Are You A Preoccupied Multi Tasker?

Most Sunday mornings I get on my computer and tune into Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith at Agape International and watch his service on live streaming video.  This morning I tuned in and moved the live streaming screen to the side of my monitor and started checking my email and doing other things on the computer.  I thought I would just listen while I was getting other things done.  The music was great, than the announcements and affirmations came next -- I was responding to emails, deleting junk mail, texting a friend, thinking about a million things I wanted to do today.  Then I realized something.

This is how I live my life.  Never really being fully present to the thing I am doing, but multi-tasking.  I always have about three things going at once, and thinking about the next thing I want to do.  Taking time to do “just one thing” somehow seems like a waste of time.  But this morning I realized I was not being fully present for anything I was doing!  With grace, the gift of the present moment presented itself to me.

I turned off my computer.  I picked up my iPad and my headphones and found  my way to the comfy chair in my office and logged on to the Agape Service.  I put in my earbuds, put my legs up on the ottoman, stretched back, took a deep breath, relaxed and allowed myself to become present.  It took me a few minutes, but I began to feel like I was right there with them in church.  My focus was clear and I began to hear each word of the sermon and knew Rev. Michael had a message for me today.  And I was here - present - ready to hear it.

I heard him say “What are you preoccupied with?  What is keeping you from recognizing that you ARE light and love. If you are not seeing yourself as light and love --then you’re preoccupied.”  Was he watching me through my computer?

Next he talked about our preoccupation with the mental clutter of our lives - worries about what others think of us, if we are following our purpose, if we are doing the right thing, getting caught up in the craziness of life,  not to mention listening to the voice that keeps telling us we are “not enough”.   He challenged us to “throw off the shackles of the mind!”   Because beneath all the mental clutter and distraction is all that we desire, already with-in us.  Love, peace, abundance, joy!

He suggested that we set aside our desires and the endless search for what we “want” and instead ask “What does God want to flow through me”!  What is the gift I have to bring to this world.  If we can just set back and open ourselves to it, the flow will begin to take over our lives and the next thing you know you'll have embraced the possibility of your own greatness!  And the vision for your life will become clear, and along with that love, peace, abundance and joy!  The simple act of being present, surrendering to the wisdom that is already inside and then allowing it to unfold.  What a beautiful message!

All it takes it awareness--being present with the oneness of source and allowing the good within to pull you forward toward your a vision!  It requires letting go of preoccupation.  It means doing one thing at a time, staying in the present moment.  I read a quote some years ago that said,  “The only language God speaks is silence.”  In order for us to allow the flow to come through us, we have to find that silence and connect with it.

What a lesson for me today.  May the gift of being present follow me though the next few days, the next few weeks and months, through my surrender to the flow while I discover what God wants to unfold in my life.  May I be present.

What gratitude I have for the moment of grace this morning that awakened me to becoming present.  Divine intervention!

Are you a multi-tasker?  How do you find time to be present?  Tell me about it.