In my mind I replaced the word gauntlets with challenges. I opened my back door this morning to welcome back the warm air for probably one last time before the cold takes over to sit out here with my tea, in the warm sun, and reflect back on how my first week of “challenge study” went.
It seemed this first week centered around the physical challenge of losing my 14 pounds. As always, the physical acts as a gateway to the spiritual. As I fought against wine, white flour, and sugar, I also fought against the way God wants things and my dreams (the way I want things). And then I read something today in The Artist’s Way Everyday by Julia Cameron that will maybe change the way I perceive “challenge” in this week ahead of me:
“We can ask for and receive divine help and guidance. We do not need to feel that our dreams and God’s will for us are at opposite ends of the table. We can consider that our dreams come from God and God has a plan for their proper unfolding.”
I love the Julia’a word choice – “proper unfolding” – as opposed to “coming true”. Dreams “coming true” somehow has a “magical” ring to it and if it’s one thing I learned through this journey, is that there is no “magic” where God is concerned. “Proper unfolding” suggests a well thought out, perfectly timed plan. THAT sounds more like the God I have come to know these past nine months.
The challenge for week two has just emerged in the form of the word “patience”. My body is going to require patience as it changes and drops pounds and inches over the next three weeks. But it is also going to require careful custodianship on my part for it to do it’s thing. People and projects in my life, likewise, will require patience and careful custodianship to bring about spiritual creations and connections consistent with God’s will for me.
Patience is a virtue of God. He and I are sitting on the same end of the table. My dreams, both physical and spiritual, come from Him. The “challenge” goal for this week: work toward what I see in my future for the rest of this month, but move slower, be deliberate in my thinking, and, as always, listen to the whispers that fly by in what we would call “inklings” and heed them. Pray about them. Feel the hand of God at work in my next seven days – when I am deciding about food as well as when I am deciding about action.
And so, as another day goes by, I learn to approach my days realizing God always wants what’s best for me and my dreams radiate from Him, and….I have written.
Wow. Been a cognitive exercise on the patio this morning…..
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