Talks With Our Creator, Sept. 23rd

September 23

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks
against his brother or judges him, speaks against the law and
judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it,
but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and
Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—
who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:11-12)

How different would your life be if you were able to suspend judgments?
If you find yourself anxious, angry, discontented, fearful, or upset, it’s usually
because you’ve begun to think about and judge the experiences you’ve been
having, which means you have stopped simply experiencing them.

I tend to either like or dislike whatever is happening to me, and it’s
those judgments that get me into trouble. If I am feeling pleased because
someone offered me approval, for example, I tend to want to hang onto
and have more of those feelings. When my car breaks down and causes me
inconvenience, I might think life is treating me unfairly. In those instances,
it’s hard to simply accept what is happening and allow ourselves to feel
the distress. Because we don’t like feeling distressed, we begin to wonder
why they don’t make cars that work properly, and we then start to feel
victimized.

Our expectations are what can cause us difficulty—particularly when
we expect that life will go smoothly at all times. Life simply does not
operate that way; it gives us whatever it gives us. It’s our thinking about
and judging what we’re given that sidetracks us. When we simply “go with
the flow” and allow the experiences, we are always OK.

Be aware today of how often you run away from an experience into your
thinking process. When we analyze, judge, and lose ourselves in seeking
solutions, we can deny the experience itself. The life God grants us is too
special for us to deny any part of it. Going off into our heads may prevent
us from really seeing and being aware of all the treasures (both good and
bad) that are presented to us daily.