Today I used my favorite excerpts from 3 books to make up the inspirational talk I gave this morning at the Divine Light Spiritual foundation. All of these quotes have helped me along my path of creating my business and living my authentic life. I do hope that you will benefit from it.
When possibility thinkers are surprised by a spontaneous and unexpected opportunity, they don't irresponsibly seize it. Nor do they allow the suggestion to be dismissed, offhand and outright, with a careless cavalier negative response. Instead, they treat the fresh possibility with reverent respect: "I'll take a new look at my schedule. I'll need to realign my priorities."
Of course, there will be risks. Every decision commands a price - known or unknown. But you can't escape all risks by avoiding all risks. Remember, before you turn your back on the new possibility, that you risk losing what you might have won....
The Quakers were taught to pray each night before they went to sleep. They were also taught to pray on awakening each morning, seeking divine wisdom by drawing up a fresh list of what they could do that day. The new day might be a virtual repeat of the day before, but not necessarily! The morning news comes on. An unexpected telephone call interrupts the day's plans. Or a conversation you had with someone changes priorities with a new idea!
Providence often challenges our careful planning with an uninvited and unexpected fresh possibility! So make out your new priority list every morning. You'll be surprised at how frequently your priorities can and should be urgently, wisely, even compassionately revised. *1
Do you want a life-changing experience with God? If so, wise up! Realize its instinctive and normal to be religious. Clean up! Wash your mistakes and negative emotions away through God's Grace. And then Give up- anything that may be hindering you. Perhaps there is something in your life that you will have to relinquish, with God's help. If it is something that is blocking the birth of real faith, then you may have to give it up. If it is a choice between living and a bad habit - choose life. *2-1
Uncertainty normally drives us daft, but although knowledge is power, not knowing also has its own power. There is he power in trusting ourselves, relying on our intuitions, being able to act even in the face of uncertainty, rather than drone on fro sometimes years with a yes-no-yes-no-yes-no attitude of indecision. It can be more heroic to be willing to act in the absence of certainty tan to refuse to act without absolute certainty. *3-1
Being unwilling to bear the hurly-burly of faithfulness to our call, we court disaster- Latin for 'against one's stars' -and we end up agitated anyway. Although we have the choice not to follow a call, if we do not do so, the Sufi poet Kabir said, our lives will be infected with a kind of 'weird failure'. We'll feel alienated from ourselves, listless and frustrated and fitful with boredom, the common cold of the soul. Life will feel so penetratingly dull and pointless that we may become angry and turn the anger against ourselves (one definition of depression) or feel seized by the impulse to run madly out of the house, down to the river, and search among the bull-rushes for a miracle.
Those who refuse thier calls, though, who are afraid to become what they perhaps already are - UNHAPPY - will not, of course, experience the unrest (or the joy) that usually accompanies the embrace of a calling. Having attempted nothing, they haven't failed, and they can console themselves that if none of their dreams come true, then at least neither will thir nightmares. *3-2
Someone once said, "when God wants to make sure a truth is never abandoned or aborted, He will put it in the instinct." When God wanted to ensure that the need for religion would never die, He put it within the human breast. That is why humankind throughout history has been drawn to a belief in a God. Even the aborigines of Australia and the headhunters in New Guinea believe in a god or gods. They feel the instinctive urge within their souls to know and worship something greater than themselves. *2-149
Every sacrifice, though, every step toward action, every response to a call necessitates a leap of faith and is done without knowing the outcome. It is, as the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard described, the epitome of anxiety meeting courage. It is Jonah leaping overboard, which seems like madness, yet often in following our own calls, we're told by others that we're crazy. At some level, we, too, have to make an ultimate sacrifice to our callings. We need to devote everything, our whole selves. A part-time effort, a sorta-kinda commitment, an untested promise, won't suffice. You must know that you mean business, that you're going to jump into it up to your eye sockets and not turn back at the last minute. In making the leap from vision to form, you will be tested and suffer setbacks, occasionally severe. At our first steps toward authenticity- or love or compassion or any high calling -every devil in hell will come out to meet us. Only when you try your vision in the world can you test whether it's true. *3-11
Negative emotions block faith because they hinder us from confronting our need for God. It is like the over weight person who won't step on the bathroom scale or the person with overdue bills who won't look in the mailbox. When we most need help, negative emotions can keep us from turning to the One who could help us most: they block us from believing and seeing God's plan for our lives.
Now you know why Jesus was such a a powerful believer! Jesus knew God. Jesus had no emotional blockages! he had no selfish ambitions, no greed, no jealousies, no hatred, no self-pity, no selfish griefs. Emotionally, he was constantly positive. He was pure in heart.
So if there is within your personality some resentment, some hostility, some guilt, some fear or worry, find it. Get rid of it. You will be surprised to find how much your faith will improve. How natural it will seem to you to be religious-as natural and normal as breathing. *2-154
If there is a negative emotion within you that is blocking you in your relationship with God, clean up! "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." *2-155
If our allies help us stay the course, though, our 'enemies' - whatever forces thwart us - provide us with the true tests of our spirit. They offer us the best opportunities to learn strength, resolve, patience, and compassion - skills that are easy in the abstract and damnably hard in the doing. Sometimes, however, wat first appears to be an enemy turns out not to e, and it is the better part of valor to exercise a heroic quality of discretion in following our calls. Be willing to approach obstacles as if they might be allies, and make your leaps of faith accordingly. *3-12
Take a look at a fountain pen. The ink flows through it to form words-communication. If you simply give your life., he can flow through you. He can make your heart right. He can clear the rubbish from your life and replace it with a holy dream! And you'll come to realize that the burning desire, the consuming dream, the strong sense of destiny - yes, all of this inner drive- is the very life of God surging in your soul! Your dream is God within you!
It is a decision! To become a believer! and decide that a positive mental attitude-a be-happy healthy attitude- requires that you let the faith flow free. * 2-164
Thank you for reading lovies. XO Love & Light, Truly
*1: Hours of Power: My Daily Book of Motivation and Inspiration by Robert H. Schuller. HarperCollins Publishers Inc. 2004. "Unexpected Opportunities" July 17th, page 199
*2 The Be Happy Attitudes: Eight Positive Attitudes That Can Transform your Life! by Robert H. Schuller. Word Books Publisher 1985.
-1 page 156- Give Up!
-2 page 149
- 3 page 154
-4 page 155
-5 page 164
*3 Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life. by Gregg Levoy. Three Rivers Press 1997.
-1 page 37
-2 page 9
-3 page 11
-4 page 12
When possibility thinkers are surprised by a spontaneous and unexpected opportunity, they don't irresponsibly seize it. Nor do they allow the suggestion to be dismissed, offhand and outright, with a careless cavalier negative response. Instead, they treat the fresh possibility with reverent respect: "I'll take a new look at my schedule. I'll need to realign my priorities."
Of course, there will be risks. Every decision commands a price - known or unknown. But you can't escape all risks by avoiding all risks. Remember, before you turn your back on the new possibility, that you risk losing what you might have won....
The Quakers were taught to pray each night before they went to sleep. They were also taught to pray on awakening each morning, seeking divine wisdom by drawing up a fresh list of what they could do that day. The new day might be a virtual repeat of the day before, but not necessarily! The morning news comes on. An unexpected telephone call interrupts the day's plans. Or a conversation you had with someone changes priorities with a new idea!
Providence often challenges our careful planning with an uninvited and unexpected fresh possibility! So make out your new priority list every morning. You'll be surprised at how frequently your priorities can and should be urgently, wisely, even compassionately revised. *1
Do you want a life-changing experience with God? If so, wise up! Realize its instinctive and normal to be religious. Clean up! Wash your mistakes and negative emotions away through God's Grace. And then Give up- anything that may be hindering you. Perhaps there is something in your life that you will have to relinquish, with God's help. If it is something that is blocking the birth of real faith, then you may have to give it up. If it is a choice between living and a bad habit - choose life. *2-1
Uncertainty normally drives us daft, but although knowledge is power, not knowing also has its own power. There is he power in trusting ourselves, relying on our intuitions, being able to act even in the face of uncertainty, rather than drone on fro sometimes years with a yes-no-yes-no-yes-no attitude of indecision. It can be more heroic to be willing to act in the absence of certainty tan to refuse to act without absolute certainty. *3-1
Being unwilling to bear the hurly-burly of faithfulness to our call, we court disaster- Latin for 'against one's stars' -and we end up agitated anyway. Although we have the choice not to follow a call, if we do not do so, the Sufi poet Kabir said, our lives will be infected with a kind of 'weird failure'. We'll feel alienated from ourselves, listless and frustrated and fitful with boredom, the common cold of the soul. Life will feel so penetratingly dull and pointless that we may become angry and turn the anger against ourselves (one definition of depression) or feel seized by the impulse to run madly out of the house, down to the river, and search among the bull-rushes for a miracle.
Those who refuse thier calls, though, who are afraid to become what they perhaps already are - UNHAPPY - will not, of course, experience the unrest (or the joy) that usually accompanies the embrace of a calling. Having attempted nothing, they haven't failed, and they can console themselves that if none of their dreams come true, then at least neither will thir nightmares. *3-2
Someone once said, "when God wants to make sure a truth is never abandoned or aborted, He will put it in the instinct." When God wanted to ensure that the need for religion would never die, He put it within the human breast. That is why humankind throughout history has been drawn to a belief in a God. Even the aborigines of Australia and the headhunters in New Guinea believe in a god or gods. They feel the instinctive urge within their souls to know and worship something greater than themselves. *2-149
Every sacrifice, though, every step toward action, every response to a call necessitates a leap of faith and is done without knowing the outcome. It is, as the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard described, the epitome of anxiety meeting courage. It is Jonah leaping overboard, which seems like madness, yet often in following our own calls, we're told by others that we're crazy. At some level, we, too, have to make an ultimate sacrifice to our callings. We need to devote everything, our whole selves. A part-time effort, a sorta-kinda commitment, an untested promise, won't suffice. You must know that you mean business, that you're going to jump into it up to your eye sockets and not turn back at the last minute. In making the leap from vision to form, you will be tested and suffer setbacks, occasionally severe. At our first steps toward authenticity- or love or compassion or any high calling -every devil in hell will come out to meet us. Only when you try your vision in the world can you test whether it's true. *3-11
Negative emotions block faith because they hinder us from confronting our need for God. It is like the over weight person who won't step on the bathroom scale or the person with overdue bills who won't look in the mailbox. When we most need help, negative emotions can keep us from turning to the One who could help us most: they block us from believing and seeing God's plan for our lives.
Now you know why Jesus was such a a powerful believer! Jesus knew God. Jesus had no emotional blockages! he had no selfish ambitions, no greed, no jealousies, no hatred, no self-pity, no selfish griefs. Emotionally, he was constantly positive. He was pure in heart.
So if there is within your personality some resentment, some hostility, some guilt, some fear or worry, find it. Get rid of it. You will be surprised to find how much your faith will improve. How natural it will seem to you to be religious-as natural and normal as breathing. *2-154
If there is a negative emotion within you that is blocking you in your relationship with God, clean up! "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." *2-155
If our allies help us stay the course, though, our 'enemies' - whatever forces thwart us - provide us with the true tests of our spirit. They offer us the best opportunities to learn strength, resolve, patience, and compassion - skills that are easy in the abstract and damnably hard in the doing. Sometimes, however, wat first appears to be an enemy turns out not to e, and it is the better part of valor to exercise a heroic quality of discretion in following our calls. Be willing to approach obstacles as if they might be allies, and make your leaps of faith accordingly. *3-12
Take a look at a fountain pen. The ink flows through it to form words-communication. If you simply give your life., he can flow through you. He can make your heart right. He can clear the rubbish from your life and replace it with a holy dream! And you'll come to realize that the burning desire, the consuming dream, the strong sense of destiny - yes, all of this inner drive- is the very life of God surging in your soul! Your dream is God within you!
It is a decision! To become a believer! and decide that a positive mental attitude-a be-happy healthy attitude- requires that you let the faith flow free. * 2-164
Thank you for reading lovies. XO Love & Light, Truly
*1: Hours of Power: My Daily Book of Motivation and Inspiration by Robert H. Schuller. HarperCollins Publishers Inc. 2004. "Unexpected Opportunities" July 17th, page 199
*2 The Be Happy Attitudes: Eight Positive Attitudes That Can Transform your Life! by Robert H. Schuller. Word Books Publisher 1985.
-1 page 156- Give Up!
-2 page 149
- 3 page 154
-4 page 155
-5 page 164
*3 Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life. by Gregg Levoy. Three Rivers Press 1997.
-1 page 37
-2 page 9
-3 page 11
-4 page 12
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