At lunch today, I sat with several students in my wife's Spiritual Directors group. The talk centered around Thomas Merton and other notables of the Christian Mystical ilk. The general consensus was that these were remarkable people, luminaries whom we could only hope to rub elbows with at some point or other.

What I wanted to ask, but didn't is what these people thought was the difference between them and those they were discussing. Were they of higher quality than those sitting around the table or where they somehow blessed by the One to bring light to the rest of us?

There is no difference if we consider that we come from the same Spirit, the same Essence as the so called greats. The difference might only be in the willingness or the ability to be more open, more obedient to the leading of the Spirit

Do you ever go through times where you feel as if you are useless? These are times when nothing in your life seems to be coming together. The hours and days go by and nothing really changes and you might even begin to wonder if your life is being wasted.

Then, all of a sudden, you have meaning and purpose again. Things are going well and you seem to flow with creativity. There may be no rhyme or reason to it, it just happens. It feels good and you are certain that the Universe is on your side.

Lately, I have been in the second category to the max! There aren't enough hours in the day to do all that seems to flow from me. I am teaching my yoga and meditation, church, and writing until my fingers start to freeze on the keyboard. It feels so good!

Unfortunately, I, and I suspect others, have a hard time backing away from this rush of Spirit and we tend to get overwhelmed. Even when opportunities comes to back away and relax, we don't want to stop the flow.

This week-end, I am supposed to go away for a couple of days and stay with a friend. I hate to break the flow. I asked my wife if it would be bad manners to bring my lap-top so I could write and she assured me that it would be. She knows me. I would hole up in my friend's guest room typing my guts out and not say five words to him. I need to learn to accept the break as flow from the Spirit just as much as the creativeness is.

How about you?

This morning, while meeting with one of my advisors, we got in a discussion about the connection between God and us.  So many people see God as a separate entity that has nothing to do with who we are, or what we do.  While it is true that God can be found outside our individual lives, it is also true that God dwells within us; like it or not.

As we talked, we began to wonder what our individual lives would look like if we could comprehend the fact that the Infinite is within us.  How might it change things, if we were aware of the connection between us and the Source of all things?  Would we be calmer?  Would we have less fear of things that go bump in the night?  It doesn't take a mental giant to see that things would be significantly and awesomely, different.  Think how much more productive we would be, if the Creator of the Universe was allowed to work, unhindered, through us.  What would be the obstacles that stopped us?  Nothing!

If you extrapolate that out, what would our world look like if everyone lived that way?  Would there be a cure for cancer?  Would there be the wars, the suffering that we see today?  The answer is an easy, no.  In fact, I believe that we would no longer have thoughts and longings for some heaven; it would be here.  We would live in a paradise that we cannot even imagine.

So what's stopping us?

How is your life?  Have you ever sat down and really asked yourself that question?  So how is my life, anyway?  Is it everything you ever thought it would be, or wanted it to be?  I will list three categories of life.  I know, there are more than that, but I wanted this to be simple.

The first category is Spectacular! Is your life Spectacular?  Other words you might use are amazing, awesome, and stupendous.  Definitions for Spectacular are remarkably great or maybe impressive.  Is that your life?  It's mine, but it hasn't always been, and sometimes it isn't quite.  To have a Spectacular life requires some work.  Sometimes it comes naturally, but most often it is just plain work.  You have to want it to be Spectacular.  You have to look beyond all the garbage that floats up and see the good.  It's there, believe me.  You just have to look.

Maybe your life is Satisfactory.  I have had a lot of days like this.  Yes, I'm alive; anything else you want to know?  No, there isn't anything remarkable.  There is nothing remarkably bad or remarkably good.  You breathe in and out and you go through the motions.  When you pull the covers up at night to put the day to rest, you cannot say whether you were alive that day or not.  It feels as if you went into surgery and came out numb all over.  How do you go from Satisfactory to Spectacular?  The answer is inside of you.

Hopefully, your life is not Sad.  I don't think I need to explain Sad.  You know if it is.  In fact, you know it so well that you hate to get out of bed each morning.  Facing another Sad day in your Sad life can be unbearable.  There is no hope and the only thing you really look for in life is an escape.  We all have Sad days, but they should be just that; days, hopefully hours.  If everyday is Sad, then I suggest you get some help.  See a professional, or at least confide in a friend.  Look for the Infinite in your life and know that you were created for greatness, not Sadness.  You were made for Spectacular!