Making the World Better (God is in My Schedule)

Remember the advertisement from the chemical company BASF that went like this, "we don't make a lot of the products you buy, we make a lot of the products you buy better."  I thought that was an ingenious ad campaign.  I'd like to apply it to our relationship with the natural world:  we did not make the world, but we can make our world better.

I really believe this, in spite of all the negativity and bad news we are bombarded with.  Take the words and sometimes negative stance of the late James Hillman, American psychologist.  He said, "we've had a hundred years of psychotherapy - and the world's getting worse."  He seems to have believed there was too much focus on the individual, including self-help which he believed led to less doing, less action and less community interaction.

Regarding focus on the individual, my experience is that the order of attention matters, that self is very important.  However, to me, it's just not the most important.  I believe that if you put *God first, yourself second, the world and the people you come into contact with will receive much benefit.

Regarding Hillman, what got me putting my thoughts into words is that I read an excerpt of an interview with Hillman by Michael Ventura about the world getting worse due to lack of interaction.  Hillman said that he has had more resistance in trying to change people's schedules and recommended that you should ask your soul questions when you make your schedule.  Now there I think he was on to something!  In essence I think this moves us in the direction of putting God first.

I have come to say (quite frequently), "God is in my schedule."  I don't fret if I have conflicts.  For example, say I get invited to do something I really want to do, but I am already booked.  I write the latest invite on my planner, knowing that if it is something that would be good for me, that the first activity will be canceled or changed, and not by me.  I leave it to God, to the universe.  For me, putting God first means giving everything to God, even my schedule.  I know he will take care of the conflicts.  Try it.  To me it is a mystery, but it works every time; something always moves so that I have the most livable, life-giving schedule.  This is what makes the world better.

1.  Is God in your schedule?  Why or why not?  How do you feel about asking your soul what should go onto your schedule?

2.  Is there one thing you can do today to relinquish your control of your calendar?

3.  What does God* want you to know about this (ask directly, God what do you want me to know?)

* I use the term God as a universal term.  You may decide that Great Spirit, Allah, Higher Power, etc. better suits you for today.  It is not for me to decide.