A Place Setting

 We are a place setting for God, Higher Power, Ultimate Reality.  This is what we do in Meditation.  We set a place for us to sit and then we wait.  We have done all we can do.  So we wait, humbly for God to come feed upon us.  What feeds God?  Our love, our repentance, our humility as we honestly look at ourself.  For the addict, the Higher Power does the heavy lifting, but then is hungry and wants to be fed by us, in this image of place setting, not by our works but by our silent waiting, giving up our time when we could be doing something much more self-serving, or serving others.  We burn out if we are always busy outwardly in service to others.  We need to be in service to our hungry heart that needs this silence and solitude, this waiting.  The spiritual life needs to be fed.  

Fireworks

 Did you have a fun Fourth of July?  Mine was better this year than last year.  Why?  Better fireworks?  No. Better attitude.  We have fireworks, noisy rockets right across the street from me in our St.Mary’s Park.  They are not supposed to happen, but they do.  I like to go to bed early, so last year, my first here for these fireworks, I was upset with all the noise interrupting my routines.  But a lot of other people might have been very happy with local rockets shooting off into the sky, and no fog to get in the way.  Our town has water on three sides, so we have fireworks.  The City does them over the Bay where there is fog and big crowds along the waterfronts.  From my room, there are no crowds, and no fog.  So I am into acceptance.  Life on life’s terms and that many people stay up late and enjoy these events.  I am not grumpy this morning.  Just glad that this holiday comes but once a year.  

As I Am

 I turn myself over to God as I am. God does the heavy lifting.  It is called grace.  So what is my part in this?  The effort to turn myself over to God as I am requires some humility and faith that “as I am” is enough.  So then, what is the next right thing for me to do?  A simple question that usually has an answer right in front of me.  As I am, with all my shortcomings, inconsistencies, inclinations, is not about to save the world, but I can do what is right in front of me that needs doing.  If I am a mess at this moment, small steps are possible with the Power of my God.  I don’t do life alone.  

Skin Deep

 I hear people talk about how they have seen the light and now are going to do the right thing, the tough work to become whole and be of service to others.  Then I never see them again.  What happened?  Excessive self-reliance is what happened.  In their “decision” there was nothing about weakness, or knowledge of the difficulty in changing one’s life.  Self will changes nothing.  We need grace, the help of others, the realization of our weakness.  Desire is a step but it is not the Power.  So today I would like to be my better self.  I cannot do this alone.  I need others and I need the Power, the God of my understanding to help me.  Alone, I am at best delusional.  

Differently Abled

 I came across this term, “Differently Abled,” when I attended a play recently.  It struck me that we can all have our differences, in the way we are put together in our neurons, our thinking and feelings, but different does not make one person less than or more than.  It is simply differences.  Humility, patience, acceptance are what needs to be developed in order to live with one another in our differences.  A person may be able to do complicated math in their head, remember facts, but not want to be touched.  Another person can have highly skilled physical abilities, maybe due to size and strength, but cannot master reading very well.  And so it goes.  We are Differently Abled and need one another to make a whole.  

Surrender

 You don’t want to surrender, as it makes you feel uncomfortable.  Well, how do you know since you did not surrender?  I have found that in surrender, I come to find myself, my truer self.  In holding on to what I know, or holding onto fear of surrender, I have no peace.  It seems insane to hold onto a fear-based life, but that is what many of us do.  We like the fear we know, rather than the surrender we do not know.  Surrender does not have to be dramatic.  It can simply begin with asking someone what they would do in a similar situation.  It is asking for guidance from someone who seems to have more peace than you do.  Yes, with surrender can come peace.  

Sitting In Our Space

 In some gatherings people like to sit by themselves, steeped in their self-sufficiency.  In other gatherings they look to sit with others, seeming to know their need for others.  That is why they came in the first place.  Churches seem to be where people come for God and not on another when they look for a pew space.  If they know some others well, they may sit close to them.  Strangers are kept at a distance.  In recovery meetings, good ones, newcomers are never left to sit by themselves.  In the pew, the person seems to be there just for God, but in recovery they are there for God in one another.  Jesus never said, “Sit by yourself and pray/worship,” but rather “Love one another.”  So who welcomes the stranger?