Tag: God

And So, Too, The Expectation of Spring

In my weaker moments all I see is the ugliness left behind. Cold. Colorless. This winter here in New England has been relentless, with many questioning if will ever end.

Patience and faith, though, can get you through most anything.

This week I went out for my first run of the year. We caught a few hours of sunshine and some warmth and I figured I better take advantage of it. It felt like Spring was on it’s way, the sun on my face blinding me to the dirty and melting snow banks bordering both sides of the road. This day was a glimpse of what lies ahead.

Like all seasons, Spring is predictable. It’s going to arrive. But to get to Spring you need to get through Winter first. Winter’s wrath can be somewhat tempered knowing that at some point Spring will be here and the ground now covered in white will eventually be green and lush. The season of grey will be overtaken by the vibrant colors of Spring. It happens every year.

THE INEVITABLE RENEWAL Life has it’s seasons as well. Seasons of light, seasons of darkness. Life’s seasons, though, are not conveniently marked on the calendar a year in advance. Far less predictable, life is. But what is needed during the times of our own personal winter is the faith and belief in knowing our own personal spring will eventually arrive. We need to reacquaint ourselves with the seasonal nature of our spiritual world and move forward with trust in our own rebirth and resurrection.

The cold, barren personal winters are never welcomed but when they do show up will often have something to teach us. How we handle our personal winter lets God know we are ready for our personal spring.

Looking through my window, I know in due time the 3 feet of snow will melt away and the melting process will in fact nurture the grass and trees and flowers with an abundance of water needed to help them flourish in the coming season. Each season pays it forward, providing an invaluable gift for the next one.

LOOKING BEYOND LOGIC How do you handle your own personal winters? Are the unwelcome barren and colorless times in your life met with thoughts of resentment, anger, and bitterness? For most of my life that was my conditioned response. Things were supposed to happen on my terms and time frame. My challenge was to look beyond what was right in front of me and to trust that the cyclical nature of seasons would once again guide me to where I really needed to be. Simple, yes, but not always easy.

My resentment, anger, and bitterness only served to prolong my resentment, anger, and bitterness. Not a great way to go through life no matter how justified the emotions may feel.

The snows of your personal winter will prepare your for your own lush green spring. Even if all you see right now is snow.

Patience and faith can get you through most anything.

And so, too, the expectation of Spring.

What are you expecting?

It’s a great day to be you!

Alcohol, Red Meat, and the Clarity of Purpose

Alcohol, cookies, and red meat.

And we can’t forget about the swearing.

At various points in my life I’ve given each of them up for the 40 days of Lent. I was brought up believing Lent was about giving up stuff I liked to make the God I was taught to fear happy. Eventually I saw into the significance of what spiritual discipline was all about, but I never saw the correlation between my diet and vocabulary and my spiritual salvation. But that’s just me.

As a spiritual meanderer, I’ve often struggled with some of life’s bigger questions. None bigger than trying to figure out what God wants me to do Continue reading “Alcohol, Red Meat, and the Clarity of Purpose” →

Giving Thanks For The Things That Piss Me Off

Thank you, you idiot driver, for driving too slow in the high-speed lane and making me late. Thank you, you inconsiderate grocery shopper, for dumping 20 items on the conveyor belt of the 12-items-or-less express register aisle.

Thank you. For pissing me off.

I’ve come to appreciate such moments, the moments when I am in emotional overdrive with everyone and everything getting under my skin. Why? Because I’ve learned my reaction to the world in front of me says so much about the world inside of me. When my responses are laced with rage and anger and my thoughts and words become confrontational and judgmental, it tells me that real problem here is more about me than with the ones who have managed to push my buttons.

I tell my kids life usually never goes as planned and when it doesn’t what you do next is the important thing. Sometimes I need to take my own advice. Life so often is a test, those moments when life Continue reading “Giving Thanks For The Things That Piss Me Off” →

The Inheritance of Expectations

So, what are you doing with your inheritance?

When we think of inheritance we tend to think of it in financial terms, money or property passed down from one generation to the next. Some of us may receive such a windfall, and others may never see a dime. All of us, though, will inherit something far greater than money, something which will more greatly impact the direction of our life.

Expectations.

Life tends to give us what we expect to get from it and our expectations usually never let us down. No one has a crystal ball, but our expectations Continue reading “The Inheritance of Expectations” →

God’s Night Club And The Velvet Rope of Doubt

Perhaps this has happened to you?

It’s Saturday night and you’re standing in the long line outside the hottest night club in town. There’s the muscle-bound bouncer, dressed in his crisp-yet-slightly-too-small tuxedo, clipboard in his hand. On the clipboard is the guest list with the names of the “important” people, the chosen few who will be escorted directly into the club upon their arrival.

The not-so-important people? They remain queued up in a corral of velvet ropes, anxiously hopeful the man with the muscles and the clipboard will somehow lower the velvet rope and allow them entry as well.

Heck of a way to spend a night.

Hell of a way to spend a life.

Many of us have places we’d like to go in life. Things we’d like to do. Things we’d like to become. But somehow we’re not moving forward. It’s as if Continue reading “God’s Night Club And The Velvet Rope of Doubt” →

There Are Beavers In Your Head And They Are Holding You Back

We all have beavers in our heads.

Beavers are second only to humans in their ability to reshape their physical environment. They are perhaps best known for their prolific dam building, obstructing the natural flow of rivers and streams to create protective water depths to shield themselves from predators.

The beavers in our head? They kind of work the same way. They work building psychologically restrictive dams, obstructing life’s natural flow of abundance and unlimited possibilities, all under the guise of protecting us from our own perceived predators.

The beavers in our heads are nothing more than those negative thoughts which perpetuate the lies about ourselves we somehow believe to be Continue reading “There Are Beavers In Your Head And They Are Holding You Back” →

Somehow I Know This Makes God Smile

I’ll admit I’m not that good at praying. Unless you consider asking for things proper prayer etiquette.

For most of my life, praying was the equivalent of sitting on Santa’s lap and providing Him with a list of things I wanted. Some of my more advanced praying techniques included a negotiation of sorts with me telling God what I would do in exchange for me receiving what I was asking for.

Either way, the burden was on God to deliver.

These days, yes, I still want things. But I want something more meaningful than a new bike or the perfect career opportunity. It’s all about Continue reading “Somehow I Know This Makes God Smile” →

Every Day Is The First Day Of Spring

I couldn’t help notice the ugliness, sitting in the drive-thru line waiting to get my morning iced coffee. Winter has finally taken it’s toll on my psyche. As I look around all I see is brown and grey. Barren trees and dead grass. It’s like someone drained all the color out of life. Taking comfort in knowing Spring is less than a week away, I am sustained by it’s promise and expectations.

Spring has always been an uplifting time for me, even during my years of spiritual immaturity. A more enlightened version of me now sees the significance of the season. Rebirth. Renewal. Resurrection.

“To everything there is a season” say the Bible and Pete Seeger. The seasons ebb and flow in and out of our lives on their divine time frame, well outside of our control, each with something to teach us should we make ourselves available to learn.

AWAKENING In each of our lives we experience our own seasons. Seasons of light and seasons of darkness, of sowing and reaping, of laughter and silence. The challenges of life can drop us into our own unscheduled winter, the bitter chill of isolation and uncertainty leaving us emotionally frostbitten.

We may find ourselves in the grasp of such a winter, but how long we stay there is up to us.

Spring is always around the corner.

Spring is a mindset of divine promise and expectations, always readily available should we choose to realign ourselves with our own divine perfection. Any day can be the day of our own rebirth, our own renewal, our own resurrection, regardless of the storms and trials swirling around us at the moment. Spring is available, right here, right now, simply awaiting our decision to claim it.

What in your life is lying dormant, in need of awakening?

The good news is every day is the first day of Spring.

It’s a great day to be you!

The Marketing Genius of Satanic Ventriloquism

He’s been called the Prince of Darkness, even the Antichrist.

But a marketing genius?

Growing up, my religious education included many discussions about Satan, but never once did “marketing genius” come up in the conversation. But Satan has a business to run, and marketing is a critical part of his business plan.

From a marketing perspective, Satan has a very difficult product to sell. How do you sell people on the idea of never living up to their own greatness, of never becoming all they were created to be?

Continue reading “The Marketing Genius of Satanic Ventriloquism” →

Standing On The Edge Of Your Greatest Possibilities

A prayer and a parachute hoping to tame the laws of gravity and return him safely to the Earth below.

I watched in awe when Felix Baumgartner gave a wave with his right hand, stood up, and stepped off his capsule 24 miles above New Mexico. I watched the footage of his jump several times, more amazed with every viewing.

During one playback I paused the footage a few seconds before Felix began his jump. The camera angle was directly above Felix, offering an encompassing view of him standing outside the capsule Continue reading “Standing On The Edge Of Your Greatest Possibilities” →