Getting Your Mind Off Autopilot - Reclaiming Your Purpose In Life

Do you ever feel that sense of being disconnected from your own life because the tasks you are required to perform are taking over and stifling your dynamic sense of freedom?  This, I believe happens to most of us when we begin to feel overwhelmed with our daily lives.  The stresses of having to conform to everything that everyone around you desires you to be is daunting.

Realizing that you are dynamic and ever changing is the first step to reclaiming your life.  The second is to do everything-and FEEL everything KINETICALLY.  Love Kinetic, Forgive Kinetic, Dream Kinetic!  Kinetic means in action.  So to experience life kinetically is to take the controls to your day back from the situations around you and live IN the moment, instead of being carried along on the tide of each passing moment as you watch your day drift by-on autopilot.

Everyone's job can become stagnant, no matter what profession you are in-and that will cause your days to drag by.  Consciously offering up the fruit of your work in your job as a service to the Kingdom of God will melt that stagnant feeling and transform it into a living stream of energy that will invigorate you and connect you to your higher purpose.  It will also connect you to God and to others.  You will realize a sense of freedom in your work that maybe you felt long ago, when you first took the position-or first started the company.  The quality of your work will improve because you are presenting it and creating it for a greater cause than that of mediocre repetition. 

When you are living and working in this manner-other areas in your life cannot help but to be affected.  And like a metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly, you also will find your wings-and those wings will carry you higher and higher and closer and closer to your greatest destiny and the reason  that God created you ON PURPOSE.

Allowing Transformation by Using Your Gifts

Change is a frightening thing-definitely to some more than to others.  It is vital, however that we allow ourselves to change and to grow in order to become all that we are intended to be.  We grow as individuals through struggles and difficult times in life-and we celebrate our victories upon the tops of the mountains we have climbed.

God is with us in the valleys and on the peaks.  He is by our sides when we are feeling crushed by the weight of the world and He is standing on the top of the mountain as we breathe in the feeling of victory.  If we can remember this and allow ourselves to trust in His timing and His judgment for our lives-we will find ourselves being able to climb much quicker and stumble much less often.

The person we are when we begin our journey in life bears little resemblence to who we have become as our life unfolds and we meet the challenges of the ever mounting responsiblities of the dynamics of life.  We are matured and polished by the "rough spots" in life and we are sculpted lovingly into the creation that He envisioned at the moment of our conception.

The gifts we have are to help others--and our lives will feel much happier and lighter to us when we use them for that purpose.  I am a massage therapist and I have to tell you, I absolutely love my profession.  I feel God's love for the people I connect with every day.  I can see their struggles through the impact that stresses have had upon their bodies and I can hear the exasperation in their voices when they share with me stories of their lives.  And when I begin to work on a client-I can feel the rushing surge of the power of God's love as it flows through me and into the person on my table.  I trust that feeling that my client is receiving healing-not from me, but from God in their bodies and spirits through the gift of massage that I have been given.  Not a day goes by that I do not thank Him for the precious gift of allowing me to touch His children with healing love as I raise them up before Him in prayer as I perform my massage.  It is a precious thing to me-to have received the Grace of God and to feel His presence so powerfully radiant as He lays His hands upon mine, guiding me to the areas of his children that are in need of healing.

The Art of Error ~ The Path of Healing

Look around yourself right now, wherever you are.....what do you see?  In most cases, you will see at least one other person, in some cases you will see a crowd of people.  Every person you see around you has committed an error at some point in their lives that has "set them back"-even if it's just in their own mind.  We are not a perfect creature-and we humans, as a rule make many mistakes in the course of a lifetime.  We are always in pursuit of a goal that we hold fixed in our mind-how we get to that goal provides a myriad of choices and paths. 

Some of them are not smooth.  Some of these paths actually lead to dead end walls that prevent you from even glimpsing your original intent.  Some of them are long and arduous, but over time will spit you out at the feet of your dreams (although not in great condition from the trip!)  Still others are available which in the beginning didn't look like a good path to get to the goal-but perhaps we chose it because we were electing against the more painful looking path. 

Maybe the one you chose was right in God's eyes, but you fear that it will never end up bringing you to the feet of your dreams.  Still, it was the right path among the ones you had choices to take, so you are on it now with your dreams still out there somewhere in the fog.

God wants us to know that He appreciates our faith in Him when we are choosing a path to lead us to a goal we have in our life.  He will honor that faith with His guidance, protection and the assurance that He wants better things for us than we even know HOW to want for ourselves!

So many times, when we have taken the thorny path that looked like the shortest route to our goal, we will look up and see our dream right there-in huge display in front of us....but we can't get to it on that path because of the wall of thorns that would tear us to bits that lay between us and our goal.  When we chose that path, we didn't see that huge wall of thorns-and now it's just too late.  So, sadly we turn back and walk the other way feeling like the mistakes we made in taking this rotten path have surely eliminated any chance we ever had of getting to our goal. 

But here is the miracle!  No matter how you got on the path you are on-and no matter what may lie hidden in the shadows waiting to devour you as the sun sets on your dreams still in the distance-God will rescue you.  If you stop, look up and ask Him-you will see that a different path will open up for you and He will guide your feet so that you don't stumble in the darkness.  And when the dawning sun once again arises in your life as you're holding onto His hand and walking along this path--you will look up and see something before you that is even greater than that which you had envisioned for yourself!

Remember, it's never too late to ask God for a change of direction.  Tell Him what you want and need in your life.  He CARES about those things, too!  He loves you so much!  And even when you have no idea He is there-in your darkest hours.....the ones that leave you wounded and lost before you can even look up to seek Him.....He is there.  He is watching as you suffer....and the tears of his broken heart are sliding down his face as He waits for you to call out to Him.  He longs to reach down and comfort you-to pick you up and heal your wounds. 

His heart breaks for us every day because of our lostness in the Valleys of Darkness in the foothills beneath the Devil's Palace as we are led away into the night by greed and fear (which are the Devil's Handmaidens).  He is there beside us in our suffering, even when the pain prevents us from seeing Him.  And He is waiting for us, as a mother waits beside her baby who is learning how to walk--as he falls down again and again...waiting for the moment when we will call out to Him for help....like the baby cries out and lifts his arms into the air to be picked up.  And just like a mother picks up her baby from the floor where he has fallen, God will pick us up from the place we have stumbled and He will give us rest from the pain of our failed attempts at greatness.  And then, when we realize the truth-and when we allow Him to.....He will map out a path of Greatness in our lives for us to follow.  And our path then, will never go near to the Devil's Palace again.  As for his handmaidens, Greed and Fear.....they may linger on the path to distract us, but if we keep looking ahead to God-we will get to see our lives opening up in a magnificent display of Glory to God that will bring us the ultimate happiness of being in service and in His perfect will.

Just as that little baby who is learning how to walk looks ahead to his mother who is clapping and holding her arms out in laughter and joy for him as he picks up speed and dashes toward her in a straight line on little legs that have barely become stable....we must always look to God as our ultimate goal.  To be more like Him, is to live the vision He held in His heart when He made man.....and in that place, we are safe beneath the wings of His perfect Grace.

Healing From Within

One of the most frequent questions I hear is "How can I speed up the healing process?"  It's difficult to be suffering painful effects of a trauma such as a breakup, the loss of a loved one or a financial loss and not become bogged down by all of the hurt.

We must remember that even in the darkest of storms, there is a calm within us-a lighthouse, that God has placed within each of us that will show you the place of peace when you are being tossed about in the throes of a trauma.  That place is always there-it is always available and that light will always lead you inward, toward God when you seek to find it.

God understands that traumatic events that happen in our lives cause disruption within and throughout all of our bodies and minds.  It can shake our spirit from its firm foundation, if we allow it.  Remembering that God is all powerful-and nothing upon this earth can overcome Him is a good first step toward peace.

When we seek things like approval from others, material things and even the numbing effects of a narcotic for emotional pain-we are simply putting a bandaid on our wound.  But that bandaid isn't keeping contaminants out-it is breeding toxic denial which will cause our problems to grow and expand.  Healing doesn't come from outside things-it comes from the inside.  It comes from within us-It comes from God.  And that is where He is--WITHIN US--

......And He is always seeking to carry our burdens, ease our pain and smooth out the pathways we tread with our tender, broken feet.  There is no end to His Love-There is no pain that He cannot take away and there is Nothing that this world strikes upon us that He cannot lift.

He wants us to recognize that He is not an outside source of comfort that we must drive to a church to receive.  He wants to remind us that He is within us-each of us.  And His loving grace is sufficient for any and all pain we are stumbling through in our lives.  Healing from within is profound-and it is God that is providing the healing even during the pain of the storm.

Don't turn to outside remedies when your heart is broken-turn inward and move toward that Great Lighthouse that is always glowing with love.  You will find that not only are you moving toward Him--He is also moving toward You.

When You Feel Sad....

When you feel kinda down, it's important to try not to lose sight of the bigger picture in your life.  Circumstances are fluid and they change rapidly and sometimes not in the direction that you'd have them go.  Still, we have to find within ourselves the power to accept that which we cannot change--but to take ACTION to change those things which we DO have control over.

It seems that emotional turbulences such as sadness, guilt and a sense of loss are crippling and it's hard to find the strength to lift these lower energies upward toward change.  Remembering that we are the artists of our own creation in life is step number one to moving this energy.

Denial of these emotions don't work-and they only grow stronger with the act of suppression keeping them down.  Instead, we must learn to acknowledge what our emotions are reflecting to us and then to let that go.  Let it flow freely through and around you until the energy begins to dissipate.  Then, take hold of everything that is in your life that you ARE grateful and happy about.  Begin to sing praises about these things to
God as you pray for your current circumstance to be resolved.

Not only does this action lift you from the lowliness of negative emotions, it also aligns you with the energies of receiving blessings and manifesting things in your life that you truly want.  The first step to receiving more is to be ever thankful for what has already been given to us by God-and to praise Him for taking care of us as we pray in faith that He will be the strength within us that lifts us to higher ground and protects us and keeps us.