Seville Cathedral. Photo by Carol Young.

Sometimes, we do things because we feel curious, and other times we do things because we feel guided or directed.  Perhaps our “curiosity” is actually the whisper of Guidance that we are hearing, yet not consciously thinking about.  When we move toward decision-making, especially about something so important as finding the church where we are meant to be, we need to pick up both the small and blatant signals that Heaven has for us.  Here is a story of getting both subtle and insistent signals from God.

Some time ago, my husband and I were inspired to visit an historic church near our home.  We were charmed by it being part of a major church organization, as well as by its lovely buildings and desert landscaping.  We imagined it might be a stable, long-term church home for us.  We talked with staff and volunteers, and we visited for various services.

Our final visit to this church was filled with strange moments.  Prior to the service, we again introduced ourselves as a couple looking for a new church home.  Several people were very friendly.  As the service began, we noticed two men were advertising a car repair business by wearing t-shirts emblazoned with its name.  A woman was playing on an IPad; at first we thought she was reading a Bible on an e-Reader, but then we saw she was playing a game.  Why was she there?  A father was playing games and high-fiving with his two sons sitting in the row in front of him.  Why were they there?  Were they experiencing God?

For the second hymn,  the organist played a very beautiful hymn that was unrelated to the listed hymn number, and everyone was lost.  No one knew where the extra communion wafers were, and the visiting pastor had to ask for them twice.  Whose job was it to be sure the visiting pastor had what she needed for the communion service?  Four program  items toward the end of the service were skipped entirely without comment.  At the end of the truncated service, I went to the receiving line to talk with the visiting pastor, and she kept talking about my beautiful blouse, no matter what I said.  The church’s program and website say that they always have coffee and fellowship after the service, but nothing was said or seen in the way of fellowship. Did I just imagine that the lead usher looked embarrassed?

The several people who had been friendly to us before the service were nowhere to be seen after the service.   No one asked how we had enjoyed the service or said they wished we would come again.  I kept thinking, “not my job, man!”  Perhaps all the people who create harmony and cohesiveness for this church were all away, at a conference together?  Or were there some underlying major tides of conflict and fragmentation in this church?

Extraordinary: one hint and signal after another that this was not our place.  We had struggled to find contact and communion with God in a disjointed service with people who perhaps were not really interested in God.   We left as quickly as possible.  We felt disturbed.  It took hours for us to feel oriented, calm, and centered again.  It could not have been made more clear that this was not the church for us.

We listened and did not return to the lovely church.  What signals is Heaven giving you through discomfort and disharmony?  Are you listening?  Will you take a different path?

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Rev. Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the new book, Peace Within.  Reach her at kebba@kebba.com .

When stressful situations strike, do you have a peaceful core within, that you can tap, to dissolve your tension?  Can you recall people or situations who can inspire you to touch in with your own personal peace?

Sometimes we see a person who is clearly in a state of transcendent personal peace, and we somehow get a transfer effect, feeling more peaceful ourselves.  On returning from an engineering conference one year, I was dashing through the Pittsburgh airport, feeling very stressed, when I was absolutely riveted by a person going by.  She was a nun, wearing a traditional habit. She was walking peacefully through the terminal, wearing an etheric expression of utter happy calm.  Her slight smile reminded me of the ageless magnetism of Michaelangelo’s Mona Lisa.  I had to stare as she passed.  Her unreasonable peace and calm translated into my body and mind.  I was changed by her.  Now, years later, every time I think of that nun, my mind and body re-set, and I feel tension and stress leave me.

Some experiences can give us a profound shift into peace within.  Perhaps 10 years ago, I was in a small town in Colorado for Christmas.  Framed by a stunning view of the Rockies, many extremely tall, majestic pine trees surrounded our historic hotel.  Late Christmas Eve, fresh snow began to fall.  Having much on my mind, I bundled up to go walk among the dancing flakes.  I had not been out in the night air for more than two minutes before my cares and worries of the last year began to seem completely insignificant.  Soon, I couldn’t even think what they had been.  Now walking in an inch of new snow, I looked up through the white-laden tree branches and deeply inhaled the sweet winter air.  I felt surrounded by and filled with the Peace That Passes All Understanding.  I felt the Divine Presence.  I experienced  a deeper level of peace within than I had felt in many years.  When I finally stepped back into the hotel, I realized I had been transformed.  Years later, still, just recalling that walk vividly brings back the experience and the utter serenity.

Would you like to be experiencing more inner calm or serenity?  What images, sounds, or experiences have you had that have taken you to greater calm?  Why not make a commitment to yourself, now, to nurture your inner quiet each day?  The more you cultivate your peace within, the more benefits you will reap.  It’s up to you.

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Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the new book,  Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core.  Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com.

What is your level of personal peace?

In 1963, in the United States of America, the national mood was relatively peaceful.  Then, in November, President John F. Kennedy was shot to death in Dallas, in front of many people.  There was widespread shock and sadness.  Individuals were jolted out of their sense of well-being.  In schools, teachers went into the hallways and whispered to each other.  Finally, the children were told why the teachers were whispering.  Across the country, churches opened their sanctuaries for those who sought to process their pain, to find their peace within once more.

Almost 50 years later, life in the USA is mainly urban, busy, and noisy.  People hold their cellphones and iPods close.  Many live such a mental life and in such concentrated communication that they check and send email on a computer or phone while present in a live meeting.  War, tsunamis, floods, fires, recessions and crowded populations erode people’s confidence that life is indeed good.  People seek relief from worry, fear, and generic stress.  They seek comfort, calm, serenity, relaxation, inner peace and “letting go”.

And well they should.  The body/mind system craves what will help it.  We know from medical studies that there are many benefits of managing stress through relaxation.  The Mayo Clinic lists some of these as:  slowing heart rate, lowering blood pressure, slowing breathing, increasing blood flow to major muscles, reducing muscle tension and chronic pain, improving concentration, reducing anger and frustration, and boosting confidence to handle problems.  Several methods can help take a person to a state of relaxed serenity.

Personal peace may come in “transport moments”:  looking at a newborn baby, or driving past a hidden brook’s footbridge in a wooded area. Riding in a car that comes into a sudden, beautiful view of a mountainscape, you may find your “breath taken away”.  More peace may come when hiking a beautiful trail, watching the sun set over the ocean, or taking in the sunrise over the Grand Canyon.  Some like to read a novel that transports them to another place or time, or both.  Avid readers say reading the right book can completely restore an anxious mood to one of well-being.  Many have experienced an immediate mood shift from looking at a humorous or heartwarming picture or cartoon.  So many enjoy this effect that the Internet ripples daily with numerous light-hearted and inspirational series of photos, cartoons, and witticisms with illustrations.

What are you doing to be sure you have personal peace?  Notice.  Journal.  Post your discoveries here.

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Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the new book, Peace Within: Your Peaceful Inner Core.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010, 6:30- 8:30 PM

Rev. Kebba Buckley Button

At the Mystic Moon Bookstore, Scottsdale

www.mysticmoonbookstore.com

$15 with preregistration/$20 at the door; PayPal to kebba@kebba.com for discount

480-443-0136

With: Rev. Kebba Buckley Button

∞ How have you always wanted to live?

∞ Body, mind, heart, and spirit—would you like to live in the presence of miracles regularly happening?

∞ Is there a single miracle you would like to call in?

Then this workshop is for you.  Learn the Law of Miracles, and how exactly to work with it, easily, in your life, every day.  Learn how medical science has proven the practices you’ll take home and use.

Each attendee will get wallet-size Miracle Cards to take home, as well as an in-workshop Miracles Playbook.  Learn to live at the level you’ve always wanted !

Award-winning author Rev. Kebba Buckley Button has been helping people build the spiritual connection they want for over 20 years (www.kebba.com ).  She has given seminars for such diverse groups as Unity of Phoenix, The Presbytery of Grand Canyon, Palo Cristi Presbyterian Church, Desert Christian Fellowship, the Well Red Coyote Bookstore (Sedona), Scottsdale Society for Women Writers, National Association of Women Business Owners, and the American Association of Public Welfare Attorneys.  Her spiritual blog is: www.UpBeatSpiritualLiving.Wordpress.com.  In addition to being an ordained minister and spiritual director, Kebba is a dedicated chocolate advocate, holistic health educator, and corporate stress management trainer.  A columnist on “UpBeat Living” for over 20 years, Kebba is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You,  the guide book, Embracing the Divine, and the meditation CD, Receptive and Ready.

A man I knew would make a detailed to-do list every morning when he arrived at the office. He would diligently cross off every task as it was achieved.  At the end of the day, he tossed the list.  He “called it a day”.  Many people, when working on, but not solving, a problem, may say, “well, we’ve done everything we can do on this for now, so let’s call it a day“.  They quit for the day and release the problem until 8 the next morning.  This allows the back brain to process what it can and perhaps add to the tools that will solve the problem the next day.  It’s a great idea for some kinds of stress.

Why would you “call it a day“?  You might, when you’ve gone as far as you can go, perhaps you’re exhausted, and perhaps you are out of resources to apply to the problem.  Sometimes, our whole life, especially in a recession, may feel like we’ve gone as far as we can go, we’re exhausted, and we can’t think of anything else to do to improve things.  So much that seems wrong with life seems out of our control.  Some people would like to “call it a day” for their lifestyle, or even their life.  These people are in burnout or breakdown, and it’s time to break through.

The truth is that you can declare a New Day any day, any hour.   And the adage is true:  “If you’re headed in the wrong direction, God allows u-turns.”  Old thoughts drag you down.  Take a break, wipe the slate, and start with a clean one.  Roll your shoulders to help clear your brain and energize the whole body system.  Drink some water.  Take some deep breaths.  Commit to yourself that you want a fresh start and will do what it takes.  Powerfully declare a New Season.  The Divine is with you.  God wants you to succeed.

Who can put your left foot in front of your right foot, taking the next step?  That’s right, you.  Now step into your new day, your future.  It’s your life!

So what view can a contemporary person of faith take at this time?  Here’s a variation of a seasonal piece that has been traveling the Internet:

Being a good person is like being a pumpkin.  From life’s garden, God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the extra garden stuff off of you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all of the yucky stuff — including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc. Then He carves you a bright new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see.  Now it’s up to you to keep shining your light [Matthew 5:16].

Enjoy the Light!

© 2010 Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M.  World Rights Reserved.

My friend Anna Weber is a business coach.  She loves to post pithy quotes in social media.  We got into an exchange one day, about taking responsibility.  Anna said, “There’s too much of a life of entitlement and ‘letting George do it!’ How DO we get others to understand the amazing positive results of personal accountability?”  I replied that I think this kind of realization comes only after the epiphany that something has to change, because a person is so unhappy or so not getting desired results. At that decision point, the world revolves on the difference between, “I wish this situation would change!” and “I wonder what I could do to get the situation to change?” In making that upshift, possibly personal accountability is born.

Dirk, the formerly (?) violent boyfriend, was at choice in the days when he drove a hot convertible and had a beautiful young woman on his arm.  He was at choice when he beat her and then her friend, Brad, who came to her defense.  Dirk was at choice when he came out of prison and at choice when he lied to Mrs. DeGroot about who he was.  How he lives now is based on his choices.  Free will is the biggest gift we have.  Dirk may have hired God as his Head Coach, but Dirk has to be the quarterback of his life’s game.

The cruel supervisor, trying to garner sympathy and support by the pretense of Christianity, was at choice.  The person who liberated my husband’s wallet was at choice.  The person who doesn’t vote in a Mensa election or a government election is at choice.  People who tear down others’ efforts are at choice.  People who mock others’ faith are at choice.  People who cheat on their time cards are at choice.  People who talk on cell phones in moving traffic are, you guessed it, choosing their behavior.

Nowhere is this argument more potent than in addiction recovery groups.  Friends who have been in AA for many years tell me that choice is the pivot point.  When a drinker realizes that only s/he can stop the drinking, from that moment forward, willpower can win over addiction.  When the choice for personal accountability has been made, the person chooses to make the best of her/his life going forward.  I know agribusiness consultants, auto business owners, authors, speakers, artists, counselors, and many others, who have bloomed and prospered after choosing to win over addiction.

What would you like to make of your life?  What stories do you tell about why you are not choosing steps necessary for success, relationship, joy, health, adventure?  Why not privately write out those stories, and take a fresh look at them?  Is it time to exercise your gift of choice, and change?

God has plans for you, for you to reach your highest potential, if you choose to go with Him.  Choose God as your Head Coach, and be the quarterback of your best life.  Why not start now?

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Reach the writer at Kebba@kebba.com

© 2010 Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M.  World Rights Reserved.

I love the daily comic strips, for their wise and often wry views of human nature.  A recent storyline in the “Luann” family comic strip (http://comics.com/luann/) raised some powerful issues. Centering on the clean-cut DeGroot family, this strip airs out the relationship dynamics of teen Luann and her friends and relatives.  The storyline recently featured Dirk, an abusive ex-boyfriend, returning to town after a stretch in prison, convicted for violence to beautiful Toni.  Toni is now dating Brad, Luann’s brother.  Toni and Brad seem to be headed toward commitment and marriage.  While Toni and Brad are both firefighters, Dirk is now a garbage man.  Mrs. DeGroot sees Dirk collecting garbage and calls him by name, but he denies he is Dirk.  She asks if he is stalking her family. He says no, that he is a changed man.  He then holds out a cross pendant.  Mrs. DeGroot says, “OK, you’re wearing jewelry. So what?”

In brandishing a cross, Dirk is trying to evoke Mrs. DeGroot’s ideas about what/who a Christian is.  He wants her to assume that he is now kind and trustworthy, subscribing to basic Christian values.  Mrs. DeGroot wisely declines to jump to those conclusions, reserving her opinion of the New Dirk until she hears and sees more.  As an ordained minister, I was delighted at her reaction.

Many of us have experienced unchristian behavior from people who wanted us to think of them as Christians.  At one time, I worked for a manager who wore a 2-inch cross to work every day.  It was always carefully in view.  I gradually learned that she liked to make employees as unhappy as she could, preferably to make them suffer until, if possible, they resigned.  Others’ suffering was her joy.  She explained to me that she did this “because she could”.  She was savoring her power over others, not to uplift, build up, or prosper anyone or any cause.  She enjoyed causing pain.  She wrote false review comments about employees in order to justify demoting them or requesting to fire them.  A few months into her persecution of a key employee, she began wearing a cross pendant that was more than 4 inches long.  She attempted to portray that she was a Christian, suffering under the association with… a hard-working, popular, productive employee, with a positive attitude, who did not lie or try to manipulate others with cultural ideas about Christianity.

Volunteering for a famous ministry conference, I was surprised to be warned not to leave anything valuable unattended.  I wore my tiny travel purse on my hip.  Somehow, my husband came home without his wallet.  It was never “found”, nor was the wallet or any part of the contents returned.  We could not assume that only honorable people were attending the conference, just because it was a Christian conference held in a conservative Christian church.  I was shocked about this for weeks.

How would you react to these situations?

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Reach the writer at Kebba@kebba.com

Yet, this washed over me:  I know He is here, as He is with each of us, and I feel His love.  I’m OK without the picture that would have been in the email.  The Divine is always with us.  God has promised He will never leave us, through whatever trials we have.  Jesus, in John 16:33, said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the World.”

I had a great illustration of how the Divine is always with us, just yesterday.  I was very distressed about some conflict some loved ones are having with each other, a cluster of conflicts that don’t involve me.  I was distressed to the point of mental unclarity and unproductivity.  I was uncomfortable, being unable to focus on needs at hand.  As I was looking for my favorite glasses, lost for several hours, I clearly heard “separate yourself”. Heaven had given me permission to stay not-involved in that conflict the loved ones are having.  I love them and have offered a listening ear.  I have prayed for them and for the Highest and Best outcomes, but otherwise, God has other plans for me, and I need to focus on those.

The pun of the glasses being lost was not “lost on me”.  My vision was unclear for hours!  After I found the glasses, my vision was clear.   I got back to work and made amazing strides before releasing my work day.

I know he is with each of us, and I feel His love.   Do you?  Listen and let God in.

At the same time, our landline phone went dead yesterday, and it turned out that the landscapers had cut the line while trimming hedges… because the line was lying on the ground two feet from the building!  Why was it there after 6 years?  I’m holding Cox Communications responsible.  They have responded to my concerns and have been burying and tucking cables today.  That coordination took some time, and I was “late”  getting the alternate-meeting-location notices up for the HOA. They were still not up at noon.

However, after several chapters, the A/C repairs were actually completed today, so we don’t have to move the meeting.   I got that call around noon.   So I saved the time and didn’t make the notices!  Instead, I phoned all the people who were planning to go to the CCC for our meeting, and let them know it’s on at our cool Clubhouse.  So all is in perfect, Divine Order.   Once again, things that appeared to be problems worked together in a pattern that we could only see later.  How many times do we whine over “disadvantages”, delays and hassles, only to find these have changed something that is now in our favor?

God is good!