Walking With God

God, Guidance, Life, Obedience 0

From the Spirit come both wisdom and revelation. We need them both to walk with God, need them in generous doses to navigate the dangerous waters of this world. If you’re the sort of person who tends to lean toward revelation (just asking God for direct guidance), then you need to balance your approach with wisdom. If you lean toward a wisdom approach to life, you must deliberately and consciously include revelation. Ask God….

Knowing that, we need to admit that risk is always involved when we encourage others to walk with God. People have done a lot of really stupid things in the name of following Jesus. For that reason there are folks in the church who don’t want to encourage this sort of risk, this “walking with God.” Over the centuries they have tried to eliminate the messiness of personal relationship with Jesus by instituting rules, programs, formulas, methods, and procedures. Those things may have eliminated some of the goofy things that happen when people are encouraged to follow God for themselves. But they also eliminated the very intimacy God calls us to.

— John Eldredge, Walking with God, p. 204

Suffering No Proof of Love

Compassion, Healing, Love 0

It’s amazing how many people believe that suffering is a proof of love. If I don’t suffer when you suffer, they think, it means that I don’t love you. How can that possibly be true? Love is serene; it’s fearless. If you’re busy projecting what someone’s pain must feel like, how can you be fully present with her? How can you hold her hand and love her with all your heart aas she moves through her experience of pain? Why would she want you to be in pain, too? Wouldn’t she rather have you present and available?…

You don’t have to feel bad to act kindly. On the contrary: the less you suffer, the kinder you naturally become. And if compassion means wanting others to be free of suffering, how can you want for others what you won’t give to yourself?

— Byron Katie, A Thousand Names for Joy, p. 73, 74

Maintaining Positive Energy

Joy, Letting Go, Life, Peace, Relationships 0

Negative energy can have a powerful pull on us, especially if we’re struggling to maintain positive energy and balance. It may seem that others who exude negative energy would like to pull us into the darkness with them. We do not have to go. Without judgment, we can decide it’s okay to walk away, okay to protect ourselves.

We cannot change other people. It does not help others for us to get off balance. We do not lead others into the Light by stepping into the darkness with them.

— Melody Beattie, The Language of Letting Go, p. 114

Doorway to Growth

Forgiveness, Growth, Healing, Marriage 0

You don’t have to forgive because they deserve it. Frankly, they don’t. But just as Jesus chose to forgive us even before we’d repented, the choice to forgive opens the way for the most meaningful growth we can experience in life. If you think you can’t possibly forgive, do it instead to set yourself free from that pain. Do it in hopes that trust will one day return. But do it soon, and accept that it’s simply a part of living life.

— Cheryl & Jeff Scruggs, I Do Again, p. 177

The Power of Stories

Life, Story, Writing 0

Our stories have power.  Let this power be at the heart of your writing practice, and let your writings awaken and strengthen you in return.

Let all these stories inspire you to spend your time more richly, and let that richness spill onto your pages.

Let your stories of change and stumblings illuminate the path for those hiking behind you.  Writing lights a bright beam for all to see, and that light leads to more souls sharing their experiences.

Let me give you a big “juicy pen” and some “thirsty paper” to drink up your words and stories.

— Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper, by SARK, p. 119-120

Every Experience for Good

Gratitude, Life, Peace 0

I remember hearing, early in my spiritual recovery, that we should thank God for every experience we have, while we are having it; that we need to look for the good in every one of our experiences.  I was not easily convinced.  I had had too many painful times in my life to believe it was all intentional and all holy.  It took more than a little willingness for me to review my past with an eye toward seeing and then accepting that all of my experiences were holy, even the most painful, and that all were necessary to help create who I had become, and thus had been a blessing.  Letting in the idea that there are no accidents allows us to give up our confusion, our fear, our spiteful anticipation, our preconceived resentments, our resistance, and our near-constant concern over outcomes.  We can choose to believe that every experience is on its own schedule and that showing up for it is our only real job.

If this seems too simple or far-fetched, consider this:  If you find out at the time of death that this way of seeing was all wrong, will it matter?  I think not.  In the meantime, it will have allowed you to be far more peaceful going forward.

— Karen Casey, Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow, p. 111-112