(223) Create an Indwelling for God

(from a letter to a friend)
please Please PLEASE

Be sure to keep God first.

It's crucial to be clear on the intent behind our actions and thoughts. Intent is key. Are you living your life for God's glory, or for your own?

Keep God first.

and then pour everything into Him, your worries, your stress, your fears and all the things that keep you feeling isolated and alone. God wants you to seek only Him, and to give over all distractions to Him.

A favorite line of mine is: "Search for God the way that a man whose hair is on fire will search for water."

This material world will fade away. It's an illusion. I'm coming to learn that the most important thing we can do is create an indwelling for God in our hearts, so that our family, our friends, and all who meet and interact with us can experience God's love shining through us.

You have been given a good and kind heart, and a spirit that can discern many things. Keep searching for God, and keep Him first in every way.

I'm proud of you.

...for the record, I also find "Keeping God First" to be a personal challenge.

I haven't shared this before, but....I visualize my life force, my ki, my spirit, as a powerful and formless energy. It rises out of the back of my neck like wild kundalini energy. I focus on a person and direct my energy to them. I basically "think it" on its way and my spirit hurtles through time and space to those whom I've asked it to support, comfort, energize and celebrate. It responds to love (expands, actually), and this visualization is a key element in lifting me out of the concerns and fears (and limitations) of the ego.

The thing is, I don't know if I'm doing this for God's glory, or for my own.

I'd like to think I'm treating this ability as a faithful steward. However, the "pretty lights and neon fireworks" of untamed kundalini energy racing out of my body is very cool to picture, and the accompanying thought that "I'm doing good and important works of love and charity" distracts me from the essential point. It's as if the ego wants to slide in and take credit for God's gifts. And then I recall that the ego's purpose is not to support us, but rather to keep us cut off and feeling separate from God and the rest of Creation. When I step back from my ego and it's narrow definition of "self" (an easy mental picture of standing above and behind a fussy child), then I feel as if I'm finally touching on my inner divinity. Keeping it real, as it were (which is funny, considering we're talking about formless thoughts designed to remind us of our interconnectedness to all things).

May God find fertile soil and take root within my heart. 

That's my thought for the day.

On the "illusory" side of things, I ran 10 miles last night on the treadmill! Woo Hoo! I feel reconnected and back on track with the marathon training (only 23 days til the big race). I also dropped close to 7 pounds overnight! Mostly fluids, I suspect, but a 2nd successful night of ceasing to eat after 7:30 might have made a difference in the total amount. I'm donating blood tonight, so tonight will be a rest day from running, and the post-donation Oreos will be a sweet treat!


6 cookies, slightly stale, but delicious all the same.


Everything in moderation. Except for God. Can't get enough of Him in my life! And for that, I am truly grateful!

Namaste
Frank