Dear Spiritual Companions,

I was talking with someone recently and I described myself as “Someone who is out there.”  I believe that expression comes from being a child of the 60′s.  The person I was chatting with asked me what I meant by that thought.  To me it means not being a part of mainstream thought.  In my quiet time with God this morning it came to me – I am not out there somewhere, I am “In here in my heart.”  It still means not being a part of the prevailing thought of the day, but in a much different way.  Let me explain.

Back in the 60′s I was out there in the form of protest.  I was doing that partly because I was trying to find my own way such as growing long hair.  Sometimes we have to reject or fight the authority of the day to find our own identity.  We think we are free when in reality we are actually still having our strings pulled because now instead of going with the crowd we have to be different.  We haven’t discovered who we are, we have just rejected or reacted to what everyone in authority says we are suppose to be.  To be a “pro tester” is to embrace how we are tested by the thought of the day.  One eliminates who they are not, before they are able to discover who they are.

Now that I am in my 60′s I have learned a great deal about the spiritual journey.  Wisdom truly comes from living a long time!  I have moved from pro test to pro life.  I am not driven by what is outside of me, at least not in my good moments.  I am now working with what is inside of me – God’s Spirit.  By doing our spiritual disciplines, those things done regularly to engage God, we discover a whole new world.  It is the Last Great Frontier.  By journeying into God we encounter who we are, not just for this life but for all the different manifestations of our Soul Life.  We come to realize how this life is just a drop in the ocean of our Soul’s adventure found in an Eternity of Being and Becoming in God.  One of the best gifts of this being “In here” is a sense of relaxation.  We are no longer driven by the ups and downs of economy, how people treat us, illness or even death.  We KNOW there is more than this life.  We now have forever!

Of course if we live like this don’t expect much acceptance.  Living on these terms frightens those who either haven’t embraced this kind of spirituality or are standing in opposition to it.  The time we spend with God becomes even more important.  If we are choosing to live one with God we need to constantly check in with God’s direction.  When we encounter “The World’s Storm of living this way and this way only” we need to hear God say, “Be still and know that I am God.”  We are then able to breathe in the calmness of a God who knows this life shall pass, but God’s Realm shall last forever.  In this busy world of doing we have a hard time catching our breathe so we continue to stumble over the problems of this life.  That is alright as long as we stay down for a while so we can breathe in the gift of God’s Wisdom found in “Being in here – our heart in God’s Love.”

What does your heart say to these thoughts?

Peace

Gary