Category: Waiting

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Fire Seeds

Lord, I lift up my own need of…my own need of You. Thank You for a beautiful morning. You can fill the void–darkness on the face of the deep, and God said–and there was. What You spoke came into being. So, Lord, I’m praying. Lord, I am Yours. I am all Yours. What would You say?

You cannot carry results. You are not planting full-grown crops. You are planting seeds. You are planting seeds in the confidence that within the seed itself is the possibility. You are planting possibility. You know My heart to water and nourish, but it is up to each field’s steward what happens to the seeds. Some seeds lie dormant for years and only fire awakens them. These seeds, like those of the bristlecone pine, are seeds called healing. Called forgiveness. Called grace. It is not that these seeds call forth the fire, or relish it. The miracle of these seeds is that they will replenish even the most ravaged landscape. You planted some of these types of seeds long ago, and you are planting more now. Having access to the field is huge. You walk so softly, so gently. You have gone out mourning, carrying your seeds. Part of what you are reaping now in joy, is access to the field. Keep loving the field no matter how hard and dry and stoney it looks. I Am the Superfund Champion. I can cleanse and transform any field that yields. By yielding even slightly to the seeds you plant, the field is yielding to Me. Keep positive, stay gentle, and you will also enjoy the bountiful harvest, in time–meaning in this life, on this earth, in your experience, of those lives transformed. Don’t ever stop believing for that, for My Promise is True. It does take two–and they have you and Me. That is the twosome that will create miracles.

 

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Uncertainty

Lord, I have this friend who describes herself as someone who has the gift, the ability, to hold the space of uncertainty while at the same time holding on to hope, and faith, and love, and even joy. To my eye, what she is doing is turning that uncertainty-space into sacred space. And to my mind, what she is doing is impossible! But she is living it out, every day. Some days are harder than other days, sure–but the fact she is here on Planet Earth, living this out, and has been, tells me the impossible is possible, here. It’s like that verse about the peace that “passes understanding.” I always picture runners when I hear that verse, and Understanding is doing the best it can, but it is exhausted, near the end of its lap, can barely move another step, and here comes Peace, fresh, with wide strides and bright eyes and Peace takes the baton from Understanding’s hand, just sprints onward with it, and I can imagine Peace whispering as it runs by, “you did well, go rest now.” Understanding isn’t going to win this race, God. It’s not in it to win it. Peace is. Somehow right this minute, that thought gives me a lot of comfort.

Then Peace is already doing its work in you. Don’t make this harder than it is. Letting go the baton is also letting go control.

Ouch!

Control is an illusion anyway, you know. Almost everything that happens around you is out of your control. So you are mostly responsible for what happens within you.

Lord, what about the philosophies that talk about the power of the mind, about affecting outer reality by our thoughts?

Most folks let “outer reality” dictate their thoughts, rather than the other way around. That is why I said, almost everything that happens around you is out of your control. You react to circumstances, rather than being proactive and preemptive. Let Me give you an example. You are late leaving for work. You are trying to rush, and traffic seems slower than usual. You seem to come up on more red lights than green ones. NOW you have a choice. You can give in to frustration. You can begin to take risks, take chances, drive aggressively, weave in and out of traffic, try to race through a yellow light. Even if you are able to do all that without getting into or causing an accident, with what attitude will you arrive at work? Will you be overflowing with peace and confidence, with joy and love, or will you be stressed, rushed, perhaps even angry or impatient? What will those around you receive from you when you walk in the door? Even if you are technically on time, are you coming as your best self?

What happens if you take an opposite approach? You are still behind schedule but you make a deliberate choice to focus on gratitude, on staying calm and centered in your values. You may arrive late, and be sorry for being late, but what else will you be carrying into your workplace? More serenity, more ability to focus and get your tasks done efficiently and timely when you do arrive.

God, that actually happened the other day. I was maybe five minutes late leaving, and exactly what You just said, happened! Slow traffic! Red lights! I fell further and further behind.

And what did you do?

Well, I realized about a third of the way there that my heart was beating faster and I was getting more and more upset, so I did the only thing I could think of. I sang. I sang about being in the right place at the right time, I sang about being a blessing in my world, I sang my love for You. By the time I was maybe 2/3 of the way there, I was calm, I was happy and funny thing, I wound up being a couple minutes early! I am not even sure how that happened!

You see? Your attitude helped pave the way, literally, for your circumstances to change. It won’t always be that obvious or that simple, you know that. But choosing to stay in mindful awareness of My Presence with you, and to choose peace, to choose gratitude, to choose joy, is in fact to choose to be the blessing in your world that you long to be.

So is that how I can begin to learn to live with uncertainty, God?

You already do, more than you are aware. Your challenge is to stay in Peace rather than drift into what-if scenarios that prompt stress or anxiety. Here is your challenge and My Promise, all wrapped into one reality: I will guide you, moment by moment, through any challenge you face, if you stay connected to Me. Hear Me again. I Will Guide You. THAT is the source of Peace-within-Uncertainty. You can rely on My Guidance. I Am not saying there will be no obstacles, or no grief, or no hardships. I Am saying what I Am always saying: I Am With You, and I Love You. Therein lies the only Peace you need, and trust Me when I say to you, it is more than enough.

 

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Waiting

Lord, the days are getting longer now. Little by little and day by day, more light. Thank You for Your promises of freshness. Even more than any kind of vacation, I have been longing to feel fresh here. Here on the Outer Banks, here at home. I know I won’t go with fresh eyes or the ability to be inspired anywhere else until I can be refreshed here. Then, anywhere I go will be fresh, because I will be fresh, I will be bringing a refreshed perspective to each day.

My Birth appeared ordinary–not to Mary and Joseph, and not to the shepherds–but to everyone else around that night. I was hidden in plain sight until the time was right. There were hints and glimpses, but the full picture wasn’t shown until many years later. And even then, it was not fully understood by the world at large. So I well understand waiting and timing. Bread, leavened, still takes time to rise. Still takes time to bake. Then it becomes food for the world.

Waiting is never easy. And you are waiting not for a resuming of something already experienced, already known, but for something as yet unrealized in your life and therefore unimagined. You keep saying, I can’t imagine, and that’s true. The first gate we will open together is that gate, the Gate of Imagination. Your writer-self needs this. You are picturing a rusty farm gate, squeaky rusty hinges, long neglected. As if somehow you should have known it was here and been using this gate all along. But the Gate we will open together is new, easy to swing, and high. It opens onto a world the likes of which–pun intended–you have never imagined. That is the whole point. This is a Gift you are now ready for. This isn’t a territory you have neglected. It is only now being readied for you, because you are now ready to receive it, prepared to explore it, able to actually occupy it, settle in and live here. There is a big sign on the Gate: Welcome Home.

But it’s not Heaven. I mean, it’s here!

It is Here. It is your next chapter. Your next level. Your next phase of being with Me, in your world.

And this is meant for daily? For every day?

You cannot understand until you experience. All you have to do is wait. You are already ready. I have seen to that. The time you will need to live this out–I have already seen to that, too. No, no this doesn’t come at the price of your health.  This is pure and undiluted delight that will give new color and shape and breath to everything you do. This is like breathing fresh air after being cooped up inside a stuffy stale room. Each full breath actually increases your capacity to breathe deeper and fuller yet.

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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.

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Emergence

Lord, some people fast. How can I prepare, or train, for what You are calling me to do, to become?

I’m not exactly calling you to Become. I Am calling you to Come, Be. Be who you are. There is a difference.

What about transformation? That is becoming; that is change.

Not at emergence. At emergence, the Butterfly Is. But it must come forth. It must emerge. At emergence others see—and say—transformation! Well, yes—and no. The Butterfly always was, within the caterpillar.

You saw the butterfly! You called it forth! Things that are not as though they are!

Here is the Mystery. The “are not” is in your vision—the “are” is in Mine. What I call forth is really Vision, is for you to see what I already see, and Name.

Butterfly?

Butterfly.

Fragile…

Resilient. Strong. Beautiful. Inspiring and uplifting. Gentle. Living only on sweetness, kept alive by joy. “Born in calm.” And passing on a legacy of beauty and freedom for generations to come.

So the transformation?

Is already accomplished. You are who I say you are.

Then why the word about waiting?

You aren’t waiting to become—you are waiting to be revealed.

God, I have so many swirling thoughts and questions, questions about the business, and being this, this other thing, this butterfly-thing. I don’t want my life with critters to be a schtik. You know? I want it to be real, so real.

Eve, it is. It already is. It is your doubt that makes you falter. The critters, as you call them—and yes, call them—know you. They recognize you. You are one who has been coming. They have been waiting for you. You won’t chase them, you will draw them.