Tag: #spiritualdirection

THE SURPRISING LESSON I LEARNED ABOUT WHERE OUR BEAUTY LIES

 In what way did you find beauty this week and how has it helped you to discover your true self?

A while back I came up with that question.  I figured the answer would lie in nature or art, but in not knowing what to really expect, I put it aside and tried not to think about it.  I simply hoped I would know by the weeks end.   

The following day I was listening to the B Hooked podcast.  In the episode, a guest mentioned something that spoke to my heart. 

True beauty lies in sharing.  

I wish I could give the woman who said it credit, but it was so long ago, I don’t remember.  If someone should ever come across it, please let me know and I will update this writing,  In any event, I couldn’t help but to notice that her statement coincided with my question.   This was definitely not an answer I had expected and I definitely could not put it out of my head.   True beauty really does lie and sharing, but what exactly does that mean?  I had to prayerfully explore.

True beauty lies in sharing because all that we have is a gift from God. He shares all His gifts and talents with us and because we couldn’t each possibly have all His gifts, He desires that we share what we have been given. 

Being one in the Body of Christ, we then have all gifts. We can experience parts of Jesus that we wouldn’t know were it not for the sharing of others. We can never fully know God.  He is infinite.  We can, however, know Him a little more fully by the sharing of others and whenever Jesus is known and spread throughout the world, love and beauty grow. The world, the Body of Christ, grows more loving and more beautiful.

I was intending on seeing something beautiful. I was expecting to experience beauty created by God in nature or by someone else. What I never expected to learn was that I have true beauty simply because I have Jesus within and can share Him with others. That sharing is what makes us beautiful. Imagine that!  We are beautiful because we share, not because of our exterior looks or how much money and time we spend on beauty products and services.    

In trying to know our true selves,  we can say that all we have comes from Jesus and that makes us beautiful. He makes all of us beautiful. Beauty is definitely not skin deep. It’s much, much deeper.

Sharing our gifts is not so we can brag.  We are sharing the gifts Jesus has because He first chose to share them with us.  On our own, we would have nothing.  He couldn’t physically be with all of us all at once, but through the Holy Spirit He devised a way to do just that. That is amazing!   

We experience God’s love when He gives us a gift directly.  He can experience our love being returned to Him when we use it and also in His union with the person who is receiving it from us.  It is a sharing of love.  What can be more beautiful? 

Sharing our gifts is not  so we can be liked, but it naturally helps build a commUnity.  Whether it is a commUnity of two or more, we are not alone.  

By the very gifts we have been given, we look for people who are like minded and can share our interests.  The gifts we have been given are the very foundations of all communities.  

Every commUnity, is a foreshadowing of Heaven, where we are all together as one in the family of God.  Whether we are in a family or a club, we are a commUnity of sharing and all gifts should be shared and received with love.  To ignore or judge a gift given or to try and hide our own gifts is to stifle the beauty, love and union of God, our very purpose.

All is a gift. What a tremendous purpose we have because we share. I believe I once read that Mr. Rogers said share everything with at least one person. That makes it more doable. So often we receive gifts and don’t even realize it because they seem so small, but by their very size, they are more doable.  The uplifting thought, the cup of water, the photo you took…As long as they aren’t sinful, they are all ways that help us and the receiver get a glimpse of God and bring Him glory.  For some it may seem uncomfortable at first, but we should strive to have the heart for it. If your heart is of love, you don’t have to worry about being overbearing. You won’t be.

It may look or feel like a great suffering at times, but it is always a way of bringing Jesus to others.  

When mindful that we would not have the gift without Jesus, we experience great union with Him.  We become the unceasing prayer by our very lives.  It is in that union that He makes us beautiful.

It’s always easier to give than receive. It is always easier to give the cup of water than to receive it.  When someone shares with us, we should rejoice. Pride and embarrassment have no room. 

We need to welcome the sharing of others with a thankful heart and hear in the deep  recesses of a heart, “It is I, Jesus.”

What an awesome realization in being able to know our true selves. Beauty lies in sharing all that is given to us because all we have is Jesus. All we have and receive is Him. He is our true self. To know any goodness we possess is to know Jesus.

QUESTIONS TO PRAYERFULLY PONDER WITH GOD

All our gifts come from God.  Pray and meditate on James 1:17

We are meant to share and receive gifts with a joyful heart.  Pray and meditate on Luke 1:26-56

What gifts do you possess?

Do you hoard your gifts?  If so, can you take small steps to begin sharing them?

Do you share your knowledge, inspirations and skills or do you judge them to be of nothing?  

If you judge, why do you judge gifts given to you as not being of any worth?  Try to start recognizing them for the gifts they truly are. 

Do you judge the gifts of others?  Do you try and stifle them?  Do you receive the gift of who others are as if you are receiving Jesus?

Reflect on the sharing of your gifts as a means of helping others to know Jesus more fully.

Reflect on receiving the gifts others give you as a means of knowing Jesus more fully.

Reflect on the beauty you reflect when you share. 

Reflect on your gifts being a means for you to find a commUnity to share, help and be in Union with.  

Sharing is a form of sacrifice.  Reflect on the importance of being mindful that in sharing gifts and receiving them, we are in Union with Jesus and become the prayer by our very lives.

3 LESSONS I LEARNED ABOUT HOPE/HUMILITY FROM STAR WARS

Help me Obie One Kenobi. You’re our only hope. 

LESSON 1

As I said in the previous blog, pride and fear played a big part in the Star Wars sagas, but humility and hope were also strong and, in the end, won.  The times when hope played a part began with humility. The humility led to peace, not anger. The peace gave way to love and in this scenario, when the door to fear was opened, it was firmly shut tight. The focus would not be on fear. Instead it would be focused on a righteous hope that was anchored in love. It would not be an I, I, I or  me, me, me mentality. It was a mentality of we.  The individual was never alone, not even when they were the only one physically present.  They just understood this just as we understand being one in Jesus and in the Communion of Saints.  They never thought of themselves as the bravest or most supreme. They were humble. They were part of something bigger. The odds against them were not dwelled on.  The loss they could incur was not about themselves and how they would feel if they suffered the loss. It was completely other oriented. 

Being mindful that they were never alone and part of something bigger, for the sake of those they loved, they would risk their lives while holding onto a hope anchored in love.  As Saint Paul tells us in Romans 5:5, hope never disappoints when it is centered on God.  

LESSON 2

When someone was trying to win someone over from the dark side, reason never worked. Force never made them change their ways either. While mercy and compassion were always present when winning someone over, it was also grounded in hope. The one filled with hope could see the conflict within the one who was in the dark and with love, they showed them hope that they would return to the side of good. With great love, they set up the hope.  Perhaps deep down we never want to disappoint someone who melts our hearts with the hope they have in us…and hope never looks like the manipulation of a guilt trip. 

It may have taken time, and hope may have even diminished a bit, but it always won because it never died. God-centered hope is that powerful.

LESSON 3

Nobody in the movie was perfect and neither are we. In one instance there was one who was grounded in humility, but fell and entered the door to fear. Just as in the person who leads with pride, actions based on fear of the humble person still cause devastating effects because we are one. 

Our words and actions never only affect us.  We are one in the Body of Christ and by our very lives, we are the prayer. 

The difference between entering the door of fear when one was filled with pride and one was filled with humility was repentance. 

With the strength of repentance, the humble one willingly receives help from God.  Though they may fall, they are able to rise again, continue to grow and say yes when the door is open to help and make a difference.  They are able to reject fear and act on hope. They can right their wrongs.

So much can be overcome with hope. While fear and despair are closely tied, so are courage and hope.  Both bring about action, but only one truly has victory.  We don’t have to be battling major battles in an actual battlefield to see how fear versus hope dictates our lives. We only have to become aware of the first inkling of a reaction to any loss or possible loss we may find surfacing in us. 

With each of these 11 movies, the idea of fear versus hope grew stronger within me. The idea that love conquers all and hope never disappoints also became stronger. While I know that to be true, the question is, do I live that?   I am excited to learn where I am in respect to hope so I can grow.   I invite you to pray on it as well.

PRAYERFULLY PONDER THESE QUESTIONS 

Meditate on Rom 5:1-5.

Do you ACT as the prayer of love and hope knowing how powerful they are? 

Are you afraid of losing something?  Do you exercise hope in the situation?

If you are afraid of loss, are you looking at self or being other-oriented?  Can you be honest about it? 

If you are in a situation that is the result of you acting out of fear, have you embraced the power of repentance?

Is there someone you have been trying to pull out of darkness?  Are you using a combination of reason and anger or reason and love? Have you tried using hope and love? Do you think it’s worth at least trying?

Pray on these and talk to God about them.

ONE LESSON I LEARNED ABOUT PRIDE/FEAR FROM STAR WARS

“May the force be with you.”

Recently I was able to spend 11 nights watching every movie in the Star Wars saga with my son.  By watching one nightly in a short period of time, I was better able to make sense of all the stories on a whole. I also was able to see the underlying theme that played throughout the movies.  We can all see that the sagas are a battle between good and evil. We can understand the inference of faith each time someone says, “May the force be with you”.  What wasn’t so obvious, at least to me until I saw them all played out together, was that they were also a battle of pride vs. humility and fear vs. hope. We all know the line, “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re our only hope,” but there was so much more.  I was filled with the presence of God as He taught me so much about fear and hope through these science fiction movies.  Without giving away any movie spoilers, I’d like to explain what I mean in this post and the post next week.

THE MOVIES

The times when fear played a major part began with pride.   While it can be manifested in many different ways, pride basically gives one the attitude of entitlement. With entitlement comes a sense of the need to control the circumstances in order to hang on to what one feels they are entitled to have, what they are unhealthily attached to.  Fear of loss begins when the entitlement is threatened.  In the movie, as the entitlement and, therefore, fear grew, anger grew as well.  It easily followed.  

With all this, the ground then becomes fertile for the threat of some sort of loss to be perceived as great and the door for battle to be opened.  Armed with the interior destructive weapon of fear that was built on a foundation of pride, anger seemed justified, drastic actions were engaged and hate followed closely behind.  Nothing short of a recipe for disaster.  The only way the characters in the movie could protect themselves from losing what they loved was to enter the door and fight. In addition to the interior battle tools of pride, fear, anger, and hate being used, they employed secrecy.  They never explained the truth of their greatest fears to those who loved them and had always been there for them.  With nobody to help eliminate their fears, they only saw battling as the answer.  Having put themselves on the pedestal of power, they believed that they could fix everything through their skills and power.  Anybody who stood in their way would be eliminated.  While they insisted they were acting for the good of others, their fear of loss exposed the truth.  All their actions were to ensure that they did not have to suffer the loss they so greatly feared, a loss that was easily exaggerated in their imagination because it began with pride that was so tightly connected to all the fears that had developed and then kept a secret.

With fear causing the initial action, destruction became the fruit and instead of saving what they did not want to lose, they lost it and so much more. Jesus told us the only way to save our lives is to lose them (Luke 9:24), but fear has trouble seeing this and we become totally blind and increase the destruction once we hate.

LESSON

Anger, in whatever form it takes, reveals much.  It never starts independently.  It is rooted in other causes and can show us things such as how closely connected pride and fear are. 

Anger, including things like passive aggressive anger or stubbornness, often reveals what we are afraid of losing.  In short, they expose what lies in the heart. 

That can be true even if we don’t recognize fear and only see pride being revealed.  Pride  has a measure of entitlement and attachment connected to it and when those are threatened, one can fear suffering their loss.   Pride/fear can be in one area or in many that have  built upon each other.  Pride/fear can turn to hate slowly or quickly, but in general, if we don’t address it sooner than later and a door of something greatly feared is opened that allows the anger to manifest into hate, we are going to find ourselves on the losing side.  The sooner we recognize where the fear lies, the sooner we can address it and protect ourselves from the devastation and blindness hate causes.  We should never be afraid of revealing the fear we hold within to those we love.  It loses its power when we have the support of someone who can identify when fear is unfounded and instead helps us to embrace humility, truth and hope.  

What happens when fear is warranted and the threat of loss is real and righteous?  I will cover that in my next blog when I discuss humility and hope.  For now, I will reflect on these points so that I may grow in my relationship with God by growing in trust and fearing not.  I invite you to join me. 

REFLECTIONS TO PRAYERFULLY PONDER

Scripture can help us on this journey.  The problem is that often times we say we believe what our faith teaches us, but then when we are asked to actually live it, we forget what we have learned.  

Do you just repeat scripture or do you live it? 

Do you believe pride comes before the fall?  

Do you do a daily examine to see if pride crept into your day?  If it does, do you address it immediately? 

Do you recognize fear or anger in our lives?  What are you afraid of losing? 

Do you say scripture tells us not to be afraid 365 times and then become fearful?  

Do you say that perfect love casts out all fear, but fail to practice it? 

Do you say love conquers all and not mean it? 

Do you have a trusted friend who can pull you out of pride and fear before it becomes overwhelming?

Do you talk to God about your fears and why you act like you believe or do not believe in His teachings about not being afraid?  Do not be upset with yourself.  Wounds take time to heal and God is patient with us. 

Pray and reflect on all of this with God.

Four Prayerful Reflections on Play Being a Form of Prayer

Playing is another form of refreshing prayer just as creativity is.  It can be “played out” in many ways.  We can play alone or with others.  It can involve the physical activity of sports or the sedentary activity of playing cards.  It can be dinner and a movie alone or with friends.  One of my favorite forms of play is what Julia Cameron of the ARTISTS WAY, refers to as the Artist Date.  The Artist Date is when we set aside at least 30 minutes a week to experience something different, doing something we have done before but in a different way or maybe it is something we have done before, but we haven’t done it in a while.  

Artist Dates are times when our play is not done with anyone else except our Creator. I call them Jesus Dates.

Because you do it alone with God, it is a special way of being the prayer.  Being conscience of the presence of God helps you to see things in ways that you haven’t seen them before.  It is no longer a flea market item.  Who created it? Who used it?  Was it a gift?  For what occasion? What can I do with it?  You can find yourself praying for the former owners.  Every Artist Date can be reflective.  It can be a journey of imagination and wonder.  

God’s ways are infinite and the possible reflections that come from these dates bring about a union with God that can be both prayerful and refreshing.  

The best way to experience an Artist Date is to go out, but that is not always possible.  It requires some creativity to figure out something to do in the house, but it can be done.  The cup of tea is done thoughtfully as it turns into a tea party.  The basement or attic can become the garage sale with new items to discover.  The effort to leave the house or use your imagination within your home can, at times, seem daunting, but the results are worth it.  

As we grow up and the stresses of the world weigh heavy upon us, we often neglect the use of our imagination.  It seems childish, but it is not.  

God used His imagination to create the world.  Allow Him to continue to use it through you.

As you are filled with God, you will be helping others if you offer the date up as a prayer.  It is you being the prayer.  A means of praying without ceasing.  It is not just an afternoon of bicycling, taking a walk or going to a museum.  You will be refreshed and that will help you to willingly be there for your neighbor in need.  You will come out of your playful time with a greater infilling of God and that is just what the world needs.  While I am focusing on playing alone and calling them Artist Dates, this is also true when we are with friends.  People hold God, the Creator, within them.  When we are with others and mindful of that, we are in union with God as we experience His love and imagination being expressed through them.  With your very life, it is a beautiful prayer to offer up.   Either way, if we are mindful of God’s presence, play can be a time of refreshment, a fruitful  prayer and preparation for giving our neighbors what we have been filled up with…God.

Questions to Prayerfully Reflect On 

Pray and reflect on Peter being a part of the imagination of Jesus in order to be obedient  from Matt 17:24-27.

Pray and reflect on the servants being a part of the imagination of Jesus in order to help the newly married couple while, at the same time, starting His mission.  John 2:1-12.

When was the last time you were open to being imaginative?  Talk to God about it.

What are some ways you might play alone or with friends in order to be refreshed, closer to God and be the prayer?  Talk to God about them

7 REFLECTIONS TO HELP US BLOOM WHEN GOD’S GARDENING PLAN IS NOT WHAT WE EXPECTED

Bloom where you are planted is something we hear often, but what happens when we don’t bloom as expected?

REFLECTION 

The tree outside my house blooms too early, in my opinion, every year. In April it decides it’s spring and blooms. Unfortunately the days of a warm April spring have long since passed and it blooms only to find its blossoms to be tossed to the ground by the spring winds and rain. More often than not I can only enjoy them for one or two days top. This year it didn’t follow its normal patter.  Much like everything else these days, I guess. It started to bloom on the tips of the branches and then stopped. Day after cold day it showed no progress.  It reminded me of so much of what is going on during this quarantine. Life was progressing and then it stopped. Like the tree we are frozen in time.

I started to wonder if it would bloom. Would I get to actually enjoy it longer this year? Will the blossoms still be on the tree only a day or two? Would more people get to enjoy it now that so many are out walking? Would people miss the chance to see it in full bloom if they skipped walking one day? As I was pondering the growth of the tree I realized that what I was wondering about, the tree wasn’t. In fact, nobody was wondering, but me. The tree didn’t focus on anything other than glorifying God. It would bloom when God said it was time to and God would be glorified by it whether one person saw it or many.  Nobody needed to plan to see the tree.  The gift was there and those who were open to seeing it and those God needed to see it, would see.  The truth is that God is in control and all the tree needs to do is be the tree it is meant to be,

APPLYING IT TO LIFE

  • How many times do we worry about the outcome and forget to enjoy the process? 
  • How often do we decide that success is determined by how many see our efforts? 
  • How often do we take inventory of our needs, determine what we need to do in order to have our needs met and then get upset when things do not go as planned? 

Unplanned circumstances that cause us to freeze in time, while at the same time, fill our heads with questions is not something limited to a health quarantine.  In fact, whenever circumstances are difficult, we often give ourselves a self-imposed quarantine as we feel stuck and don’t know which way to turn.  Currently, because of the quarantine, I am trying to decide if this is the right time for me to retire.  I saw this as happening in a year or two so the  suddenness and uncertainty are real.  Through it I know who has the answers and I am trying to follow God’s lead, while at the same time, trying to enjoy the journey.  

Trying to enjoy the journey when it’s difficult requires some daily reflection on where we are interiorly.  Some reflections that may be pondered for all of us in times such as these may be:

  • Am I experiencing peace or anxiety?
  • Am I trusting or trying to control?
  • Am I listening in silence?
  • In spite of all the difficulties, am I trying to enjoy this time in my life that will never come again?

Hidden within the moments that are difficult or unplanned are opportunities to grow and trust in God.  In each of us He is writing a Gospel story.  We need not worry about what is ahead.  We need only seek Him in the now.  

How we will proceed will depend on our trust in God.  He invites us to be totally emptied so He can fill us with His divinity.  Part of that means giving Him the wheel in the midst of our circumstances.  While God is always with us, we have the free will to decide if we want His help and to what degree we want it.  Oftentimes we play tug-of war in that we want it and then we act like we are in control and don’t want the help.  The choice is ours.

SEVEN REFLECTIONS FOR PRAYERFUL PONDERING

  • Read and reflect on Matthew 6:24-34
  • Is there something in your life that is not blooming as you had planned or that you had planned on and yet is far more difficult than you had thought?
  • Can you find gifts hidden for you within these circumstances that you had not planned on? 
  • Are you acting as if you are the only one who can solve the problem?  Or are you giving it to God and staying open to how He is directing you through prayer, others and the circumstances? 
  • Are you looking for the love, peace and joy during this time?
  • Are you trusting that step by step God is there?
  • Talk to God about all this. You are on the cross in the suffering that the uncertainty brings.  On this cross, can you see that by your very life you are an unceasing prayer?  Who can you offer the prayer of this part of your life up for?