Category: Daily Reflection

“If you were perfect, you would never experience the pleasure of receiving comfort from God…” (Sarah Young)

I used to ask myself if God were all-powerful, why didn’t God make the entire world free of discomfort, free of pain, free of anguish, free of heartache, free of despair, and free of so many other uncomfortable things that often occur in life. Somewhere along the way though, on my spiritual journey to grow closer to God, I realized that I never would have chosen to grow closer to God in the first place if everything had been perfect and comfortable throughout my life. The simple fact is that I never sought any comfort from God when things were going well for me. But in recent years, with all the struggles I’ve been enduring through my health issues, I’ve absolutely wanted to receive comfort from God and sought that out on a daily basis. It’s been a good long while now that I’ve been doing this and it’s become almost second nature actually. Yet more importantly is the notion that I clearly see now why I wouldn’t want to ever have a perfect life like I once used to desire. Because with a life like that, I’d lose one of the best things that’s going for me right now in life, which is the loving comfort I tend to receive through tears every morning when I call upon God for help…

I pray I seek out comfort from you God whenever life isn’t so perfect for me, instead of looking for that in some other person, place, and thing that will only ever leave me dissatisfied and still seeking that comfort.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

“Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind.” (David G. Allen)

Having patience with things is probably the biggest test most of us face quite consistently throughout life. It’s something that seems to be tested on many of our days, usually in a wide variety of ways. It happens when we’re on the road sitting in traffic, it happens when we are in a line at a store, it happens when we put our name on a list at a restaurant, it happens we’re looking for a job, it happens when we see others not acting in ways we think they should be, and so on and so forth. And all too often it also seems that having patience in these situations doesn’t always translate into it working out in the way we want. Over the past few years, my own patience has been tested in dealing with my health, as it feels like it’s been an exceptionally long time that I’ve had to endure a lot of physical, mental, and emotional pain. But even more prevalent has been the harsh reality that the more I’ve worked on becoming healthier and done my best to remain patient with the process, the more it feels like my health has grown even worse. And the truth is I always thought I would slowly start feeling better the more I worked on myself. But could it truly be that the darkest of all this was left for the very end, meaning the worst has come just before the dawn of me having that far healthier-feeling life? I’m choosing to believe this is so and while this may not be the way I envisioned I’d get better over time, looking at it in this light has definitely helped to much more calmly accept today’s quote. That maybe having patience really does mean that sometimes things happen in a different order than the one we had in mind…

I pray I accept that having patience doesn’t always mean things will work out in the order I had in mind, but that eventually it will indeed work out for my greatest, highest good.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

“The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on”. (Julia Alvarez)

Being the holiday season, I’m reminded of a principle I saw in a movie many years ago, which was to “Pay It Forward”. It was about passing on any kindness and generosity received by someone to a completely different person. Unfortunately, what happens during this time of the year though is quite the opposite. Many end up choosing to buy something for another only because they know they’re going to be getting something back from them. I’ve found in life that’s generally not very fulfilling. Instead, I’ve discovered the best gifts I can offer are usually what I give to total strangers, versus back to those who just gave me something themselves. Often those paying it forward types of gifts are priceless to those who receive them and their effects go way beyond what I may ever see. So whether it’s buying a coffee or a meal, donating my time, giving a warm embrace, or even offering a heart-felt compliment to someone that didn’t just give me something prior, these are but a few of the many ways I’ve learned how to pay it forward in life. In doing so, my life has definitely become far more enriched than just giving something in return to each of those who also did something for me. And ultimately, it really does help to make my holiday season a lot brighter…

I pray I pass along and kindness and generosity that’s freely given to me this holiday season to others and that I remember to keep on paying it forward…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson