His Will is My Will is His Will

There’s lot of talk about doing God’s Will. “You choose, I’ll follow.” There’s also quite a bit about it being about my will, what I decide it to be. Which is it? I think it means that God wants for us what we want for ourselves. God’s will is simply salvation – that we remember who we are. So the path He lays out for us can be colored by our wishes, our will.

God never forces us to do anything. He only encourages. Seeing the wider Point-Of-View, He knows all is well. No matter what our monkey minds might chatter up. God never stops, never loses patience. Why should He? He has all the time in the world.

What an amazing system He created of Cause and Effect which moves the energy in the Universe. We all have an impact on how it moves, in our own way, at our own pace, in our own time. By our impressions about life we are at cause in what’s happening to us. Our thoughts conjure the particular effect we think about. They direct our action (our cause) to the effect it produces.

Underlying the various stories we seem so magically able to create, is a brilliant, Loving Universe that wants to support us to have whatever it is we say we want. This entity wishes only that we experience all that life has to offer – the “good” and the “bad” – as it’s all God Stuff after all.

It is we carbon-based creatures who care to see this false reality of guilt and blame, up and down, love and fear. We can’t seem to get the game; that it’s all about Love. We find it so hard to see through the illusion to the Loving nature of the Universe.

We can feel it. Maybe see it in action. But it is I guess our challenge, our question to answer: Will we rest into that Loving Universe each and every day? Welcoming all that comes our way with love and understanding? Doing what makes us happy, helping and supporting others, knowing we are all in this together?

In the end, it is God’s will that we find our way there. Salvation is the goal and its end is assured. But in the meantime, it is our will that fills in the details. What we believe about ourselves, about our lives, how the universe works is how the Universe works for us.

Cause and Effect . . Because It’s the Law

It’s so easy to get caught up in seeing, being and doing “enough.”  Doing it Right.  But the truth is, this no such scale of how much is really, truly enough.  And the jury is still out on what exactly is the universal definition of Right.

Instead, the world operates on the very neutral law of Cause and Effect. You create a cause, you get an Effect. That’s just the way it works.  It’s merely about how energy moves and has nothing to do with good or bad, right or wrong.  It is only how we, who live in this dual world, decide to see it.

With this system of Cause and Effect, there are no “mistakes.”  Just the effect of a cause that you don’t like. The outcome, likewise, is always assured.  There is no way to fail at Cause and Effect.  All you have to do is make the cause and the effect will follow.  And you are always at Cause. If you did absolutely nothing, you would still create quite a stir!  Making a choice to not do is a cause, as well. As long as you are alive you are creating a Cause and there will be an Effect of some kind to match it.

I am doing a daily lesson of A Course in Miracles, thanks to Chris Cade.  Any seeker on the path should check out his web site.  Lesson 25’s idea is “I do not know what anything is for.”  This tells me that I can’t know what my cause will bring, what it might bump into on the way, which cage it could rattle, what window it opens . . . This no way of knowing what effect all those causes might conjure.

Doing a lot of work lately with the Loving Universe.  This Law of Cause and Effect is just another reason to believe it truly is a loving universe. I’m hoping to let go of my litany of ratings and evaluations, my clinging to outcomes and just focus on putting out a good energy Cause.

Shifting Our Vents

My friends like to vent.  They say it’s healthy.  I’m not sure I’m convinced of that. 

Now, it’s not like I don’t jump on that train ~  It starts innocently enough with talk of how tough the winter’s been.  Then, it turns into complaints about husbands.  You know, I just can’t deal with X –  fill in the details.  Before you know it, the conversation has tumbled into a pool of negative stories and complaints about everything!

Venting is contagious. At least the way we play it.  Sometimes I startthe game, but others have drawn me in unawares.  I still don’t know how to get out of the way.   It’s alluring to walk down that path of “I know, I have another similar story with different details to tell.”

After a venting session, I usually still want to talk about it to anyone I can find.  As if the flood gates had been opened.  It rarely makes me feel any less burdened by it – whatever it is which weighs heavy on me.  I certainly don’t see any more solutions.  Perhaps I just feel drained – in no condition to deal with this!

What if we could shift the direction the energy is traveling, spiraling down so quickly? Instead of upping the ante of negativity as to how put upon we are, how downtrodden our lives, how weighty our burdens, what if we tried to find out what’s really going on behind the complaints?

I, personally, think this process is better handled alone.  A pen and paper serve well to capture what the issues are – that way you can go back and highlight what’s real and what’s not – and it keeps you from repeating yourself.  Something that easily creeps into a verbal venting. Also, I’m not fond of spreading my negative mood onto the clean clothes of a friend.  It doesn’t seem a friendly thing to do. When we vent, we are literally spewing our stuff into someone else’s lap.  But, I know, not everyone is as comfortable with a pen as I am. And I can see the value in having someone there to help.

What if we worked together to find the root cause of the issues, instead of dwelling in the details?  The cause often doesn’t care what its effect may be, what the details of the situation are.  We all have stories, tons of them. They’re not all that different. The details come and go.  But that’s where we put all our focus when we’re venting.  It’s all about the particulars of our distress.  (How often, I might ask, do we go on and on about how good things are?)

Perhaps together we can hose off the emotion and try to find the facts of the situation.  Help our friend to shine the light of that passion inside instead of searching for the culprit outside. 

Listen to what you’re telling yourself. Your emotions are coming directly from there.  What are the thoughts that are causing you to need to vent?  You may discover the thought isn’t even true. Or that things are not nearly as bad as all that.  It may be true in some ways, but that’s a rather dramatic way to describe it.  Maybe there really is nothing you can do about it, at the moment.  Your emotions don’t really care. They just want to vent.

Begin to soften the emotions by stating the facts.  What really is going on here?   In telling the truth about the situation you start to see the gold nuggets.  The good stuff that’s always there, in every relationship, in (or around) every situation. Gratitude slows your breathing, calms your blood pressure, returns your much-relaxed focus to the present moment.

In the present moment, you are safe. Whatever the bad situation, it isn’t bearing down on you to take action at the moment.  You can acknowledge the help you have, what you have going for you.  Now you can handle the details of the situation with a freshened mind and a wider heart.  In a much better position to make a choice about how to heal, soothe or eliminate this situation.

Maybe it’s good to have a friend with you on this journey.  To help you find what you’re saying about it, search with you for the good stuff, and encourage you to dream up a more perfect scenario.  Then, you have something to work with to make things better.

It seems a funny thing to me.  These feelings and emotions we have are like flashlights.  You can shine them out and add to the emotion your friend is spewing out.  But is that what you want to create?  More of that?

If we shine the light, instead, inside, we can become aware of the thoughts that actually drive us. And are largely responsible for the situations and relationships we find ourselves in.  There you will have a clearer view, more control over your emotions to emote you where you want to go.  It’s only when you have your hands on the driving wheel of thoughts that you can take positive steps to solve the problem, deal with it, handle it, or let it go. Whatever needs to be to done, whatever will work in the moment.