Grateful for the Lessons

Gratitude, Growth, Letting Go 0

We even want to be grateful for the lessons we have.  Don’t run from the lessons; they are little packages of treasure that have been given to us.  As we learn from them, our lives change for the better.  I now rejoice whenever I see another portion of the dark side of myself.  I know that it means that I am ready to let go of something that has been hindering my life.  I say, “Thank you for showing me this, so I can heal it and move on.”  So, whether the lesson is a “problem” that has cropped up, or an opportunity to see an old, negative pattern within us that it is time to let go of, rejoice!

— Louise L. Hay, Gratitude: A Way of Life, p. 4-5

Better Late Than Never

Forgiveness, Growth, Life 0

As we renew our commitment to the processes of life, then the processes of life will recommit to us.  We’ll feel forgiven for a past that wasn’t all it should have been when we commit to a future that is all that it can, should, and will be — now that we’ve finally grown up.

The prodigal son did get home late, having partied hard, but his father rejoiced to see him.  And so does ours.

Wherever you’ve been, and whatever you’ve done so far, your entire life was building up to this moment.  Now is the time to burst forth into your greatness — a greatness you could never have achieved without going through exactly the things you’ve gone through.  Everything you’ve experienced was grist for the mill by which you become who you are.  As low as you might have descended, in God there are no limits to how high you can go now.  It is not too late.  You are not to old.  You are right on time.  And you are better than you know.

— Marianne Williamson, The Age of Miracles, p. 9

Forgiveness Is a Journey.

Forgiveness, Growth, Healing 0

Forgiveness about injuries this deep does not come easily or quickly.  There can’t always be a moment of forgiveness, when suddenly our lives are transformed.  We are human.  We need time to process our experiences, to mourn, to separate, to grow.  Forgiveness brews within us, expedited according to our own creative capacities, impeded by our conflicts, a mysterious product of the human spirit.  The reclamation of love and of the forgiving self is an arduous and profound journey.

— Robert Karen, PhD, The Forgiving Self, p. 60

Resting in Jesus

Growth, Life, Story 0

Resting in Jesus is not applying a spiritual formula to ourselves as a kind of fix-it.  It is the essence of repentance.  It is letting our heart tell us where we are in our own story so that Jesus can minister to us out of the Story of his love for us.  When, in a given moment, we lay down our false self and the smaller story of whatever performance has sustained us, when we give up everything else but him, we experience the freedom of knowing that he simply loves us where we are.  We begin just to be, having our identity anchored in him.  We begin to experience our spiritual life as the “easy yoke and light burden” Jesus tells us is his experience.

— Brent Curtis & John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance, p. 174-175

Seeking, But Letting Go

Growth, Letting Go, Life 0

It’s admirable and healthy to go after our dreams, know what we want to accomplish, what we want to achieve, get, and gain.  But whether it’s a person, place, attribute, value, or thing, after we identify what it is we want and are seeking, then we need to let it go and know, not in our minds although that’s a good place to start, but in our hearts and souls that we’re okay — whole, complete, and at peace — whether we ever get what we’re after or not.

Melody Beattie, Playing It By Heart, p. 175

Renewed Vision

Growth, Inspiration, Life 0

One of the most poisonous of all Satan’s whispers is simply, “Things will never change.”  That lie kills expectation, trapping our heart forever in the present.  To keep desire alive and flourishing, we must renew our vision for what lies ahead.  Things will not always be like this.  Jesus has promised to “make all things new.”  Eye has not seen, ear has not heard all that God has in store for his lovers, which does not mean “we have no clue so don’t even try to imagine,” but rather, you cannot outdream God.  Desire is kept alive by imagination, the antidote to resignation.  We will need imagination, which is to say, we will need hope.

Brent Curtis and John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance, p. 156

You Don’t Have to Listen

Growth, Letting Go, Relationships 0

He won’t change unless he wants to.  If his partner confronts his verbal battering, if she recognizes it for what it is, if she asks for change and he refuses, if his attitude is, as one abuser put it, “I can say anything I want!” the partner may realize that he can say anything he wants, however, she may also realize that there is nothing heroic about staying around to hear it.

— Patricia Evans, The Verbally Abusive Relationship, p. 34

Choose to Change Your Thinking

Growth, Life 0

If you don’t like what you are thinking, particularly if it is harmful to you or others, you can change it!  What a simple idea.  But is it really possible?  Indeed it is.  And it doesn’t mean living in a state of denial about “reality.”  It means only that we don’t have to harbor any thought, bad or good….

Once I got over the initial resistance, a resistance that was fueled by fears of new behavior, I began to see that this knowledge — that we choose our thoughts and always have, even those hideously mean-spirited ones — can be very empowering.  For instance, it means that no one can put us down and hold us there.  It means that no one can make us a failure at anything we try.  It means that we are as smart as our willingness to do the footwork.  It means that we can change any experience we might be having in the middle of it!  All we have to do is change what is in our mind….

The fact is, we can free ourselves from the past and from any thought that hasn’t comforted us.  When your thoughts no longer fit your reality, change them!  You may have to keep working at it, keep challenging your thoughts and ensuring that they’re not holding you hostage to some outdated picture of the world, but the choice is always yours.  In every moment, we get to choose.

— Karen Casey, Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow, p. 33-37

A Journey to God

God, Growth, Life 1

Once you buy the evangelical born-again “Jesus saves” mantra, the idea that salvation is a journey goes out the window.  You’re living in the realm of a magical formula.  It seems to me that the Orthodox idea of a slow journey to God, wherein no one is altogether instantly “saved” or “lost” and nothing is completely resolved in this life (and perhaps not in the next), mirrors the reality of how life works, at least as I’ve experienced it.

— Frank Schaeffer, Crazy for God, p. 390