Much of my life has been magical. One door closed, another opened. One relationship ended, the next week another began. Whenever I needed resources, suddenly they appeared. Tired of one job, as soon as I'd say it was time for something else, another was there. Once I was chastised by an executive in the community for not letting him know I was looking because he would have liked to hire me: alas, I told him, I wasn't really looking.
Then somewhere along the line, something shifted. I cannot pinpoint when the change occurred, but I do know it was somewhere around the time that the world got much more focused on goals, metrics, master minding, and being able to demonstrate a plan and progress toward execution. I know it happened for me; I think it happened for a number of my clients. What happened?
I watched a movie over the weekend in which there was a line, "Let go of your plan and let Fate carry you." In that moment, a thought crystallized that I haven't considered for a long time. It has to do with letting God be God. In the old days when a relationship or job began to feel stale, I'd let God know it was time for something new. (My intention) But, I didn't try to figure out next steps or what I wanted. I just let God send me something better, and inevitably, it was.
I've been wanting a relationship for years. I've put together the collages that the proponents on Oprah have espoused, and I've put them under my mattress so that I could send the Universe my message as I slept. I've occasionally perused internet dating sites with unsatisfying results. I've even attended events that I thought would attract my kind of guy. Needless to say, I've been available at dances.
A more satisfying job has been on my wish list, too. I've applied for a bunch for which I was well qualified without any response. I did that again this afternoon, spending several hours modifying my resume for the keywords in the posting so that the technology could find me.
When I heard that line last night, "Let go of your plan and let Fate carry you," I knew it was time to let God be God again. Let be whatever will be to my higher good and that of the Universe. Wow! I can exhale because I can let go of attempting a job for which I will never qualify: the job of being God. I do believe what the actor in the movie implied by "...let Fate carry you," is to allow myself to flow with what God wants to happen. Allow miracles to happen. So, I will...let go of my plan and let Fate carry me.
Showing posts with label Let God be God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Let God be God. Show all posts
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Wonder
Nothing touches the wonder of Nature for me. Some even believe Nature is God. I am certain that I cannot distinguish the two. There are times when that wonder takes my breath away. This evening is one of those times: I have felt like I was worshipping at the altar of the park behind my home.
Just as I was coming out of the Metro this evening, the first flakes of what was predicted to be a light snow were beginning to fall. By the time I made dinner and had eaten it, the park behind my apartment had been transformed into a winter wonderland. I stepped out on my balcony to get a better look, and millions of unique flakes had woven lacy doilies on all of the trees. I could hear the rushing of the creek below and leaned out to feel the light cool splashes as flakes hit my hand and face.
I am not much of a photographer, but I grabbed my iPhone to attempt a picture. Instead of capturing the beauty of the snow-covered trees, the camera captured the falling snow, making streaks like shooting stars.
I've looked out several times since my first breath-taking view. Each time the wonder engenders a sense of humility in me. Whether God is Nature or God created Nature seems moot to me. That millions and millions of snowflakes could each have been created uniquely and woven together in such a perfect tapestry leaves me wondering what God has in mind for me.
I have heard a myth, which I believe to be from the Jewish tradition, that for every single blade of grass, there are 1,000 angels, encouraging the grass to "Grow! Grow!" That at times I either can't hear, won't hear, or just plain forget to listen seems small of me. If God who could send such support to a blade of grass and create such a beautiful landscape in what felt like a blink of the eye, I can only ask, what is God trying to do for me, and why do I resist?
Spiritual surrender is what I like to think of as getting my ego out of the way and letting God be God. Spiritual surrender is not giving up. Surrounded by the wonder of Nature this evening, I feel personally invited to let God be God--to allow God to do for me what is done for blades of grass, lilies of the field, and trees in the snow.
Lean-in was voted best new word for 2013. It implies that when there is resistance to push through it. I resist spiritual surrender, and I believe that it is now time to lean-in to my resistance, allowing God to grace me as part of Nature's creation.
Just as I was coming out of the Metro this evening, the first flakes of what was predicted to be a light snow were beginning to fall. By the time I made dinner and had eaten it, the park behind my apartment had been transformed into a winter wonderland. I stepped out on my balcony to get a better look, and millions of unique flakes had woven lacy doilies on all of the trees. I could hear the rushing of the creek below and leaned out to feel the light cool splashes as flakes hit my hand and face.
I am not much of a photographer, but I grabbed my iPhone to attempt a picture. Instead of capturing the beauty of the snow-covered trees, the camera captured the falling snow, making streaks like shooting stars.
I've looked out several times since my first breath-taking view. Each time the wonder engenders a sense of humility in me. Whether God is Nature or God created Nature seems moot to me. That millions and millions of snowflakes could each have been created uniquely and woven together in such a perfect tapestry leaves me wondering what God has in mind for me.
I have heard a myth, which I believe to be from the Jewish tradition, that for every single blade of grass, there are 1,000 angels, encouraging the grass to "Grow! Grow!" That at times I either can't hear, won't hear, or just plain forget to listen seems small of me. If God who could send such support to a blade of grass and create such a beautiful landscape in what felt like a blink of the eye, I can only ask, what is God trying to do for me, and why do I resist?
Spiritual surrender is what I like to think of as getting my ego out of the way and letting God be God. Spiritual surrender is not giving up. Surrounded by the wonder of Nature this evening, I feel personally invited to let God be God--to allow God to do for me what is done for blades of grass, lilies of the field, and trees in the snow.
Lean-in was voted best new word for 2013. It implies that when there is resistance to push through it. I resist spiritual surrender, and I believe that it is now time to lean-in to my resistance, allowing God to grace me as part of Nature's creation.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Letting God be God
My posts usually come at the end of often long days. Today I sat to write in the afternoon, but something unusual happened. There were no words. I've been writing since I was able to hold a pencil, and words have almost always been there. And, today, there were no words. I made several false starts, but I knew those words were from my head and not my heart. I washed the glass top tables, but when I came back to my computer, there were still no words. I did some ironing, and still no words. I watched episodes of two TV shows I missed this week...and no words. I watched a movie, and no words.
I had made a commitment to this spiritual discipline to write every day, and words would not come. But writing from my head and not my heart for a blog called "You Know In Your Heart" seemed like a serious breach in integrity. By that point, darkness was approaching. I'll do my grocery shopping, I thought; then I'll have that chore out of the way for the week. I can write later. You can probably guess that when I returned the words were still not there.
What should I do? I felt duty bound to my commitment to sit at my computer and contribute to this blog. Early this week I wrote about the angel who had showed up to help me with learning some features for this blog. One of them was the "Labels" feature, which allows me to make the blog more searchable. Well, I thought, if words won't come, I'll devote that amount of time to attaching labels to old posts. I set about reading through the last month's posts and labeling them. Then I "got it."
Reading my most recent 25 posts was homework for today's writing. If you have been reading regularly, you know there have been some demons that keep recurring on my journey. Being awake and present, consciousness, gratitude, forgiveness, the nature of God and Love, integrity. There was something missing though, and whatever was missing felt like "glue" for the others. "Surrender" was the word that kept coming to me. I've certainly wrestled with spiritual surrender before, but I had a hard time connecting the dots today.
By the time my labeling task reached today's post, I was ready to write. Floating up as gently as a feather floats down were the words, "Let God be God." A smile came to my face, and a knowing chuckle caught in my throat. In my day job, I'd describe the problem as role ambiguity--not being clear about what my role is and what God's role is. My job is to be awake, present, and listening so that I may be led, allowing the world to experience God's love through me. I am to ask for help, probably even when I don't think I need it, be grateful, offer forgiveness, and walk my talk. Other duties as assigned, of course, such as writing this blog and books that may bubble up from within me. That's it.
Everything else is God's job. Most importantly, God gets to be God. That is explicitly omitted from my job description. Enter "surrender." I believe that it is important for us to do the work we are given, to learn and grow spiritually, and to develop our "God given" talents. Holding to those intentions may be the only things in our lives that are real. God's job is to determine how these play out and on what time schedule they occur.
That's where surrender comes in. For me and many others, "surrender" seems counter rational in our modern driven society. We are taught to take charge of our lives: active on the world before it acts on us. That is playing God. Doing so requires resisting the forces of the Universe. It is exhausting and counter-productive. Sigh! Surrendering allows us to float through life on the River of Peace, like I did when I was in Greece and the waters parted at every turn to get me to the publishing house. ("Being Led", 11/4/13) Why on earth would I want to resist that? I cannot for the life of me figure out one good reason.
I surrender.
I will let God be God.
I had made a commitment to this spiritual discipline to write every day, and words would not come. But writing from my head and not my heart for a blog called "You Know In Your Heart" seemed like a serious breach in integrity. By that point, darkness was approaching. I'll do my grocery shopping, I thought; then I'll have that chore out of the way for the week. I can write later. You can probably guess that when I returned the words were still not there.
What should I do? I felt duty bound to my commitment to sit at my computer and contribute to this blog. Early this week I wrote about the angel who had showed up to help me with learning some features for this blog. One of them was the "Labels" feature, which allows me to make the blog more searchable. Well, I thought, if words won't come, I'll devote that amount of time to attaching labels to old posts. I set about reading through the last month's posts and labeling them. Then I "got it."
Reading my most recent 25 posts was homework for today's writing. If you have been reading regularly, you know there have been some demons that keep recurring on my journey. Being awake and present, consciousness, gratitude, forgiveness, the nature of God and Love, integrity. There was something missing though, and whatever was missing felt like "glue" for the others. "Surrender" was the word that kept coming to me. I've certainly wrestled with spiritual surrender before, but I had a hard time connecting the dots today.
By the time my labeling task reached today's post, I was ready to write. Floating up as gently as a feather floats down were the words, "Let God be God." A smile came to my face, and a knowing chuckle caught in my throat. In my day job, I'd describe the problem as role ambiguity--not being clear about what my role is and what God's role is. My job is to be awake, present, and listening so that I may be led, allowing the world to experience God's love through me. I am to ask for help, probably even when I don't think I need it, be grateful, offer forgiveness, and walk my talk. Other duties as assigned, of course, such as writing this blog and books that may bubble up from within me. That's it.
Everything else is God's job. Most importantly, God gets to be God. That is explicitly omitted from my job description. Enter "surrender." I believe that it is important for us to do the work we are given, to learn and grow spiritually, and to develop our "God given" talents. Holding to those intentions may be the only things in our lives that are real. God's job is to determine how these play out and on what time schedule they occur.
That's where surrender comes in. For me and many others, "surrender" seems counter rational in our modern driven society. We are taught to take charge of our lives: active on the world before it acts on us. That is playing God. Doing so requires resisting the forces of the Universe. It is exhausting and counter-productive. Sigh! Surrendering allows us to float through life on the River of Peace, like I did when I was in Greece and the waters parted at every turn to get me to the publishing house. ("Being Led", 11/4/13) Why on earth would I want to resist that? I cannot for the life of me figure out one good reason.
I surrender.
I will let God be God.
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