WORKING FOR GOD
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
MEETING ONE: God calls us into relationship with Him / Her Feb. 20
-Love is the fundamental basis for our Calling:
God’s love for us and our love for one another and the world
- How do we let God’s love for us into our lives ?
MEETING TWO: Hearing the Call Mar. 6
-How we open ourselves to hear God’s Call to us
-Letting go of limiting beliefs
- Making ourselves available to listen
MEETING THREE: Discerning our Gifts Mar. 20
-God calls us to use our unique gifts in our work
-Finding our passions, values, concerns
MEETING FOUR: Envisioning our Calling Apr. 3
-Developing a clear sense of our Calling
-Calling as process not Goal
- Letting our Calling speak to us and shape us
MEETING FIVE: Working with Obstacles Apr. 17
-Seeing challenges and obstacles as opportunities
to learn, heal, and clarify
-Working with our personal issues spiritually and psychologically
MEETING SIX: Following the Call May 1
Engaging in a plan, moving forward
breaking down goals into doable steps
being open to feedback, staying flexible
overcoming procrastination
having a support / accountability group
WORKING FOR GOD
MEETING ONE: GOD CALLS US INTO HIS/HER LOVE
PRESENTATION I : OVERVIEW
This workshop is about vocation - it is about work that we feel called to , called by that part of us which is connected to something greater than our small selves. Vocation comes from the Latin verb “vocare” which means literally “to call.” So we will be exploring work as an important spiritual practice - as a way to connect to our deeper and truer selves and to serve the divine will and the world around us. We spend a huge part of our waking life working so if we are to be fulfilled and our world is to become a better place, then God’s call must somehow show up in our work.
Wherever you are on your journey right now, be it joyous or be it dark and challenging, God is with you in this place. Whether you are young or old, you are welcome here with all of us who are wrestling with this issue of vocation. Some of you may be in survival mode while others of you may be excited by new possibilities. Both the dark and the light are part of our journey. So let’s start this journey together for it is good to have company along the road.
In this workshop you will be invited to be still and to listen to the divine impulse within you which is calling to you. As we get older there is a tendency for us to become more “ realistic,” to dismiss our passions and our dreams as so much “immature nonsense.” The tragedy of this is that we allow something to die within us that is closely connected to our divinity - the divinity that calls us to grow beyond our survival concerns and to expand our sense of self to include the world around us.
In this workshop, we are going to engage our hearts and the dreams our souls. Our heart knows this work far better than our thinking minds which evaluate, judge, and look out for our survival. The thinking mind isn’t what allows us to see the big
picture and it can either support or thwart our dreams. This is Heart Work and many of our exercises will engage this non rational part of our consciousness. For those of you that are primarily mental in your orientation, I invite you to relax your grip on needing to understand everything on the mental level and to let yourself connect to the knowing that comes from the Heart. Recent consciousness research has shown that there are important areas of knowing besides the brain.
Because we are coming to this workshop from diverse places, we will be breaking up into smaller groups of 5-6 that have similar issues and interests for sharing. Each will have a designated facilitator. Also there will be a number of different homework options in this workshop series, because you are in different places on your vocational journey and need to address different issues.
WORKING FOR GOD
PRESENTATION II: GOD’S LOVE: THE BASIS FOR OUR CALLING
The basis of our calling begins and ends in God’s call to us to be His / Her Beloved. The Call is for us to come out of the House of Fear and move into the House of Love. God calls us to let go, to trust so that we may dwell in the House of Love. Just as Jesus’ ministry begins with God calling Jesus His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased, this is where our calling begins - with experiencing ourselves as the Beloved. If we are always in the House of Fear, in survival mode, we cannot hear God’s loving voice asking us to follow Him and to open to something greater being possible for us.
So part of our following God’s call is for us to bring to His loving embrace all that gets in the way of letting this Love into ourselves: self judgment, thoughts of unworthiness, the fear of failure and punishment, resentments and anger. So in the poem, Rumi says “ feel the motions of tenderness around you, the buoyancy.” In all of the mystical traditions there are spiritual practices that help us to let go and feel the tenderness and buoyancy so that we may rest in our Being. Meditation, contemplation, affirmation, prayer are all vital ways to connect to this divinity within us.
WORKING FOR GOD
HOMEWORK FOR MEETING TWO:
Regular daily practices for:
VOCATIONAL DISCERNMENT
Praying for assistance on your journey. ALLOWING
Praying for guidance regarding your vocation. OPENING
Having a time of meditation or quiet reflection on your calling
Listening during the day for clues to your interests and passions: articles, TV, internet, books, acquaintances.
Reading about people whose lives you admire.
WORKPLACE ISSUES
Looking at your reactions to people and events during the workday and whether you were in integrity or merely reactive.
Exploring what attitudes and beliefs you have that trigger negative emotions in you. Looking at what your emotional reaction may be about.
Practice self forgiveness and positive affirmations daily
See what you might be willing to give up to God’s grace.
JOBLESSNESS ISSUES
Meditate on God’s unconditional love for you.
Read scripture that declares God’s abiding love for you.
Be aware of when you slip into the House of Fear - what you are telling yourself - what negative stories of helplessness and hopelessness, fear and despair you are getting bogged down in.
Then practice giving these stories up to God’s Grace and Love for you.
Practice self forgiveness and positive affirmations daily
Having supportive friends is so important !
Be sure to practice self care and healthy habits.
GENERAL GUIDELINES
Be gentle with yourselves. Do your homework.
Keep a daily log or journal to jot down or write your observations
Contact your buddy and your support group weekly.
MEETING TWO : HEARING THE CALL: PRESENTATION
The Bible has many wonderful stories about how different people respond to God’s calling: There is Moses hearing God’s call but hesitating because he doesn’t feel up to the challenge, Jonah running from God’s calling and getting swallowed by a whale, Saul literally getting knocked of his ride and blinded by His vision. Jesus calling the fishermen by the sea to become fishermen of men. And Jesus bowing to God’s calling Him to Jerusalem.
In these biblical stories, God’s Calling is sometimes received reluctantly if at all and other times it is accepted with equanimity and surrender to God’s will. We Americans don’t like that word “surrender” very much. We are taught to be strong, independent, to think for ourselves, to bow to no man. Especially us men. But in order to hear, to receive the call from God, we have to let go of our obsessions with me and my story - the limiting story about who we think we are rather than who we really are - God’s Beloved. We need to let go of the need to control, to play it safe. We need to allow ourselves to become vulnerable in our not knowing and to open ourselves to something outside of our predictable story of who we are and what we can or cannot do.
What does it take to really listen for and to receive God’s call ?
Setting an intention to listen for the Call. Keeping this in mind on a daily basis.
How do we listen ? - by not knowing !
Asking for God’s support
Letting God’s love in.
Praying that God will help you to hear the Call.
Allowing yourself to be in a place of receptiveness, not knowing, of ambiguity, mystery.
Being willing and open to hear God speak to you from some place outside of your usual reference points where your everyday mind has reality pretty much sewn up.
Let yourself hear God through:
Unusual synchronicities of people and situations showing up in your life.
Dreams
Something you read or hear unexpectedly grabbing your attention.
Strong feelings of love and caring drawing you into action.
An admiration for some person and what they contributed to their family / community / country.
Because these happenings are often not connected to your everyday life, you will need to take some time to engage with them and to let them speak to you.
Becoming aware of your automatic limiting beliefs and disengaging from them. Much of the time our minds run on automatic:
Being willing to give your limiting beliefs up to God !
WORKING FOR GOD
MEETING TWO: READINGS
Reading from the Cloud of Unknowing, Anonymous
“This is what you are to do: lift your heart up to the Lord with a gentle stirring of love... Center all of your attention and desire upon Him and let this be the sole concern of your heart and mind..... what I am describing here is the contemplative work of the spirit.... And so diligently persevere in it until you feel the joy in it. for in the beginning it is usual to feel nothing but a kind of darkness about your mind, or as it were, a cloud of unknowing.
You will seem to know nothing and feel nothing except a naked intent toward God in the depths of your being.”
Readings from THE BOOK OF NOT KNOWING by Peter Ralston
CHAPTER: QUESTIONING THE OBVIOUS: The Cultural Matrix
“Not knowing is itself. it is primary. Before knowing can happen there must first be a space for it - a state of not knowing. In our culture that doesn’t matter - we avoid not knowing. We avoid the appearance of it, the awareness of it, the existence of it as a primary state of being. You and I continually experience not- knowing, but our attention is on what we know and perceive, so we don’t discern - and don’t want to discern - the not-knowing. Although not-knowing is the ‘source’ of knowing and is indispensable for creativity, it remains a virtually unrecognized principle in our culture.”
“Given our experience of emptiness, self doubt, feeling trapped, and suffering, we naturally have a desire to “solve” these problems or make them disappear, replacing the painful experiences with more pleasant, self affirming ones. Especially in our culture, competition is common on many levels, and in many subtle as well as obvious forms. Even when all is well, if you look beneath the surface of anyone’s daily life, you will likely find a background of unease, a muted sense of some inner struggle going on continuously. This inner struggle often manifests as our individual attempt to achieve something in the world, or to be fulfilled in some way.
Struggling to survive the demands of life is a constant activity. worrying and trying to avoid the bad things in life are a struggle. Trying to overcome personal defects or resolve unwanted inner feelings always occurs as a struggle. We see obvious and sometimes unacknowledged power struggles emerging in our relationships, both intimate and casual. Trying to learn something new is often felt as a struggle. Struggle can even be found in many innocuous acts such as choosing what to wear to work or trying to sound smart at a party. This constant effort to persist in our culture is most often a struggle for “social survival.” If we scrutinize our every thought, feeling, and action in terms of effort, we’ll find a great deal that we might call struggle.”
WORKING FOR GOD
MEETING TWO: INDIVIDUAL EXERCISE
Let yourself rest in the Loving Presence, in not knowing.
identify what are the limiting beliefs that, in the past, have kept you stuck and unable to be open to a new direction for your life. Make as thorough a list as possible.
What judgments do you have about yourself, others, your community, etc. that might limit your ability to understand and have compassion
Look inside and see if you would be willing to give these misbeliefs and judgments up to God or your higher self which knows no such limitation.
To facilitate this process of letting go, use the following method:
Put your hand on your heart and say inwardly “ I forgive myself for buying into the false belief that _________________________.”
I release this false belief to God to let Him / Her take it from me.”
For the truth is that ‘_______________________________________.”
OR:
I forgive myself for judging myself (or others. etc. as being
_________________________________________________________.
I release these judgments to God to let Him/Her take it from me.
For the truth is that ‘_______________________________________.
Give thanks for any healing that occurs.
WORKING FOR GOD: MEETING TWO
Some common culturally based limiting beliefs:
It is good to know; it is bad not to know. Ie, i should know where I’m going in my vocational discernment.
Success, fame, status, wealth, and power are the most important factors in choosing work. I must be a success immediately !
The thinking mind is the best and only way to figure out / chose a vocation.
This vocational process should be under my control. I should have this done already. I should be on schedule.
I’m struggling for survival, I don’t have time or the luxury to look deeply at my vocation.
Some common personally held limiting beliefs
Life is so unfair. Others get all the breaks.
I know that others are not to be trusted.
Life is scary. I have to watch out for no. 1.
I have to give up myself to be loved.
I’m such a failure ! I’m unworthy of even my own respect.
Things will just keep getting worse.
I can’t afford to make a mistake.
I have no voice. It’s very dangerous for me to speak out.
More subtle limiting beliefs
I am my ego ( my patterns of feelings, thoughts, ingrained behaviors, defensive reactions, stories about myself, etc.)
I am in here and God and others and the world are out there.
I am separate from everything else.
My thinking mind is the way I figure out what reality is and how I should act. Loving awareness has nothing to do with it.
WORKING FOR GOD
HOMEWORK FOR MEETING THREE: LISTENING TO THE CALL
Continue working with limiting beliefs
Continue to be aware of limiting beliefs and negative thoughts as they occur and release them as soon as you can. This doesn’t mean fighting with such beliefs, but simply noting them and gently releasing them.
If you find yourself getting caught up in negative thoughts, be gentle and send love to the part of yourself that is holding onto these thoughts. it is trying to protect you as best it knows how. Keep affirming that these are just thoughts and not the truth. Pray for God’s help in releasing the beliefs.
Listening for your calling
Note: bring all homework to the next class. You will need it for an in class process.
Option One:
Gather pictures / images / sayings out of magazines and books that “speak” to you. These may not have a direct connection with what you think you are looking for. Trust that they may have a message for you that passes by your linear left brain. Find 10-20 images / sayings that you resonate with. Cut these down to their essence and bring them to class for working with in class.
Option Two:
Read stories of men and women whom you most admire for their contributions to humanity. Reflect upon what personal values, traits, skills, and actions most impressed you about them. Know that this says something important to you about what you value and what you would probably like to grow into. List those values, traits, skills, and actions as below:
values: justice, the truth, beauty etc.
traits: courage, honesty, creativity, etc.
skills: public speaking, leadership, etc.
actions: led a demonstration against ....
As you look at this list see if anything comes to you about where you are being called.
Option Three:
Imagine what it would take to change your current work situation to make it more aligned with your values, needs, etc.
Be detailed and thorough, for example:
more flexible work hours
more emphasis on integrity and social & environmental good.
better behavior on boss’s part: less demeaning, etc., etc.
Now look inside yourself and see what actions you might be willing to take to get these changes !
Option Four:
Sometimes, listening to our own pain gives us a strong idea of what we would like to give to others. So you might list your wounds and challenges and what that might say about what you want to contribute. For instance, if we did not have good parenting and suffer from poor self esteem, we might want to become a counselor who mentors and supports others to become all that they want to be.
Option Five:
Look at some situation in the world, your country, your community, your family that calls to you. What stirs up anger and a desire to change something ? Where is there a wrong you would like to make
right ? Where do you see a desperate need you feel called to address? Where is your heart moved to tears by the plight of others ? Don’t say to yourself,” there is nothing I can do.” Let yourself explore what you might be called to do, even if it seems somewhat unlikely.
WORKING FOR GOD:
MEETING THREE: DISCERNING THE CALL
PRESENTATION:
In our last class we talked about emptying ourselves out of preconceived ideas based upon our cultural, familial, and personal beliefs that are ego based. These beliefs are based upon concerns for survival, desire, power, prestige, etc. which are what the ego in all of its many manifestations, personal, family, country, socioeconomic, political, etc. is about. This spiritual work is not a passive emptying, but rather a courageous act on our part to let go of the grip that these ego concerns have upon us.
This emptying process often begins with our becoming aware of the ways that our belief systems limit our ability to hear and to respond to God’s (the True Self’s) inner Call to us. That is why it is useful to take stock of our conditioned beliefs, to be willing to really question their validity. This is truly counter cultural work not encouraged in our fast paced, materialistic culture.
As Rumi’s poem spoke so eloquently,
I saw you and became empty.
This emptiness, more beautiful than existence,
it obliterates existence, and yet when it comes,
existence thrives and creates more existence!
So this emptiness is not a nihilism, it is surrendering ourselves into the arms of God where the thinking mind cannot go.. As he says, out of this emptiness comes more existence which is more abundant. This emptiness is not a state of stagnation where we sit in perpetual confusion and inactivity. It is an emptiness that frees us from our conditioning and allows us to respond to the deepest meaning in our lives : Love, unconditional love.
This emptying process is not done in one attempt, it is an ongoing process that we need to undertake day by day if we are to lead a spiritual life. As we empty ourselves out to Love of ourselves and love of others, the Call will become clearer because we have let go of the ego’s nattering about all kinds of incidental and irrelevant things.
Self forgiveness is an essential part of this process of letting go of the ego. The ego loves to judge others and itself, endlessly comparing this to that, ourselves to others. We will explore in our upcoming session how to use Self Forgiveness to free ourselves from the judging ego. In the meantime, I encourage you to be on the lookout for self judgment as you think about how in the past you have gotten in your own way. We ALL do this, otherwise we wouldn’t need things like this workshop to help us move
forward !
As you work with the option you have chosen to help you discern your calling, here are a few pointers:
Option One:
Paste your images / sayings/ symbols on a piece of cardboard or stiff backing so that you can bring it to class to share with you small group.
Option Two:
Write your thoughts down, possibly in outline form so that it will assist you in presenting it to your group.
Option Three:
What I left out of this exercise is what Gandhi said: Be the change that you want to see. In other words list what you would like to see changed in your workplace, but then also write what you are willing to do to help these changes to happen.
Option Four:
I think this is pretty clear. Think about what you would like to give others that you did not get in your own life. Or what challenges you faced in your own life ( such as illness, disability, racial discrimination, etc.., that you would like to help others to overcome.
Option Five:
Be ready to tell your small group what issues in the world you feel personally called to address. Remember: keep it personal !
Don’t go off on a political rant. Tell the group how you are being called to be the change you want to see in the world.
WORKING FOR GOD:
HOMEWORK FOR CLASS FOUR: ENVISIONING OUR CALLING
In the homework for class, you are to allow yourself to imagine that you are following your calling right now, in present tense. This will begin to create some inspiration to take the leap of faith and move ahead on your calling. Even if you are not sure yet what your calling will be exactly, allow yourself to imagine what it MIGHT be like. This could possibly help you in your process of discernment and is similar to what is done in the discernment process developed by St. Ignatiusof Loyola.
How to do the exercise:
Allow yourself an hour of unobstructed quiet time. Have writing materials handy nearby - don't use a computer - write by hand the old fashioned way.
Settle yourself into a comfortable chair in a quiet, attractive space and meditate for ten minutes to Center yourself.
Pray for a vision for your Calling. Open yourself to receiving a message from God / Holy Spirit / True Self / Goddess of Wisdom .
Then begin writing - and / or drawing - what you sense you are being called into.
Start each sentence with I AM - present tense personal pronoun and use positive, vivid descriptive language.
EXAMPLE: I am joyously working with at risk youth helping them to rediscover their excitement in learning. In doing so I get to recapture my own excitement in learning. I love to see their faces light up when they see that they can do something they thought that they couldn't. I am grateful for this work and I find meaning for my own life in being a kind of surrogate parent for these kids. Instead of coming home and sitting in front of the TV at night, I look forward to going to the ________Center and seeing "my" kids. I am doing something to make the world a better place and I get so much out of it myself !
Be as complete as you can in this process. Think of all the aspects of your life that will be affected by this Calling and include them in this writing.
For those of you still unsure of what you are being called to, you can use this envisioning process as a means of discernment. If you have several options you are thinking about, write out an envisioning of each option with the process just described.
WORKING FOR GOD
MEETING FIVE: WORKING WITH OBSTACLES
READINGS FOR MEETING FIVE
“...the personality’s wish to have power over experience, to control all events and consequences, and the souls wish to have power through experience,
no matter what that may be... For the personality, bankruptcy or failure may be a disaster, for the soul it may be grist for its strangely joyful mill and a condition it has been secretly engineering for years.”
David Whyte, “The Heart Aroused”
QUESTIONING THE OBVIOUS: The Cultural Matrix
No one will deny that a certain amount of pain, even some form of suffering, seems to be part of life. Yet when we look a bit closer we see that many forms of personal suffering may not be necessary. Of course, if we knew they weren’t necessary, we wouldn’t endure them. Or would we ? We might have to allow some embarrassment to emerge before we’re ready to confess that we have more to say in our distress than we’re willing to admit. The embarrassment is itself one form of suffering, even if it’s relatively insignificant and manageable. The point here is that most of our fears, reactions, upsets, longing, thwarted desires, anger, stress, anxiety, doubt, worry, ....and other painful
WORKING FOR GOD
HOMEWORK FOR MEETING FIVE: WORKING WITH OBSTACLES
Our society is a very goal line oriented culture ; it’s all about getting the results at the end of the line. There is little interest in the process of moving ahead except how to get us to the goal line as fast as possible. Consequently, when we encounter a serious obstacle, we often feel anger or despair and a need to find blame with others or ourselves. From a spiritual standpoint as David Whyte says above, the obstacle rather than standing in the way of our progress may actually be an important part of the process. Indeed, from a spiritual standpoint that isn’t so caught up with how we compare with the Joneses, the obstacle may be exactly what we need to learn at this point in our journey.
So with this in mind, I invite you to reflect upon YOUR personal obstacles, the ones that have shown up in your life on a fairly regular basis. To that purpose use the following questions to take stock of past experience with your obstacles as a predictor of what your future obstacles might look like.
When an obstacle shows up in our life, we will usually have some emotional and psychological reaction to it. If we have an introverted personality style, we will tend to blame ourselves for the situation and feel depressed. If we have an extroverted style, our tendency will be to blame externals and to feel irritation or anger, which may be energizing us to fix the problem. While the extroverted style may seem superior to the introverted style, the extrovert may not have insight into what is going on within themselves that leads to such events. The danger for the introvert is that they will blame themselves for the whole situation and become immobilized in self reproach and despair.
Therefore, as you do this exercise, keep in mind whether you are an introvert or extrovert and remind yourself that:
No. 1: Blame of yourself or others is not the point ; the point is to see what is really going on in each situation and what unexamined assumptions and beliefs we hold that may be thwarting our moving forward.
No. 2: Taking responsibility for our experience in a situation of blockage is vastly different than blaming ourselves for the obstacle being there. Taking responsibility means that no matter the outside situation, we have dominion over our reactions to the situation - how we feel, think, and react. This doesn’t mean that we can always control our feelings and thoughts but that
we have the ability to respond lovingly and creatively to them.
No. 3: Reframe issues as opportunities to learn. Every obstacle we encounter along our path holds the possibility of learning and healing old false beliefs and growing spiritually and psychologically.
No. 4: What we face externally almost always has an internal correlate. As it is in the Inner, so it will be in the outer. Outer experience will tend to reflect Inner experience. For example, if you believe that most people are not to be trusted, then your outer experience will tend to support that belief. We create more of our outer reality with our beliefs than we realize.
So here is the homework to reflect upon:
What obstacles have thwarted your plans in the past ?
Make a list of the major obstacles / challenges that have occurred in your life so far.
The past is often the prologue to the future. This doesn’t mean that the exact kinds of obstacles you have had will repeat themselves in your future. What I am asking for is a more inner sense of how you dealt inside yourself with the obstacle. How did you interpret the obstacle for yourself ? In what way did your interpretation of the obstacle make it harder for you to surmount it ? Did you get stuck in blame of self or others, for example ?
Look over your list of obstacles / challenges: can you see any patterns in how you interpreted and reacted to these ?
There is often a pattern in the obstacles we face in life. For some it will be the challenge of dealing with certain kinds of people. For some of us, as we move forward, we will again face the challenge of dealing with doubters, cynics, or people who want to control us. For others of us we need to learn to trust more and to let others have more input in activities we are engaging in together. Relationships are one of the most challenging areas of our lives and the most likely to result in growth when we engage the issues.
What are some of your limiting beliefs that surfaced in your encountering these obstacles and challenges?
Make as complete and detailed list as you can for this. If you feel upset, PLEASE go directly into the self forgiveness process from Meeting Three and practice it on yourself! This is the whole purpose for this exercise !
