Love Homework
Your homework was to list 10 reasons why you love your life. Here’s Akemi’s homework. She listed 10 reasons why she loves her life.
She says she loves her life because of her friends, her cats, her husband— and if we put all her reasons together— it’s relationships.
She loves her life because of her relationships— her relationship to her home, her relationship to learning, her relationship to nature.
It’s not the things and people she has in her life… its her relationships to them that allow her to love her life.
Troubleshooting I Love My Life
Cher calls me up and says, “Vic, it’s so sad. I can’t even think of 10 reasons why I love my life. It makes no sense because I asked our church to pray for me to get a job and I got 2 job offers— but I can’t even find joy in that. The only thing that I can say that I’m happy about is my daughter who keeps herself busy and entertained while I’m here drowning in my own mind and the negative thoughts that come along with it.”
Cher and I do the same breathing exercise I always do with you during our opening prayer for Sunday Service. Suddenly, she gets this funny tingling sensation in her arm. I tell her to relax, her guardian angels are just pulling the negative thoughts out of her body. If you relax, breathe in and out fully, and embrace your negative feelings— your negative thoughts will become your teacher. With her eyes still closed, she tilts her head up and tries to look at her angels. Instantly— it comes to her.
She says, “I love my life because I know that there’s something better out there for me and my daughter. I love my life because when I take this job and move out of state— I have a chance to be happy again and to have a purpose in life. I can re-connect with people who really matter to me and who have been influential in my life, who have all moved away.”
Then, God says, “Don’t look at what’s here. This” and she points to what is around her, “is not your life.”
“I am your life. I am your life.”
When she looks at God, she doesn’t see her present— she sees her future.
Her angels say to her, “I’m glad you realize this. We’ve been trying to tell you this whole time to just move forward.”
She replies, “Geez, Angels. What else can you tell me?”
They say, “LIVE YOUR LIFE. You have to live your life because nobody is going to do it for you.”
She asks her angels, “Why am I so stuck and why don’t I listen to my spirit?”
The angels say, “It’s a control thing, because your mom controls you so you feel the need to be in control. And now, it’s blowing up in your face if you don’t take this opportunity.”
I Love My Life Lessons
Once you know the problem, you can make the prayer.
Before, Cher’s prayer was, “Help me get a job.” Our church prayed for her to get a job. She got 2 job offers! But she’s still not happy!
When you have the wrong problem, you have the wrong prayer.
The problem is her need to be in control, which causes her to be stuck. The correct prayer is help her let go of the need to control.
Prayer
Please release me from all of this so that I can come into a more peaceful state of mind and not have to worry about unnecessary things.
—Pastor Vicky Lee
So she prays this prayer and I ask her, “Is it working?”
She’s like, “Yeah, because I’m not thinking about anything. I feel clear, not muddy anymore.”
So I’m like, “Good job on your homework. High five!”
And she’s like, “Not so fast. In a couple hours, I will slide back into my negative thinking. What can I do to work on that?”
Here it is:
You’re not going to say, “I love my life.” You’re going to say, “I’m willing to love my life… for the next 15 minutes.”
Or, “I’m willing to love my life… this afternoon.”
Or, “I’m willing to love my life… for the next 2 hours.”
You practice.
You don’t practice for a whole 8 hours. You just do it 15 minutes at a time, 10 minutes at a time, an hour at a time.
That’s it. That’s enough.
