Finding God

There’s a principle I learned as a teen and I believe it was in drivers education. It says your focus determines your reality. In other words if you’re staring into the ditch you will drive into the ditch. This principle was shown to me in great magnitude last week at my daughters senior class all night party in which they hired a hypnotist. The key to hypnosis is number one the participants willingness but perhaps more important their ability to focus. The better one is able to focus the easier it is to be hypnotized. Their focus becomes their reality.

There is so much garbage going on in the world these days that you can’t help but be effected. It’s become so bad that many I’ve talked to, including myself, have opted to turn off the news. I catch the highlights on the internet. Otherwise we are so inundated with the negatives of the world we become sucked in and it becomes our focus. I believe this is a ploy of the Devil to draw our attention from where it should be; God. Imagine if you will one of my favorite scenes, a monk with his hood up wandering peacefully through a rolling meadow on a nice summer day. Focus on that for a bit…. Now imagine watching the headlines of the nightly world news broadcast. What different feelings do you feel picturing the monk vs. the news. Which state of mind would you rather spend your day in. Remember your focus determines your reality.

We have a very clear map of where to go if we want to find God. Scripture and Jesus give very clear directions, God is found in the small still breeze, Jesus went away in solitude to talk with the Father, Christ is present in the Eucharist, St. Francis saw God in all of creation, Jesus said He is present in the poor, the sick and the suffering. If you’re looking for a bushel of sweet corn for dinner you don’t go to the video store. If you’re hungry for a hot fudge Sunday you don’t go to the car dealership. If you’re looking for a beautiful mountain top view you don’t go on a cruise. You must choose the proper place to seek God. If we’re all wrapped up in how miserable the world is, how can we find God. If we take time to be aware and appreciate God’s beauty in the world, the people and the silence around us than we will find God. Remember your focus determines your reality.

If you’re really serious about a relationship with Trinity than you must go to the places where the Trinity exists and seek Them out. You must focus your attention, learn from the Saints and Prophets who are experts at finding God and do what they do. Of course all this is worthless if you’re not really interested in seeking Him. Then you will be dragged all over God’s green earth by the chains and ropes of the world and it’s problems. That’s another story for another day called “Freedom vs. Bondage.”

Peace and all good things.

I’ve been asked by Linda to contribute to her site from time to time by way of a Blog. It is an honor and privilege for me to be asked and to do that. My name is Bob but I go by the “pen name” of The Blind Beggar. I do this for many reasons. First, it adds a bit of mystery as I’m really about as ordinary and boring a person as you could find. Second, the things I generally write about are of a spiritual nature and being a blind beggar is descriptive of my spiritual state. I’ve been blessed by God to know and learn from some of the best. He’s also sent me some of the worst so I would learn discernment. But in reality, I grope around in a world of light, the light that is so bright I’m blinded. I search for the Living Water and along the way; I try to help the other blind beggars find that water.

I work for the Catholic Church in a small community of Northern Michigan. The story of how I got here is a miracle in itself and I have found that the biggest moments in my life have been totally contrary to how things should have logically occurred. I’m a professed Third Order Secular Franciscan and see God in all things. I love writing about all things spiritual and how I encounter God on a daily basis. I have found through my own experiences that piecing together the teachings of the Catholic Church with the teachings of Christ and studying the wisdom literature of other cultures that the principles and teachings have a very literal sense to them. We sometimes tag them as allegorical but as I’ve come to experience many of these things I’ve learned they are literal and it is hard to understand them until you’ve lived them. I believe this is the true meaning of wisdom.

We are all on this journey together and all at different points along the path. If you are at all serious about holiness, saintliness, and deep personal encounters with God, I would encourage you to take the fast track. The fast track being developing and extreme, radical prayer life (5:00 a.m. daily prayer times, 12:00 midnight prayer, quiet, meditation, contemplation) and the Sacraments. Perhaps my most transformative prayers personally would be Lectio Divina and Centering Prayer. No matter what your prayer style, contemplative, rote, charismatic, etc. the quickest and surest way to intimacy with God is through prolonged exposure to His loving presence through prayer and the Sacraments.

If there are ever any questions or topics you would like me to address, I would encourage you to contact Linda or myself. You can view my personal MySpace page and Blog or email me directly at: yukon_bob2000@yahoo.com. Until next time….

Peace and all good things!