The Resurrection of One’s Life

    What does RESURRECTION mean to you?  Can you be resurrected and your life become anew?  Do you want to experience resurrection AFTER DEATH….or would prefer experiencing a RESURRECTED LIFE.

For some, resurrection is the news of Jesus having come to life after three days.  For others….well….it means leaving a home you thought to be normal and never having to be beaten again by a bullying significant other…..husband or wife.  Life suddenly becomes REAL and NEW….RENEWED….RESURRECTED!

 Moses would claim to have witnessed Yahweh in a fire of an unburning bush.  I would say we find God, where we find Jesus, where we find our lives are lived….in the present…RIGHT NOW….This is the true definition of spiritual intimacy.

Visualizing the value of your life IN THE PRESENT is why others actually see their salvation in knowing they can do something real, today, to save the lives of their children and their self by leaving a house  that is burning with anger but physically remaining unscorched. 

In other words, they find The One (God) living within and active enough to know they CAN do something.   These people discover both the resurrection of their lives lies actively waiting to be recognized through the veil of pain unto which they deemed NORMAL.

“I finally left my abusive boyfriend of 3 yrs.”  a New Jersey woman in her late-2o’s writes.  This would come after she had just been the victim of  “the beating of (her) life.”

What follows is the transcript of what a middle-age woman had written to me.  I have edited several spelling and gramatical errors…I have left some contextual annotations for emphasis…..BUT, for the most part….her comments remain intact. 

Over the course of some time, I have communicated to her the need to begin the process for making a change for the better.  Apparently the time had come…in a most dramatic way to do so.

“(After having recieved the beating of my life) I went to my local shelter with my kids and all the clothes I could fit into my truck. I had no money saved up to move out.  

“I couldn’t…or wasn’t allowed to save money. WHEN you are in a abusive relationship the abuser controls you. I was told the shelter would help me get on my feet.  I would soon find out since I worked for a living ,and was not on welfare I DIDN’T QUALIFY for any financial assistance!   

“Once (at the shelter) I was still in shock and adjusting .   IF YOU GET WRITTEN UP 3X (for violating the shelters rules) THEY WILL KICK YOU OUT.   I found myself getting written up 2x for coming in after curfew.  I was returning late from work.    (I had felt) we weren’t treated with respect.    (Being in the shelter) was like jail.    (It seems) I LEFT MY ABUSER TO BE PUNISHED.

“FINALLY, I had found a house for myself and the kids.  The only way I came up with the deposit was to sell every peice of jewelry I had since childhood and borrow some from family.  Since, I make too much for any public assistance or help I now have barely enough to scrape by.  I am on my own….finally!

“I am seeing a therapist. I have my children visiting with one as well.  My children have a lot of anger issues.  THIS CYCLE OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS THE HARDEST THING to break.  I grew up with it thinking it is normal.  DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS NOT NORMAL.

“I now know I DESERVE BETTER AND WILL DEMAND IT.  I am no longer in denial and I will do my best to make my life better than the life I THOUGHT was normal.   I AM A WORKING SINGLE MOM DETERMINDED TO MAKE IT.    The quiet pain of my past will no longer haunt me…NO MORE SECRETS.”

Not much could be added to this to emphasize the importance of how it is we are ALL in charge of what measure of happiness we will enjoy……or not.  We ARE all in charge of taking the steps toward recognizing our ability to RESURRECT our lives through the power of The One (God) lying there waiting for us to us early and often.

Notice how she felt when she finally makes her break from the abusive relationship.  There is lots of unrecognized clutter and distraction for her.  She THINKS life will immediately be better in this half-way house for abused woman.  She THINKS she will have found a place where nothing will hold her back like her boyfriend.  BUT, the house had rules by which ALL were to abide.  Because she was in shock and making personal adjustments,  even a safe place with structure and rules seemed limiting and somewhat abusive.  Her pain filled past painted even her greatest and best step as a worthless one.

But, I sense, she will recognize the purpose of the home of abused women and family member is to be TEMPORARY.  As such, the rules for the home MUST be consistent and unfailing.  It should create an environment where the desire and passion of the abused to MOVE ON lives on.  With her passion still intact…..she DOES MOVE ON.

Now, the challenge of loving the life she would want to love to live moves to another address.  The enormous power of her willingness to touch base with The One (God) within here is tapped…this time…

NOW WHAT?  The big questions to answer for her….and for those in similar situations is this…..

• WILL YOU continue to seek counseling to break the cycle of abuse you THOUGHT to be normal? 
• WILL YOU continue to believe you are a punching bag til’ death you depart….or ARE YOU someone to hold as precious and respected for the rest of your life?  
• Do you want to experience resurrection AFTER DEATH….or would prefer experiencing a RESURRECTED LIFE.

YOU are loved…..and LOVED RIGHT NOW!

My Guardian Angel’s Name is ‘Jack!’

    Do you believe in angels!  I do! I have one named Jack! I know…Angel Gabriel and Michael have a nice biblical ring to it…..BUT,…Jack???  Sounds sort of pedestrian….doesn’t IT?  And, if you don’t know Jack….maybe its time you should.

DO you know….regardless of how unwittingly it occurs…you set the stage for what levels of love, happiness, and/or success with which you meet?   You actually asked…unknowingly, to experience this or that (good or bad)….and it was given to you by The One (God) who loves you always…by an angel who perhaps was named….’Jack.’

Whether you like it or not….or believe it or not….YOU  are in charge and very involved with just about every life experience you encounter.   What you WILL you WILL do.  And, God responds accordingly….with, of course, Jack as his messenger.

Anth0ny Robbins, for well over a decade, has been a real driving force in offering this world various personal power techniques for experiencing unimaginable levels of success and happiness. 

I for one have often looked up at Mr Robbins with admiration.  While it would certainly be a stretch, meeting Anthony and sharing in discussion what I have learned about how life really works would be one very great and enormously fulfilling moment.  To this day I still plan on one day meeting with him…some how…some way.

Several years ago….oh I guess…I should say….about seventeen years ago I would watch a very young Anthony Robbins begin to offer his 30-Day Program for learning more about one’s personal power on the now infamous format called the “info-mercial.”   

Robbins, as some of you might know,  would have several successful clients helping him, in that very careful vague way,  to sell the viewer on a 30-Day Program and Journal/Guide for SomeBody to realize their full potential to become SomeOne.  Robbins would explain his rise and fall and rise to never be appalled by falling again.

At the time, I had to admit I was sold on the idea of their being a 30-Day way to change one’s life for the better.  And, I still am.   For years, I had always felt somewhat connected into many of the principles I would gleen from the info-mercial vague presentation.  But, I simply did not have the cash to invest my money in Anthony’s program.  It seemed a frivolous expense. 

In 1993, I still had hoped that one day I would have the opportunity to experience Robbin’s Personal Power program in person or simply by acquiring the recorded seminar somehow.

I am a great believer in the notion of WHAT WE WILL WE DO!  I know we have the capacity for creating set of circumstances, most unwittingly, to experience those things we truly ARE willing to know about.  Likewise, I sense that what we wish we simply do not. Wishing is fantascizing.  Fantasy is an illusion….a lie…nothing at all.  To think a fantasy is real….all should know….is deluded behavior.

I recently completed the publishing of a new book.  Writing the book, helping with the creation of the cover, and getting the book self-published through Booklocker.com, for me, was a great accomplishment.  It virtually IS what I was willing to do to make real a vision for encasing between covers some of what I have come to understand, appreciate, and love about a very spiritually rich and personal relationship with The One (God) in you and I. 

With that part of the task complete, I now had to figure a way to get the message of the book into the public eye.  I had some sense of how difficult it would be to do so.  After all, I was born at the tail end of the Baby Boom Generation.  This would mean the entire front portion of that group would be writiing their books.  The big publishing houses have a literal pick of the litter.

 This  particular challenge was the one hurdle that kept me from writing the book in the first place.  I had heard so many stories about how marketing the book would make the writing of it seem easy.  And, it is. 

So, what did I do?…I sat on my hands and did nothing while still wishing the book to become well read….As a result of what I was willing to do…NOTHING is what I had gained from the writing and getting it published.  For months, that very reality had been knawing at me.  Since then, I have been in a funk…with seemingly no way out.

Several days ago, a friend of mine is also apart of the custodial staff with the company I work.  He and I have spoken often about the content of my book, the frustrating feelings I have about marketing the book, and how it has caused me to sit on my hands.  He even said to me at one point, “So, Mike…I guess you just wrote the book to sell you a few copies to some of your friends….RIGHT?”

That comment hit home.  I know he was being a friend by telling me something that would shatter my belief in doing nothing at all.  I once again began to look for a way out of this mess of being more willing to do nothing than something…..Several times during the last few months had given a few thoughts to finding a mentor to get my mind back on doing something for the book….

Several days ago, a complete set of Anthony Robbins Personal Power II appeared in my office.  The Success Journal that accompanied the packet had been torn in one small place and had been written in….Obviously, I was curious about how it got there.  I would not say anything of it to anyone thinking it was somebody within the office.

 Eventually, while eating lunch I brought the event to the attention of my custodial friend, Jack.  With no knowledge of my interest in Tony Robbins, Jack smiled as he explained how he had found the complete set of the program thrown into the trash outside of the building….And, he thought somebody inside the building might find some interest in it….namely….ME!

All of us, I have come to discover, ARE blessed with an unconditional capacity to love and love well.  The talent and gifts we possess to make for a life filled with happiness is enormous.  Because our lives were made real by the only reality, The One (God), we even share in a capacity to will our Self into a place where conflict can be negligible….if even absent or eliminated. We can actually create a set of circumstances to occur….that….if we are listening are the cues and the answers for which we seek.

BUT, because we take for granted the very beauty of such strength of purpose, we seem to want to possess more a willingness to believe our gifts and talents can be wasted upon the deluded notion of bringing to life a lie.  That perhaps doing nothing about something valuable will be better for us.  As such, making something from nothing at all becomes what we are willing to do. 

So, what we will we do.  We believe, therefore, in a diverse set of illusions we call fact.   There are a multitude of historical expressions for where our willingness to participate in a flawed belief system had created conflict by the bushel.

Every person, every body (throughtout history)…sees much of their lives as a hum drum set of activities they MUST do each and everyday to feel what they believe to be THE HAPPIEST THEY WILL EVER BE.   This “happiness.” most persons believe to be apart of their life experience, will always have limitations.  It is, they say….”the way life has always been.  The happiest they will ever be.  It is what we do!”

Little do they know those limitations are set, seemingly in stone and in motion,  for them by the most significant adult influences from their youth.  This is the way most of mankind has chosen to allow their lives to be lived for weeks, months, years, decades, and even centuries.  It is the real shame of what we do in our lives….and to speak figuratively…..a sin!

We are so hell bent on doing stupid things and and letting the outcome of those events define our Self as sinfully ridiculous….how in the world does the world keep moving forward and evolving to new levels of spiritual intimacy?  That’s easy!  What we believe most in is but an illusion….The only reality, The One (God), pierces through the fog of such delusion to lead us with a light that no darkness could ever diminish or extinquish.

So, “WHAT WE WILL WE DO!”  because that is what we THINK is true and real.  If you are READY to be willing to experience what is REAL and TRUE….Just be more willing to ask…and it will be given unto  you….by The One (God) who loves always.  And, if you are listening and watching carefully, you may recognize The One (God) as having sent to you one of his lesser known but very effective angels…..Jack!

You are loved!…and LOVED RIGHT NOW!

I Am With God!

     How often have you been asked “Have you a personal relationship with God?” 

I am fifty-plus years of age.  I can not count how many times I have been asked that question and have felt dumbfounded that anyone would ask such of another person. For I have never felt abandoned or left alone by God.  I have always felt a closeness, an intimacy with The One (God) in both good and bad times.

I am not quite sure how others hear or read those words I have left behind in the last paragraph.  I often wonder if they are read as if to be arrogant, conceited, egotistical, or self-centered.  I rarely choose to make much of my relationship with God because I see no reason to personally egocentrically profit from something  that has left me with so much spiritual/physical/emotional richness from the very beginning. 

If I do make much of it, I do so to leave behind a message of EveryOne having the capacity to share in an unmatched spiritually rich love from The One (God) in you and I.

I am often intrigued by the response I get from those who claim to have a personal relationship with God…BUT, are unwilling to actually say “I am with God!”  They  tend to quote a biblical verse here and there where The Father claims to “be with you always.”  However, taking ownership in the relationship “to be with God” never seems to happen. 

I think there is a line….no a fence…no a wall…no an ocean of their own percieved guilt, shame, and sin that stands so intimidating before their mind’s eyes it tends to convince them that taking ownership in a relationship WITH God would seem disingenuous or…at least dishonest.

For God’s Sake….its The One (God) we are speaking about here folks.  An unconditional love is waiting for you to accept as yours, understand as free, and appreciate as always available for your use.  It sits at the very tip of your nose and as close as your next breath for you to see.

I recently had the opportunity to read a very good blog entry about spiritual intimacy.  Lori writes at the outset…”Let me just say at the very beginning that in my opinion intimacy with God is not a very nice addition to the Christian life…  (Rather)*… it is the very definition of salvation!”

For those of you who want to experience a more satisfying life….You must try to understand her message (and mine as well).  Taking ownership of a relationship WITH God is laying claim to a life that is free from all the pain generated by those silly versions or visions for how you THINK love is suppose to work.  You open your Self up to appreciating how real happiness is not only possible, but, easy to possess.

Let’s take Jesus’ journey through the desert. All those temptations he with which he had been faced.  Each time Jesus is faced with a temptation he makes one simple claim each and everytime.  It may have been with different words…BUT, he lays claim to having a friendship WITH God that is unerring and unbending. 

Some, I would imagine, will read my take on Jesus’ responses and assert….”Well…that was Jesus!  He was the Son of God.  He had a will that was much stronger than ours.”  To that response I would refer them to read the final conversation Jesus has (before the Ascension) with Phillip in the Gospel of John. 

The apostle wants to know how he can go to the place where Jesus says he can not go at this time.  Jesus, always the teacher, walks Phillip through the basic steps of the core messages of his teachings…and he concludes with “you will accomplish miracles as great and even greater than mine.”

I contend this part of the Synoptic Gospels is the centerpiece for how truly close is the relationship we have with The Father.  The writers of John’s Gospel, in their reflections upon the meaning of Jesus’ life made a stark discovery.  Not only was God an active participant in their life.  They too could be a reciprocating force for acknowledging this relationship by denying their afflictions as a force that defines them and leads them…They could actually pick up their matts and genuinely claim to walk with God at their side.

If you do not believe me….read what Lori said in her latest posting about spiritual intimacy…”The more you seek Him for Him alone, the more you learn His ways and His will!

“I always thought doing God’s will meant closing all doors that might be “iffy” and hanging out in one or two “safe” rooms.  But,  the closer I get to God the more He kicks open every door in the room and even gives me tiny pushes in directions I would never have considered.”

WE, each of us, has an opportunity we wish to come true.  BUT, wishing is simply fantascizing something from nothing.  A real miracle happens when we becoming WILLING to participate in our lives.  A real moment of happiness occurs when we choose to say “There must be a better way of living my life!” genuinely seeking to know how real life works.

Finally, choosing to lay claim to being WITH God eliminates the attention we have paid for centuries to the outcomes of our stupidity and willingness to be ignorant.  We NOW have a connection right now with knowing what makes other people say and do the things they do.

Once more I love what Lori offers….”The more intimate I am able to get with God the more I feel I am able to connect with others. 

“I don’t think there is a greater longing or need in our world today than honest, intimate connection to others.    If we can learn this act from God, how to be “one” with Him and then perhaps with each other we will not only fulfill our own needs and destiny,  but, we will prove ourselves to be real, authentic children of God!”

Yes…..You ARE loved….and Loved RIGHT NOW!

Getting Refreshed with God

  IM with God: The Blog is presently going through a few refreshing changes.  Thanks for stopping by to visit.