Month: February 2012

February 26, 2012 – Journey to Oneness

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2/26/12 Rev. David McArthur

You’re late and there’s only one check-out line at the store. The customer at the checker holds up the line. Full of judgment, you feel far from free, and wonder, “What am I doing here?”

Emilie Cady likened the Israelites’ slavery in Egypt to a state of selfish animal consciousness, where we see no value in others (or ourselves). Through the intervention of an outside God, we are freed to wander through the desert of separation. We feel we have some value because the outside God values us. “My God (Grandpa with a sword) gives me value.” Then Jesus showed us the state of consciousness in which the “Father and I are one”—but so is everyone else!

We have gone through that the past 200 years. In a war with ourselves we rejected the slavery consciousness. But because our sense of value was still so low we remained in a state of consciousness of separation, or Segregation. Feeling, “I have to be better than others to have value”, we still did not see the value in ourselves.

The African American church took us out of that state. The 100 years from Emancipation to the end of Segregation was where we journeyed through the consciousness of separation toward the Oneness. But still we held onto Discrimination, still standing in the judgmental line, finding differences which we might need to protect against. But the heart is a higher intelligence which tells us we are all children of God, we are one. So we are done with Discrimination. Now we are working it out, from Segregation to Discrimination to acceptance of homosexuals to accepting those of the Muslim faith.

How do we get there? Through love—the choice of compassion that the Master taught. Caring for others is caring for “me”. Patience for another is patience for “me”. So we give up that God “out there”. It is within. Emilie Cady said that all goodness that springs up is the God in us, and nothing anyone can do can take away that freedom!

It’s so simple—just standing in line feeling compassion. We already have everything—all that we need. So the only thing that we can get from standing in line is the love we need, the love that we are!

February 19, 2012 – Enjoy Worry With Compassion

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2/19/12 Rev. David McArthur

God is good all the time! And yet we worry.

Lucy appreciated her good life, but she always became anxious and worried for her husband’s safety every day before he got home from work. A friend suggested she spend that time in self-compassion, which she did. Gradually, the worry and anxiety was released. Later she found out that her grandfather once had an accident on his way home and after that her grandmother always worried about his returning home. Her mother learned that habit and passed it to her daughter. 3 generations of worry!

What does the worry do for us? Well, when we’re worrying, we’re not loving. It takes us out of the experience of knowing that God is there loving us all the time. Worry affirms “the goodness of God is not here”. It stops us from seeing the goodness of God in all and everyone.

Love is experiencing the presence of God with which we are one. That form of compassion heals us from believing there is something else. Hold yourself in that compassion. Let it move through you. You’d feel that for a friend. Let it happen for you– that self-compassion. Let yourself be aware of the presence of God and let God be responsible for that other being! The peace will come.

Stress and worry do come from love. But first feel self-compassion. Second let God be responsible for them just as God has been for you. Healing and learning has been brought forth in you, and God will bring that forth in the other being. For those you love that you worry for, say, “I place you in God’s care, knowing the very highest is coming forth.” It has to be because God is good all the time! God is good all the time! And all the time God is good! God is caring for them just as She is doing for you!

February 12, 2012 – Spiritual Rules of the Road

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2/12/12 Rev. Bill Englehart

Cars are a shared experience we all have. If we look at them metaphysically, we can deepen our understand of ourselves. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a book of spiritual “rules of the road”? But do we use an old map, the old way of doing things, for life as it is now, like using an old map of Missouri to find our way around California?

Are we allowing ourselves to evolve and respond to what we need now? What fed us ten years ago is not what we need now. As Dale Earnhardt put it, it’s a constant battle to make the cars better and to be a better driver, too. Are we using a map of lack to find the place of good and plenty? If we have been “wandering in the desert for 40 years”, which is metaphysically the time for full unfoldment, then it is time for our thoughts to change, to go from intellectual wisdom to spiritual wisdom and to begin taking divine direction.

Do you trust God as much as your GPS? Do you ignore that spiritual tap on your shoulder until it becomes a nudge, or until it is a 2 x 4? If you were to answer that tap sooner, you’d have a lot less problems. Joseph must have felt really angry and frustrated, like his needs were left unmet, when his firstborn was being born in a cow manger amidst animals. But surely those thoughts dissolved with the arrival of the gifts of the magi. We must dissolve the corrosive thoughts in our minds like Coca Cola dissolves the corrosion on a car battery. If we keep our minds on the gifts that are coming, we will move into the promised land. Mario Andretti said, “If you believe in it, it is honorable…If you have a real passion for it, just do it.” It’s a constant reminder that God is in control, whether you lead the pack or are behind it.

Are you stuck in a spiritual traffic jam? We think we’re each alone in our own car but we are not really alone. If seen from above, we are connected to all the other cars in the traffic pattern, and we affect all the other drivers. We are connected to all others by the thoughts we hold. Do not underestimate the power of your thoughts to affect the whole of us. Enjoying life is not about how fast we go down the road, but about enjoying the road we’re on!

February 5, 2012 – Who Are You Really?

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2/5/12 Rev. David McArthur

“When I feel You rushing by…” The flow of Spirit smoothes our sharp edges as the rushing waters of a river smooth the pebbles.

Experiencing a change within, you might ask, “What am I, really?” Unity’s answer is “I am a beloved child of God.” We’re from a mystical tradition in Unity, we are as often formed by experience as anything else. You might ask, “When am I, truly?” A psychic’s prediction comes true much later and it is now realized that the idea wasn’t even in your mind back then, but it was seen then, and now it is here. Where are you? Are you really “here” in your physical presence?

When you honor the experiences you have, you begin to experience things differently. A Unity minister, moved by his first experience of the city of New York, ran up to a hot dog vendor and cried, “Make me one with everything!” (Lighten up. Humor lets us see things differently.)

We can drop our perceptions and experience who we really are. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A man is the facade of the temple wherein all wisdom and all good abide… When it breathes through his intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through his will, it is virtue; when it flows through his affection, it is love…”

And you are loved– you are a beloved child of God. Affirm, “I am one with the power, the goodness, the intelligence of God.” That Being which we move to discover– we awaken to feel the flow as the pebble. But the truth is you are the river!