Game Plan

California mornings are misleading, especially in the fall.  While the world faces fires, wars, and chaos, I find myself sitting quietly. The air is filled with gentleness.  Mollie and Charlie are loyally affectionate (dogs can be like that).  The summer like warmth is intoxicating.  I find myself struggling with the drift into dreams. 
This is the challenge with each morning.  We know our immediate.  Our emotions are up front and personal, often frighteningly so.  Yet, for many, there is a sense of the more.  Something is calling us beyond the boundaries.  In the present, we are part of something far greater than ourselves.  We can sense but not quite grasp that we are part of a community filled with possibilities.
I am not the first to come to this reality.  For many, it is a daily occurrence.  In one situation, one far wiser than me took a logical step.  The record records his first action, “talking things over, they went on into the house, where Cornelius introduced Peter to everyone who had come.”  (Acts 10.27)  A conversation preceded action.  It was a dialogue.  It was also a listening moment. 
You and I need a game plan for today.  In fact, it would be good to have one for the moment at hand!  I would like to suggest that it is not as complicated as my words might suggest.  It can be as simple as the natural response that comes after we have had a chance to “be” with God.  Every plan starts with a first step.  My plan today resides in a step that is a mantra for the beginning of every moment. 
I will stop and simply be in the moment.  This includes letting go of the past (anger, frustration, and guilt) and releasing the future (fear, uncertainty, and yet more guilt).
I will open myself up to God's embrace.  Even as I do, I rediscover a God that is already wrapping arms of compassion, mercy, and wonder around me!
I will listen to God's voice in the moment at hand. 
Then, I walk.