When I was a child I believed in the Baptist God hook, line and sinker. When the traveling evangelist would look a hole through me while preaching, “Someone in this church tonight, sitting in the gaze of my eyes, is lost and a scorching, sizzling hell awaits you…” I would rededicate my life to whatever the church said I had dedicated it to in the first place. But then growing up and falling under the sway of my dark and dangerous Ego happened, and at the age of twenty-something I said “ta ta, adios” to God and his ministers, deacons, Sunday school teachers—the whole kit and caboodle. Liquor can fill you full of wide-eyed pleasurable alternatives when you have had your fill of the other.
There is nothing like painting yourself into a tight corner, one with no exit, that can resurrect some part of your God-dependent past, and that is how I came to discover a personal, my very own God, or Higher Power. I hit a bottom with booze and all that entails, and here is how it happened.
When I had come to the end of the road—hopeless and defeated—God spoke to me in a personal way, calling my name and had a mind-to-mind conversation with me—and He did it while I was meditating. Meditation for me is the most valuable first step to connecting, or reconnecting to a God who loves you and can restore you to sanity. If you wonder why I say ‘restore you to sanity’ is because so many people I work with report that they had lost or were in the throes of going off their rocker.
If you are taking notes, make a note to Meditate. You can use soothing music with no words or buy a meditation CD that works for you. Meditation is a necessary first step to find God within you.
While in Meditation silently state a purpose: I want to connect with the God within me, a personal Higher Power who can help lead me from confusion or worse into a life of peace and purpose. In my life, the still small voice of intuition is the spokesperson for God. If you do this long enough, God will speak and He will speak in a manner that is earthy and practical. In my case, God does not use ‘thou’ and ‘the’—He speaks to Albert and He understands exactly where I am and what my needs are.
In the crazy and topsy turvy world we live in today, nothing can beat the knowing that God loves you and He has a purpose for you no matter what the egocentric and selfish universe has created for all of us. Go inside and make the connection you have been looking for, up close and personal.
Albert Clayton Gaulden is the founding director of the Sedona Intensive and author of You’re Not Who You Think You Are: A Breakthrough Guide to Discovering the Authentic You. For more information about Albert and Sedona Intensive visit http://www.sedonaintensive.com/.
Purchase You’re Not Who You Think You Are at http://www.yourenotwhoyouthinkyouare.com/
