Connor, a man in his late 40's, has achieved everything he ever thought he needed to feel happy and secure. He owns a successful business, has a wonderful wife and two children, and a beautiful home. Yet when you look at him, he doesn't look happy. He looks empty, with no sense of vibrancy about him.
His wife, Brianna. also has everything she ever wanted ? a husband, children, financial security, successful work and a beautiful home. When you look at her, you see a person filled with aliveness and vitality, friendliness and joy.
What is the difference? Why are these two people, each who have the same outer things, so very different in their energy? The answer is that Brianna has a strong connection with God while Connor has no spiritual connection at all.
The longer I've worked as a counselor, the easier it has become for me to tell the difference between people who know and experience God and people who don't. It is the difference between Connor and Brianna. It is the difference between being full from the inside or inwardly empty.
It's not that Connor doesn't want to experience God. He says he really wants to. He sees the difference between him and Brianna and he says he wants what she has. He sees his parents as empty and he says he doesn't want to end up like them, with no sense of passion or purpose in their lives.
Yet Connor does not experience God, and the reason is simple: he places a higher priority on having control over money, employees, what people think of him, his wife, and his children than on being a loving human being. He says he wants to be loving, and the times he is loving he feels great, but it never lasts because his desire to control is greater than his desire to be loving. He is afraid if he is loving to himself and others his business will suffer, he will have less money, he will lose friends. His ego wounded self tells him that if he is open and loving, he will be taken advantage of, and that is the last thing he wants. So his primary intention is to protect against what he fears rather than to be loving.
God is love, the spirit of love, the energy of love. That love is always here for us when we open our heart. Our heart opens automatically when our intent is to learn what is loving to ourselves and others rather than protect against what we fear with our controlling behavior. To know God is to know Love. To know Love is to know God.
When Brianna looks at Connor with love, Connor feels afraid and turns away. If he opens to her love, he fears he will be vulnerable to being hurt. Maybe she won't like what she sees if he is open and will reject him. Maybe she wants more than he wants to give. Maybe she just wants to suck the life out of him like his mother did. Protecting against his fears is more important to him than being loving and sharing love with Brianna. Brianna loves Connor but is often lonely with him because he is afraid to share love with her. Connor complains that he doesn't feel good a lot of the time ? he feels empty. He avoids his emptiness with food and TV, which doesn't bring him joy.
Connor complains that he doesn't know how to experience God. I tell him it's not about how, it's about intent. When his deepest desire is to be loving rather than controlling, he will easily and naturally experience God. It's all about intent. Our intent is what we have choice over. Our intent governs how we live, who we choose to be, how we behave. Our intent to love and learn about love opens our heart to the experience of God.
If you feel empty, consider that it may be more important to you to control than to love. If you know others who appear to be empty, consider that it may be more important to them to control than to love.
Opening to love does not mean that we will be vulnerable to being hurt, manipulated, taken advantage of. In fact, the opposite can happen: in experiencing God, we receive the wisdom and strength to know what is good or bad for us, what is right or wrong for us. In opening to God, we discover what is in our highest good. It is far safer than relying on our wounded ego self. Opening to the Love that is God through your intent to learn can bring you the deep sense of fullness and safety for which your heart and soul have always yearned.
About The Author
Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is the best-selling author and co-author of eight books, including "Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By You?" She is the co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding healing process. Learn Inner Bonding now! Visit her web site for a FREE Inner Bonding course: http://www.innerbonding.com or http://www.innerbonding.com. Phone sessions available.
cleaning team near Winnetka ..Imagine the Bible is a sharp and deadly double-edged sword,... Read More
Irish myth has the power to transform your life into... Read More
Stress & Spirituality ? How Spirituality Affects Stress LevelsTake a... Read More
The bible tells a story about four men who sat... Read More
As soon as he saw me I saw him. It... Read More
Some people go to physics and spiritual readers for advice... Read More
In the spring of 2003, I spent three weeks in... Read More
The still place is the beginning. Settle in there, ask... Read More
Have you ever experienced a traumatic event? I'm sure the... Read More
When the storms in your life are raging, just believe,... Read More
It is important and necessary that we regularly spend time... Read More
Mother Nature has this uncanny tendency to turn upon herself... Read More
The Mind in an Advanced Thought System:The center of our... Read More
I believe in a phenomenon I have been known to... Read More
Let me explain my approach to the practice of ritual.... Read More
Do you have a dream, but are waiting for "just... Read More
Last week, I sat at my computer and watched the... Read More
Military personnel at a U.S. prison in Guantanamo, Bay, Cuba... Read More
Carl Jung, 20th century psycho analyst and dream researcher, said:... Read More
Whenever, we have a task or project to carry out... Read More
John Eldredge writes in his book Waking the Dead, "God... Read More
Many look outside of themselves for an experience of the... Read More
The Birth of Jesus Christ18 Now the birth of Jesus... Read More
We as human beings consider ourselves the most intelligent species... Read More
How many of us rush blindly through our days, fall... Read More
family-safe home cleaners Northbrook ..Unconditional love means unconditional freedom. Love and freedom are two... Read More
It is so obvious that God works and thinks on... Read More
People rarely live up to a hundred years of age... Read More
I come face to face with self whenever you come... Read More
Last Saturday, the children were down at their grandparent's house... Read More
One important factor in how we go through life is... Read More
Good morning Roy, good morning JosethWhat about me, were do... Read More
Years ago a commercial ran for eggo waffles. It showed... Read More
The Tarot is not just a divinatory tool, but it... Read More
If you have a longing to connect with something higher,... Read More
In his book, Stress Without Distress, Dr. Selye suggests that... Read More
The time has come for the mass population on Earth... Read More
In Corrogue it is frosty.The ramp into our "acre of... Read More
Michael Shermer speaks with the energy and passion of an... Read More
Yes, we are living in a world where we are... Read More
Some of my greatest teachers have taught me that faith... Read More
We'll begin with a question:What is a moral?I'd say it's... Read More
The Many Waters explores the universe and sifts through the... Read More
In the make-believe world, too, fiction and films are filled... Read More
The atmosphere surrounding the earth is still a matter of... Read More
Green Principles: SoulBestABeing aware here now My path is progressive.... Read More
Today is the day that I'm getting back into exercise.... Read More
Until recently, miracles were usually credited to a supernatural power.... Read More
Echo was a flea-bitten gray horse, with brown speckles everywhere,... Read More
People have always sought the sacred. It is the Divine... Read More
Spirituality |