Archive | March, 2012

What laughing off our flaws really says about us

30 Mar

  1. “I can’t believe I slacked so hard on that presentation, they ought to kick me to the curb! HA!!!”
  2. “Man, I acted a fool with that chick last night, she was BAD!  I never should have gone to that club with you!  HA!!!
  3. “Oh, I’ll work all night long if they’re paying me that kind of money.  For the love of money indeed!  HA!!!”
  4. “Ooooo they pissed me off.  I just had to cuss them out, they’re lucky that was all I did!  HA!!!”
  5. “I’m about to wear this doughnut all over my hips!  Man, I ought to hit the gym instead of this eclair.  HA!!!”
  6. “She just thinks she is too perfect.  I know a thing or too that’ll knock her down a peg.  HA!!!”
  7. “What do I look like, asking for help?  I’m a superhero, superheros don’t need help! HA!!!”

Often we laugh about, or make light of things we do, say, think or feel that aren’t funny at all.

Why?

Not only does it make light of something serious we should explore within ourselves and master…

If you do it enough…

You begin to embrace it, appreciate it, encourage and nurture it.

Pretty soon you’ve earned the label you joked about.  And when other folks apply it to you, the wondering begins.  When did I become the slacker?  The over-eater? The ladies’ man? The money-obsessed guy? The jealous chick? The conceited one? The loose cannon?

Well, rarely does this stuff jump up with a sign saying, I’m a big deal! Handle me!

Our troubles develop slowly over time, because there’s a wound we haven’t healed, and allowed to become infected.  Like a cut, you do what you think is needed to promote emotional healing, just like when physical healing is needed.  Maybe you journal, you vent, you cut your hair, you go on vacation.

With a physical wound, a doctor would notice a reddish color or swelling as a danger sign for a healing cut, but we usually won’t.  Then when too much time has passed, we think, “Hmmm.  This should have healed by now.  I’ll be extra careful and if it’s not improved in a couple days, go to the doctor.”

Our emotional wounds aren’t that easy.

An initial emotional wound will morph into something different over time.  When the symptoms of infection show, not only will they look completely unrelated, they will masquerade as fun and pleasure.

Instead of realizing your wound is getting worse, there’s a good chance you’ll dive headlong into distracting stuff that feels good until maybe it’s too late.

We really do know better though.  Even if we don’t realize it.

Those jokes at our own expense, the dismissal of transgressions… That’s the reddened, swelling flesh around our wound.

We’re telling ourselves, “Oh look.  There’s something wrong.”

But because we can’t see the adjacent wound that caused the infection, we don’t realize we need to work on healing it, and seek help if that doesn’t work… We let our confusion lead us to laugh it off.

The crazy part is, when we laugh off stuff we need to figure out, we delay our healing and no one gets hurt but us.

When we laugh off, dismiss, or celebrate what we should be healing, what are we really saying?

  1. Embracing laziness and sloth says, I can’t succeed, so I’m going to be the worst version of me I can be, by not even trying.  Why set myself up to fail?
  2. Casual sex and lust says, I don’t believe I’m enough for one person to commit to and be satisfied with.  I’ll use the shallow easy stuff to distract me.   
  3. Greed says nothing will ever be enough for me, not even who I am.  I’ll just keep chasing stuff to keep me from looking inside to see my emptiness.
  4. Anger and wrath say if I could beat myself up and hurt myself I would.  But, because of this pesky self-preservation instinct, I’ll be angry at you instead.
  5. Over-eating and gluttony says I’m not even worthy of my own care.  I’ll try to convince  myself every bite is a chance to fill myself up with love. 
  6. Jealousy and envy says I really wish I were someone else.  I wish I were anyone but me.  And I hate that.
  7. Arrogance and pride say I’m scared to open myself up to hurt.  So I’m going to build a thick impenetrable wall around me… And convince myself no one will see it.  

What are you laughing off, that needs a deeper look?

Pay attention to those moments, and see them as an early sign of an infection.

The balm is love.

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Q&A: How does love fit into the discourse on Trayvon Martin?

28 Mar

Yesterday I posted about the truth as I understand it, relating to how we deal with the heinous ills that plague mankind today.

It was kind of huge.

The post was sparked by the Trayvon Martin shooting that occurred in February in South Florida but covered a range of universal issues.   http://tinawatkins.com/2012/03/27/more-on-trayvon-martin-and-racism-what-kind-of-love-is-this/

As Dr. Seuss says, “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

I received an amazing comment that highlighted some particularly challenging parts of that post and am answering below.

Question: The one thing I question is why you say “God’s love is the kind that would try and convict George Zimmerman of shooting Trayvon Martin and see him put on a path of true reform instead of punishment”? With all due respect isn’t it presumptuous to assume God Himself has convicted George Zimmerman of a crime?

Answer: Well, yes.  It’s presumptuous to assume anything about God, other than His greatness and goodness.  The fact as Zimmerman stated and no one has challenged, is that he killed another human being.  We don’t need to pass judgment on why one kills another to say killing is not good.  What I hoped to communicate is that if that does happen… Shouldn’t we aspire to imagine the very best possible outcome?  One that maybe touches more lives than were lost?  It’s a tough thing to wrap the mind around, and my intent is to get those thoughts flowing.

Question: Only God knows the heart of George Zimmerman and only God knows the motives and events in the hearts of both men. It also sounds like you also have determined in your heart to know the heart of George Zimmerman. When you say “For me, that probing question dug deep into the heart of the matter of the Martin shooting, of racism, of poverty, of war…”. To know that he has the heart of a racist.

Answer: It seems to me maybe you read more into it than was written.  I don’t know, and didn’t  say I know on any level, the heart of Zimmerman.  Nor did I say he was racist.  The issues I raised throughout the post (which range from sex trafficking to genocide) are of pressing importance to me, though most are unrelated to the Trayvon Martin shooting.

Through the events that unfolded after the news broke, and the messages I’ve received, I developed a clearer understanding of the common theme between the varied, much larger and seemingly different issues:

They are resolved only through divine love.

Question: To know that George is “someone filled with hate from pulling a trigger” as you insinuate. Do you know for certain he did not act out of fear for his life as opposed to racist hatred? Is there a difference?

Answer: I don’t know and don’t believe there’s a difference: Neither is rooted in a place of love.  My intent was to highlight the fallacy of thinking a law can change how someone feels .  Our feelings are simply our feelings and no one can judge them, right or wrong.  We live with them until we don’t.   Our spirits are always able to be reconciled, refreshed, renewed.

This may be difficult to conceptualize, but my intent in saying someone is filled with hate at a specific time is to reference the emotion that drives an act of violence.  It was not to judge the color of their spirit.

Question: From what the public knows it appears that George acted foolishly, but I think it wise to refrain from judgement until more information has been revealed. Shouldn’t we be extremely cautious in pronouncing these judgements and careful with the messages we send?

Answer: Yes, I agree emphatically.  And, as careful as we may be with our messaging this is a complicated and soul-stirring issue.  Which means it will be received differently by each person who gets the message.

Question: Isn’t this a time to wait?

Answer:  For messages spreading hate and judgment, yes.  The world to me, seems flooded with messages like that.  I do believe it’s imperative right now, the world begins to see more messages about love, about understanding: Those messages must be carefully crafted and circulated.

Question: In fact there have already been perversions of the truth and misleading information in the media. First this was white on black crime. Now it turns out George’s father is Jewish and mother is Peruvian. Does that make him white or hispanic? Should that matter anyways?

Answer: I wrote based on details I could verify and that have been circulating for some time, which allows space for confirmation or contradiction to be addressed: Those were my presumed facts.  I didn’t consider Zimmerman’s race among them.

The amazing truth I realized is that for me, if this incident becomes a discussion of how you resolve racism, that resolution has to come from a place of Godly love.  Race is a non-factor in that universal truth.

Question: Shouldn’t the only thing that really matters be that Trayvon Martin is dead and tragically so?

Answer: No.  Violence of all kinds, driven by greed, lust, racism, and other forces is a persistent and pervasive global issue.  So as we work to understand our hearts in response to this, as human beings, I believe we have to question where that originates from.

Question:  I heard of a 17 year old being shot dead in Whittier today on the radio. At the time no other information given. Should we wait to see what the color of skin the victim and the shooter were before we are horrified? Do we care less about that 17 year old than about Trayvon? And if so what does that say about us? If it is white on black crime is that a hate crime while black on black murder is not hateful? Aren’t all human lives valuable to God equally? Should we be upset because “one of us” was killed by “one of them”? If we see each other as “us” and “them” has not the enemy already divided us? Has not the enemy already won? When will “us” and “them” become we? When will a black was killed by a white become one of our sons was killed by another of our sons? I genuinely do not understand why there are rallies and marches for Trayvon and not for any other 17 boy or girl when they are killed.

Answer: I agree completely:  The realization of truth I’m resting in is that we really are all brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters… And because of that, responding with love is paramount.

Especially when it seems most difficult.

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More on Trayvon Martin and Racism: What kind of love is this?

27 Mar

Monday, March 26th I had the privilege to speak on behalf of www.wlcac.org at the Los Angeles rally and march for Trayvon Martin organized by Zsanae Davis, A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition, the NAACP and others.

While listening to Ashmont Hill’s “Running,” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg2gUs1w-h0) my morning meditation on the message I’d convey, surprised me.

“What kind of love is this?”

For me, that probing question dug deep into the heart of the matter of the Martin shooting, of racism, of poverty, of war…

I’ve struggled all my life with the answer to the question of how humanity can reach its highest potential, living in a peaceful, love-filled state of abundance and truth.

Boy does that sound crazy, right?

There’s not a sane man or woman alive who would actually believe that was possible.

How naïve to think that could happen.

There’s no way people will decide to set aside and overcome the driving forces of greed, hatred, power, sex, and control to sing Kumbaya together.

Exactly.

Ultimately, there is no law, no leader, no movement, no fundraiser, no study, no media that will stop someone filled with hate from pulling a trigger;  committing a rape; profiting off the needy; perpetuating genocide; oppressing others; decimating a nation.

Only love stops these horrors.

I don’t mean that good ol’ fashioned human love, that is jealous and competitive and possessive and wounded and conditional.

I don’t mean the kind of Earthly love that fuels rage, blood-lust, and vengeance.

What kind of love is this?

Here on Earth, the going sentiment seems to be that if you kill or rape enough people you should be made an example of: Your life’s ending a glory for mankind to celebrate.

Here on Earth, folk seem to believe that if you kill the wrong person for the wrong reasons, you should be killed by the right person for the right reasons.

Here on Earth, the cries seem to resound loud and clear:

  • We hate you for hating others!
  • We will control your hate so you can’t hurt us!
  • We will isolate ourselves from you so you can’t damage us!
  • We will punish you for hurting others!

What kind of love is this?

Have I got that wrong?

  • Who thinks it’s ok to say they hate racists?
  • Who thinks we’ll be safer if laws pass protecting us from hate crimes?
  • Who believes in separationist theories?
  • Who believes in full justice for the bad guys?

As much as we do need to be unified, positive and proactive in our efforts to protect and advance human rights…

We also, even more so, have to be realistic about what we’re  up against.

The reason NO human being has succeeded since the dawn of mankind in eliminating poverty, war, injustice, or hate is because humans simply can’t.

It takes a higher power to bring that level of peace and love to Earth.

We need agape love, all-consuming and all-powerful to fill the heart of a dictator; sex trafficker; slave master; racist; war-monger; murderer; pedophile; oligarch with the kind of divine love for humankind that not only stops them in their tracks but turns their hearts toward uplifting others.

At the march on Monday, as folks chanted “No Justice, No Peace!”  It was clear in this moment on Earth, what we need is not Earthly love.

We need God’s love.

What kind of love is this?

God’s love is the kind that would try and convict George Zimmerman of shooting Trayvon Martin and see him put on a path of true reform instead of punishment:

The highest love would see Zimmerman eventually being released from prison with a heart filled with love for all men.

The highest love would see Zimmerman becoming the leader of a national movement beginning in Florida to counsel people facing his old demons, leading them toward the light by working with young men like Trayvon and his parents.

What kind of love is this?

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part,  but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

1st Corinthians 1-13

I don’t know who your God is, or what your spiritual leanings may be.  I do know that if you’re alive there’s a 99.9% chance you believe, even if only subconsciously in the power of prayer.  If  you’ve ever hoped for something, you believe.

So as you go about your daily dealings, and especially if that takes you toward movements of social justice, and if you are a leader or communicator in any respect…

I hope and pray that you will be careful with the messages you send during this time.

I hope and pray that every time you act to advance human rights, you will hope and pray for the Greatest Love of all time to fill the hearts of people everywhere.

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Focus: How will Trayvon Martin’s life translate into a victory for mankind?

22 Mar

I love mankind.  To the point that my heart would break to consider applauding the death of a crazed mass murderer.  It’s a lot easier to direct hatred toward those who seem to be filled with it: But how is that justice?  

When an injustice is committed against fellow man, we have to dig within ourselves beyond the knee-jerk response of punishment;  Beyond the soothing balm of rage; Beyond the rallying cry of justice.

Every loss we suffer is a door opening to gain.  The larger the loss for humanity, the greater the potential gain for humanity should be.

I have a lot to learn and don’t know how Trayvon Martin’s life will translate into a victory for mankind.

I’m praying that the brilliant leaders and minds of our time are focusing on that now.

My idealist, naive idea is that maybe, just maybe, we can make sure our voices are heard beyond facebook and twitter when it comes to what matters in America. 

 http://wlcac.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/trayvon-martin-and-the-stand-your-ground-law-a-flashpoint-for-constitutional-amendment-truly-assuring-voters-rights/

 

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The shield of friendship

21 Mar

Last night I dreamed I was in a foreign country, sitting in a park at sunset with a great friend.  In the distance, someone approached and I sensed they meant to come between us.

As the person grew closer, I kept them in my line of sight, aware but never alarmed.  My friend never noticed them advancing and I never alerted them.

Eventually, the person was standing right next to us.  My friend still hadn’t noticed them.  When this person realized they held no one’s attention and saw how close our bond of friendship was, they turned and disappeared silently.

Rather than worrying about your challengers, engaging with them, or burning energy strategizing their defeat, nurture your relationships with your allies.  Stay full of who and what gives you strength, wisdom, power, love and peace.

When you have surrounded yourself with truth, with powerful love and friendship it creates an impenetrable shield that keeps those who seek to harm you away.

Truth, love and friendship act as an army that walks with us at all times, staring down those who would oppose us.

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Be boldly you and make this world yours.

20 Mar

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” -Dr. Seuss

How much of our adult lives are spent trying to figure out how to make sense of ourselves in a world we aren’t choosing?  How long have you known about your talent or skill and kept it to yourself because of something that had nothing to do with that talent or skill?

We choose our world when we start living in it like it belongs to us: Walking in our identity and owning who we are and what is ours.

No one looks at you as a leader if you aren’t leading anyone.  As a singer if your voice goes unheard.  As a caterer if you’re not cooking for folk.  As an artist if you aren’t sharing your artwork.  As an activist if you’re not taking action.

We are many, many things, each one of us.  We are athletes who also bake who also dance who also parent who also write who also teach who also style who also lead who also work who also live…  All of that is who we are.  

But the world reacts to us the same way water does when a foreign object enters it:

We displace it in the shape of our identity.  

Thing is, we define our shape: Who we are.  So if we say we’re a caterer and a  husband, our world displacement looks like the reaction shown on someone’s face when you walk in emitting power, talent, pride, skill and love.  You begin to tell people who you really are, they respond.  You begin to do things as you really are, and the world responds.

It’s important then, as we define our shape that we recognize we are what causes displacement in our world, not the other way around.  

Water doesn’t leap from a pond to form the shape of a fish.  Nor does it rearrange below the mirrored surface to create a vacuum of space for a stone.  

We have to define ourselves instead of letting the world define us when it ain’t even really ours yet.  The world isn’t going to step up and beg us to become who we were meant to be.  And it isn’t going to create the perfect opportunity for us to step into it either.

It’s important too, to define ourselves clearly: A clearly shaped object, one made of solid substance will have a different effect on water when it enters than one of flexible edges, fluid makeup.  

Water forces itself on flexible objects, causing them to take the shape water presses into them, changing constantly, moving and floating with the water’s movement.

We have to be bold in who we say we are and walk with the power of our identity for us to really rock our own world.

Be who you are.  

That may be a loud, boisterous, wise, saxophone playing, hopscotch-jumping, pottery-making surgeon.  

Be you.

Be bold.

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Open relationships: Anything for love?

19 Mar

We’re willing to do anything for love in modern times.

Some couples, married and not are incredibly flexible for love and seriously consider the possibility of an open marriage or relationship:  Accepting multiple partners.  

Some couples, married and not are completely resolute and unwilling to change certain things for their partner:  Refusing to sacrifice for protection.  

It’s rather ironic that we tend to be either resolute or flexible about things that may harm the relationship and limit the bounds of love…

Where does the strong will and complete willingness go when it comes to things that protect the relationship and deepen love?

We are open to tolerance when our partner is too busy for us.  Willing to accept that they stay out all hours of the night.  Open to compromise because they want intimacy with other people.  Willing to accept that they don’t want to take care of a family full-time.  Open to tolerate them not being completely vulnerable and honest with us.

That’s a lot of willingness, openness.

We are stubborn when our partner demands too much of us.  Determined to have fun without them.  Stubborn about not having our freedom limited.  Determined to maintain our independence and break stereotypes.  Stubborn about not appearing to be weak in front of them.

That’s a lot of determination, stubbornness.

We’re open to and determined about quite a bit in the name of love.

But what if our openness and stubbornness changed, so we were willing to do  or stand firm against anything in the name of G-d?  

Would we be willing to put G-d before work, before friends, before ourselves?  Would we be willing to give up our career to stay home and spend time in G-d?  Would we be willing to part ways with old friends and ways to make space for G-d?

We do some wild and crazy things in the name of love.

We’ve been desensitized and conditioned to the point where it has become more difficult to honor than to dishonor each other.

Let’s shift all our radical openness and willingness to consider new ways of loving each other.  Be willing to do anything, even if it’s temporarily unpleasant and uncomfortable, for G-d: We’d come to accept living for G-d as normal.

What would an open relationship with G-d look like with your significant other, your spouse?

How would both of your expectations, behaviors, and levels of acceptance and sacrifice change?

How far out on a limb would we willing to go for G-d compared to the promise of a good time?

Would you save yourselves for marriage?  Give up your job?  End late nights out on the town?  Be faithful in thought, word and deed?  Move to a new city?  Reevaluate your friendships?  Consider new and challenging perspectives on old behaviors?

What have you given up, taken on for love?

What would you give up, take on for G-d?

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Warriors of love

16 Mar

Reconcile:
To restore to friendship or harmony. b : settle, resolve.  2
: to make consistent or congruous. 3 : to cause to submit to or accept something unpleasant.  4 a : to check (a financial account) against another for accuracy. b : to account for.
Save: 
a : to deliver from sin. b : to rescue or deliver from danger or harm. c : to preserve or guard from injury, destruction, or loss. d : to store (data) in a computer or on a storage device. 2 a : to put aside as a store or reserve. 3
a : to make unnecessary. (1) : to keep from being lost to an opponent (2) : to prevent an opponent from scoring or winning. 4 : maintain, preserve <save appearances>.
There’s an awesome scene in the film, 300 where an army’s size is questioned.  It quickly becomes clear that the commitment of the warriors means each has the strength of hundreds.
I know God and love Him above all, before even myself.  But I ain’t saved.  I ain’t no part-time warrior.  I am restored.  I am new.  I am reconciled.  I war for love, for God.
A part-time warrior is like the man in that clip who was a potter, but willing to fight if called, which is noble.  But the strength behind it is completely different than for the man who lives, breathes, sleeps, eats as a warrior 24/7.
If you’re alive, you’ve been called.  But no one can make you understand that, it’s something we each have to learn for ourselves.
This is the difference between being saved and being reconciled.
Salvation as many have come to know it, belittles the true idea of spirit.  It’s powerless.  We are not victims of life.  We aren’t absent value or worth or ability.  We aren’t part-time warriors waiting for a calling.  The concept of salvation is where a lot of love gets lost, a lot of judgment festers.
The concept of being saved is too passive for war.  It strips away agency, making it seem one can wait for a savior to come along to rescue them.   It makes it ok to just throw pots until someone passes a sword and shield over to you and begs you to fight.
Worse, it makes it seem that if you’ve been saved you may be better than, more worthy or qualified than, further along than, someone who hasn’t been saved…  Don’t bother saying yet, it’s condescending.  There’s no love in division, in hierarchy.  There’s no power in waiting around to be saved.
Spirituality isn’t about butterflies, flowers, and a comforting embrace to lift our depression and keep us on track with the firm and caring hand of a gentle father.
In his time, folks thought Jesus was a drunken murderer who kicked it with prostitutes and thieves.
Spirituality is the war of love.
Love for humankind.  Not certain kinds of humans.  Love isn’t limited to pastors, choirs, the saved, the heterosexual, the sober, the pro-lifers, the sweet, the kind, the honest, the law-abiding, the submissive, or the meek.
Love for all.
Awakening, growing and living in the spirit takes the fearless, strong, and powerfully committed approach of a warrior.  Warriors don’t wait around to get called to action, to get saved.
There isn’t a human alive who hasn’t the capacity to love fully, to restore themselves.  That doesn’t mean it will be pretty or pleasant but it’s real.  And powerful.  Reconciliation means  you have to step up of your own free will, in your strength.  There is no resting and waiting for rescue.
There’s no room for timidity, trepidation, fear, doubt or limits.  These are the symptoms of a lying sickness that leads too many who feel they’ve been saved to judge, curse, and pity those they feel haven’t been saved.
We are here to love each other.  With the fierce protective spirit of mother nature.  There’s a reason lionesses are violently protective over their cubs.  Why growing saplings are covered in one-inch poisonous thorns.  Can you imagine how different and powerful humanity would be if we acted from this spirit all the time?
True love grows in hard times.  True love is willing to put yourself on the line for another.
We are here to be the kind of spiritual leaders who march to proclaim our love for humanity, to remind our fellow humans we love them more than they know when the world seems to be cursing them.
We are here to be the kind of spiritual leaders who live as warriors of love, who speak truth to power.
Let’s walk away from our part-time warrior lifestyle and commit to being warriors for love.

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God is good.

15 Mar

I’ve never been a religious person.  An English major, avid reader and prolific writer I refused to own a Bible.  This was my silent war against the frivolity of religion for years.

I’ve come to realize the same truth that compelled my rebellion against religion is the same truth that feeds the fire of my faith today.  The truth is I’ve always known unequivocally there is an unfathomably infinite non-human power.  The idea of communicating with, tapping into, worshiping that power through some man-made ritual seemed a total dishonor and waste of time.

I refused to define it.  Refused to even buy into anything that I could rationalize.  There would be no patriarchal, hierarchical, human-centered, punitive, judgmental, guilt-ridden spirit in my life.

Then I saw the same powerful argument through a clearer lens.

If you know in your heart there is a higher power on Earth and have an iota of sense or strength, how could you not live constantly and fervently drinking in the truth of that power?

There are things in life we’re powerless to, but for God’s strength.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve always been the brunt of jokes because of my optimism and idealism.  I was never a cheerleader but my disposition convinces most who meet me otherwise.  I’m the person who believes the world will change.  Who, when I hear arguing at my neighbor’s house prays for their peace, for love to fill their home.  Who sits down to eat chocolate cake and throws housewarming parties when her home gets broken into.  Who calms down in the eye of a storm.

That optimism isn’t blissful ignorance, intoxication, fraud, or misunderstanding.

It’s God working through me.

Funny thing is, I’d be a lot weaker today, a completely different person if I ever bought into those false ideas about God.  If I started believing in myself more, believing those who say joy is shallow, or that I should be more serious I would have signed my own death certificate.

Finally, I know better.

We need God.  There’s stuff we simply can’t do for ourselves.  When we’re sad ain’t no amount of therapy, comic relief or liquor that will lift us out of it.  When we’re filled with the more subtly destructive spirit of competition, insecurity, or lust we can’t turn the switch off like a light.

In those moments we are so weak and blinded.

We need strength greater than our own to pull through it.

The reality is if we just take ourselves, our ego, our body, our talents, our words and thoughts out of the way for a minute we open our doors to be moved by something much greater than we are.

The instant we unplug from that greatness we’ve lost a chance to touch someone else with it.  We have no idea who’s watching us, who notices us in passing and sees the God in us.  If we’ve unplugged and are caught up in the trappings and silliness of everyday life we miss a chance to connect with someone else spiritually.

What else are we really here for if not to form spiritual connections with other people?

Today, until midnight a powerful group of people are coming together to pray love over the entertainment industry at the Gibson Amphitheater.

I hope you’ll make it out, or pray from where you are.

http://www.thecryhollywood.com

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Aside

Living effectively: Spring cleaning

14 Mar

I’ve started spring cleaning and boy did my little home need it.  I chose two tiny apothecary chests for an optimum feeling of reward and accomplishment:  A sip of a martini for every little drawer emptied.

3 hours, 12 drawers and one martini later I was finished. :)

It occurred to me as I trashed years of random detritus just how much stuff we allow to accumulate when we’re not intentional about letting it go.

For many of us, it’s not until we move, get into spring cleaning mode, or become physically sick that we force ourselves to weigh critically and act with discipline: Only then do we figure out what’s in our lives with an eye for getting rid of things we don’t need, for lightening the load, for keeping only what optimizes our health.

As I organized, I realized not only was I getting rid of unnecessary clutter… Keeping only what makes sense and in organized, easily accessible and good working order, makes every action more effective, every step forward more successful and powerful.

When your life is cluttered, you may grasp at the wrong thing several times.  You may overlook the right thing because it’s hidden behind a distraction.  You may seize upon the right thing at precisely the right moment… Only to find it’s broken.

All that time and energy wasted trying to walk on a clear path towards your goal.

Knowing you have carefully sifted through everything, and everyone that’s in your life… Knowing you are keeping what is there for a specific reason, strengthens you with the power of intention.

With a clean, functional life you have the ability to work and press forward with all the tools you need for success at your fingertips and none of the hindrances of clutter littering your path.

Tomorrow, a powerful community of leaders and lovers are coming together to focus on spring cleaning of a spiritual kind for the entertainment industry:

Join us at http://www.thecryhollywood.com for The Cry.

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