Sensing God's Good

At the beach one summer, I took this picture. I sat there for about an hour watching the sunset. I took multiple pictures over time from different angles watching the light reflect differently across the sky, water, and beach. It was beautiful and it felt good. I didn't used to allow myself to sense beauty. I used to demean it as a weakness.

Earlier that day I walked the beach and people were trying to take selfies. They were awkwardly sticking their arms out trying to get the photo right. I offered to help and they were pleased. They smiled and thanked me. It felt good to do one simple act of kindness. 

I scooped up a sand crab and felt it in my hand. I remembered what it was like when I did this as a child. I was enjoying the moment and taking in the beauty around me. 

These things are available to us each and every day. It requires a mental adjustment to look, see, and sense the goodness of God. The sun, stars, nature, life, peace, and love are all gifts. Beauty is always available. It's in the eye of the beholder. We simply need to relearn how to perceive it.

For me, the way to find love is through giving it more and letting others connect with me. It's easier for me to give or help others than to let others help or care for me. Pride and fear corrupt the connection. 

It's through helping and caring where I can be inwardly situated to sense it. If I can continue in the way of giving and caring, others become fed with spiritual goodness They can be thankful and I can be blessed in doing good. This too if I let others help me.

However, contaminates to the heart and mind exist. When I am bitter, complaining, angry, self-seeking, or closed minded . . . love can seem impossible. In such times, I'm the one that needs adjustments . . . inward adjustments. Humility to see my wrongs, willingness to own, confess, and relent them are required to purify my heart and cleanse my conscience. Then I can peacefully contemplate God's beauty and be grateful. 

Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

One idea that helps to stimulate a mindset toward good things is to make a gratitude list. Do a search for gratitude list online to learn more about this, but first, confess, repent, and relent from the bitter thoughts and attitude.

Think differently

A while ago I went to the movie theater. I was alone standing in line to get popcorn. I saw two kids go up to the glass counter pressing their faces up against it excited about the candy on display. I envied the fun they seemed to be having. I pondered the difference between them and myself. I thought, "What do they have that I don't? Are they smarter than me? No. I believed it wasn't that they were smarter. Perhaps its more socially acceptable for children to get excited? Perhaps we live in a society that trains us into a sense of dullness? Maybe I need to get a little dumber or let go of some old societal training? Perhaps some anti-social joy might be spiritually good?

Matthew 18:3 "and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

When we were kids we would cry, pout, have tantrums, jump up and down with excitement, hug everyone, etc. We outwardly displayed how we felt. Fear had yet to suppress us. We didn't 'know better' or dare I say, worse. We did not know how to 'control yourself' or shall I say, practice repression.

As we grow older we learn how to repress and control our emotions so others can't see or know what we feel. We can easily learn not to feel or feel only a select few socially appropriate emotions. Adults typically do not do a potty dance or cry out loud because they can't get a toy. We can still get upset when we can't have our toy, but we learn how to handle or control or hide our reactions. Instead of crying we might learn anger. We inwardly become trained how to respond. We have guiding thought messages to help us control our feelings and responses.

When we practice over and over a hundred times a reaction it can become a habit. The way we respond to life in our minds and bodies become deeply trained. It can become an unconscious response. We can become trained to avoid feelings like crying, getting angry, or being afraid. This controlling can involve repression which is an unhealthy avoidance. Many of us can go through serious life changes with hurt and loss while never going through the grieving process. We can seek ways and methods to temporarily escape the pain through drugs, sex, violence, food, exercise, games, work, or books.

Taking time to stop and explore our underlying condition can be uncomfortable to some and even scary to others. Yet humans need to grieve losses, hurt, and disappointments. It's a need in order to find peace. We need to look at our hurt, talk about it, feel it for a bit, and make peace with it. How can we love or have compassion if we avoid our own hurt? Our hurt needs spiritual healing. There is a process for it that is Biblical.

Peace is the goal. Never self-condemnation. We will need to own our responsibility for our hurt while stepping toward inward forgiveness, even self-forgiveness. Resentments toward others or ourselves are destructive thought messages. They can block us from love and peace.

Matthew 13:15
"For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’"

I grew up around hardened people. If I cried or showed affection I would get made fun of and that would hurt. Hurt my pride. So I learned not to cry and not to care. And I chose to associate with others who were like me, people who did not care. Anger and laughter (often laughing at people) were the only emotions that were acceptable with my friends. This process of emotional management is different for each of us.

When I began seeking God I was taught to look inwardly and face my thoughts and feelings. God's ways are full of compassion, kindness, gentleness, and love. I cannot practice such things if I cannot sense them within me. Empathy involves understanding. A non-alcoholic cannot have empathy with an alcoholic. Someone who was in a war will not be easily comforted by someone who was not in a war. We need people who understand us. We need to be understood. We need to be heard and to share our experiences. Catharsis is the beginning of grieving. Yet this is best done with someone with experience in the grieving process, someone who understands the path toward acceptance and peace, someone who will keep it in confidence and be safe.

To understand love and forgiveness, we will need to go and emotionally experience them inwardly and outwardly. This is a process, to face ourselves and feel. 

Just as I learned not to cry and to repress my feelings, I needed to learn to cry and how to feel again. I needed to learn to care. In fact, I'm still learning. I can't just take old learnings and push a delete button. The relearning process involves resisting old learnings while practicing new ones. If my mind tells me to hurry up, I can prompt myself to ignore that message, take a breath, and move calmly. I can tell myself to trust God and move peacefully. I can pray for peace and strength.

God is love, grace, compassion, and peace. All such things involve inward sensations, thoughts, and outward responses. The Spirit of God has been given to us. Our senses can be sharpened and they can be dulled. The result happens from our choices.

Some of us may be trained away from sensing love, peace, empathy, and the like. We may rush around with tasks, too busy checking boxes to stop and emotionally engage with God's spiritual reality. Are we sensing God's good that is abundantly around us? Are we even giving time to find it? Do we seek it out like treasure? Do we associate with others who see it? Do we understand our own feelings of anger, worry, joy, sadness, love, or fulfillment? Do we value such a journey, to follow God's ways?

If you value such a journey and are willing to respond differently with God's instructions, you are in the right place. Transforming with God is a commitment to seek each day the spiritual good within and around us. We will need to develop deeper insight into how we feel and corresponding thoughts. Journalling can be helpful. Feel free to use the Self-assment tools page.

We must make time each day for God, because it's God. If God is really our God, then we will prioritize God. If we don't, then obviously our minds are pursuing elsewhere. We must retrain our thoughts to pursue God daily with our hearts and minds. God is love. If we worship God, we will choose to worship love and gradually learn more and more how to be in that love.

We can pray for help from God to guide us toward thoughts of love and peace. If we don't think about it and make it a priority, we likely will not grow in it. This is a daily productive action with developing spiritual good. The saying is, "Progress, not perfection." We can assess ourselves to ensure we are indeed making progress.