The RevJerryTroyer's Podcast

Hanging With God

If you live in California and have been out and about, you've probably seen the billboards or heard the radio commercials for the California Lottery Commission, with the announcement of Wednesday night's jackpot being more than $317 million.  Their by-line is "believe in something bigger."

I'm not sure what this has to do with the lottery, but I love the message for us.  If you were with me last month, you remember we talked about faith.  Do we really believe that God (Spirit, the Universe, our Higher Power) can and will do for us what we affirm in our prayer work?

Ernest Holmes, the founder of Science of Mind, said that there is a power greater than we are, and we can use it.  (And I would add that we do use it, whether we are conscious of it or not.)

But for many of us, faith is a process, not an event.  How do we get to that absolute, no question about it, knowing?  One way might be by getting to know God--not just about God.  There is a difference.

Do we ever just hang out with God and listen?

Hanging With Delilah

My book for the next five weeks is Prosperity's Ten Commandments by Georgia Tree West.

You may remember the Second Commandment: You shall not make for yourself an idol; you shall not bow down to them or worship them.

Think about the word worship. It is what we focus on, what we spend time with, what we give our attention to.

Consider the story of Samson and Delilah in the Old Testament. Samson, who had very long hair (which was the source of his strength) was very taken with Delilah. What he didn't know was that Delilah had been hired by the Philistines to find out all about Samson and why he was so strong. So Samson spent a great deal of time with Delilah, and teased her about the source of his strength. She finally said, paraphrased, "if you really loved me, you'd tell me." So he did, and the Philistines came in the night and cut his hair.

Who and what do we spend time with? Do we hang out with positive, life affirming people who believe in us and our dreams? Or do we "worship" lack, limitation and struggle?

God Bless Me

Well, we made it through Valentine's Day.  The flowers have probably begun dropping their leaves and may have been tossed, and the candy boxes are empty.

Valentine's Day is a wonderful and heart-opening day for those of us in a relationship.  But what if you are not?  What if you are carrying some old hurt about a relationship that didn't work out as you expected?

This "holiday" is often focused on someone else, but are we willing and able to be our own Valentine?

Last Sunday, I spoke about Jack and Cornelia Addington's book, How To Love and Be Loved:  Drawing the Larger Circle.  The circle includes the people we love and nurture in our hearts.  Do we leave ourselves out of the circle, because of regret, shame or a belief in limitation?  Click on the link to listen to my talk.

From Ordinary To Extraordinary

On Sunday, we finished our work in Tolly Burkan's book, Let It Be Easy: Simple Actions to Create an Extraordinary Life.

The premise of the book is that there are four simple points we can use to let it (life) be easy:

     * Speak the truth
     * Ask for what you want
     * Keep your agreements
     * Take responsibility for your agreements

Then, there are seven ingredients that we can use, applying the four simple points, in order to create an extraordinary life.

What's the difference between ordinary and extraordinary?  To me, it is the experience of easy.  Want to do, be or have something new?  Of course, because Spirit is my source, all the pieces fall into place and the money shows up so I can do, be or have whatever it is.

Have a situation in my life?  Using attentive awareness, one of the seven ingredients, I can see that there is a blessing in it for me.  I stay out of judgment, and in curiosity.

Another of the seven ingredients is adding self worth to my life.  Do I carry guilt, shame and regret about something I did, or didn't do, that keeps me from expressing and experiencing all the good that life, and Life, has for me?  I'm the only one keeping score--the Infinite is not.

Finding Our Way Home

You may remember the television commercial that home furnishings store IKEA ran a couple of years ago. It showed pictures of different houses, ranging from a mansion on the side of a mountain, to a home-made camper shell on the back of a pickup truck.

To me, there is a big difference between a "house" (where your physical body resides) and a "home" (where you experience acceptance, safety, comfort and peace). Growing up, your house may not have offered you the comfort of "home." And in fact, many of us keep searching for that experience of home, often looking for it outside ourselves. But when we allow ourselves to go within, and connect with the loving, nurturing presence of Spirit (God, the Universe, our Higher Power), we can have that peace and quiet.

Expressing Our Freedom

If you watched the evening news tonight, you no doubt heard more about the Casey Anthony trial, the economy, and all sorts of other tidbits that probably didn't make you feel very good. Maybe, just maybe, there was a tidbit at the end with some good news. Or not.

It seems that we expect the news to be bad. And even if there is good news, there can only be so much of it. Because, of course, it's a half hour broadcast and we know what comes first.

Having grown up and been conditioned to expect that whatever it is can't be that good, or go on for any period of time, we expect "the other shoe to drop," "the bloom to fall off the rose," and other events so that we can be returned to the state of dis-ease, dis-comfort and mediocrity.

It is what Gay Hendricks calls the "Upper Limit Problem." We allow our lives to be just so good for so long, and then something happens that sends us back down again. But we can solve that pattern! Click on the link below to listen to my talk on this subject.

Decide To Live Richly

In The Power of Decision by Raymond Charles Barker, my book for September and October, it is said that "prosperity is the ability to do what you want to do at the instant you want to do it."

One of the chapters in the book is entitled, "Decide to Live Richly." Notice the word richly. It is certainly having the money to do what you want to do, but there is much more to it than that. Physical health, relationships with others, courage and confidence in ourselves, and the absolute conviction that Spirit (God, the Universe, our Higher Power) supports us and will supply us with whatever we need.

Decide To Allow

You might be familiar with the work that Elizabeth Kubler Ross did surrounding the five stages of grief: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance. When we finally decide to allow, we can settle into the final stage of acceptance.

I believe that we experience grief anytime there is a major change in our lives. In relationships, when someone leaves, or the dynamics change (such as in a long-term health challenge). Sometimes we carry grief with us as the result of a relationship not being as we would have preferred, like one with parents or other family members. We might carry that grief with us for years or even decades, until we allow ourselves to feel what we feel, and then ultimately, accept the new truth.

Why is this important? Because we won’t be available for the joy and passion that Life has for us, or for the intuitive ideas that Spirit gives us, if we are the walking wounded.

It is not necessarily fun stuff to look at and heal what needs to be healed. But the mystic poet Rumi reminds us: “don’t turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place. That’s where the light enters you.”

Coming Out To Ourselves

So many of us have something in the back of our "closets" that we want and need to keep a secret. An old hurt, a regret, an experience we judged as a failure. As long as we keep it locked away and hidden, it remains there to keep hurting us. At any point, we can take it out, look at it, forgive it, and move forward. When we do this, we can fully experience the allness of Spirit. Click on the link to listen to my Sunday message!

Choosing To Live In Love

"Love.....bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."-- I Corinthians 13:7.

Just about everyone I know is someone's child. And many of the people I know are someone's mother or father. Sometimes events like Mother's Day bring up old memories for us--possibly some that we would have been just as happy to forget years ago.

In my book for the month, Mary Manin Morrissey challenges us to look for the "God thought" in every memory. A "God thought" recognizes that eeveryone is the essence, expression and experience of Spirit. A "God thought" assumes everyone's best intentions, knowing that everyone (including our parents and children) are always doing the best they can in the moment.

Adventures such as childhood, in the rear-view mirror, don't always look so hot. And yet, when we allow ourselves to look back with adult eyes, we see that everyone and everything was on our path for a reason.

A "God thought" removes the filter that dims the truth and allows every positive intention to shine through. Someone said that "the light you seek is within your own lantern."

This recognition can bring us wonderful peace. It is always available to us.