Dear Spiritual Companions,

It is the day after Memorial Day in America.  A day we celebrate those who gave their lives for a greater cause.  It also is a day we celebrate those who gave their lives over a lifetime for a greater cause.  The question becomes what is a greater cause?  What are we willing to spend our lives on during this adventure of life?  No matter how we answer that it is all about us.  Sounds selfish doesn’t it?  Well if we are not living life for us first and foremost we are not living!  Do you agree or disagree?  Let’s talk.

Each of us have been given a certain amount of time on this earth.  It isn’t about length, but breathe that matters.  Those who cut a wide swath in life are the ones who make a difference with their God given talents.  Again it isn’t about how much we do, but rather how we do what we do.   Let me give you an example.  Say I write a best seller and many people sing my praises.  What others think of us is important to our egos?  Did I write that book for others to think well of me or did I write it for me?  Funny how we can seek validation from outside of us when the only validation that matters is inside of us.  When we understand that then we are in touch with our inner urgings from God.  Now what we are doing for ourselves becomes what we are doing for God in whatever Name you call God.  Any Christ Figure dies for themselves first and God uses their inner informed actions to transform others.  This also knocks the heck out of a vengeful God who demands a payment of blood sacrifice.

Now we are back to the question of a greater cause.  Do we allow someone else to define what the greater cause is for our life?  There are all kinds of folks who are willing to tell us what we need to do with our lives.  I don’t know about you, but I have enough trouble discovering what is right for me without adding some one elses life callings to my own.  The older I get the more leery I am of those persons who have the answers for others.  I think more things have been done in the Name of God which had nothing to do with God.  Why do we let or give away to someone else the way we are to live our lives?  Does it seem easier?  Is it because we have trouble listening to those small inner murmurings inside of our hearts?  I happen to believe there is only one person who knows what the greater cause is in my life -ME!  What do you think?  This doesn’t mean you or I are alone in figuring out what is right for us.  No we need to have trusted others who we can bounce these inner murmurings off of to see what their spirit is saying.  But this is different from asking someone what should I do.  “Don’t give my power away” is a helpful mantra to live by.  Living life on God’s Terms ultimately is like dying, we do it alone.

The closer I get to the end of my physical life the more I realize living is about letting go.  I depend less on expert opinions.  I still listen to them, but only to see if they fit my inner understanding of the greater cause in my life.  I depend less on control of life.  I still try to control things, but I more readily see the futility of such actions.  It is like trying to hold water.  The water always slips between the cracks like life does.  I still try to hang onto the things I love like people, ideas and being right.  I have come to know understand that if something is meant to be mine it will come back to me or it was meant to savor for only that one special moment in life.

Life isn’t about making a name for myself, it is naming what my life is found in my greater causes.  How about you?

Peace,

Gary