Scraping our Problems off the Windshield of Life
We had our first hard frost in Virginia the other morning. I discovered this shortly after starting my truck and realizing that I was without a windshield scraper.
It was before dawn and very brisk….I had a decision to make: Do I sit lazily and wait for the defrost to melt the ice away, or try to improvise and use a credit card or other make-shift object? I chose lazy, and waited…..but only until there was a round 8” clearing in the frost at the very bottom of the windshield.
Driving Blind!
So here I am driving down the road, hunched over, peering through this tiny hole!....couldn’t see much to say the least (don’t say anything, you know you’ve done it too.) Luckily, by the time I reached the highway, the windshield was mostly clear and I could see enough to drive safely.
After traveling a few miles down the road, the heat had really kicked in and every spec of frost was melted away. Plus, it was getting nice and toasty inside the truck. Life was good……until I broke over a hill and found myself driving directly toward the newly risen sun.
The glare was unbearable, not so much because of the brightness of the sun, but because the inside of the windshield was covered in a dirty/smoky film that distorted the sunlight, causing it to scatter, and basically rendering me unable to see. I immediately had to pull off the road and clean the film off the inside of the windshield. I pulled back onto the road. Finally, I could see clearly and drive toward the sun!
"Problems" Inside and Out
Our lives aren’t all that different from windshields. There are forces from without and within that obscure our vision, and keep us from finding our way toward God. It takes great effort on our part to keep our windshields clean.
The stuff on the outside; frost, mud, or whatever, is our life situation. These are the components of our lives that are observable to the outside world. They exist in the space that surrounds us. These outside forces such as problems at work, relationships, money, etc, inhibit our ability to see our path….if we allow them. The key is to either change or accept these parts of our life situation that we consider “problems”. Either alternative increases vision, one acts as defrost and melts the problem away, and the other acts as Rain-X and allows the problem to just roll off of us, but both are proactive measures. Acceptance is not the same as doing nothing about our problems, which like choosing to drive down the road blindly with perfectly good windshield wipers.....we have to do something!
The stuff on the inside of our windshields is what Christ spoke of when he taught about keeping the inside of our cups clean. What’s funny is that the film that had developed over time didn’t become evident until the light from the sun glared on it. God reveals to us what we need to change in our lives by shining the light of His spirit on it. Over time, we begin to see how this “film” obscures our vision of the pathway toward the Son. Sometimes we even have to “pull off the road” and allow Him to make us clean once again.
How else do windshields apply to life?.....didn't even get into cracks or bugs.
A Moment of Holiday Frustration!
- Are we raising armies of mindless consumers?
I just laid a ground rule in the house (and I never do this): all toy catalogues go directly into the trash. For the past several years my kids have adopted the habit, all on their own, of sitting down with the little Toys-R-Us mailers and circling the toys they want for Christmas.
I’m thinking: “Great, why wait until Christmas to allow them to focus entirely on themselves when the unbridled selfishness can begin 6 months in advance?”
I said that they learned this “on their own”, but that’s a tremendous miscalculation. This is something that’s been taught to them (and us) from the moment they we’re born.
As soon as we’re old enough to stare at the television we’re told an incredulous lie: we need stuff to make us happy.
My daughter turned three in August and she is the most precious snuggle muffin in the world. She’s recently developed the habit of saying “I want that!” every single time a “girl” commercial comes on television. This makes me sick! “I want, I want, I want, I want…..”
How about “I want…..to forget myself and serve others?”….that’s the message that needs to permeate our homes! Let’s hit out kids with that one from all angles.
Let me make one thing clear, my 5 kids are the most gracious, serving, and selfless kids I know, but I see a shift towards selfishness as Christmas draws near; and it’s because I see this change in such awesome kids that it makes me absolutely sick. We do teach about Christ in our home. We do teach the true meaning of Christmas. We do focus on serving others first and putting ourselves last, but my fear is that the volume of the worlds message is greater than ours.
This has forced me to ask : Who controls the remote control in my home?
This has finally reached critical mass for me and it's time to hit the “mute” button. It’s clearly not possible to “serve two masters”.
Anyone else frustrated?
Rating Your Tempations from 1 to 10
Try this one on:
Next time feel inclined to do something you know goes against your values, rate how strong the temptation is….from 1 to 10.
Check out 3 of about a 1,000 examples from my life today:
- Tonight while working out, I felt like quitting….but it wasn’t very strong, probably only a 1 or 2. I pushed through it.
- I worked from home today….had distractions….frustration mounted. Negativity and rationalizations began creeping in. Pretty strong, about a 7……I could have done better with it.
- I wanted a second bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast. It was a solid 10+ (because it’s the best food on earth) and I folded, but enjoyed every morsel.
Win some…..lose some
But seriously, this mental exercise can actually play an important role in helping us make good decisions. No one’s exempt from temptation and whether you think the source is Satan, the ego, or your Lizard brain (Seth Godin reference) the first step is realizing that it doesn’t originate within us.
That’s why as soon as you play this little game you’ve already won half the battle: because it forces you to realize that it’s not you. It’s a force exerted on you from outside, maybe not from outside of our bodies, but certainly outside of our divine nature which is who we really are. This is the single biggest step to overcoming temptation: being the observer. Once you can observe, you have the potential to see the situation from an objective rather than subjective perspective. Once we realize that, “hey, this is that thing again” and take a second to quantify it, we can either dismiss it immediately or come up with a game plan to conquer it.
What helps you overcome temptation?
How do you deal with Cinnamon Toast Crunch?
Being a Spiritual Trash Collector
Does the negativity of others have you grouchy?
So I found myself sitting in my truck between appointments, trying to get some work done, and this dude pulls right beside me, opens his car door and throws a big bag of trash right on the stinking ground……and I’m in an empty parking lot!
Talk about getting me fired up! You can ask my wife, I really only have 2 pet peeves: one is discretely popping your gum, and the other is LITTERING. I mean, who did the dude think was going to pick it up.....little trash pixies or something? Anyway, I’ve heard that it’s not good to spend more than a moment or two focusing on the problem, so let’s talk about a solution.
In reality, most of us don’t have the audacity of this guy. We care enough about our surroundings to at least throw our own trash away. And some of us may even take time to clean up the trash left by others….and that’s the lesson in this for me today.
Being a Spiritual Trash Collector
Everywhere we go we witness people dumping their spiritual litter on the world. Strangers being rude to one another…..friends talking about one another behind their backs…..and family members holding grudges for extended periods of time. All caught in a vicious cycle of being offended and being the offender…….each negative act spiritually polluting the world.
The great news is that sometimes it’s just as possible to clean up the spiritual messes of others as it is for me to walk over and pick up that guy’s bag of trash. We certainly cannot remove the consequences of sin from an individual’s life….that’s between them and God. But we can sometimes remove, or at least diminish, the consequences of their actions on the rest of the world. Let’s take time to let our light shine when we witness (or participate) in such things. We can do this by sending our love, giving forgiveness, serving others, and just through understanding that we are interconnected with them and God. These simple acts will eradicate spiritual pollution from our presence.
Time to go pick up some trash.
Zen Master or Rugged Capitalist: Fusing the Dichotomy
Where art thou wise Yoda, in our time of Need?
Is it possible to pour your heart and soul into something without building an identity around it?
Is it possible to fully embrace the economic reality of our society without being “of the world”?
Three questions that have been on my mind lately, and I know the answer to each…is Yes.
Reconciling the Spiritual with the Physical
We are simultaneously faced with two opposing realities: we are both eternal beings AND temporary forms. Furthermore, it seems as though we are forced to focus our attention on either that which we need to sustain life but won’t last (the physical), or what we need to be happy, but won’t sustain life (the eternal).
Therefore, you find many people who fully embrace one end of the spectrum and neglect the other: on one side, a Buddhist monk who has relinquished all connection to the physical world; a pragmatic entrepreneur who disregards all things metaphysical on the other. Both are fully embracing life, but in my opinion both are incomplete. It's in finding the balance between the spiritual and physical, in splitting the Gordian knot down the center, that we find happiness in this life and success in both realms. But what could possibly motivate an individual to strive for something with all their being while simultaneously remaining in a state of inner peace regardless of the results?
Finding Meaning and Motivation in Life’s Higher Purpose
The essence of accomplishing this is finding a higher purpose for our existence, in something far greater than our self. This higher purpose, life mission, God’s plan for us, or whatever we wish to call it, instills within us a burning desire and passion for life, but also disconnects us from the results of our efforts. We have transcended the realm of the physical where results are manifested and we have now entered the eternal where we are no longer defined by the fruit of our labor, but by the mission itself.
What’s interesting is that this mission always centers on serving others and serving God, in which there is no difference. In Matthew 25:40, a mantra for my life, Jesus plainly states, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my bretheren you have done it unto me.”
Melding Mission and Money
This all sounds all fine and good, but we all know we can’t make a living helping the homeless or working at a food bank. So how do we incorporate our mission into our careers? In my opinion, your career, where you live, or any other aspect of your life situation is completely irrelevant to fulfilling your life’s mission. All that matters is that you give everything you have to fulfilling the measure of your creation, God will take care of the rest….He really will!
This is the essence of Christ’s teaching in Matthew 6:
“….Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth……But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven….For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also……Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on…….But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
So we can see that it’s through living these spiritual principles that we can find happiness in this life as well as the next. If we are passionate about embracing our eternal nature, God throws the physical in. If we make the temporal things of the world primary in our lives, we lose them both.
We look to Christ for the perfect example of life on earth. Not only did He transcend His physical nature, but He did it for us as well.
There are many examples of those who have achieved a high level of self mastery, but He is more than an example. We look to Him for our salvation. As the One who made it possible for us to be one with the Father and to transcend this world….giving us the ability to fuse the dichotomy between our spiritual and physical natures. To be able to strive without connection to results; to have ambition without an identity crisis; to live this life with hope and the knowledge that Love transcends all of the temporary circumstances we may find ourselves blessed to experience.
So imagine yourself living this principle…in full surrender of yourself and fully engaged in doing the will of the Father; giving your heart to fulfilling your life’s mission.
What can add or detract from your happiness?....nothing in this world.
Thanks for being here today.
Thoughts, comments, questions?
Meeting Critical Deadlines while at Total Inner Peace
How do you function spritually when 'under the gun'?
When Adam was cast out of the Garden of Eden he was told “by the sweat of thy face shalt thou make thy bread all the days of thy life.”
From that day forward man has had to meet the economic demands of this material world in order to sustain the life of himself and his family. The challenge associated with this isn’t necessarily in providing the essentials of life; it’s in meeting these demands while recognizing that we’re really spiritual beings in the midst of a material world.
We become so identified with hungry children, impatient bosses, and rush-hour traffic that we fail to connect with God, the source of everlasting life who can empower us to meet these demands with joy and total inner peace. This is the secret of finding joy here on earth: to embrace 100% of our duel nature; giving all our energy to both meeting the physical demands of life and remaining in conscious contact with God. To live in such a way that from the moment we wake in the morning until our head hits the pillow at night we work our butts off to accomplish our tasks while all the while remaining in a state of complete joy and bliss. Now wouldn’t that be nice?
Here are 3 Ideas or Remaining in a State of Inner Peace while accomplishing the Tasks of Life
1. Life vs Life Situation
It helps to recognize that there’s a difference between our life and our life situation. Our life is the essence of who we are, the part of us that God created, the part that is unchangeable and unaffected by our surroundings. Our life is priceless, eternal, and divine. Our life situation, however, is in perpetual transition. It is our surroundings and the circumstances we find ourselves in at any given moment. When we confuse our life with our life situation we become identified with our surroundings and believe that they can either add or detract from what God intended us to become.
I’ve used this analogy before, but we are like a deep lake where the entire disturbance occurs on the surface. Peace and serenity are found below the surface in the depths of the water. The lake is not defined by what happens on the surface, and we are not defined by the constant chaos and commotion of our life situation.
2. Play the Game
Once we understand that our life situation cannot add or detract from who we are, we can look at life as somewhat of a game. Imagine playing a video game. While in the game your focus is on winning, otherwise you wouldn’t be playing, but you know that whether you win or lose makes no difference because the game will end and you’ll move on to something else. We can look at this life the same way. When you’re under pressure to accomplish a certain task, give everything you have to accomplishing it, but remember that life is just a game. Sometimes we see it as a sucky game, but a game none-the-less. This empowers you to see the world from an eternal perspective and to dis-identify with your life situation, allowing you to connect with God regardless of the circumstances.
3. Squash your Ego
Our ego is a thought we have about who we are, nothing more. It only lives in our mind, but it is the single greatest deterrent to connecting with God and having inner peace in our daily lives. It tries to convince us that we are separate from others, that we are defined by the stuff we have and what we have accomplished, and that we are separate from God. It is the 3 year old kid inside us that screams “MINE!!!!” It is the part of us that becomes offended. It is the part of us that tries to convince us that we are superior or inferior to others. It is also the part of us that is worried about what others may think.
Becoming identified with our ego will absolutely guarantee inner turmoil regardless of how ‘good or bad’ our life situation may really be. We’ve all met people who seem to have everything but are utterly miserable, as well as people whose situation may really stink but are completely happy…..these are the opposite ends of the ego spectrum. How entrenched we are with ego will determine our level of inner peace while working to accomplish our goals.
The key to shedding layers of ego is to recognize it when it rears its ugly head. Say to yourself “Here’s my ego at work again.” Because the ego is nothing more than a thought, shedding light on it in this way will diminish its presence in your life. Just as shining a light in a dark room eliminates darkness, shedding the light of your consciousness on the ego will cause it to shrink allowing us to be at peace regardless of our circumstances or what tasks may await us.
What practices have you found that help you meet the demands placed upon you in a state of inner peace?
The 3 Most Difficult Things for Human Beings to Master- Videos
It has been said that the three most difficult things for any person to do are.......well we won't go there yet.
But let's just say that as difficult as what's in the video below is to accomplish, it didn't make the top three:
And as wicked cool as the dude in the video below is, his skills don't even register on the difficulty scale of the human feats we're talking about:
This looks a little tougher, but still not one of the three most difficult tasks for a person to master.
Ok, enough teasing! As difficult to master as the above human achievements are, their difficulty pales in comparison with the following 3 Human Accomplishments:
1. To Give Love in Response to Hate
2. Standing up for those who are not present.
3. Admitting when you have made a mistake or when you need to change.
Think of how you apply (or don't apply) these core behaviors in your life:
- Do you respond with kindness when someone won't let you merge lanes in traffic?
- Do you defend a friend or loved one when someone dogs them in their absence?
- Do you live in a state of constant self-assessment; willing to make any adjustments to bring your intentions in alignment with God's?
If you can answer "Yes" to any of those questions then congratulations, you've done something more difficult than breaking the world bench press record, beat-boxing on a national level, and balancing the weight of your entire body on the tip of your index finger!
The most amazing aspect of this is that the power to accomplish any of these three tasks lies within every single person on this planet. You do not have to have superior genetics to respond with love, you do not have to have super human strength to stand up for your friends, and you do not have to be an enlightened spiritual guru to make the necessary changes in your life.
The ability to master any of these three tasks is as simple as making a decision; a decision to do it. God has endowed each of us with a free will; the ability to chose for ourselves what we are to do in this life. It is in the mastering of this will, in the mastering of ourselves, that we can give all we really have to offer God. I'm sure He appreciates good beat-boxing like anyone else, but something tells me He'd rather we focus on smiling at the guy who just cut us off in traffic.
What say ye? Comments welcome as always:)
3 Essential Steps to Making a ‘High-Speed’ Connection with God
What forces stress the connection between you and God?
Have you ever been stuck using a computer with dial-up internet after being spoiled by a lightning fast high-speed connection?
Talk about a trial of patience!
What’s really frustrating is that sometimes my connection with God seems to be stuck on ‘dial-up’....and frankly, sometimes my spiritual internet seems to be down all together.
What can we do on these ‘dial-up’ days? The following are 3 steps to help establish a 'high-speed' connection with God.
3 Steps to making a Better Connection with God:
Step 1: Close the ‘Programs’ of the Mind
Think of our mind as a computer. What happens to a computer when too many programs run at once? We’ve all had it happen…..it crashes right? The same is true with the programs of our mind. They serve a purpose, but when these programs, or thoughts, are running they inhibit our ability to connect with God.
It’s time to click the red “X” at the top-right of the screen and close those suckers out!
- that song stuck in the back of your head……gone!
- the things on today’s ‘to-do’ list…..see ya!
- what happened on the TV show last night…..bye-bye!
But How do we Quiet the Mind?
Be the school master:
Did you ever have an experience in school where you were fully engaged in conversation with a buddy during a lesson and you look up to find the teacher and the rest of the class staring at you? What did you do? Probably exactly what I did…..you shut up! Be the teacher of your mind. But don’t scold the students (your thoughts) when they are out of line. In fact, don’t even judge them….simply observe. That teacher staring at me directly in the face had more of an impact than anything else she could have said or done. This first step is essential because a conscious connection with God can only occur through the spirit, not the mind which we’ve grown to rely on so heavily.
Step Two: Click the Spiritual “Connect” Button
Now that we’ve closed the ‘programs’ of the mind, it’s time to make the connection.
I love the account of Elijah the prophet in 1 Kings 19: 11-12 as he withdraws into the wilderness to commune with God:
“….And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. “
Notice that it was only after the noise was quieted that Elijah made the connection with God.
Think of the brilliant words used to describe the communication of God to Elijah: “still small voice”
His connection with God came through stillness. Our spiritual “Connect” button is this stillness, which is the space between the wind, earthquakes, and fires of our lives. To make conscious connection with God we must discover this tranquil place despite the distractions of life…and go into it. It is in this stillness that we commune with God and how we “Connect” with Him.
What is truly fascinating about this connection is that we do not have to go to a mountain retreat like Elijah to make this connection. I wrote about an experience I had in a recent blog post that occurred during what would have otherwise been a stressful situation. A connection with God can literally occur any time or anywhere.
Step Three: Focus on the Connection
One of the biggest mistakes I make when connecting with God is to focus on the ‘data’ that I’m ‘uploading’ to God rather than on the connection.
The spiritual upload I’m talking about here is what I’m saying to God….the actual language I use during a prayer. The problem is that I sometimes spit out words with absolutely no meaning. Have you ever heard someone accidently bless the food in a night-time prayer….my kids do it all the time, and I’ve caught myself about to do it as well. To focus on the words of a prayer, or better stated, to feel that the words ARE the substance of the prayer is all wrong! The substance of the prayer or meditation is the connection with God, not the language we may use. If we are truly in unison with Him, our deepest and most heart-felt feelings will emerge as a natural result of the connection.
As we move forward with our lives, let’s focus on quieting our mind and listening to the still small voice. I have found that my life is so much easier when I have a conscious connection with our loving Heavenly Father. My toughest days are definitely the ones where I'm on spiritual dial-up.
Comments welcome as always!
What if Life is a Song?: Composing the Melody of Our Divine Purpose
If we take time to relax and listen, we will bring ourselves into harmony with God.
I was riding down the road this morning listening to Dr. Wayne Dyer and he made a wonderful observation about living life to the fullest. He said, “Don’t die with your music still in you.”
What a wonderful admonition. As I pondered this, I began thinking about how our life is like a song, and how important it is that the music of our lives is in harmony with the will of God.
Here are 5 Ways to Compose the Music of a Fulfilling Life:
1. Be in Tune
I’m a novice guitar player, but at the young age of 12 I quickly learned that it didn’t matter how well I played the instrument if it was out of tune. The same is true with us. Our natural gifts and abilities cannot be fully utilized if we are not in tune with the Source from which those gifts emanate. One of the most wonderful blessings of this life is that we have the ability to do spiritual ‘tuning’. We can tweak the keys of our spiritual instruments and bring them into harmony with the Almighty. He has even provided a spiritual tuning fork in the form of the Holy Spirit that makes it clear to us when we are off key and require adjustment. Just as the concert musician tunes the instrument before a performance, so too is being in tune with God the most fundamental step one can take toward living a fulfilling life.
2. Choose the right instrument
We all have natural strengths and weaknesses. Regardless of how hard I tried, I could never learn to play the flute on a professional level. I’m a bulky, large framed guy and I’m simply to dang awkward to play an instrument that requires such finesse. If I wanted to become a concert musician I would need to find and instrument that was more compatible with my natural abilities like a stand-up bass, or even a tuba….heaven forbid! It’s easy to look out at others, see their success, and attempt to emulate them. However, this is not necessarily God’s plan. Imagine a symphony orchestra with only flutists…that doesn’t sound too appealing. It's the congruency of all of the instruments in the orchestra that creates the moving influence on the listener. Let’s make the effort to insure we are wielding the instrument God intends us to play.
3. Don’t try to Play Solo
God does not intend you to be a solo artist. If you feel otherwise, take a moment to consider what we take with us when we leave this life. We come in with nothing and we leave with nothing….no-thing. We leave our ‘stuff’ and our accomplishments behind. All we can take with us is what we have learned and the relationships that we’ve established. In fact, it’s been my experience that the greatest blessings of this life occur when they are shared with others. Center stage is over-rated. Regardless of our talent and ambition, let’s make sure to share the best things this life has to offer with others.
4. Practice until your Spiritual Fingers bleed
I remember when I first began playing guitar how incredibly sore my fingers were. I can still remember the pain in my left hand as I forced myself to pick up the guitar and continue to practice despite the fact that my finger tips were on fire. Spiritually, we are the same. It is very difficult to begin to change our lives for the better. Initially, it causes acute pain. But as we continue to pick up our instrument and practice, our spiritual muscles begin to memorize the movements, our emotional fingers adapt and become tougher, and playing the true song of our life becomes second nature. I remember the first time I picked the guitar up and simply played a song without even thinking about it. At that point I knew it had become habit and the long painful practice was paying off. Let’s work to achieve this on a spiritual level; to get to a point where following God is such a part of our nature that we are not able to discern His will from our own.
5. Write you Own Music
The song of your life does not belong on Top 40 radio. Music created for the ‘main stream’ audience is stripped of originality and creativity. The same applies to the song of our lives. Our Heavenly Father would have us compose music that is uniquely our own. In fact, I would say that it’s impossible for two people who are genuinely following God to create the same song. This is how unique and special we are! To live our lives focused on the acceptance of others, or in other words writing a song based on the reactions of the audience, simply strips us of our divine purpose. Digging deep and finding this purpose will ultimately mean finding God, and through this, others will inevitably be touched. "Seek the world and all is lost, seek God and you have the world thrown in", as C.S. Lewis puts it.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are all composing a song in this life. To bring our lives into harmony with God is to compose a melody that will bring peace and joy into our life as well as the lives of others.
I’ll have to admit, I’m actually metal head at heart. I’m wondering into what genre of music my life’s song would belong: classical, jazz, classic rock, r and b? How about you?
Please feel free to comment below.
The Law of Attraction, an Abundance Mentality, and How a Stack of Coupons Changed my Life!
- What is keeping unlimited blessings from flowing into your life?
Tonight I had a profound experience…in a grocery store of all places.
I was checking out of the “express” line on my way home from work. I held in my hands a 2 pound salad, custom made by yours truly, and I somehow managed to fit it into a 1 pound container….but that’s just how I roll.
Anyway, it was about 8:00 at night and I was about an hour and a half from home. I realized this around the same time that I noticed that the lady in front of me had slightly exceeded the 15 item limit by roughly a dozen items, plus the line was barely even moving! This is where it gets interesting.
A New and Surprising Reaction
Several weeks ago I would have harbored some negative feelings, grumbled a bit, and probably looked at the clock every 30 seconds trying to expedite the situation through the sheer power of my will…….But not tonight.
Tonight I was overwhelmed by one single feeling; and it’ the same emotion that’s filled my soul over the past week: a feeling of gratitude and deep appreciation.
As I stood there in line I was fully present and conscious; everything seemed to move in slow motion. I felt intense gratitude for all of my surroundings and saw that literally everything was a blessing. I was grateful for all of the people around me. As I watched them, I could see the good in them. I looked around the store. I noticed things I’ve never taken the time to see before: flags hanging from the ceiling, management bustling in the back rooms, the flow of people in and out of the store. I stood there in awe. I was grateful to live in a place where I could walk into a building, fill a basket, and walk out with an abundance of food. A quote from Rumi came to mind, “Sell your cleverness and purchase bewilderment.” I was indeed bewildered.
As we advanced in line and my mathematically challenged buddy was checking out, she broke out the biggest stack of a stack of coupons I had ever seen. It literally took longer to scan every coupon than it did all of her items. As the cashier scanned each one I smiled. All I could feel was empathy and appreciation for this hard working mom. Just one week ago I would have stood impatiently as more and more frustration mounted with every ‘beep’ of the scanner. Now every beep was a blessing.
As the last coupon was scanned there was a discrepancy requiring the attention of a manager which resulted in another long delay. The lady, who had already been uncomfortable taking so long, looked at me and said “I am so sorry”.
I had hoped for this opportunity and immediately said, “Please don’t apologize. I can tell you put a lot of hard work into this and I am so happy that you are able to save this money.”
I may have said something similar a few weeks ago….who knows? But now I felt it through my entire body. I could see her in my mind, balancing her checkbook and determining that she would do whatever it took to save money and help her family. I could see her sitting at the kitchen table shuffling through newspapers, clipping coupons, and planning this trip to the grocery store. I could see her walking down the aisles, carefully selecting the pre-planned items.
She was not some ‘thing’ standing in front of me in line, some obstacle placed between me and what I wanted. She was a person with real purpose, real intention, and of real value. I could see how this person, myself, and everyone else in the store were somehow connected.
The Epiphany: A True understanding of the Law of Attraction
I have been studying the Law of Attraction for years, but it wasn’t until last week that I finally ‘got it’. The law of attraction basically states that a person will attract the same types of energy that they emit. If you’re kind to people, then people will generally be kind to you in return…and vice versa. It revolves around the notion of karma and I happen to believe it to be a true principle and in complete agreement with Christianity (but that’s another article).
I had always understood the concept of doing good and getting good in return, but the real epiphany came last week as I studied Wayne Dyers book “The Power of Intention”. I discovered that the Law of Attraction applied as much to our focus as our actions. In my case, I had been focusing on some things (all good things) that I wanted in my life but had not yet achieved. This led to weeks of frustration and a general feeling of discontent; to the point that I even wrote about this it in a previous blog post. What I came to understand was that if you attract whatever remains in your focus, and you focus on what you do not have, then what you attract is more of what you do not have. This may sound trivial, but it literally changed my life and led to the experience in the grocery store as well as many others over the past few days. My focus shifted from the things that I wanted to the things that I already have and will have. I basically transitioned from a scarcity mentality to an abundance mentality.
Scarcity Mentality vs. Abundance Mentality
These are essentially the only two ways to see the world.
Seeing the world through the lens of abundance means that there are no limits to life, you see the good in everything, the glass is half full, the pie is huge and constantly growing so you’re happy to share as much of it as you can. It produces gratitude, peace, and yes, even prosperity. It emanates from our true selves and ultimately comes from God. It focuses on what we have and what we will achieve.
The scarcity mentality is the exact opposite. In this perspective there is never enough, things could always be better, the glass is half empty, I won’t share the pie because it’s too dang small and I want mine! It is ego driven and focuses on the things we do not have.
Now, with that said, anyone will tell you that I have always been a very optimistic person; very willing to share the pie and even give you my half full glass of milk! However, I was guilty of having a scarcity mentality with regards to fulfilling my life’s mission. My thoughts revolved around the aspects of it I didn’t have. When the epiphany came, I immediately let it all go. I was just grateful for life. I could breathe, smell, touch, taste, and enjoy my family and friends. My heart was beating and this was enough. I was complete with no strings attached. What immediately happened was amazing. I found that as I focused on what I had, God gave me even more to be grateful for.
I discovered that the only thing between me and my mission was…..me! Ironically, I was the sole architect in fabricating the barriers between what I had and what I wanted. As soon as I embraced an abundance mentality with regards to my life mission the miracle began to happen and the same can happen for you.
Here are 6 Quick Tips for Attracting Abundance into Your Life
The ability to attract success rests in your hands!
1. Be Grateful
Gratitude puts you in a humble state of mind. There is always something to be grateful for. Find the life under your life situation. You are not your circumstances, your body, or even your mind. The essence of who you are is a miraculous. Acknowledge this and thank your Father in Heaven for it. If you think otherwise, then that is exactly what will manifest itself in your life….more to be ungrateful for.
2. Refuse to Focus on the Negative
There is always something to complain about. Imagine you could choose to go anywhere in the world with whoever you like for as long as you wanted. As soon as you were there, your mind would still find something wrong…..the peeled grapes would be soggy….you get the point. Shut this out of your mind because it only brings pain and suffering, which in turn attracts….you, got it, more pain.
3. Deny Your Ego
Your ego is essentially your self identity. It’s the 3 year old kid inside you that screams “MINE!” It tries to convince you that happiness is everywhere except where you are now. It tries to convince you that you are isolated and separate from everyone else. It tries to convince you that it is you. It feeds on pain. Separate yourself from it, observe it, and deny its promptings. It screams “scarcity, scarcity, scarcity!” Laugh at it, put it aside, and choose abundance.
4. Be Present
The key to any spiritual success is quieting the mind. Take notice of your surroundings. Take notice of your breathing, your pulse, nature, background sounds. Don’t judge them, just observe them. This is the beginning of gratitude. Pretend past and future do not exist. All you have is the present moment. God exists outside of time and if you can periodically remove yourself from the burden of time it will only bring you closer to him.
5. Be in a State of Perpetual Prayer
Communication with God is essential. Be open to promptings that He sends you, they happen for a reason. I always think of this when I look at my Blackberry. It has two arrows, one representing when information is being sent ‘up’ and another for when it is sent ‘down’. Let’s be sure to do at least as much downloading as we do uploading to God.
6. Do Good continually and expect nothing in return
Christ taught the golden rule of human relations. He taught not only to love others as ourselves, but that to serve them is to serve God. As we do this expecting nothing in return, we will find an abundance of peace, joy, and many other blessings flow into our lives.
I am grateful for the knowledge that God gives us line upon line and precept upon precept. I have found The Law of Attraction to be a true principle, both for better and for worse. I know that as we focus on the blessings we have, share all that we have, and see ourselves as we ultimately wish ourselves to be, God will bless us beyond measure. I’ll never look at a sheet of coupons the same again!
As always comments are welcome and appreciated.
