The RevJerryTroyer's Podcast

You And Your Stuff

Last Sunday’s episode of CBS Sunday Morning included a piece on diamonds. The star was a blue diamond weighing in at 117 carats. After being refaceted, the retail value was estimated to be well over $50 million.

Really? For a shiny rock? Who assigns the value to these things? Actually, it is a team of experts called the Gemological Institute of America.

My book for the month of June is Clutter Busting by Brooks Palmer. The book defines clutter as “things that you hold on to that are no longer useful to you. These things may be worn-out or brand-new, but they are trash because they have lost their value."

In the kitchen drawer that you will not open when anyone is watching, or the room that you will not allow visitors to see, there are probably treasures you haven’t used or looked at in some time. Did you know that you are paying to keep them? If they are taking up space in your place, a portion of your rent, mortgage payment or property taxes is going to pay for them.

I suggest that we also carry clutter with us in our beliefs and emotions. Old regrets, resentments, and beliefs in lack and struggle, is trash that is costing us our peace.

Sometimes we go through our stuff and decide to keep it because it is valuable. Who assigned the value? You did. That t-shirt from your trip to who-knows-where in 1999, birthday cards from some number of years ago, etc. Equally, the hurtful memory that we keep because a parent or preacher said it, is not bringing us any good. Forgiveness can help us release that clutter.

Yes! Yes! Yes! That And That And That!

In these days of negative, hateful and hurtful political campaign ads, it can be difficult to keep our focus on what we do want, rather than what we don't want.  But if we aren't using our minds, who is?  Anticipating today, full of good and joy and opportunity, feels so much better than dread and resentment.

Yes, but...

You've probably made your list, either on paper or in your head, of what you want to accomplish in 2012. You might call them goals, or resolutions, but the intention is the same. Some of them might be carry-overs from 2011, and that's OK.

Often, after we do that, a well-meaning friend, or the news, or our ego (which some people believe stands for Edging God Out) will remind us of all the reasons why those wonderful things couldn't possibly happen. And often, after we get those messages or ideas, we accept them as our truth. The reasons why wind up being excuses.

Our reasons / excuses may have been with us for a long time. Perhaps your goal or resolution is to finally stand in your truth and change the dynamics of a relationship that no longer serves you. But you might have been taught that children should be seen and not heard. We are someone's child, no matter how old we are. Or that the meek shall inherit the earth, which could be used as a reason / excuse for playing small.

But what if we looked at it all and made the decision to change what needed to be changed?

Worry Or Wonder?

So you've decided to find a new relationship.  Or forgive an old hurt.  Or create a wonderful event.  Or step-up to greater financial abundance.  Or get a job that makes your heart sing.

You write down your plan, reviewing the steps to be followed.  You go in search of whatever it is.

At what point in the process do you get the Universe (Spirit, the Infinite, the Divine, God, your higher power) involved?

If you were with me last Sunday, you remember I (again) quoted the song from my days in the Lutheran Church:  "oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear; all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer."

In my life today, thankfully, my experience of prayer is very different, in that I am speaking affirmatively and accepting what I want, rather than begging and beseeching the God out there somewhere to do what I want.

But in my getting the Infinite involved, I am allowing Infinite Intelligence to pave the way, bringing me what I need when I need it.  It might be those strange "coincidences" that happen, or the idea of who to call or where to go.

What if we got Spirit involved from the start, rather than as a last resort?

And what if, rather than worrying IF it will happen, we could stay in wonder about HOW it will happen (recognizing the HOW is not our business, and in absolute conviction, no-question-about-it, that it will)?

Will I Be My Valentine?

As I'm sure you know, Tuesday, February 14 is Valentine's Day. Jewelry stores, candy makers and florists have suggestions for gifts we can buy for our Valentine.

But how would our lives look if we decided to be our own Valentine? If our best friend came to us and described a challenging situation in their life, we would most likely counsel them in compassion and unconditional love. Do we treat ourselves with the same love and compassion?

We know that, as Alan Cohen says, "there is no future in the past." We must stay out of resentment and regret, recognizing that every experience in our past was there to bring us a blessing and quite possibility give us the opportunity for a lesson. But when something comes up, do we also feel that?

Why Isn't This Working?

All the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament are positive and empowering. He never said "do not try this at home." Instead, He said "greater than these things shall you do," and "it is done unto you as you believe."

So after we do our prayer work, why don't we receive whatever it is we asked for? Is it because God is on vacation in the Bahamas? Or because we are up to our limit on good this month? Absolutely not.

Who Am I?

You may remember that early last year we studied the book, A Complaint Free World. The crux of the book is that, because what we focus on expands (and you might have heard that somewhere before), as we stop complaining and start looking for the good, our lives begin to change. Many of us chose to wear a purple "Complaint Free World" wristband that we would move from wrist to wrist when we found ourselves speaking a complaint or judgment.

Most of us are pretty good in our conversations, especially when we are with like-minded people. We look for, talk about and dwell on the good. But what do we think about, and especially, what do we think about ourselves?

Edwene Gaines' wonderful book, The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity, reminds us that "my life means what I say it means." So what do I say (think, feel, believe) my life means? Who am I, really?

Do we anticipate our future experiences based on heredity (grandmother had it and my mother had it, so I am going to have it--whatever it is), or do we remember that we are on our own path, and someone else's health has nothing to do with us unless we allow it to?

Do we carry regret with us because of a relationship that didn't turn out the way we thought it should, or do we honor all the players (including ourselves) in the recognition that, over time, sometimes we grow together and sometimes we don't. "There is neither good nor bad but thinking makes it so" (Shakespeare).

Walking On Fire Or Not

If you were with me on Sunday, you might remember that I talked about my most recent experience at Edwene Gaines' retreat center in Valley Head, Alabama.  It was my fifth time to be there with the opportunity to participate in a fire walk.  Unlike the previous times,  after asking Spirit "is this mine to do?" I was given the guidance to NOT walk.  So I didn't.

Each experience has been a power-filled and life changing event, and this time was no exception, because it challenged me to ask myself about what other areas of my life I am still "walking on fire" when I don't need to be.  Taking things personally?  Taking responsibility for someone else's actions that had nothing to do with me?  Trying to "help" Spirit answer that prayer, rather than just releasing and listening?

Vision Beyond Appearances

Our power or gift from the Universe for the month of June is Imagination, and our color is light blue.

The book, How To Use Your Twelve Gifts from God by William Warch tells us that imagination is "vision beyond appearances."

There is an expression in the business world about "thinking outside the box."  The box is appearances, what we have always done, what is "safe."  The box may also be how we experience life.  When someone says or does something that does not make us happy, do we automatically react the same way we have before, or allow ourselves to consider another way of looking at the situation?  Is there a lesson or gift they are bringing us?

Using All Our Strength

In the book No Less Than Greatness by Mary Manin Morrissey, my book for May, the story is told of a boy and his father who were out walking when they came across a large stone. The boy said to his father, "Do you think if I use all my strength, I can move this rock?" His father answered, "If you use all your strength, I am sure you can do it."

The boy began to push the rock. Exerting himself as much as he could, he pushed until sweat poured off his forehead, but the rock did not budge. Discouraged, the boy told his father, "You were wrong. I can't do it."

The father placed his arm around the boy's shoulder and said, "No, son, I was not wrong. You didn't use all your strength.

You didn't ask me for help."

What's going on today? What rocks are we trying to move ourselves? We can, of course, keep struggling. God will not fight us for it, whatever it is. Sometimes it seems like we get Spirit involved as a last resort. But remember the children's song (which really should be the adult's song...) "oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer."

That's everything--health, wealth, relationships. Everything.