God the Father & Coach and His Team

In reading quotes from Thomas Merton recently, I was reminded of the simple fact that God is inside of me in my spirit. As my creator, he is intimately with me and interested in me. He loves me as a work that he intentionally created. The "free will" that He gave me upon my creation allows Him to stay on the sideline while I play the game of life.

Like most sideline coaches He runs out on the field sometimes in enthusiasm or dismay. I must learn to understand His joy and His dismay and react properly to both. As He continues to coach me through His Spirit like a worldly coach, I must seek to understand what He envisions for me in the game of my life. For me to reach my potential is important to God, my coach.

He sent His Son to help me know the rules of the life game and the way it should be played. If I ignore the fact that I can't play the game without His coaching, then I am alone and out of my league. There will be no championships. Unlike our worldly coaches, God resides in us and leaving the locker room doesn't separate us from Him. God is a package deal in that He is also our Cheerleader.

God uses those around us to be conduits of His love and grace.  We tend to underestimate our value to each other. We don't think that these folks around us can be of any use in our lives. Many are annoying and opinionated. Many just don't appeal to us and don't seem to have anything in common with us. Even the folks we are drawn to, seem a little superficial and we are afraid to open a deeper relationship with them.

Those who have placed themselves in Christian Community know the blessings received when things go wrong in their lives. God continues to use each of us to bless others when we turn to Him and recognize our role. God does His work, but we have to do our work in order for things to jell.

Christian Community is a means of raising the spiritual experience and connectedness of individuals and groups of individuals. Community is one of the ways of living that helps us in seeking God in our lives, and in so doing allowing God to use each of us to communicate His Love, Grace and Will to His Children.

There's no way out of this life we've been given. We can fight it to the end, but we are children of God. Continued denial that we are His children is a painful way to live life. We are His Eternal Children and if we choose to ignore His Light, we place ourselves in darkness. In order to live our lives in the best way possible no matter the bumps in the road, we must give up our fear of death, enjoy our gift and give thanks for God's Love & Grace. The icing on the cake is the eternal life that is ours with our Father Creator.

We make it such a rough walk as we move away from the innocence of our childhood to the challenges of our natural world adulthood. Trust in God is swallowed up by our egos and our need to be in control. The many false masks of success are all around us and we try to put on our mask, which is demanded by the natural world playwrights.

Trusting in God always wins out over the other options. We are home-schooled by God our Father and as our teacher He will give us our grades. Our goal as His children is to earn grades that are accepted, authorized and accredited by God.