As I listen to people’s conversations about God, I’m always interested in hearing how they view their relationship with God. More times than not what I hear are details about what God is doing in their lives via the great gifts he’s giving them or perhaps even the opposite – those things they perceive as ‘needs-to-be-filled’ for which they’re praying/waiting.

Certainly it is true that the gifts of God are many, and that God knows everything – ranging from our needs to the desires of our hearts – before we even utter a thought regarding them. And I believe it is true that God blesses us with a constant stream of gifts so numerous that many of them are taken for granted: our senses of sight and sound, taste and touch, sunrises and sunsets, friends and family. The list is infinite, really.

Even so, in the midst of all of this great gifting, we would benefit from pausing to give ourselves a heart-check:

Do we sometimes mistake the gifts of God for a relationship with God? Continue reading…

Though I live in and love the mountains, I try each year to make at least one trip for a getaway to the ocean. This, for me, is the best of both worlds. The Colorado Rockies give me my hiking, deep wooded forests, refreshingly clean and thin mountain air and then – at their pinnacle – the feeling of standing on the top of the world. Theirs is the place of wildlife and plant life – of magnificent sunrises and sunsets. For me, the mountains are the true birthplace of serenity.

But then there’s the ocean. That mighty and massive body of water, never failing to communicate to me just how small I am and how large the Presence that is ‘in’ and yet ‘beyond’ me (and all things!) is. And to think that I can know such a Presence and even be a part of this One’s nature – there’s such power in owning this thought. Continue reading…

Spiritual teachers often speak of the three eyes of knowing. There’s the ‘eye of the flesh,’ ‘the eye of the mind,’ and finally ‘the eye of the Spirit.’ The first eye – the eye of the flesh – is the eye that views the world through our senses. We see, we feel, we sense. We look at a cloudy day and say things like, ‘well, it appears that the sun isn’t going to come out today.’ Of course we realize that above and beyond those clouds, the sun is indeed shining. But to the degree we use this limited eye to see with, we buy into the illusion – we attach to the idea that we’re destined to live this day without sunshine because the sun is not coming out.

It may not seem like much, but an illusion is never a good thing. And when we don’t challenge some of the fundamental thinking/illusions of our lives, we end up with clouds over more than our eyes: We end up with clouds blocking us from the reality of the true Light of the world. Continue reading…

I saw this awhile back and it came to mind again today. As with so many things we see passed around the Internet, whether or not it really occurred is anyone’s guess. However, the point it makes is still poignant – especially over a weekend when so many of us must decide whether to be ‘present’ or not – present with ourselves, others, God and nature.

The story is as follows: A group of Geography students studied the Seven Wonders of the World. At the end of that section, the students were asked to list what they considered to be the Seven Wonders of the World. Though there was some disagreement, the following got the most votes: Continue reading…

The first three words of a popular book are, “Life is difficult.” Surely truer words were never spoken. We deal with a lot of ‘stuff’ in this life (perhaps another word beginning with ‘s’ comes to mind) – things that break our hearts, bring us to our knees and even sometimes, take a real run at crushing our souls. And even though we might know that there are many ways to interpret such events – many ways to tell the story – nevertheless these things sneak in with all the stealth of a Ninja, threatening to steal away our joy for living.

Continue reading…