Affect & Effect in Existence.....

"I suppose it is comfortable to think of an unchanging world, but change is fundamental to existence. The stability paradigm offered a false hope of a world devoid of major challenges. History sometimes reaches turning points, and we ignore them at our peril. The question then becomes whether we will seek to shape events or be shaped by them, to lead or to stand aside."

~James S.  Robbins

"Existence is the very nature of God. It is the thing that truly characterizes God and not us. If we did not exist, if we were never created, He would still be. If He were not, nothing would be. We have our being, our most constant predicate, from the One who alone constantly is.

God has no beginning, no middle, no end. There is no difference whatsoever between God at one point and another, because God does not exist within time. God does not exist merely “forever,” because He exists before forever begins and after it ends. He exists in a realm where questions of time cannot even be brought up.

To make a long tangent short, the complete otherness and pure existence of God requires that He be above everything and unaffected by it all, which is very difficult to maintain without error. Yet therein we will find the stability we seek."
~Michael Anthony Abril

Affected - adj.

1. Acted upon, influenced, or changed.
2. Emotionally stirred or moved.
3. Infected or attacked, as by disease.

Effected - verb

To bring into existence.

To produce as a result.

To bring about.

How arrogant are we in this world, somehow thinking that we can "affect" the long-term direction and shape the outcomes of this world and the events of this world??? Or how desperate can we be to develop a picture of God that is disconnected and "unaffected" by the world He created when in reality He loves us so much that He invaded the space-time continuum to become a man and "effected" our rescue from death and destruction by offering His own Life in exchange for ours....who loved us in action and sacrifice so much, so that He came to win us back???

It has occurred to me on my travels this past month that the struggle to understand God's eternality and existence and His "otherness" has left this world in a sense of hopelessness and despair and a worldview that is characterized at its deepest level by the Postmodern perspective that there is no truth and all that is considered truth is relative. And that we have so detach God from this world, so "otherize" Him in our feeble attempts to clarify Who He is that we are losing the deeper essence of His character......Love. If existence is His very nature....then Love is that existence.

Our hopelessness in this age of Postmodern thought is steeped in this belief....that there is no God, and if there is, He is "unaffected" and therefore we are still on our own.....adrift on this planet created by a God who has better things to do in the Universe than be "affected" by us and our little problems.

We, however, are completely "affected" by this disease called sin.....it permeates our entire being and we have no cure in and of ourselves. No mantra, no exercise to get ourselves "centered" or course to help ourselves completely eradicates the reality of this disease. As all disease....its eradication requires the "affect" of an "uninfected" source to permeate the existence and "effect" the cleansing of the "affected" person, without becoming "infected" itself. Hence, God's character and existence outside of time and space left Him as the only solution for our freedom from this disease.

 

AND yet.....I find myself in response to this deep truth still seeking that cure in my daily relationships.... through the response of those around me, the actions and attitudes of those who I love and say they love me....or at least like me, and the recognition that I am important to them somehow coming from them in some sort of meaningful way. And this morning I once again sense the reality of God's feelings....that all He is asked of me is to respond to His great love for me, acknowledge Him throughout my day, recognize that He is important to me in some sort of meaningful way  and be completely "affected" by Him who has been so "affected" by me.....hence experiencing the only cure for my disease.

 

Transformation is the "effect"....the journey I am on with Him is clear only to Him and I can rest in the truth that He is "affected" by me and at the same time the only Source that "effects" my transformation....that wholeness I seek, that security I struggle to gain, that surety that I am so lacking....that Love that is so available and yet so last on my list. It is such a scary thing to surrender ALL of it to an unseen and yet so powerful God, who I can't understand or even grasp the reality of His eternal existence.....without that very surrender. It is a fleeting experience....I have known it for only seconds at a time and can not conjure it up for the life of me on my own....and yet the reality of Him is more real than anything I can see in this every day life....and He brings peace beyond explanation when I fall into His arms.

 

This is the way God put it:

   "They found grace out in the desert, these people who survived the killing.
Israel, out looking for a place to rest, met God out looking for them!"

God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will.
   Expect love, love, and more love!

And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again, dear virgin Israel.
You'll resume your singing, grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.
You'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards on the Samaritan hillsides,
And sit back and enjoy the fruit—  oh, how you'll enjoy those harvests!
The time's coming when watchmen will call out from the hilltops of Ephraim:

'On your feet! Let's go to Zion, go to meet our God!'" 
~Jeremiah 31:2-6 ( The Message )

Extreme Dreams, LLC
Kathy Douglas
President
10603 Grant Rd. Ste 110
Houston, TX 77070
Office - 281-890-5034
Fax - 281-890-0300
Cell - 713-398-7304
www.extreme-dreams.com/
www.indieextreme.com
www.indieextrememusic.com
www.exdevents.com

kathyd@extreme-dreams.com

"Helping people enjoy the Journey as much as the Destination"

Visit my coaching journal at:

http://extreme-dreams.blogspot.com/

 

 

Everyone is where they are at for a reason.....

"Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time."

~Mark Twain

 

"People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built."

~Eleanor Roosevelt

 

"Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open."

~Elmer G. Letterman

 

"People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix."

~Christina Baldwin

 

"It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not."

~James Gordon

 

It seems my life has been filled with observing people.....including myself......who are trying to figure out why they are where they are in their life. They usually want to be somewhere else, someplace else or someone else.....that goes for me too! Facing the fact that everyone is where they are at for a reason has been a very sobering observation for me as I have watched others and myself struggle with the life we live.

 

The greatest challenge in my own life is discovering WHY am I where I am at???? What is the reason that I am here, at this time, this place continuing to do what I am doing......do I REALLY want to change or am I what my Dad sometimes muses....someone who would "complain if they were hung with a new rope!!!" In other words, do I just LIKE to complain??? Do we all just LIKE to complain, has it become such a habit and integral part of our daily life that we can not stop and change????

 

Recognizing those areas of life where we sabotage our dreams is tough work. We must surround ourselves with people who will tell us the truth and follow through with the steps it will take to change our patterns of sabotage.....give up our long held strategies of destroying our dreams and surrender to the Goodness and Graciousness of God as He pours out blessing upon us.

 

As I stand on the edges of a dream that is becoming a reality.....my daily struggle is to examine my sabotage strategies and head them off at the pass!!! I am reminded of the truth I learned many years ago....that an eagle must throw himself off a precipice and spread his wings as he descends, looking for the wind currents that will lift him to the heights. That descent is instinctive and necessary for flight.....and the wind currents are the source of support and stability.....both essential to the journey.

 

As Moses went up to meet God, God called down to him from the mountain: "Speak to the House of Jacob, tell the People of Israel: 'You have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to me. If you will listen obediently to what I say and keep my covenant, out of all peoples you'll be my special treasure. The whole Earth is mine to choose from, but you're special: a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. This is what I want you to tell the People of Israel." 
~Exodus 10:3-6

 

Extreme Dreams, LLC
Kathy Douglas
President
10603 Grant Rd. Ste 110
Houston, TX 77070
Office - 281-890-5034
Fax - 281-890-0300
Cell - 713-398-7304
www.extreme-dreams.net/
kathyd@extreme-dreams.net

"Helping people enjoy the Journey as much as the Destination"

Visit my coaching journal at:

http://extreme-dreams.blogspot.com/

 

 

If nothing changes....nothing changes!

"Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change."
~Jim Rohn

"We must accept through faith that the means to complete our tasks will appear. Then our plans, goals, and actions are aligned with our faith. Surrender brings the resolve to withstand life's stormiest tempests and truly make an enduring difference."
~Steve Brunkhorst

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved."
~Helen Keller

"Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together."
 ~Eugene Ionesco

I am back from a series of trips that have taken me to such varied and vaste places....both physically, mentally, and emotionally. I have been stretched and expanded in various directions....realizing as it was happening that the old saying is true...."once stretched, you can never go back"....or something like that!! I am realizing that this process is changing me, stretching me out beyond myself....to a place that I know nothing about and have no idea what it will look and feel like.

AND yet I am so ready for it....in a strange and wonderful way I feel I have been prepared for it throughout my life and that I have finally come to the place I am supposed to be. And since I am completely convinced that God is sovereign over ALL the affairs of "man", I am clear that it took all it has taken to get me to this place. All the pain, all the anquish, all the suffering and trials AND all the dreams, all the joy, all the miracles, all the inspiring experiences with friends, and family! All of my life makes up who I am and has prepared me to step into this new place.

What I know about myself is I love people. I love being with each one, learning and experiencing everything about and with them....getting to know their history, their stories of their lives....and really connecting with them on a level of relationship that transcends the everyday niceties of our modern culture. I occasionally get the privilege of going on a trip with the artists I work with.... my travels this past month included just such a trip.

We took off for Canada, a place I have not been....one of the few! Travelling with Matt Brouwer and Jackie Key to experience the beauty and the people of Matt's homeland.....meet industry folks and attend an awards ceremony Matt and Jackie were performing in. The awards ceremony was an experience in itself that I will not go into here! The beauty of the Canadian Rockies were unbelievably breathtaking....and Calgary was wonderful! But my favorite part of my entire time was the time I spent talking with Matt and Jackie as we drove around the city and through Alberta. I learned so much about each of them....and gained an incredibly new and powerful perspective of their hearts and their lives...and I think they learned a lot about each other also!! I realized that we all have this deep need within our souls to "know and be known" by others....and that we don't tend to take the time to listen and really hear the hearts of those people whose lives surround us. We find ourselves alone and lonely in a crowd of friends who, to some extent are strangers.....we have accepted a perspective that keeps us emotionally separated from the people that we spend so much of our lives with....

All this to say, that I sense this arrival at a place where, though it is a scary place at times, I am committing to the diffcult and sometimes treacheous challenge of going deeper with the people whose lives fill up my days...to learn of their hearts and their lives...to really know them and be known by them...far away from the stress and strain of our everyday "hustle and bustle " ....and to call each of them up to BE the person God has created and prepared them to be, as they go forward on their own journeys.

Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in His presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored His name.
~Malachi 3:16

Extreme Dreams, LLC
Kathy Douglas
President
10603 Grant Rd. Ste 110
Houston, TX 77070
Office - 281-890-5034
Fax - 281-890-0300
Cell - 713-398-7304
www.extreme-dreams.com/
www.indieextreme.com
www.indieextrememusic.com
www.exdevents.com

kathyd@extreme-dreams.com

"Helping people enjoy the Journey as much as the Destination"

Visit my coaching journal at:

http://extreme-dreams.blogspot.com/