing? I keep putting on the brakes and trying to accelerate simultaneously. All this does is rev the engine, waste gas, and create a rut! Or should I just put it in park, take it out of gear? That’s a choice.

What time did I say it is?

You said not to ever doubt my purpose. And when the tide turns…which to me implies the light changing and time to take the foot off the brake, or the car out of park.

You can take your foot off the brake and coast, or drift. That is not the same as driving. And you need to steer as you drive. You need to stay on course. Stay on your main road. This isn’t a race. This is a journey. This is a road trip. You love adventure, you love new places, you love new experiences. You’ve been putting the brakes—for a long time—on what you love. You’re afraid you will only be disappointed. Why don’t you list what you love, starting with close to home.

Posted on

Choosing Love Over Violence

I am sitting outside, in the swing, wanting the feel and sounds of the outdoors. We now have a new “the worst mass shooting” in our national history. Here is what I know: it’s not You. It’s no part You. I don’t know how to pray, what to say to make sense out of madness.

Imagine a father with a family feud–that is easy for you to imagine; you live there. And you see how it affects him, day to day. You see how his heart aches and how he tries to just go on despite it, throwing himself into his work, having given up on trying to broker any peace. The difference is, I can’t–won’t–ever give up. So as long as there is one war, one fight, one enemy, I, God, carry within Myself both unutterable grief and boundless joy and hope–joy over, as your Bible puts it–“one sinner who repents”–which really means, one person coming home to his or her best self, one person laying down hate and choosing to love, or at least, to learn to love. This is the duality people sometimes sense within Me, and try to explain through words like Light and Dark or Yin and Yang. The unity in the duality is Love. Because I Am Love, I hold both grief and joy at the same time, and because I Am Love, I Am always ready to show mercy.

Lord, it feels hopeless. Like “they” are never going to agree. It is such a beautiful day, here. And such a horrible, terrible day, there.

I have promised never to destroy your world. That doesn’t mean humanity won’t. You have to decide what side you are on–the side of mercy and hope and love and peace, or the side of vengeance and hatred and fear and violence.

Lord, You know my choice is for love and peace.

Is it? Where are you focused right now?

So how can I make a difference, make a stand?

By looking for concrete ways to show My Love, to speak My Love, to every hurting and searching heart you encounter. By affirming all you know about My Father-God heart. By calling people everywhere to lay down the weapons in their minds, the judgment, the retaliation, the name-calling, the bigotry, the envy, the violence in their thoughts and words. Every violent act begins with violent thoughts and words. Change the conversation. Change the vocabulary. Start in your own mind, your own thought, and spread the ripples outward from there. Sound the trumpet-call to Love.

Posted on

Follow Me

Lord, this morning I had a choice. I could rush off to church or I could sit here with You. Last week I felt the need to be in community, but this morning I felt I needed this most, being unrushed here, with You.

Ours is not a cookie-cutter relationship, a one-size fits all, follow this recipe, relationship. The Old Testament said, essentially, follow these precepts. But in the New Testament, what do I say? Follow Me. Come with Me.

The church has in large part taken New Testament principles and made new precepts to follow, and overlaid those on top of the Old Testament laws—not the ceremonial laws, those the church has replaced with ones of its own. To the extent a community of believers or any church institution is focused on precepts, that is the limit of the depth of relationship with Me they encourage.

To Follow Me is to engage in a dynamic relationship even more complex than any earthly one, for I Am both Parent and Brother, I Am Lover and Friend, I Am Defender and Protector. You know nothing quite like it on earth. Your best earthly relationships mirror one facet of what it means to be in relationship with Me, and that is what I am calling you, calling all of you, to.

How do you bond on earth? You spend time. You pay attention. Other than the parent-child relationship, which begins with the parent as giver and child as receiver, but then grows over time into mutual ways of giving and receiving, the best earthly relationships are reciprocal.

Posted on

Breathe

Lord, here I am, well into another day in which I could easily ramp myself up. In fact, I already feel as if I have.


Then breathe. Take a deep breath. Imagine you are filling your lungs with the cleanest, purest mountain air, or sea air, your mind can conceive. Imagine nature’s beauty surrounding you, 360 degrees, while you take those deep breaths. Now imagine My Spirit, flowing into you–calming your mind, easing your body, refreshing your soul, changing your outlook. My Spirit is cleaner, purer, than the freshest air you can imagine. And best of all, this experience–of bringing your awareness to the reality of My Presence with you–is available any time, in any location, in any circumstance. From a hospital waiting room to a commuter train platform, from the suburbs to the busiest metropolis, My Spirit is with you. Infilling is available every time you choose to open the door, to throw the light switch, to decide to breathe deliberately instead of automatically. Better?

Yes, Lord, much better. I am actually relaxed, now.

Now you can focus–in turn–on the tasks at hand. Let Me guide you today. Not only will you get more done, you will accomplish your to-do’s with less stress and agitation, and with much more joy and peace. Anytime you feel yourself becoming agitated or overwhelmed, just pause, take a deep breath and remember: you are not alone. I AM with you.

 

Posted on

Freedom

I realize I want some magic something—a word, a book, a gift—to unlock the gate for them. With one, it seems like a door, and with another, it seems more like a gate, something that can be seen over and through. Is this even possible? Is there such a key? Can I myself open these barricades for them?

Even if you opened the barricade, each one still has to look outside and choose freedom. They have to choose to step beyond their current boundary. You can offer keys, you can open doors, you can even dismantle walls, but until they step, take a step, take some steps, there is nothing you can really do—except keep modeling life as it is meant to be lived. Keep calling them out.

Lord, how do I do that? I am trying to inspire emotional health. Don’t they need You to heal them?

 They do—they desperately need Me to heal them. But this kind of healing is a partnership. I will give them strength, and courage and enthusiasm and vision, everything they need, once they take steps toward that wholeness.