Day Twenty Seven - The Secret to Excellence

You can get good at something just by working hard at it.  If you have some talent and you work hard at it, you can get really, really good at it.  But excellence, peak performance, being the best you can be at something---that doesn’t happen without coaching.

Resistance encourages us to take it easy and settle for mediocrity.  God created us for happiness, and he fills us with great joy as we strive for excellence, especially in the spiritual life.

Nobody achieves excellence at anything without coaching.  Coaching plays an essential part in our lives and it is often done through everyday conversations.  It’s part of the generational experience that we pass knowledge along, we pass wisdom along, we pass know-how along to other people.

Who’s coaching me spiritually? I have to be constantly looking for spiritual coaches because I need them to achieve excellence in the spiritual life.

Am I striving for excellence in my spiritual life or am I satisfied with mediocrity?  As soon as I start striving for excellence, I will start to look for spiritual coaches.

Who has coached me in my spiritual journey?

Focus:

Nobody achieves excellence at anything without spiritual coaching.

Act:

Seek out a spiritual coach.

Pray:

God, help me to know that holiness is possible for me.

Amen.

Day Twenty Six - You Cannot Succeed At Anything Without...

On the day I decide to intentionally start denying myself, my life will improve in a thousand ways.  “Conquer yourself and the world lies at your feet” (St. Augustine).

God wants us to have a strong mind, a strong heart, and a spirit that soars with so much strength that nothing in this world can weigh it down.  These things can only be accomplished with prayer and fasting.

There are themes in success.  One of these themes is delayed gratification.  You cannot be successful at anything without delaying gratification. There is a process we go through to be successful at anything and delayed gratification is part of that process.

God wants me to achieve excellence at everything I do.  Delayed gratification is the key to experience excellence.

Delayed gratification is the path to happiness.

How do I delay my gratification?

How do I practice self-denial? The fruit of the spirit is this: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 

Focus:

You cannot succeed at anything unless you are willing to delay gratification.  This ability and success are intimately linked.

Act:

Say no to myself at least once every day.

Pray:

Jesus, I want to deny my false self so I can find my true self.  Grant me the strength and the courage to trust that delaying gratification leads to happiness.

Amen.

Day Twenty Five - Breaking the Cycle

To love is to freely give ourselves to another.  In order to freely give ourselves, we must first possess ourselves.  We all have destructive cycles of thought or behavior that need to be broken.  Breaking the cycle is never easy, but we can only love another to the extent that we are free.

Breaking the cycle is not something I can do on my own.  I need the encouragement and prayers of the people around me, and I need the grace of God.

While it is good to give something up, it is also good to do something very positive; to take on a new habit.

Why do we fast?  God uses fasting to liberate us.  Some demons can only be cast out by prayers and fasting.

We are all struggling with something.  Jesus’ message is that it doesn’t matter how strong our will power is.  I can’t overcome that struggle without Jesus.  It’s bigger than me.

What in my life can only be cast out by prayer and fasting?  What do I need to deny myself to overcome this even with Jesus’ help?

How is God inviting me to make prayer and fasting a part of my spiritual journey?

How have I overcome a big struggle in my life?

Focus:

We are all struggling with something.  Identify my something.  Name it.  Own it.

Act:

Pray and fast, asking God to liberate me from the area of slavery in my life.

Pray:

Heavenly Father, I want to be free.  Help me give this struggle to you, because you are the only one who can liberate me.

Amen.

Day Twenty Four - Hungry

Every yearning we experience as human beings is a yearning for something more complete.

We have a lot of different hungers:  spiritual, emotional, intellectual.

How aware am I of what’s going on around me?  Do I know what I’m hungry for?

Jesus came to feed the hungry and heal the sick.  We are all hungry.  We are all sick.  Do I know what my hunger is?  Do I know what my sickness is?

Every yearning is in some mysterious way a yearning for God.  While I am searching for him far and wide in this world, he is waiting for me in the very depths of my soul.

What am I hungry for?  I hunger to be loved just because I exist.  That is how God loves.

Focus:

We are all hungry for something.

Act:

Write down everything I am hungry for at this time in my life.

Pray:

God, I need you.  Give me the patience and awareness to let my hunger for things of this world lead me to the deeper need and yearning that I have for you.

Day Twenty Three - Attempted Murder

There is a direct relationship between truth and happiness.  Truth leads to happiness.  Lies bring misery.  Celebrate the truth in life.

We cannot be happy separated from the truth; we cannot be happy in a world of lies.

Our society right now has a very casual relationship with the truth.  We actually live in a culture that is trying to murder truth.

Culture hates truth.  Current culture believes that we can all live happily ever after in our own individual truth.  But that is nonsense.

Wisdom is actually not knowing the truth, but living the truth.

If there is no such thing as truth, there is no such thing as wisdom.

Our culture doesn’t believe there are great decisions because there is no such thing as objective truth.  Decisions that align with truth are wisdom

As Christians, we have to reject the casual relationship with truth.  We are called to take truth seriously.

What does it mean to give truth a place of honor in my life?

Focus:

Our culture is trying to murder truth.

Act:

Give truth a place of honor in my heart, mind and soul by telling the truth.  Next time I catch myself about to tell a lie, pause.  Ask myself why I am lying.

Pray:

Jesus, I know you are the way, the truth and the life.  Inspire me to speak the truth, live the truth, and celebrate truth.

Amen.

Day Twenty Two - How Many Sundays Left

The average life expectancy of an American male is 76.  On average, an American female lives to 81.  How many Sundays do I have left?  What will I do with the Sundays I do have left?

Don’t waste a single Sunday.  If I don’t waste Sundays, I will be less likely to waste Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.

It’s easy to waste life.  We tend to waste life in moments.

When I think about it, people don’t change that much.  Do I know anyone in my life who has really changed their life?  Anyone you has gone down a radically different path?  It doesn’t happen that often but should happen more often that it does.

The reason it doesn’t happen is because we’re incredibly comfortable with wasting life…wasting an hour here, wasting a day there, wasting a week. But the day is today.  Go out and get it!  Don’t waste a single moment today.  Don’t worry about tomorrow or the next day, the next week , the next year…just today.

Get out there, get a hold of life.  Don’t waste a single moment today.

If I had one Sunday left, what would I do?

Focus:

Life is short.  Never waste a day.

Act:

Based on actuarial estimates, how many Sundays do I have left.

Pray:

God, I know every moment is a gift.  Help me to break through resistance when I am tempted to waste the time you have given me.

Amen.

Day Twenty One - The Power of Habits

For better or for worse, habits can shape our destiny.  We all have habits, good and bad.  Negative habits of the mind, body and spirit are easily formed.  Positive habits of the mind body and soul require great intentionality and persistence.  But once gained, they are like ground that is won forever.

Strong habits will help me break through resistance.  Good habits effortlessly defeat it.

Successful people have great habits.  These habits are rocks in their lives that keep them grounded and anchored.  When things get tough, when things are great, these things keep them grounded.

There is not a saint in the world who did not have a habit of daily prayer.  It’s a really ordinary habit, but when placed in my life as an anchor, it becomes phenomenally powerful.

When starting to assess our lives and character, we often come to some bad habits that we realize must be eliminated.  But the amateur mistake is to focus on that bad habit.  And in many real ways, whatever we focus on tends to grow in our lives.  The more we focus on it, the more obsessed we become about it and the harder and harder it is to get rid of that bad habit.

To get rid of a bad habit, I need to crowd it out of my life by replacing it with something good.  Our lives change when our habits change.

There are a lot of little good habits that are needed to crowd that one big habit out of my life.

To create this ritual, this rhythm, these powerful routines of habit in our lives, over time becomes incredibly powerful.  Habits are like the steady in and out of the ocean, breaking down whatever the rocks and barriers and obstacles are in our lives.

Focus:

Habits – good and bad – have an enormous impact on our lives.

Act:

Write down your three best habits.  Now write down three habits that you need to change.

Pray:

Jesus, I know that every moment is a chance to turn it all around.  Help me to defeat my bad habits and to embrace the habits that lead me to you.

Amen.

Day Twenty- Learning to Listen

From time to time it is good for us all to learn to listen again.  Listen to those we love.  Listen to our bodies.  Listen to our conscience and soul.  Listen to God.  Every relationship improves when we really start to listen, especially our relationship with God.

If I want to improve a relationship, one of the fastest and easiest ways to improve a relationship is to become a better listener.  Every relationship improves when we really listed in a deeper way, I a new way, in a fresh way.  And that includes our relationship with God.

In church, it’s easy to fall into a passive state. We go to church to listen to the voice of God.  Our involvement in mass should be much more active, especially when it comes to listening.

A Mass Journal will help me become a great listener at Mass.

God is deeply interested in personally communication with us in a very powerful way.  Go to church as a proactive listener and I will be astounded at the message God is delivering to me every Sunday of my life.

How do I approach Mass?  My best Mass experiences are when I surrender to God’s will and actively listening and participating in the celebration of the Mass.

Focus:

The most practical way to improve all our relationships is to continually become a better listener.

Act:

Make a conscious effort to listen to God and the people in my life.  One way to do this is with a Mass Journal.

Pray:

Lord, help me to listen to your voice at Mass.  I know if I do, I will go out focused, energized, and invigorated.

Amen.

Day Nineteen - Bored

Boredom is a manifestation of selfishness.  It can only occur when we are overly focused on ourselves.  It always means that we have set God and neighbor aside to focus exclusively on ourselves, and that is never a recipe for happiness.

Saying you are bored is an insult to God.  God has given us life and so many opportunities exist in every single day.

Has Mass become irrelevant to the modern life?  Or more likely, has the modern life become irrelevant to the Mass. Our lives have become irrelevant to God’s world view.  We’ve stopped chasing the best-version-of-ourselves.

Very often we go to Church but we do not want God’s input in our lives.  When I go to Church on Sunday, it is impossible to be bored, if I go to Church to listen to the voice of God in my life.  When I am disengaged, I am a little more disengaged at Mass.  I’m probably resisting God in something, in some way, somehow in my life.  And when I’m resisting God, I get lazy in my prayer, in my spiritual reading and I tend to focus on myself more and become more self-interested and more selfish.  I become unhappier, because when I resist God, I resist happiness.

What is my favorite thing about the Mass?  The Liturgy of the Word is my favorite thing about the Mass.  I enjoy the readings and gospels because I like to relate them to what I have going on in my life.  The Homily helps me to put it all in perspective and is what I look forward to the most about the Mass.

Focus:

To say we are bored at any moment in my life is a massive insult to God.

Act:

If I am ever bored, look for a way to get outside of myself and serve others.

Pray:

Lord, open my heart when I go to Mass this week.  Help me to discover your recipe for happiness and peace in the Mass.

Amen.

Day Eighteen - Tuesday Nights

The prayers of the Mass are both ancient and fresh.  They speak of yesterday and apply to my life today. 

We are halfway through Lent!  How much has resistance slayed me this Lent?  A LOT!  I did so great last week getting up early to pray and read the daily devotions.  But here I am on Tuesday of the next week, and I haven’t been able to get out of bed yet this week.  I know that I want to and how much better it makes my days, but that extra 15 minutes in my bed has defeated me each morning.  It’s easy to schedule this on my calendar, but actually doing it is difficult.  I would like to attend a weekday mass.  It would be worth my effort to find a church that offers a mass time that I could attend.  But saying and doing are two totally different things.

Find a mass each weekday, each week.  It is a very intimate experience.

One week over the next year, go to Mass every day for one full week.  Then reflect on how it affects me.

Focus:

Once I understand that God has an incredible dream for me, once I grasp that God wants me to become the best-version-of-myself and help others to do the same, and once I start to listen to the prayers of the Mass with all of this in mind, I will very quickly discover that there is genius in Catholicism.

Act:

Go to Mass twice this week, Sunday and any other day I like.  Pay attention to how it focuses me and fills me with peace.

Pray:

Jesus, thank you for inviting me to spend more time with you.  Fill that time with your grace, love, patience and peace.

Amen.

Day Seventeen - An Unconventional Education

Even in the small things, God is at work.  I can learn more in an hour of silence that I can in a year from books.

God is constantly teaching us so many lessons in order to win us, and build us and send us, but he does want to send us.  God wants me to be his ambassador…to answer some prayers.  I can answer people’s prayers by God doing it through me.  As I become more spiritually aware, I will realize how God is using me to answer prayers.

We all have the ability to collaborate with God to answer other people’s prayers.  That is an outstanding thing!

Have I ever thought about being the answer to someone’s prayer?

Focus:

Life is always teaching us lessons.

Act:

What lesson is God trying to teach me through the experiences of my life at the moment?

Pray:

Jesus, your grace is at work in my life.  Increase my awareness of how you are working in my life and what you are calling me to do in each moment.

Amen.

Day Sixteen - No Visitors

One of life’s most essential lessons is learning to be alone.

What do I mean when I say get inside myself?  I mean I need to step back from things on a regular basis, have some solitude and get new perspective.

The role of solitude in my life is very powerful.  That silence and solitude is essential to develop clarity to hear my own voice clearly, hear the voice of conscience clearly and learn to hear the voice of God clearly.

It’s also important to get outside of myself.  The best way to do that is to serve other people.  To do something for somebody else will help me focus on someone else besides myself.

So, two main lessons:

Get inside myself.  Work out who I am by spending some time in solitude.  Get clear about the most important voices in my life.

Get outside of myself.  Find ways to serve other people.  Few things will bring me more joy in this life than serving others in powerful and simple ways.

Who could I visit this week? 

Focus:

We keep resisting God even after we are convinced that his way is the best way.

Act:

Visit the lonely.  Somewhere not too far away from where I live, someone is saying a prayer.  He is asking God to send someone to visit him and lift him up out of the depths of his loneliness.  God wants me to help him answer that prayer.

Pray:

God, help me to dive deep into solitude, especially when I don’t want to.  Help me to learn more about myself and about you, and inspire me to reach outside of myself to those around me.

Day Fifteen - Falling in Love

Fill my mind with thoughts of God.  Spend my days thinking about things that are good and true and beautiful and noble, and I will become good and true and beautiful and noble.

As Christians, we are called to be people of possibility.  In order to maintain that and grow spiritually, I have to be a continuous learner.

When I fall in love with learning, I fall in love with life in a completely new way.

How has continuous learning made my life better?  Good books help me understand the world and enlighten my life.  Spiritual books help me to rediscover Jesus and the plans he has for my life.

Focus:

Wherever I find excellence, I find continuous learning.  They go hand in hand.  Wherever I find that continuous learning is missing, I find mediocrity.

Act:

Do something today to stoke my love of learning.

Pray:

Lord, inspire me to fall in love with learning.  Help me to fill my days with you, and with things that are good, beautiful, noble and true.

Amen.

Day Fourteen - Interesting People

Read the Bible.  There’s something very powerful about reading one of the Gospels from start to finish.

When I reflect on the Word of God regularly, when I reflect on the Word of God in a meaningful way, on a regular basis, I tend to make better decisions.

There are some interesting people in the Bible.  We get to see who made good decisions, who made poor decisions and when the same person was making their best decisions and when the same person was making their worst decisions and what was different in their life at those different times.  The most interesting part is that I can see myself at different times in my life, in each one of those people.  So it’s not just their story, but my story as well.

Am I a good decision maker?  When God is centered in my life, yes.  When I try to create my own path or let resistance win or choose to do my own thing, then no.  It is so simple to just ask God to be with me.  To pray without ceasing.  To pick up the Bible and read it (I even have it scheduled on my calendar).  Yet, I fail every single day.  Not in all moments of my life, but in some.  That is the struggle and the exact reason why I must keep trying.

Is there a story in the Bible that inspires me?

Focus:

People who regularly read the Bible make better decisions.

Act:

Set aside a few minutes each day to read and reflect on a passage from the Bible.  Begin with Matthew, Proverbs or Psalms.

Pray:

God, I know the Bible can give me incredible insight.  Guide me as I read your word.

Amen.

Day Thirteen - Hour by Hour

As Christians we are called to transform every activity in our lives into a prayer.  This is how we become the best version of ourselves and live holy lives.

Christianity is incredibly practical.  It is a beautifully human invitation to experience the divine.  For a Christian, everything is a prayer.

Everything I do can be changed into prayer.  Even my sleep can be offered as a prayer.  Every hour of every day can be offered as a prayer for someone or something.

It changes the way we live.  It changes the way we work.  Doing so will transform my life.

A lot of the various aspects of our Christian spirituality are just designed to wake me up, because sometimes I really can be sleepwalking through my life.

As I grow in this awareness, it changes the way I live.  It also changes the way I love.  Imagine being loved by someone who’s that aware.

What is an ordinary activity that I can transform into prayer?  For me, my daily work, my morning routine and all the time I spend driving could be transformed into prayer.  I can also transform my eating into a prayer.

Focus:

Every activity can be transformed into a prayer.

Act:

Offer each hour or activity of my day to God as a prayer for a specific intention.  Take a deep breath and lift the coming hour up to God.  Ten seconds at the beginning of each hour will change my life.

Pray:

Lord, help me to transform my life into prayer.  Inspire me to bring meaning into everything I do so that my presence in the world may elevate and transform ordinary, everyday things.

Amen.

Day Twelve - Living Soulfully

Every moment of every day, every situation, every person I encounter is an opportunity to become a better-version-of-myself.

What does it mean to live soulfully?  To be authentic, to become the best version of myself, to become all I can be, to become who God created me to be.

Every single day I do things that, I know even when I am doing them, do not help me become the best version of myself.  Bad habits need to be crowded out of my life with good habits.

When I am striving to become the best version of myself, that is when I am living soulfully.

Jesus said, “I have come so that you may have life and have it to the fullest” (John 10:10).

God wants me to live soulfully in a way that is beautifully handmade, unique and just me.

In what area of my life is God calling me to become a better version of myself?

I think God is calling me to be a better leader.  He has put me in a unique position to help shape the culture of our department at work.  He is challenging me to lead by doing his will and allowing his grace to flow into my work life.

When I compare myself to others, I am either giving myself an excuse to give up or settling for someone else’s standards.  What God calls me to do is a lot harder, but a lot better.

Focus:

Some things I do help me to become the person God created me to be, and some things don’t.

Act:

In each moment of each day choose the very best version of myself.  Ask myself, “Is what I am about to do going to help me become the best version of myself?”

Pray:

Jesus, I want to live soulfully.  Help me approach each day with energy and enthusiasm so I can become a better version of myself.

Amen.

Day Eleven - Ordinary Things

God wants me to be fully aware of every breath of air I take, every bite of food, every smile from a baby, every word I read, every song I hear, every kiss on the lips.  God loves ordinary things.

There are three qualities required to grow:  Committed, Coachable and Aware

Awareness: 

Most often happens in hindsight, but God wants to give us present moment awareness.  To be aware of things as they are actually happening. 

One way to practice awareness is when receiving Jesus in the Eucharist this Sunday.

The greatest enemy of awareness is multi-tasking.  We don’t actually accomplish more when we multi-task.

To grow in awareness:

• 1    When I’m with people, give them 100% of my attention.
• 2.     Stop multi-tasking.

Whatever I am doing, give it 100% of my attention, get it done, then move on the next thing.

It is important for me to take a step back and listen to God’s plan.  Find God in the air I breathe.  Bring God back to each moment.

Focus:

God wants to give me present-moment awareness.  He wants me to be aware of things while they are actually happening.

Act:

Learn to find God in the ordinary activities of daily life.  At the end of the day, write down three times when I was fully aware of God in my day.

Pray:

God, help me to find you in the ordinary; help me to immerse myself in the present moment so I can be with you.

Amen.

Day Ten - Get Busy Living

If I died today, what would I wish I would have done differently?

Hmmm….what perplexing question.

This in not home.  I am just passing through here.  It’s easy to forget that and get caught up in life and forget that all of this is temporary.

It’s very healthy for me to spend some time thinking about death.

When I go to Church, God ties to rearrange my priorities.  When I accept the Gospel, it wants to massively overhaul my priorities.

Death rearranges my priorities.  If I knew I had 3 years to live, what would I change on my schedule this year?  This week?

Stop thinking so much!  Live for the love of life or don’t live at all!  It’s time for me to get out of my head and focus on giving my best to God, to my family, to my work; to give the best of me in everything I do.

Focus:

It is healthy to reflect of the fact that life is short and we are all going to die.

Act:

If I died today, what would I wish I would have done differently?  Reflect.

Pray:

God, I can lose perspective from time to time.  Help me focus on the things that really matter so I can get busy living.

Amen.

Day Nine - Are You Spiritually Healthy?

Always take your first opportunity each day to spend time in prayer.

THIS.  This I struggle with.  My first opportunity of the day is as soon as my alarm goes off.  But, I hit the snooze button….three times. That gives me fifteen minutes of not actual sleep but not actually getting out of bed either.  Come to think of it. My first alarm goes off at 4:45am.  I’m not really sure why, except to remind me I have another hour and a half left to sleep.  The second alarm goes off at 5:30 am.  At this point, that one is just laughable.  That was my good intention side saying, “hey, get up early!  You know you are happier and more productive when you do. You can pray.  You can get in some Yoga time.  You can start your day in solitude before the hustle and bustle of the morning routine.  When that alarm goes off, I just cancel it and roll over.  Resistance slays me every morning.  When I get up at 6:15 am, I’ve already been defeated 5 times.  Taking five loses in a day is horrible!  Yet I do it to myself every morning before my feet even hit the floor.

Am I spiritually healthy?

When I become spiritually unhealthy, one of the things it distorts is my personality.  It keeps me from doing what God called me to do, being the person God created me to be and from relating with others in healthy ways.

Most of life comes down to four questions:

Who am I?

What am I here for?

What matters most?

What matters least?

Am I spending most of my time on the things that matter most?  Or am I distracted by a million little things that don’t really mean anything to anyone significant? 

The answers to these questions take a long time to develop.  One way to develop is through the daily habit of prayer.  Even just a few minutes each day, 10 minutes each day, God will powerfully answer these four questions.  God will show me who I am, what I’m here for, what matters most, and what matters least.

How do my best days start? My best days always start with prayer or sitting in silence with the Lord.  The best days also include morning yoga.  This week, I will strive to start each day in prayer.  I have put together a make-shift prayer corner for myself.  Before spending money on a comfortable setting, I’ve borrowed items form other places in the house to create my prayer corner.  I’m hopeful having a place devoted to nothing else but quiet time with God, will help me develop a daily habit of prayer.  If I am successful this week with my new set up, then I can look to update the corner to really my desired place.  I also want to include short periods of physical exercise each day.  Whether that is a few flights of stairs each hour at work, a walk around the plaza, morning and evening yoga or a quick walk around the block, exercise increases my spirituality.  I strive to do these because they help me become the best version of myself.

Focus:

God wants to bless me with spiritual vitality.

Act:

Establish a daily habit of prayer.  Start with The Prayer Process.

Pray:

The Prayer Process

1.     Gratitude: Begin by thanking God in a personal dialogue for whatever you are most grateful for today.

2.     Awareness: Revisit the times in the past 24 hours when you were and were not the-best-version-of-yourself. Talk to God about these situations and what you learned from them.

3.     Significant Moments: Identify something you experienced in the last 24 hours and explore what God might be trying to say to you through that event (or person).

4.     Peace: Ask God to forgive you for any wrong you have committed (against yourself, another person, or him) and to fill you with a deep and abiding peace.

5.     Freedom: Speak with God about how he is inviting you to change your life, so that you can experience the freedom to be the-best-version-of-yourself.

6.     Others: Lift up to God anyone you feel called to pray for today, asking God to bless and guide them.

7.     Pray the Our Father.

Amen.

Day Eight - Four Words

Thy Will Be Done.  It’s that simple.  These words have resonated with my soul over the past year.  When I first heard Hillary Scott’s new song, Thy Will, it completely moved me.  In all the good, in all the bad, the brokenness, the celebrations, in it all, Thy Will Be Done.

When Jaxson died unexpectedly and in my arms, I was hit with grief like I had never experienced before.  I’ve never had a pet die.  I never witness a life ending.  To see the life go out of a living being is an experience that shook me to the core.

During our Memorial Service for Jaxson, we used the song, Thy Will, because it had brought me so much comfort.

With all the busyness and stress in my life, it is so easy to become overwhelmed. “Sometimes I gotta stop. Remember that you’re God, and I am not.” These lyrics help me re-center my life on God.

God wants to fill me with a peace that cannot be shaken; a peace that is untouchable. 

The way we see God has an enormous influence on my spirituality, on how I relate to other people, and on my life.  How do I see God?  What are the qualities I assign to God?   

Focus:

These are the four words that embody the Christian challenge:  THY WILL BE DONE.

Act:

Take a few minutes to reflect on my image of God.  Write Down the qualities that make up the way I see God.  Try to trace each quality back to its roots in my life.

Pray:

Heavenly Father, I want to find peace that cannot be shaken.  You have shown me the path.  Help me to live it.  Help me to surrender to these four words: Thy Will Be Done.

Amen.

Day Seven - The Big Question

The moment we open ourselves up to God’s plans is the moment miracles begin to happen in our lives.

The Big Question:  “God what do you thing I should do?”  This is the question I need to ask throughout each day.  A daily habit of prayer is a MUST to grow spiritually. And spiritual growth will transform my life.

What do I need to do to establish my daily habit of prayer?  Can I make a prayer chamber, so to speak?  A certain place devoted to just God and my daily prayer…completely free of distractions.  I think this might be my first step in really getting into the habit of daily prayer.  When I get up in the morning, I hit the ground running.  But what if I got up in the morning, went to my special place and began the prayer process?  What if I did that for ten minutes each day?  How much would my life transform?

How has prayer impacted my life?  Prayer and God’s faithful love got me through the darkest hours of my life.  When the time came to admit that my marriage had failed, that it was making me spiritually unhealthy, that I had done everything possible to save it, myself and my husband, I let God’s will be done.  It was hard because I never thought God would encourage a divorce, so it took me a long time to listen.  For years, I had what I refer to as premonitions.  I had visions of something happening in my marriage, long before I even began to understand what a bad place I was in.  Looking back, that too was God.  The more I prayed to save my marriage, heal my broken heart, bring my husband into a relationship with God, the more I learned about the true evil that was attached to my husband.  I prayed for him to be set free of the demons destroying him, but he clung to those demons as much as they were clinging to him.  God told me it was okay to let go.  I still pray for him every day.  Because prayer is powerful.

Focus:

Prayer changes everything, and nothing ever really changes until we give daily prayer a place in our lives.

Act:

Ask God for his advice.  Take 10 minutes sometime today to sit with him in silence.  Present to him the biggest question I am struggling with at this time in my life and ask, “God, what do you think I should do?”

Pray:

God, what do you think I should do?

Amen.

Day Six - Something is Missing

If I sense that something is missing my life, stop ignoring it.  Start paying attention to it.  God is trying to tell me something.

That feeling is an expression of dissatisfaction.  Dissatisfaction is not always a bad thing.  It’s a powerful voice God uses to speak to us at different times in our lives.

What is missing in my life?  What’s working?  What’s not working?  And what is God saying to me through that.

God speaks to us in a thousand different ways.  Part of our spiritual journey is recognizing the different ways.  Be aware.  He speaks to us through our emotions…happy, sad, angry, stressed, dissatisfied.

God sends unlikely messages at unlikely time through unlikely messengers.  But God is constantly speaking to us.

What do I feel is missing today?  What is God saying to me through that dissatisfaction?

I feel my personal connection with God is missing today.  I feel like I am dissatisfied by just going through the motions of life without much of a spiritual connection.  I feel God is saying “Come Back to ME!  With all your heart.”

I have a great emptiness that only God can fulfill.

Focus:

It’s time to start listening to what God is saying to me through my dissatisfaction.

Act:

Don’t pretend to be happy and satisfied when I am not.

Pray:

Jesus, I am restless.  I know something is missing in my life.  Help me to hear what you are trying to tell me.

Amen.

Day Five - Life is Messy

Life is messy, but nobody can take your hope from you.  And if there is one thing that resistance hates, it is hope.  Hold onto your hope no matter how messy life gets, and share it with everyone who crosses your path.

I can have clear and logical ideas in my solitude, quiet place, but real people have to live them in real ways in a very messy world.

Everyone is struggling with something.  I remember when Chris left our family.  I was a mess in my head and my whole world came crumbling down.  But then I had to go out into the real world and everyone was carrying on…my world was a wreck but everyone else was just going about as normal. 

Nobody knows what I am struggling with, but we are all struggling with something.  It is important to realize that everyone is fitting a hard battle.  Be gentle with myself.  Be gentle with other people because everyone is fighting a hard battle.  Life is messy!

What hard battle am I fighting?  What’s my burden?  What’s my messy life?

Right now, the battle I am fighting is making prayer a priority in my day.  I know that if I just got up 15 minutes earlier, or went to my room 15 minutes sooner in the evening, or both, I could devote time to my prayer life.  But I get up in the morning and hit the ground running…dishes, lunches, getting kids ready for school, getting myself ready for work, trying to get out of the house in time.  By the time the kids are dropped off, I mentally start tackling my to do list.  What’s in store for me today at work?  How to I best prioritize?  When I am pulled in 100 different direction, how to I maintain and accomplish what needs to be done or what my superiors need me to do?  I’m stressed before I even get to my desk.

In the evenings, my mind is still racing.  I get the kids to their activities, dinner on the table, preparations for parties/activities, laundry, straightening the house and trying hard to be in the moment with my children.  I find my mind is still circling around work…emails, how to respond, how to approach a situation, how can I structure my next day to see maximum results, all these ideas that seem logical in my mind, are they really going to work?  I feel like I am trying to put an entire puzzle together with no vision of the actual picture and pieces scattered all over the place.  It has become consuming.

I have good intentions to devote the first hour of work to my Lenten reflections, but can’t seem to resist jumping into my emails and conversations with colleagues.  Before I know it, my hour is gone and I’m off and running to meetings and calls and pressing work issues.  I know if I just take the time every morning and every evening to seek God, sit in his presence and ask him “what is your will for my life?  And let thy will be done” the stresses and struggles I am carrying with disappear through the work of God’s hand.

Focus:

Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle and carrying a heavy load.

Act:

Be gentle with the people who cross your path.  If someone is grumpy or rude, if someone makes a mistake or does something wrong, give them the benefit of the doubt.  You never know what they are carrying around inside.

Pray:

Jesus, thank you for giving me a hope nobody can take from me.  Give me the courage to confront my own mess and share that hope with others.

Amen.

Day Four - Resisting God

God wants me to be happy even more than I want it for myself.

The classic dilemma of a leader is wanting it more than they want it themselves.  We see the potential and want them to reach that potential more that they want to.  It's hard to not cross the line and do things for them.  But it's important to empower them to do things for themselves.  I do not own the credit for their success, nor do I own the blame for their failures.

God sees what is possible with my life.

Go gives me the desire for goodness and to be the best version of myself.  Help me, Lord, to see the possibilities the way you see the possibilities.  Help me to accept your mercy and forgiveness and move on.

Focus:

When we resist God, we resist happiness.

Act:

Learn to recognize when I want something for others more than they want it for themselves.

Pray:

Jesus, I cannot imagine the happiness you desire for me.  Help me to embrace your dream for my life.

Amen.

Day Three - Making Sense of Everything

What do I want?  What do I spend my days thinking about?  What do I desire?

Since the beginning of the year, I spend most of my days thinking about work.  I want to be successful and grow my career.  I desire to be accomplished in my work.  I have received a promotion in which today is my first day.  This entire transition has been chaotic and unorganized.  I don't feel like I have clear objectives or know what my new role entails.  I have so many thoughts and ideas swirling around in my head that it is consuming my days.

I know God wants me to be happy and become the best version of myself.  When God is at the center of my life, everything makes sense.  My work is the primary area in which I need to put God back in the center.  When I make work decisions, I need to ask myself if I am putting God at the center of this decision.

Only in God will I find the truth and happiness I never stop searching for.

Focus:

It is only by placing God at the center of everything that I can make sense of life.

Act:

Place God at the center of the next decision I make by choosing not what I want or what is most advantageous to me, but what I honestly feel God wants me to do.

Pray:

Jesus, I yearn for happiness because you created me for happiness.  Help me accept the happiness you offer each day by putting you at the center of my life.

Amen.

Day Two - My Quest for Happiness

How did I experience resistance in the last 24 hours?

First of all, I am just getting to this reflection for day two on day three.  Instead of making my scheduled time for reflection a priority, I let other things occupy that time.  I thought, I will just do it when I get home from work.  But then, I let my responsibilities of the night take that time, too.  Thus, here I am today "catching up" and it's only day two.  If that is not resistance, than I don't know what is.

Also, on the way to school yesterday morning, I was frustrated with Alex.  He was in a bad mood already and being quite spiteful.  He hadn't completed his Math Attack and I knew if I told him one to do it, he would completely shut down and not do it at all.  However, if I just kept quiet, I knew he would pull it out and do it, even if it was in the very last minute.  I tried and tried to bite my tongue, but I didn't.  I still said something and that lead to an explosive argument which pretty much put everyone in a bad mood to start the day.  I knew staying quiet would lead to a happier morning, but I could not resist opening my mouth.

The thing is, I know the things that make me happy.  I just don't always do them.  And that is just dumb!

By giving focus and priority to the most important relationships in my life, I am much happier.

I know that silence, solitude, scripture and sacrifice make me a happier person.  But for some reason, those are the first things to go when I feel stressed or anxious or just don't feel like I have enough time.

What I am starting to figure out is that either resistance is going to win or I am going to win.  And let's be honest, I like to win.  So why am I constantly letting resistance defeat me?

It is a challenge to defeat resistance, but there is no middle ground.

In reality, I am an extremely happy person.  But, I don't always let myself fell it because I am focused on something else.  I tend to let little things like worry, anxiety, frustration and comparison drown out my happiness.

Am I as happy as I could be?

Focus:

Find out what really makes me happy.

Act:

Identify 3 activities that increase my happiness.
    1.  Quiet Pray and Reflection
    2.  Long Walks at the Lake
    3.  Road Trips with my kids

Pray:

Jesus, help me to stop chasing the things that destroy my happiness, and fill me with the desire to pursue the things that will bring me lasting happiness.

Amen.

Best Lent Ever #2 Day One - Resistance

Prologue:

When I received the book, "Resisting Happiness" as the Christmas gift to our Parish, I was so excited!  I love Matthew Kelly books.  I've read several of them and always feel like I come away as a better version of myself.  Within the first few days of the new year, I set out to read this new book as my morning prayer devotional.  To be honest, I have been a huge failure in a morning prayer ritual. I have the best intentions, but then decide I'd rather sleep longer or get caught up in the morning routine and slowly by surely it has completely been removed from my day to day.  I'll try to start back up, but end up failing again.  This is exactly what has happened with this book.  Which is quite ironic since the whole premise of the book is around resistance...not doing what we know we should be doing to become the best version of ourselves.

When the Best Lent Ever email arrived this year, I was really happy.  This program really changed my heart and my life last year.  To take the time each  morning with a  chapter of the "Rediscovering Jesus" book, then set aside time each afternoon for the video and reflection, I found the Lenten Journey to be much more fulfilling.  And through that fulfillment, I was able to change the scope of my life.  When I realized the Best Lent Ever program would follow the new book I received at Christmas, "Resisting Happiness,"  I literally did a happy dance.  I had been wanting to read the book and now I can in what I am sure will be a much more fulfilling way.  Because of this program, I look forward to Lent...as an opportunity to give up, limit, grow and begin a new.

Day One - Resistance

God created man for happiness.  Good Friday restores the possibility for happiness.  Resistance gets in the way of me being the best version of myself.  Resistance is real.  Resistance is the slayer of dreams.  This Lent, I will learn to conquer Resistance.

To do this, I need to put effort into everything I do.  Worrying is a strong form of resistance.  I will put my trust in God to transform my thoughts and actions into being present to the things that really matter.

What is one way I have encountered resistance today?

Beginning my day in prayer was my first encounter with resistance today.  Although I took a few minutes to read the daily reflection and the first chapter of the book, it was rushed and more of just have to do it response than a meaningful, purposeful action.

Challenge:

Be aware of every time I encounter resistance this week.

Prayer:

God,  I invite you into my daily battle with resistance this Lent.  Give me the courage to name, define, recognize and overcome resistance in my life.

Amen.