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Heard a great talk on satiety called the satiety index. It seems that the things we engage in to satisfy or satiate ourselves become the things we want more of.
The problem is that anything that satiates will create a need for more of the same and the satisfying effect gets weaker so we need more. We become obsessive mushroom hunters looking for the the next thing to entertain us.
Strangely, and it only works if you try it, reading the bible actually satifies the soul, not through entertainment but through feeding the soul with life. You have to try it to see if it works, who knows we may be FoundbyGod here.
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March 31st, 2011 | No Comments »
Okay I’m now finding that the experience of life can be a trap. I can be trapped into thinking that my experience of life enables me to determine things in the future. I know so much about how life works that I think I can pre-empt problems and create the best outcomes.
The problem is that the outcomes I create are small, limited, controlled. Also it takes a massive amount of energy and time and wrecks your life in the process.
Perhaps the things I have learned are better to become wisdom, something that guides me through a future I havn’t created. The future is then open to all sorts of amazing possibilities and because I’m not consumed with creating it, I’m free to wisely navigate through it and enjoy it.
Creation of the future is best left to the creator and who knows we may be FoundbyGod in the future too.
March 23rd, 2011 | No Comments »
Today I decided that I just can’t make sense of many things. I think I understand what’s going on in life but I don’t. I’m finding that using my experience and knowledge to work things out doesn’t work, doesn’t produce workable answers for daily living.
What is working for me is reflecting on what is going on. Journalling daily just short comments. Just letting what is happening and how I am feeling roll on a little. Watching and waiting for insights. Almost always there is insight, understanding or things just work through.
I call this dialogue of journalling, prayer. You can call it what ever you like. Either way we are both FoundbyGod.
March 17th, 2011 | No Comments »
I’m practicing leaving yesterdays issues with God each day for 40 days. The hopes and the fears. My head is clearing, I feel lighter and open for reflection. I notice today the first blossom of spring and a bumble bee nectar gathering. The bee is massive and hangs upside down in the flower. They call the bee the insect of impossible flight because of it’s large body and small wings.
Immediatley I reflect that all the major achievements in my life have been impossible and yet have occured. My career, family, vocation. Impossible odds stood against all these things but they still came about. I’m definitley not a self made man. I have been constantly FoundbyGod and my life has been made by him.
I wonder what’s next in the big adventure. If I stay close enough to God I’ll see it.
March 12th, 2011 | No Comments »
In the last blog I shared about the everyday practice of leaving yesterdays hopes and fears with God and living in the new day. But how do I become the kind of person who lives so freely. Surely I don’t have to remember all these things.
It dawned on me that I spent some time learning to ride a bike and then I became a cyclist. I didn’t need to continue learning I eventually became. It’s the same with all life disciplines. If I engage in the daily practice of giving to God yesterdays hopes and fears I eventually become someone who naturally does this.
Gradually if I continue to build in living disciplines into my life one after the other, I become someone who ….. really lives. Psychologists say it takes about 6 weeks of practice for something to become part of who we are. I guess this is why 40 days is so often the period God uses in the bible to change people. Who was first do you think.
FoundbyGod in living.
March 11th, 2011 | No Comments »
If I carry yesterdays issues into today I will never be able to live todays life. I must let go of my troubles from yesterday and be ready for what what comes today or I will be crushed by two lots of troubles. How people carry long standing troubles into every new day I don’t know, perhaps they live crushed.
I must let go of yesterdays excitements and hopes and be ready for the good things that come today or I will become giddy with it all and obsess into compulsion. Obsessive compulsion for me is the result of carrying the hopes and fears of too many days into the present.
Where do I leave these troubles and excitements of yesterday, where can they safely be placed. With God whether we believe in him or not. When I do this God appears from nowhere and I am FoundbyGod
March 3rd, 2011 | No Comments »
Two of the evergreen trees in my garden have died in the severe winter of 2010. They held onto their leaves and paid the price. Immediatley next to one of them is a delicate tree that loses it’s leaves in winter and this one is sprouting new buds. How come such a delicate tree survives difficult times and such a robust evergreen dies.
The evergreen held onto yesterdays life trying to preserve life for today whereas the delicate deciduous let go of yesterdays life and receives a new life when the season turns.
I am FoundbyGod in this in that when I lay down every day, all the stuff of yesterday, I am free to receive new life from God today. Some of the cares and sorrows we have are too important to just let go of, but are they not better in God’s hands than ours. If he wants us to carry a sorrow or a concern for another day he will place it back into our hands for another day. Then tomorrow we must again lay it all down before him. The life that comes is amazingly freeing. You have to try this to see it work whether you believe in God or not, he believes in us.
February 28th, 2011 | No Comments »
Looking at the trees in England now in winter, everything appears to be lost. Sometimes I get this feeling about life and wonder what on earth the future holds, how will it work out. At times like these, action is futile if not dangerous. I find that waiting and watching works best.
Confidence in the future I find comes not from knowing how things will work out but knowing that if I stay close to God he will work something out and if I’m close enough to him I will see it and live it. FoundbyGod in the future.
The trees wait and their waiting is rewarded by spring.
February 26th, 2011 | No Comments »
I keep finding new and easier ways to relate to God. If there is a God then I must know him and know him well. Spending time with God shapes me, changes me, prepares me for daily living on earth. There are many ways I have been equipped by God to live through the issues of life and still find fulness in life. It’s like being carried on a life stream and they call it the grace of God or the life of God.
However there are some things I’m just not prepared for. I don’t seem to be able to prepare well enough for. Things I’m not equipped to cope with or get through. God still has a way to get me through, it’s called mercy. He just picks me up and carries me until I can walk again. There will always be a way for me to be FoundbyGod.
February 15th, 2011 | No Comments »
Colds and sore throats in our house today. When this happens I like to let go of just about everything and attend to the basics only. Any essential work that needs to be done is done but I do it at a slow pace. All non essentials are delayed for a later time. The slow pace allows me to keep the essentials moving but rest my body and mind.
Strangely enough the world spins well enough without me. I watch events rather than engage them. Many of the issues in my life seem to lift and dissolve like morning mist. Some things that I’ve been tussling with become plainly clear. Instead of falling behind I appear to be gaining ground while my spirit rests.
Perhaps I am FoundbyGod in this forced slowing and reflecting. Perhaps I don’t need to wait until the sore throats and colds come in order to let God create a life for me to live.
February 11th, 2011 | No Comments »