Why you feel the way you feel…

— Be the Surfer —

I was out on a run today in glorious 90 degree sunshine, incredible mountainside views and desert stretches dry with dirt but yearning hard to grow life. Then God showed up. Whispers of wisdom and goodness that arrived just at a time when they were needed most.

This time He delivered through a podcast titled “changing your relationship with life”… and everything indeed changed. Let me paraphrase and share in my own words.

You think you have a relationship with life.

But the relationship is actually a relationship with yourself.

All your feelings.. what you’re upset about, have anxiety over, the things you fear, the thoughts you have that make you crazy…. all of that is not a relationship with what life is doing, its a relationship with what you are doing. Inside.

You have created a model of what life “should” be like in your head.. and you resist what you think it “shouldn’t” be, while trying to cling to what you think it “should” be.

But you have no control of any of it. You are choosing a life of suffering.

Creation is unfolding and life is happening the way that it is because of all the events that have occurred up to this moment. It is perfectly unfolding based all the moments right up to this one. But you want this moment to be independent of all previous events, choices, decisions, and natural laws. You want it to be what you think it should be. But everything is dependent on what came before it. You are fighting against the very fabric of creation.

The laws of nature have been in play for 13.8 billion years making and creating the moment that is right in front of you exactly and perfectly based on all that has happened. It has nothing to do with what you think “should be” or “shouldn’t be”. It simply is what it is because of what was.

It’s about what You’re Doing

How you feel and what someone told you was “supposed to be” has nothing to do with what life is doing.

How you feel is about what you are doing in response to what life is doing.

The moment you are facing is perfectly aligned and in perfect harmony with everything that has come before it. It is perfect with all that has happened and is happening. Your wants, desires, and shoulds make no difference except to cause you suffering. You are the one not in harmony. You are the one out of alignment.

You are resisting or you are clinging.

You are spending all your time trying to arrange things, worry about things, or prevent things. You are not living, you are suffering.

You are suffering because you are not having a relationship with life, you are having a relationship with your idea of what life should be.

Try this. Just let that go and just let life come in — — then step forward from there. Step forward from right there. One baby step at a time.

THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS

The only thing that matters is what you do with the moment right in front of you. What life is doing right now. What you bring to and how you respond to this moment.

Be prepared and think it through, yes.

But don’t be distracted with your fears, anxiety, disappointments and ideas from the chatter in your head. Instead simply embrace the moment, let it flow in, take action with what life has brought you, and then… let it flow out.

Adjust. Repeat.

The world outside is unfolding in harmony and perfection (based on all that has come before it). It is on a trajectory with billions of years of God-in-motion free-will momentum. This is what you’re fighting against.

The way you feel has nothing to do with what life is doing, but everything to do with what you are doing. So stop. Change.

Don’t fight the tide of time as it rolls-in. Don’t cling to it either. See it. Feel it. Keep your eye on it and experience it.

Then apply your will (the immense spiritual power of your will) to ride it and respond… then let it go and let the next moment flow in.

BE THE SURFER

Life coming in.. life coming at you…
…these are the waves of the ocean and you are the surfer.

You can’t fight the wave, or you drown.
You can’t try to keep the wave and never let it go, or you drown.

You must let the wave come in and flow through. You use who you are and what you have to ride the wave, or you simply let it flow by… another one is coming.

Don’t fight it. Don’t cling to it. You just ride it or let it pass, let it flow.

You see the wave coming. You don’t ignore it. You keep your eye on the wave. You don’t just say “whatever” and leave everything up to chance. You prepare. But you don’t resist. You don’t cling. You let it come in, you do your thing, then you let it go.

In baseball when the ball is hit.. you keep your eye on the ball.

You don’t resist the direction the ball is traveling and go off and do your own thing. You don’t even pray real hard that some outside force will make it do something different other than what its going to do.

You keep your eye on the ball, based on the trajectory its on, and deal with it. Then pick up and play again.

Ride the Waves.
Surf.

Keep your eye on the ball.
Play.

Feel the flow.
Hear the Whisper. Step-in.

Be the Surfer.
Play Ball!

Let Go & Let’s GO!
— Jeff