Dear Spiritual Companions,

The longer I am on this adventure of a deepening relationship with God called life, the more I discover there is so much more to learn about the major questions of life.  One of the biggest seems to be related to when terrible things happen in our life or those we love.  It has seemed quite apparent to me for some time that God doesn’t cause these problems, but indeed uses them to further reveal the mystery of existence which includes them.  I reread this scripture this morning from the Gospel of John 9:1-5.  “As Jesus walked along he saw a man blind from birth.  His Disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned , this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.  We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.  As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world.”  Rather perplexing on many levels as far as I am concerned.  Let’s talk about this.

We are human so part of that humanness is long to have answers for the mysteries of life.  When things like blindness arise in individuals lives we like to blame it on something like them or their parents or the environment.  For example, many of us continue to go through life declaring we are the way we are because of the way our parents treated us.  If we were told we were no good we live as though we are no good.  That to me seems to be a very good definition of being emotionally blind.  In addition, we do not have to be responsible for our actions so we can coast along and not to the hard work of forgiving their short sightedness.  How can there be any alternatives to our behavior if we haven’t let their actions go? On the other hand, sometimes children are given everything they need physically, emotionally and spiritually and wander through life not having a clue to what they have been given.  This again is a sign of blindness.  Is God to blame for either of these situations?  Well yes in the sense of giving us a choice, but no in the sense of making us be who we are.  So who is to blame – No One!  Even as I write this I don’t like that answer.  Are we not responsible for our own actions.  Yes to a certain extent, but there is so much of life that is beyond our control.  It is that part of life outside of our control that plays such a big part in who we are.  Bad things happen to us and try as we might we just can’t overcome it on our own.

Where does that leave us?  Here comes the troubling line, “He was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”  Blindness is a part of God’s Creation whether it be physical, emotional or spiritual.  We don’t like that so instead we ask why would God allow such a thing to happen?  Not because God is vengeful, not because God is manipulating us and certainly not because God is punishing us.  Those thoughts are simply our feeble attempt to take the mystery out of life.  I have found through Katrina, my wife’s breast cancer and other unfair aspects of life some incredible gifts.  When I give up searching for an answer I find one – there is none!  Life is a paradox where God says Let It Be What It Is.  Like a Zen koan, where there is no answer, we find our ability to live life to the fullest giving up the search for answers.  When we let blindness be what it is – blindness then we can see how the rest of our senses suddenly step up to help us live life more fully.  When life is a room of manure we can suddenly look for the pony that has to be there.  What we focus on becomes the driving force in our life.  We are often blind to the way God works because it isn’t the way we want God to work.  When we let God be God we can accept God creating a world filled with challenging individuals.  We do not have to engage them or believe what they say is true.  Just because people treat us like manure doesn’t mean we are.

Jesus, along with all of the great spiritual masters, are the Light of the world because they invite us out of our darkness found in being blind to the way life is so we can be in lightened by what they have to say and how they lived and died.  The night of our ignorance can be an invitation to so much more.  When we give up a life that has to make sense, then we can discover a life that often doesn’t and so we are not defeated by it.  We are only defeated because we think or believe we are.  God, by whatever Name you call God always has the last Word – Love.  Our work is to enter what God’s kind of Love means.  It may entail leaving behind all that we have been taught about Love to embrace it in a new way.  So often when I think I have the final answer about something God reveals more.  Do I give up certainty for a lifetime of growth?  I know what my limited sight is providing, but can I trust that there is even more goodness out there?  Could Jesus embrace His Death on the Cross believing that there was more on the other side?  He must have because he told the thief he would be with Him in paradise. In fact, I would venture to say we don’t have to wait until we die to experience paradise.  It is right now and right here when we dare to let life be what it is.

It truly is a mystery isn’t it?

Gary

Dear Spiritual Companions,

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I am writing toady about what I think makes someone our hero.  Dr. King is one of my personal guiding lights.  I can remember where I was when I heard the news of his assassination – I was on my way to attend a college class on Industrial Psychology.  I was devastated.  A part of me had died with Martin.  I hope I never forget that moment because of what he meant to me.  You don’t lose certain persons in your life without it having a lasting impact.  I will carry his spirit with me as long as I continue to follow in his footsteps and the lessons he taught me about how to live life in community with others.  I have been a pacifist for a long time and I know Dr. King and Gandhi have been the two key individuals who taught me what Jesus meant by turning the other cheek.  So I dedicate today’s thoughts to the life and memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I think we can do two things with our heroes.  First we can put them on a pedestal and keep them distant from us.  Second we can see how they speak to our similar gifts and talents within us.  It is so tempting to put Dr. King on a level higher than us.  In the various celebrations we sometimes gloss over what a challenge Martin was to the powers of his day.  It wasn’t bad enough that he fought for Civil Rights for African Americans, but when he began challenging our leaders ab0ut the Vietnam War he had gone to far.  It was exactly like Jesus teaching about our responsibility to the widow and orphan and than being an example of what he meant.  That was bad enough, but when he challenged the policies of the Jewish Leaders he had gone too far.  When we fight for the forgotten we can depend on opposition, but when we challenge the social, economic, religious or political structures you can easily see how death may be in your future.  So instead of putting ourselves in this precarious situation we put our heroes on a pedestal and dilute their message.  More importantly we separate ourselves from them because they are also encouraging each of us to join them in transforming not only the world around us, but also transforming ourselves.  No wonder we run and hide when these leaders say, “Greater things than I have done you shall do!”

Let’s look further at why it is so important for us to enter into a one to one relationship with our heroes.  There is a reason why we look up to these persons and I believe it goes beyond what they did.  It speaks to how they connect to what is within us.  I think we have a part of Dr. King within us because we have as part of God within us.  Servants of God, by whatever Name you call God, are connected to an ongoing identification with the poor and oppressed in the world.  This is true because God is already within them.  When we are one with God we are also one with all of Creation.  If one hurts we all hurt, if one is forgotten all are forgotten, if one is an enemy we are all enemies and on and on.  Carl Jung said that there were archatypes in the world.  They are examples of certain characteristics that lie deep within our soul.  A Hero is an example of an archetype.  They are here to right wrongs and free people from the chains placed upon them by the world they live in.  They cannot rest until they live out their personal adventure which includes enabling others to be set free.  We each have within us a place, like King’s Mountaintop, where we can see God’s Vision of Love for all of Creation.  Once we see our vision than we spend the rest of our lives working on making it a reality.  Our heroes come down off the pedestals we have created for them to take us by hand so we can see what they saw.  This is scary business, but there are more and more people joining in the Heroes Journey today.  Transformation is happening often, we just need the eyes to see and the ears to hear what is occurring around us.  It isn’t the great acts that change the world, but all of the little things done by us which God turns into big things.

As I said this is a dangerous business because we will not only see the best in our hero but also his or her humanness.  If Dr. King had some personal weaknesses does that mean he is less of a hero?  Those in power, who are afraid of his message, would like us to think so.  Judge not less you be judged comes to mind.  If we are not at peace with our own pitfalls and failures as human beings we will project that uneasiness onto others.  We become disappointed and disillusioned when we hear our heroes are human.  They are just like us and maybe it is those very human limitations which provide the basis for working for change.  We cannot separate ourselves from whatever is within us, good or bad.  To think we can, however, leads to a life of attacking who we are which stops us from using our weakness to show God’s Strength.  So often God uses the least of these because they are the ones who know they can’t do it on their own.  They need a grater power and God says, “Here I Am.”  The added benefit is when others find out we  not perfect they can’t defeat us by telling us they know who we are.  We can’t be blackmailed by our imperfection.  I’ll bet this is what made Dr. King strong, as well as the other heroes who went before him.

If you are still with me now it is time to see the greatest gift our leaders can give us.  They open the door to discovering ever more fully who we are.  Certain people touch us more than others because we have similar characteristics and desires.  If you have a deep passion for righting wrongs.  Maybe you had a great injustice done to you a long time ago and whenever you see a similar injustice you are moved to action.  Another possibility might be your compassion for other’s hardships in life.  In each of those situations Dr. King would be someone you could identify with in rectifying wrongs or injustices.  I could go on, but your discovery of yoursimilar gifts rests with you and your inner searching.  By identifying who we are we are freed to act upon our God given gifts and talents.  We can join in the Great Drum Major’s March for Unconditional Love and Freedom for all.  It actually isn’t so scary to invite our heroes off of the pedestals we have placed them on.  We may do the very same thing for ourselves.

Peace

Dear Spiritual Companions,

In a few days it is National Forget Your New Year Resolutions Day.  I am so glad I can end that nonsense.  Only kidding because I haven’t done resolutions for years.  I found the experience self defeating.  I would begin the year with a bang doing my new resolution and then with the passing of each day it became harder and harder to do and gave up.  I finally quit and felt like a failure.  After doing this for a number of years I decided to stop my resolution making because it wasn’t working.  I felt a little bad when people asked me how my resolutions were going, but of course that faded over time too.  Someone else must have thought this way too because January 17 is the day we are encouraged to give up the facade of thinking we can keep our resolutions.  Over my lifetime I have reflected quite a bit on whether change does happen and if so how.  When I was doing counseling with individuals or couples I finally stopped because it didn’t seem to be working.  Being a Spiritual Director has shown me that change is possible, but only if we turn our lives over to a Higher Power and work with It to encounter what this life has to offer.

I have discovered that life is basically a habit.  How we live our lives is built upon the various habits we have chosen over the years.  Here is an example – how we respond to other’s negative behavior towards and with us.  I read this recently, “S.T.E.P. – Stop taking everything personally.”  It simply is a mental or emotional habit to take everything that happens to us personally.  The reason it is so difficult to stop this behavior is because we have been doing it for years.  Someone taught us to do this a long time ago and we accepted their advise and so we have been doing it ever since.  The only way to end such reactions to others is to become aware of what we are doing.  In other words it is learning how to become conscious of the habits we are using.  Like our breathing we only become aware of our habits when we stop and pay attention to them.  The next time someone does or doesn’t do something to us stop and pay attention to the thought and emotional process within you.  Stay in the moment and feel what you are feeling.  Next watch where that feeling might be in your body.  Now you have an opportunity to ask yourself whether you need to continue that feeling.  It may take a long time to do your feeling work, because of the pain or hurt you might have, but after awhile you can ask yourself if you want anther’s actions to affect you in such a strong way.  If you don’t then you have an opportunity to let that feeling go and even change your relationship from your perspective.  You can use the same process with where you carry your feelings in your body.  Once you encounter where it is, you can breath God’s Healing Light around the affected area which will help you to let go of your bodily feelings.  Like your emotional feelings this might take a long time because of the build up over the years.

One of the reasons I believe resolutions aren’t successful is because of the hard work alluded to in the previous paragraph.  no wonder it sometimes takes so long to change.  I don’t mean to be pessimistic about this process, but there are areas in my life I have been working on for most of my life and I am not finished.  In our world we are taught that we are supposed to complete a task and then we can move onto the next one.  From a spiritual perspective the next step might be letting go a little more fully of harmful behaviors, but not completely.  In fact, I believe we are not intended to be totally free of certain habits.   They are our lifetime teachers and so we need them to help us grow.  The completion only comes with the end of this physical existence.  When we  return to the spiritual realm we are then able to reflect on the learnings from this physical lifetime.  We thus become more open to who we are in God and ready to move on into whatever is next.  Life is a school and when we graduate, instead of a diploma, we receive a much greater gift – Awareness.  Instead of attaining something we are free to let go of something.  Instead of calling attention to ourselves we call attention to the Higher Power working through us.  Instead of listening to our ego we listen to the still small voice within.  Instead of making resolutions we resolve to do just the opposite where we don’t have to live out our expectations for change.

The bottom line for me is found in showing up every day.  By doing that we become aware of what a gift a day is.  No wonder God said to Job, “Did you ever command a day to dawn?”  The point of that line is not to reveal an angry or frustrated God, but rather a God encouraging us to appreciate every day, every hour, every moment we are alive.  The end of the story for Job is his life being restored and in abundance.  Job had struggled with not taking everything personally, including his part in life, and discovering sometimes life is a challenge.  Now he was ready to hear God’s Words and to appreciate what he had supposedly thought was good or bad!  When we accept life on its terms – it is what it is, then we can let it be and learn from it.  Nothing that happens in this life is meant to hurt us in any long term way.  It doesn’t mean it might not hurt for a bit, but not forever.  By showing up everyday, no matter what happens, we will be much more open to the Mystery of God’s Unconditional Love for us and everyone else.

I am really glad I can let go of any of my resolutions so I can be free to meet life as it is.  How about you?  We don’t even have to wait until January 17, we can do it now.

Dear Spiritual Companions,

I love the New Year.  It seems the old is gone and now I can be filled with new possibilities.  This is especially true this year.  I am settling into a God like retirement.  To me this means retirement is not about my ego, but rather it is about God.  I have found life much easier when I listen to my spirit and than actually trust that still small voice within.  To be still is to STOP!  We are constantly listening to a world that knows very little about stillness.  It is very familiar with drama, busyness and supporting the importance of calling attention to itself.  Much like our ego the world’s ego simply does not exist without those three things.  To be still though is to let go.  To not be wrapped up in our ego or the drama of life.  There is only one God and It isn’t found in our short lifetime.  God partially reveals God’s Self in our human lives, but God is so much more than our physical reality.  We are not  our body, but rather are spirit.

So what have I discovered in this spirit of mine?  First and foremost I will always be.  This is totally contrary to the human experience.  In the spiritual reality there are no beginnings and there are no endings.  The past, future and present are one.  If we dare to believe this all those little and big fears found in our human experience lose their power.  We no longer have to fear death if we will always be.  Every World Religion has an End of the World Story.  It always ends the same – God by whatever Name you call this Higher Being, is in charge and lives on.  The point of these mystical and mythic tales are to assure us our spirit will always be.  Death is the last Enemy to be defeated because it is the enemy of our human existence.  Once we overcome this than we can rest comfortably in God’s Everlasting Arms of Love.  They are Everlasting because they go on forever.  The question, as we enter this new year, now becomes “Does this change anything for us?”

So much of what happens to us is not dependent upon what is going on outside of us, but rather inside.  This is the second thing I have learned from my spirit.  How I see my world depends on how much I am in touch with God.  When I let the outer world, rather than God, dictate what it thinks reality is I become confused.  Let me share an example.  I like to read the business section in the daily paper.  I chuckle sometimes when I read how the economy is falling apart in one article while another article says things are becoming better.  Depending who you read or talk to or watch on the news can control our inner well being.  We give the power away for our lives when we let someone else’s opinion or some outer action determine our inner state.  Our thoughts and feelings begin and end with our outlook.  I read an article recently about the problems facing us with today’s environment and global warming.  The author was stating we need to change our lifestyle if we are to save our planet.  To accomplish this goal the question becomes, “Which works better in encouraging people to act – Fear or Optimism?”  Do we need a catastrophe or the fear of one to change, or will encouragement and believing in people doing the right thing carry the day?  On my pessimistic days I know we need the environment to fall apart before anything will happen.  When I am optimistic I see more and more people getting on board with treating our planet as something to treasure and appreciate.  This I hope will create the necessary actions to save Mother Earth.

How this life appears and how what happens after we die begins and ends with me.  God believes in us so God gives us the power to choose our response to our life and death.  This does not mean everything will run smoothly – God forbid!  We are tempted to try and control or think we can control our world.  This is the worst thing that could happen because we are than trapped in this short lifetime.  As stated earlier there is so much more spiritually.  I hope to write a book this year entitled “Disaster as Gift.”  It is based upon the Katrina event for New Orleans in 2005.  Enough time has gone by for me to process my spiritual reflections on the gift of that hurricane.  We have a long way to go in putting our city back together.  Problems continue to exist, but concentration simply on fixing those issues takes us away from God’s many gifts.  The same is true for the hurricanes in your life.  God is present in ways not seen – the spiritual reality.  When we are free to live in that place we can trust in a God who would never let anything ultimately defeat us.  If we live in the outer world it just seems like it is utterly defeating us.

This is my question for this New Year – “Which makes more spiritual sense – What seems like reality to us in our outer world or what is reality in our inner being?”

Peace

Dear Spiritual Companions,

In just a few days Christians worldwide will be celebrating the gift of God coming in our form.  Although this is unique to me and the rest of my Christian brothers and sisters, I think it also offers a gift to others of  different religious understandings of God.  I believe this to be true because it captures some basic truths for everyone.  I see three distinct revelations coming through the act of a Wee Babe being born in a forgotten part of the world.  It reveals vulnerability, than surprise and finally God being in our human form.

To live in this human form is to be vulnerable.  At any moment this physical existence can end or be changed in radical ways.  We often run around spending our days trying to disprove this by trying to be in control of our lives.  The sad awakening eventually comes one day when we are found in circumstances which reveal our powerlessness.  No matter how hard we work to stay young we grow old.  We may forestall the inevitable, but the day of reckoning does come. Making peace with our vulnerable nature is an ongoing spiritual theme in any religion.  When we are able to see God coming as a small helpless infant we see God revealing how to be vulnerable.  God does not run away from weakness or try to control it.  No God simply lets it be what it is.  For God to grow in our world or within us we need to take care of the symbolic infant in our lives.  If we do not care for the vulnerable in the world they die.  If we do not reach out to the vulnerable parts of ourselves we die.  So what can we do?  Do what God does – enter the most forgotten parts of life and reach out in love.  In this season of giving our gift becomes our courageous acts of being with the least fo these in the world and inside of us.  The paradox of doing this is by becoming vulnerable we are suddenly strong.

Are we ever surprised by life?  I hope so because life is meant to be a surprise!  How else can one explain the wonder of a paradox of weakness being strength, a little infant leading them, death being the prelude to life everlasting?  Want some more?  There is no such thing as death.  Yes our physical body expires, but our spirit simply moves onto the next surprising step in our spiritual evolution.  God surprises us by enabling us to let go of anything which causes us fear or any other attachment to this life.  There is a funny statement that goes like this, “Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.”  Sure we like this life, but I think behind that statement is the fear of what will happen after we die.  No need to fear because God has so much more in store for us, and I am not talking about some kind of hellish end.  That is another big fallacy that drives us to fearfulness.  Here is another surprise for us – Whatever we expect to occur when we die will occur.  We create our own ending story.  The other big surprise is if we are one of those persons who see Hell in our future that expectation will not change God’s true nature of Love.  Our personal concept of hell will be overcome by God’s Unconditional Love for all of creation.  God wants to surprise us whether in a Christmas Story or in the few truths I have shared with you.  Think of the other fearful things of life you have always thought were true.  Take them to God and wait for another surprise that will allow you to live in a peace that passes all of our human answers!

If you are still with me let’s talk about the last gift - God is coming in our form.  In Christianity we have taken a small step – we see Jesus as God’s Son.  God came in His form.  If we want to take the ultimate leap of faith we can claim that God is here in our form too.  All great spiritual masters have told their followers this because they have experienced this in themselves. Religious leaders, on the other hand, don’t want to take that big of a leap because they don’t believe in themselves let alone anyone else.  Jesus was perfect so therefore He could be God in human form, but we are far from perfect.  That is true to a certain extent.  We get stuck on the idea of making mistakes or not getting life right.  Perfection though means to be all that we are, which entails our best and worst moments.  Only those who dare to accept the totality of themselves will see God.  The worst moments have been created as opportunities by God to reach out to us in love.  Our world says I will love you if you do this or that.  God says I love you no matter what you do or don’t do.  Life is an adventure to develop one’s understanding of who we are in God.  All that happens in this life will fade when we die.  It cannot compare to what continues on in us as we journey with God in all the lives to come or whatever is going to happen after we leave this human form.  We take ourselves much too seriously.  It is time to lighten up by letting go of our fears and attachments to the truths that don’t exist.  God will be with us through all things as God has always been with us for we are created in God’s Image.  How could God be anywhere but inside us?

As a Christian I celebrate the gift of this Season.  As a fellow traveler with anyone on any other religious path I celebrate that your understanding of God simply adds to mine.  I hope the same is true for you.  May we all embrace the God coming in our form on December 25 as well as every other moment of life.

Gary

Dear Spiritual Companions,

The older I get the more I am looking at old thoughts and ideas I thought were true  and discovering they may not be.  I have been the kind of person that tends to look at a person’s outer actions first, both of myself and of others and saying that is good or bad.  I have encountered something more important – one’s inner motivation for their outer actions.  If we are able to know what our inner motivation is our outer actions will be congruent with who we are.  Being a child of the 60′s we had a saying, “If it feels good do it.”  The only problem was how it could affect others.  I was too immature at that point to know what my inner motivation was so to do something simply because it felt good often created problems for me.  Compare this with the words from St. Augustine, “Love God and do as you please.”  In that line we are looking at the source of who we are – God first.  Now doing as we please also feels congruent because it is one with our spirit in God.

This sounds good, but there is one BIG problem – How do we know we are one with our inner motivation?  First we realize because we are human we make mistakes and that is alright.  Second we know we have to do our inner work.  I like to refer to doing our spiritual disciplines as our work.  Whatever enables us to enter into a deeper relationship with The Higher Power, by whatever Name you call It, is our work.  For some it is walking in nature.  For others it is reading The Holy Word of any World Religion, novel or good book.  For still others it is meditation or contemplation.  One can also pay attention to their night dreams and study their symbolic meanings.  To have a discipline means to regularly spend time meeting God in whatever discipline works for us.  God doesn’t care what form we use, God simply wants to be with us for extended periods of time because God created us for relationship.  Like a good friend we cannot discover who they are if we don’t spend time with them.  This then allows us to meet ourselves in God.  Now we know what leads us closer to honestly being who we are rather than doing a lot of talking about it.  We don’t find out who God is by talking about God, we discover God by being with God which reveals our inner motivation.  Now we go forth into our outer world doing what our True Self calls us to do.

Our world and the individuals in our lives have all sorts of ideas about what is good and what isn’t.  If we are not one with the Source of our life – God we find ourselves doing all kinds of things that we don’t want to do.  We suffer and have lots of Drama because we are listening to others rather than God.  We want to make others happy by doing what they want and miss out on the only true source of contentment - God.  We were created with needs that can only be filled by God.  Because we are not sure what it means to do God’s Will we often run around settling for the second best – the world’s idea of what true happiness is or what those in our family or our friends think true happiness is for us.  We end up being miserable.  The saddest part of this is we think we are going to eventually find the hidden gem of contentment but each time we live on someone else’s terms we are disappointed.  We run ourselves in circles trying to attain what we are already have in God.  We are a part of the human rat race for meaning, but as Lily Tomlin said, “Even if you win the rat race you are still a rat!”  When we come to this awareness of our life on not working for us all is not lost.  God says I have an alternative – “Love Me and do as you please!”

If we accept this then we are faced with the second challenge of living on our terms based in God – dealing with the fallout to our actions.  There will be lots of individuals and Institutions that will not be happy with our new freedom.  Our world and most of our relationships are built on doing what others tell us or think we should do.  It takes a huge amount of inner fortitude to deal with the response from others.  This is why we need to be clear about who we are in God first and foremost.  Without that we will be worn down by the response we will be receiving.  On top of that we also have to face our own inner demons who are questioning our actions.  We will face questions like Are you sure we are doing the right thing?  Not many others are doing what we are doing so what if we are wrong?  People aren’t happy with us and that doesn’t feel good.  On and on our inner questions and thoughts stand alongside others who are telling us we are wrong.  We begin to doubt ourselves and it is time to use our spiritual disciplines.  God is calling us back to our what we know is right for us.  It is time to Pick up our cross, Face our suffering, Be empty or whatever our Religion calls us to encounter so we can continue to Love God and do as we please.  A word of warning – our biggest obstacle may be how the religious leaders of our particular spiritual persuasion respond to our actions.  If what we doing contradicts the powers to be, who are more interested in perpetuating their false notions of God, we could be facing some religious warfare.  They are often driven by a need to keep us in dependent relationships so the Institution they serve can survive.  Our freedom threatens their way of doing things.  The Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Confucius, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and many others came to say to us and our leaders, “You have lost your inner motivation and are allowing someone else to tell you what is right for you.”  Don’t be surprised if you might not be called to join their ranks.  “Loving God and doing as we please” is the key to  living as these great leaders did and as God called them to live.

This spiritual journey of encountering our inner spirit in God and the resulting spill over into this lifetime of being in the world is just a small fraction of our time in God.  This human experience is not all there is by any means.  There is so much that we have already experienced and will encounter in God.  I say this to help us to live lightly and not take ourselves so seriously.  Even if we make a few mistakes along the way it doesn’t matter.  In fact, the errors of our ways may be the quickest way to God.  As the Dali Lama said, “Life is about being happy.”  I have not found any truer way to happiness than loving God and doing as I please.  What about you?

Gary

Winter

   The season of solitude

      Filled with the sound of falling snow flakes

They crash to earth awakening us

   To this instant filled with

      Our own flakiness

The cold north winds blow away our loose flakes

   Filled with unforgiven moments

      Resentments long past

      Life experiences not fitting our expectations

Now in the days of more darkness than light

   We can experience the Healing Touch of Love

      Who uses the season of winter to prime us

      For promises found in a new identity paint job

Like the trees and bushes that let go of this year’s growth

   We also see the gift in letting go

Underneath the supposed dead earth new life prepares

   To explode in the spring time

      With possibilities never dreamed of

So in the stillness of the season

   Let us feel the warmth of the Healing Touch of Love

      As we let go of yesterday in preparation for tomorrow

Dear Spiritual Companions,

In my quiet time this morning the thought came to me from God, “Your problem is you doubt.”  There was no criticism in the comment, just a statement about my approach to life.  I believe that humans are the same.  What is different between us is the level of doubting we embrace.  Everyone has a certain amount of it, but each of us deals with it in our own unique way.  This letter is written for those who have  a question about the way their life is unfolding.  Behind every doubt, I believe, is an unfulfilled expectation.  One of the greatest examples of this was the Christ meeting the Disciples after His Resurrection.  Thomas was not present at this first encounter and when told of the Christ being alive he said, “I will not believe unless I can touch the holes in  his hands and feet and side.”  The Christ appears again with Thomas being present and He asks him to put his hands in the holes in his hands, feel and side.  Then the Christ says those famous words, “You believed because you saw and touched.  How much greater it will be for those who do not see and yet believe!”  This was not a criticism of Thomas, but rather a statement of what life is like when we face our doubts and notice the expectations behind them.  Who could blame Thomas for doubting someone coming back to life?  It simply is not a part of our expectations.

God has blessed me in endless ways throughout my life.  For some reason when an issue of money or some other part of life that is a hot button for me arises I often doubt.  Just because God has helped me through these problems before doesn’t mean it will happen again this time.  That is how my mind works and I would say a mind that is disengaged from my heart.  To me the heart is the center of our spiritual reality.  So often we are in our heads and thinking too much.  We are rational beings trying to make sense of the mystery we call life.  I have discovered that to be blessed over and over again by God is a mystery, especially if I haven’t done anything to earn this Grace!  It is only in our hearts where we see taking life as it comes as the only reality that matters.  There was a benediction I always used when I served communion.  The one line that struck me was - “Live in God abundantly, pray continuously and give thanks no matter what happens for my God’s Grace nothing can utterly defeat you!”  Our doubts slide away when we live according to those words.  Our expectations begin to fall away also.

Let’s take a closer look at those words.  First live in God abundantly.  What does it mean to live in abundance?  To me it means having enough of what we need.  We live in a time when there never seems to be enough.  We have turned our abundance into a time of scarcity and it drives us to drink, use drugs, get lost in the addiction of sports, force our way on others in different countries and cultures, claim other’s natural resources as belonging to us.  If we dared to look at our supposed scarcity we might see how unrealistic it is.  By looking at our needs as being outside of us we give our inner power away.  If we look at our needs as being within us then abundance is a reality.  In this moment we have enough to eat, air to breathe, money, friends and inner peace.  If we look further than this moment we will get into trouble because then our inner expectations of not having enough raises its head.  Many spiritual groups tell us that the most important discipline is the one where learn how to we stay in this moment.  I peek at the buisiness section in our daily paper and am amazed at how one day the economy is recovering and the next day it is not.  My personal economy is fine and I would guess most of you reading this would say the same.  Doubts can arise when we read bad news, but they can also arise when we read good news because we know it could be different tomorrow.  This moment is fine, but the next one could be bad so why do we choose to leave this one?  To pray continuously is the way to live in this moment and not let our minds wonder into supposed problems that may never happen.

Now we come to the part about giving thanks no matter what happens.  That is a challenge especially when things are not going well or the way we expect them to.  It is a challenge to trust in a God who brings life out of death, abundance out of scarcity and seeing how our adventure of life always working out in spite of death and unmet expectations.  I believe by asking some challenging questions we might discover some answers in our heart.  Why do we choose to not be happy?  Why are we waiting for the other shoe to drop?  Why do we think God has created a world or lifetime for us that is harmful?  Why did Thomas not believe in Jesus’ resurrection?  I encourage us to ponder those questions.  By finding out where they may lead us we may discover a way to live this life in a peaceful abundant way no matter what is happening in the outer world.  This is true because nothing can utterly defeat us!  By living with this knowledge we might discover others we encounter being puzzled by our behavior in spite of having problems, illness or financial questions.  They might ask us “What’s going on?”  We now can show them the way to a life of believing in spite of having doubts from time to time.  We might reveal how many expectations we have given up along the way to live freely which can help them to do the same.  If enough of us did this our leaders in our churches and government could believe health care for everyone is a just and right action to take.  They could see how sending more troops to Afghanistan is a continuation of scarcity thinking.  Who knows working for inner peace might actually be the way rather than forcing peace through warfare?  After all it is true that nothing can utterly defeat us!

What do you feel in your heart about these ideas?

Gary

Dear Spiritual Companions,

I wonder as I wander out under the stars, how did I get to where I am today?  If I go a bit further I wonder how the world got into its present shape?  The defining word that jumps out at me is Perspective.  Our lives and the world we live in depends upon the perspective we bring to what is happening in our corner of it.   Did you ever think how strange it is that two people can encounter the very same thing and feel totally different?  Two children grow up in the same family and their only difference is their age, yet they are unique in their perspective of the world and how to live in it.  Who we are and what happens to us is truly based on how we see things.

If you accept this premise on Perspective we can look into how this could unfold in the living of our lives.  If I am having a problem with someone who views life differently then me and tries to impose their thoughts on me I have a standard comment, “At least I don’t have to live in their heads.”  This has enabled me to keep my perspective positive towards anyone who is different from me.  By acknowledging my not having to think the way someone else does, I don’t have to be defensive about someone else’s viewpoint.  In fact, if they do not impose their thoughts on me, I might think about what they believe in and see if it might have validity for me.  Accepting another as they are works so much better than trying to tear them down because I don’t agree with their perspective.  By doing this I can now honestly look at what is happening inside me whenever I become anxious at what another person says is the truth.  By acknowledging my uneasiness I have discovered I may be insecure about my own truth or concerned how another will feel about me if  I disagree with them.  Now it is time to ask myself Why?  Once we begin to get the answer to that then we might discover our best teachers are the ones we disagree with or who have a different perspective then our own.

If I don’t demand that others think or feel the way I do I may have opened the door to a larger understanding of life.  What do we lose by not allowing for a perspective different than our own?  We may miss out on discovering how our own thinking may be wrong for us.  Wait a minute that is a big cost to think we are wrong.  My question is Why?  So I am mistaken, so what?  Isn’t it better to find out I may be harming myself with my own thinking than to continue to live in ignorance?  We can only answer yes if we dare to say it is alright to acknowledge we are not perfect.  That is the catch isn’t it.  If we dare to say there is a different way of seeing things we might just be accepting the obvious – we are wrong so therefore we are not perfect!  Now instead of defending the undefendable, a mistaken perspective, we might have a chance to grow.  Think of how many things we thought were true as children – Santa, a Santa god, parents who were always right.  It might have been painful to see how we wrong, but that acceptance encouraged us to grow up and become an adult and claim our own truth. 

Perspective is not meant to be a once and for all thing.  No, our view of our self or our world is meant to be an ever changing gift found in our maturing and learning from our life experiences.  I hope to never have all the answers.  What would be the fun of existence if we didn’t have anything new to learn?  We might as well fold up our tent and call it a life.  I endorse an ever changing perspective.  I find my mistakes have often been my best teachers.  I do not necessarily enjoy them, but I have found them extremely helpful.  The best dividend for me is I no longer have to demand that others think the way I do.  It is alright for them to have their own perspective and for me to have my own.  If they have difficulty with that my perspective tells me whose problem that is.  I find inner peace to me much more present for me which is my ultimate payoff.

What is your perspective on these spiritual thoughts?

Peace

Gary

Dear Spiritual Companions,

When is Grace not grace?  When there are strings attached.  We are in the season of stopping and saying thank you for the blessings in our lives.  As we do that I invite you to think about how many of those gifts you earned and how many were simply freely given.  In addition, I invite you to ponder which ones bring more of a smile to your spirit.  I enjoy reaping the harvest of my labors, but somehow the surprise of receiving something I haven’t earned means even more to me.  A sunrise over the Mississippi touches my heart.  An email from a good friend with another bad joke means so much.  A smile from the check out person or someone I pass along the street warms me.  A wonderful day filled with friends or family is truly Grace to me.  I have done absolutely nothing to receive those gifts and I don’t have to pay for them in any way.   I can just marvel at the wonder of life.

I recently attended a funeral service for a family member.  I was struck at how grace was hinted at, but there were strings attached.  The person was assured of now returning to God’s Love, BUT what about the rest of us.  Have we done the work of reconciliation with God for ungodly actions on our part?  Death was not looked upon as gift, but rather as a threat.  My spirit began to shrivel inside of me.  I began to revert back to being a child and my Mother catching me doing something I wasn’t supposed to be doing and hearing those scary words, “Wait until your Father gets home!”  I was in fear and trembling until he arrived home.  What would my punishment be?   I don’t remember what my Dad did, but I do remember the fear I felt!  As “The Course in Miracles” states the opposite of love is not hate it is fear.  When Grace is Grace there is only Love, when there are strings attached to grace there is only the Fear of what happens when I get home to God!

The other thing that bothered me with the Service was the fact that only those who were a part of that Church could come to the Table and receive Communion, and only those who were in good standing!  The rest of us could go and receive a blessing, but only if we  received it by holding our body in a certain way.  I cringed and did not go forward.  I honor someone else’s tradition, but I do not honor traditions that are built on strings attached.  There are rules to be followed, there is the institution that has to be saved at all costs, there is this God that has to followed in specific ways or you will not receive the ultimate reward – Heaven.  There isn’t the willingness to accept people as they are in their faith journey.  There isn’t the ability to assure individuals there is nothing wrong with them.  When we understand Grace we are not defined by what we do or not do, but rather by who we are made in God’s Image.  Jesus came to address these issues, not how often you attended church or whether you were worthy to receive God’s Love.  This is true of all the World Religious Leaders who came at a time when a particular culture had lost the message of Grace.  A Grace Full God chooses to reveal the Godly Nature not in one way but in endless ways.  We don’t have to fear what will happen to us if we are not a part of this religion or that one.  Grace tells us we are accepted no matter what we believe or how we worship.  Again there are no strings attached.

The grace less places see each of us as somehow being defective so the leaders or their creeds need to control our behavior.  They have replaced grace with themselves.  The Grace Full places are filled with the notion that there is nothing wrong with us, in fact if we think there is it is there calling to help us eliminate those lies.  What I have discovered in this human adventure is God’s Desire for us to come to the continued realization of who we are in God and the letting go of the mistaken identity we have of ourselves as being in some way bad.  We do not attain heaven, it is given to us.  What we do with Heaven will be up to us and God’s Helping Hand.  To be set free then is to come to realize how God truly works.  The ultimate human dilemma is the notion that there is something wrong with us.  No matter how hard we try we will never do it right so we are out of the god’s club.  It is a vicious life denying cycle of continuing to fall short of God’s Grace.  On the other hand, if Grace is real then not being able to attain our own goodness allows us to accept only God as Good.  This is not a condemnation it is a way out into Love.  We do not attain Love it is given to us.  We do not attain perfection it is already in us.  We are made in the Image of God and nothing will change this fact, no matter who says it isn’t true.

I walked out of that church liberated not by the Minister or having followed the rules.  I was liberated because I knew God Loved me no matter what!  That sounds like God in action to me and I don’t have to wait until I get Home to feel my Parent’s Unconditional Love.  That is Grace to me, how about you?

Peace

Gary