God

Well, there’s a big topic and quite appropriate for a Sunday morning as I finish my Sunday morning walk. My first 1.5 mile walk as I continue to reclaim my youthful vitality as if I continue to stare death in the eye. And that is another topic entirely. And that walk is certainly a testament to some power greater than little old me who only one month ago was basically a couch potato. So for those of you mired in the quicksand of anything in your world you do not like, know that your turn around is only a moment away!!!

So back to God – the most confusing and hotly debated topic on the planet. I was in a workshop yesterday with Swedish mystic Anette Carlström. She told us that there are only two things we have to remember! And as she further stated, that makes it kind of simple. Most of us can easily remember two things. Well, things just got a lot easier where my/our pursuit of God is concerned!

First, we need to connect with God. Fortunately, this is pretty easy also as it turns out. Scriptures tell us that if we take one step toward God then God takes a hundred or a thousand steps toward us. So God will do most of the work in making this connection – that’s a relief! Really then, all I have to do is diligently seek God. I have to make God a priority in my life. And the God we are seeking doesn’t have to be named God – any name will do. This is a personal matter and we are very much seeking a God “of our understanding.” So we each have a personal God, and even better still, God lives in us. So tell God hello in the morning and goodnight in the evening and spend some time with God in your own way during the day. Anette says 3 minutes twice a day is a great start and then grow the relationship from there. God went walking with me this morning!

Now that we have a relationship with God the Almighty, that power is at our disposal to use as we might see fit. Of course this is very much a collaboration with that almighty power and the power has some rules about its use. Sorry, God is not the cosmic Santa Claus or genie in a bottle. A great use for this power, according to Anette is to use this power as our ally to face and transform our inner suffering. Not generally the first thing most of us think of doing although in the Bible, God was used to cast out demons. And what we are talking about here are our inner demons. To find our inner suffering we just need to pay attention to when we are suffering – feeling less than fully joyful and alive. This can feel like sadness or fear or anger or any variation or combination of those emotions. So when we feel those things instead of running from them, which is our typical response, we can face them instead. And when we face them, they process through and out of our system, leaving us in our natural state of peace and joy.

Anette describes this facing of our inner suffering as sitting and boiling in it, much like an egg being boiled. Not a very comfortable situation.  And this is where God comes in. Most humans can’t take much boiling. After a few seconds we are ready to run and we typically do, and the job of facing and integrating these emotions/demons never gets done. No wonder we live in a world that at times appears to be full of demons – IT IS! And now we know who they belong to – YOU AND ME! Instead of running then, we can do the work of processing the emotions and the good news is God the Almighty is with us to help us! So as we are tempted to run we could instead call on our friend God (after we have created the friendship) and ask for help to face out inner suffering. And as we call, God rushes in and we clean up our emotional mine field instead of adding to it. This clean up occurs as we sit and face the emotions (boil in them) for as long as it takes for them to clear. For strongly attached emotions it could take multiple sessions. And with God as our ally we are now strong enough to boil as long as necessary.

So two easy steps:

1. Know God.

2. Use God to face your inner suffering.

Easy to say and harder to do. And the good news is this process gets easier the more we practice it! And the reward is far greater than we can imagine! Inner peace instead of inner turmoil! Who doesn’t want a bunch of that.

So I spent yesterday with 25 spiritual warriors in search of God. And I have God in my life more than ever today! And I feel better than ever. God is real and palpable to me today more than ever before! I am in bliss as I write this! Was in bliss on my walk. Plan to have a blissful day! I am on a road less traveled by and it is making all the difference! Join me if you will! There is room for all!