Gratitude is the Only True Gift We Have For God

Each life has defining moments. The moment that changed my life happened in a home for alcoholic women in 1976. I was in a discussion with Lois, another alcoholic from Brooklyn, and she was talking about her life. Midway through her talk, I felt intense warmth toward her and compassion flowed through me. The miracle was that I had had a very sheltered life and she had had a very tough life, but in that moment we were sisters and kindred spirits.

When I got up and walked outside, everything was different—trees, cars, the street—I saw everything with new eyes. It took me much searching to find out what had happened to me. In a book by William James entitled The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), I found that I had had a radical conversion.

Did I answer a calling? I don’t know what happened to me except I knew that God had given me that compassion and love that I felt that day. I know that someone with an experience is never at the mercy of someone with an argument.

From that day until today, I have tried to accept the guidance that God gives me and it has been the most amazing journey. I don’t believe that God does more for me now than He did before that day. The difference is that I now can see the daily miracles. “Once I was blind and now I see.”

Link to this blog.

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Prayer is Two-way Communication

By Carl Loves Somerset

When I have trouble “hearing” God’s direction, a prayer of Thomas Merton (one of my pilgrims) always helps:

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

Although I’ve read several books about praying techniques, I rarely have found a book as good as How to Pray for Healing. Some of the chapters include helping people stuck in difficult situations, how to get more power in prayer, how to get practice, and what to do when you’re healed. The book is available here from the author, Mark Dahle.

Some of the Dahle’s suggestions are: (1) pray at every opportunity, (2) ask for permission to touch people’s heads or shoulders ( I prefer to rub the upper middle back as this is a place where tension may be), (3) focus on God before you begin, (4) be open to intuitions from God, (5) watch for visual cues, (6) speak directly to the condition and tell it what to do, (7) have confidence even if nothing seems to happen, and (8) practice the steps that feel uncomfortable—you’ll improve.

A study guide for Christian prayer that was written to supplement Prayer for Dummies is here. This study guide is a 29 page Free PDF. It includes definition of prayer, the relationship, 24/7 prayer, dissecting your prayers, prayer techniques, roadblocks, praying with others, bookends to prayer, lost prayers, hearing God, healing prayer, and praying in tongues.

Amazon has a book description here for Prayer Power: A Program to Unlock Your Spiritual Strength.

Paths to Prayer: Finding Your Way to the Presence of God.

Prayer-10^th Anniversary Edition: Finding the Heart’s True Home.

When God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayer: Insights to Keep You Praying with Greater Faith and Deeper Hope

 

Adding Mindfulness to Your Daily Life

By jelleprins

Learning to relax and enjoy the life you have is made easier by practicing mindfulness. Use the following resources to practice mindfulness:

(1)  From “Zen” from youmeworks reminds us–”Mindfulness meditation is somewhat different. There is no particular focus. It is a process of paying attention to your ongoing experience, whatever it may be at the moment. If you have a pain in your knee and that happens to be prominent in your awareness right now, you pay attention to that — not trying to concentrate, but simply noticing it and letting it be there. You don’t try to make it different. You don’t try to hold onto it. You just notice it as fully as you can, including what is going through your mind about it.”

(2) “How to do Mindfulness Meditation” by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche includes this:

“In mindfulness, or shamatha, meditation, we are trying to achieve a mind that is stable and calm. What we begin to discover is that this calmness or harmony is a natural aspect of the mind. Through mindfulness practice we are just developing and strengthening it, and eventually we are able to remain peacefully in our mind without struggling. Our mind naturally feels content.”

(3)  From Jim Hopper’s excellent site, an excerpt from “How Could Mindfulness Help Me?

“Learning to bring one’s attention back to the present moment, including the ever-present process of breathing, over and over again, involves learning to catch oneself entering into habitual patterns that prevent clear awareness of the present moment. With continued practice and increasing development of mindfulness, one becomes increasingly able to notice those habitual reactions – to unwanted and wanted but unhealthy experiences and emotions – that prevent one from responding consciously and constructively.”

“For example, instead of realizing 5-10 minutes later that you’ve been lost in bad memories or fantasies of revenge, you can catch yourself after only 30-60 seconds. Better yet, you can learn to catch yourself in the process of getting lost in a memory or fantasy. In time, you can increasingly observe these habitual responses as they arise, and choose to respond in other, more skillful ways.”

 

Being a Mystic

“The most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms – this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religion.” – Albert Einstein

January, 2012  will be the beginning of my 35th year of experiencing being captured by the God of my understanding. The first year, I didn’t have any labels for it. If you are a mystic, you generally have to be told by someone else that you are a mystic and find out for yourself what that means. It was only after I read William James’s book, The Varieties of Religious Experience that I had a label of “radical conversion”. Soon after this, someone asked me if I knew what mysticism was and I was able to add another label. I am a Christian but have gained much insight from studying all religions and incorporating other practices into my spiritual experiences.

Mystics are found in all faiths and/or religions. Beginning the mystic journey, each pilgrim has an individual journey yet all will have some common ground with other mystics. For my 35th-year journey, I have let go of most of my earthly ties to family and friends. I felt an extreme urgency to experience and study my inner experience. So, although God’s gift is free, it isn’t cheap. I have lived without most of my family for most of the 35 year experience. I have never made a lot of money or taken the time to climb the ladder. I have driven cheap cars and owned very little materially. But I did what I wanted to do–follow the God of my understanding as best I could. My reward has been Heaven on earth–the peace, love, joy, contentment, fun is amazing. And I look forward to life’s greatest adventure–giving up this bodily burden.

Some of the spiritual techniques that my help for your spiritual journey are:

(1) centering prepares us for the Presence of God;

(2) deep breathing helps us to quiet our mind because we can only think one thought at a time–when we are counting our breaths in and out, our mind is focused on one thought relieving our anxiety;

(3) meditation and prayer;

(4) mindfulness.

According to Carl McColman, who writes The Website of Unknowing, a soul friend is a friend who provides others with coaching, support and guidance as they progress along the path toward fulfilling their spiritual and mystical potential.

“Of Mystics and Activists”  by Peter J. Leithart

‘The Challenge of Understanding Mysticism” by Richard D. Engle

“Understanding Mysticism” by Matthew Bingley

Mysticism: General Information

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Everyone Has Spirituality

By notsogoodphotography

Several times I have realized that concerts of any type are the largest groups of people joined together in a spiritual experience. Most people don’t recognize spiritual feelings. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, faithfulness. The fruits are from the Bible in several passages: Romans 5:3-5, I Timothy 6:11, 2 Timothy 3:10, and 2 Peter 1:5-7.

We each have a soul that needs to be directed toward goodness and away from negativity and sin in order to find peace and joy during our earthly life. We don’t have to die to find Heaven on earth.

U2 with Bono have lyrics that reflect Bono’s deep spiritual concerns and active humanitarian concerns. A group of young people in Great Britian have organized a church around those lyrics. He continues to speak out about the corruption of African nations in diverting the world’s donations to the African AIDS and extreme poverty.

Singer Songwriter Kem (Kem Owens) writes songs because he wants to get his message to everyone including the people who may not go to church. He says: “All of my success and every good thing that happens in my life are due to God’s grace.”

Much positive energy often happens at rock concerts. An example of this is on Russell Hawkins’s blog “The Original Mud Puppy”. He was positively influenced by a group called Third Day. As Russell writes, “Third Day and their music and their inspiring lyrics were the catalyst to pushing my life off the sidelines and into the game.”

My favorite music is from the 1970′s Motown musicians. So many songs from that era reflect that many of the singers grew up in gospel singing. I do my morning walking to Motown greats (Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye as well as others); the Eagles; Basia; Earth, Wind, and Fire; Abba; Norah Jones; and Sergio Mendez (Brasil ’66). Believe me they all can perk up the saddest day and turn it around to a praiseful celebration. Yes, I love my IPOD shuffle.

 

In Service to Others May Be Connected to Callings

By gregmote

“Yeats once wrote that man is forced to choose between perfecting his life or his work. Yeats was wrong. It is only a matter of which comes first — your life or your work. If you are a stylist, the choice is as easy as it is obvious. Your life comes first. Then you inject it into your work. You bring what you are to what you do. Your job should bear the imprint of your personality, not vice versa.” Quentin Crisp and Donald Carroll

“Try to forget yourself in the service of others. For when we think too much of ourselves and our own interests we easily become despondent. But when we work for others, our efforts return to bless us.”    Sidney Powell

Callings: Finding and Following An Authentic Life

Gregg Levoy

ISBN 0-609-80370-0

Amazon link

Service may come as a result of the callings that we may listen to and may make as the central theme of our life. Gregg Levoy has written about callings and includes this:

“Primarily this force announces the need for change, and the response for which calls is an awakening of some kind. A call is only a monologue. A return call, a response, creates a dialogue. Our own unfolding requires that we be in constant dialogue with whatever is calling us. The call and one’s response to it are also a central metaphor for the spiritual life.”

“They may be calls to do something (become self-employed, go back to school leave or start a relationship, move to the country, change careers, have a child) or calls to be something (more creative, less judgmental, more loving, less fearful). They may be calls toward something or away from something; calls to change something, review our commitment to it, or come back to it in an entirely new way; calls toward whatever we’ve dared and double-dared ourselves to do for as long as we can remember.”

“Saying yes to the calls tend to place you on a path that half of yourself thinks doesn’t make a bit of sense, but the other half knows that your life won’t make sense without.”

 

Waiting For God’s Direction

mckaysavage

When I feel that God hasn’t answered my prayers and/or desires, I know that I may just not be ready for the answers at this time. So I have a list of other things to do to get out of His Way and/or to spend the waiting time in peace.

Having faith in God has rarely been a problem for these 30 years that I’ve been surrendering myself on a daily basis. Even the two years that I suffered from clinical depression, I never once felt that God was punishing me or had deserted me. I knew that I just had to be patient and continue to surrender.

Do I believe that God waited two years to tell me that I needed to see a psychiatrist? No, I believe He answers prayer immediately. But I was 10 years sober from alcohol and had learned in AA that drugs were a crutch. Eventually I did go to the doctor. (Actually I worked in a psychiatric hospital as a marketing specialist, so I told one of the doctors there that I needed to see him ASAP).

The waiting for the answer is the hardest teaching of the dedicated spiritual journey. I know that the waiting is like being a trapeze artist. When I let go of one bar and before I catch the next bar, there is a void. That void is where I am when I am waiting. During this time, I practice removing myself from fear and anxiety.

Having faith in myself to hear the answers has been a slow lesson to learn. I tend to forget that He created me in His image. I also have a battle sometimes to accept that I deserve all of God’s blessings.

Being the oldest child in a home dominated by alcoholism, I learned to not ask for anything and, worse, I taught myself to not expect much. I have shut out so many of God’s blessings by thinking I didn’t deserve them.  I started working at 12 making potholders for sale and did a lot of business. Then through high school, I worked every evening in a drug store. Working hard made me feel better about myself. I believe that these experiences made me stronger. The biggest problem for children in this type of home situation is the shame of feeling as if the home situation is only happening to him/her.