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March 11, 2012 – Callings

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3/11/12 Gregg Levoy

Follow Your Callings

A calling can catch you by surprise, but it is a powerful vehicle. The ride can be nerve-racking and thrilling. Your soul doesn’t care. The work is just hanging on, having the willingness to go for the ride. The rub is that it creates turmoil and we resist it until the pain of resisting exceeds the pain of change. Heroes aren’t born, they are cornered.

There are many, many callings—work, relationships, and others that change with age, as we do. You can wait half your life for “the great calling” and miss the ones at your feet. The scrawny ones. They come as passions or a tune in your head hummed over and over again, or maybe in an overheard conversation. In resistance, we self-sabotage. We will blurt out our new-found path to the most cynical person in the family, knowing that’ll put a stop to it. We don’t want to rock the boat.

When something isn’t working it creates friction. But when the horse dies—get off! So where there is friction in your life, look for a calling. You might also find callings in the patterns that you have worn into your life. What section do you always go to first when you enter a book store? Maybe you have hidden them in your body, in your symptoms. Symptoms might be evidence of a flight from a calling.

These scrawny callings are quite helpful except they can’t get through all the busy signals. We are so addicted to our busy-ness, that it is even ok to put “workaholic” on your resume. But the end result is a loss of soul, a depletion of spirit. These scrawny cries need to be harnessed. That’s where the work is. It’s small steps, constantly stepping on the brake or the accelerator.

A sculptor tests a stone before starting to carve by tapping it. If it is good for sculpting, it is “consistent” and free of inner fissures which would cause cracking. It will ring. It will hold up under repeated blows. We must “tap in”. We must be conscious of our callings so that we “hold up under repeated blows”. Consciousness happens by keeping things in conversation. Match your walk with your talk. Take small steps. Honor Spirit’s calling!

March 4, 2012 – Oneness Through Prayer

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3/4/12 Rev. David McArthur

The second tool in this journey into oneness with the divine is one we all use. It’s a connector. It’s the tool of prayer. If there were no connection, prayer would be really stupid—we’d be talking to ourselves. There was a two month old baby being kept alive by extreme measures, who had known only pain in its short life. Surgery was necessary, but did not go well. In fact, the surgeon announced the baby would not live beyond the operation. So a nurse closed herself in a closet and prayed that the child would know a pain free life with its parents. After removing the life-sustaining devices, the surgeon said the baby would die. There was no way it could live. But its vital signs became strong and it did live. The doctor called it a miracle.

Healing is the experience of greater wholeness. So who is healed? A man asking for prayer?  His friends who prayed? The doctor and nurse who witnessed a miracle? We experience a connection we cannot explain any other way. If it touches one, it touches all. It changes the very fabric of consciousness itself. In prayer we’re able to take a hold of something that completely defies what we know of the world. But With God all things are possible.

When you pray you take a hold of that, otherwise you wouldn’t pray. It is a level where we know and understand each other. We understand we’re one. Whenever we reach for that presence and power and reach for the knowledge that with God, all things are possible, we invite hope. Whenever we reach for it, it is easier for anyone else in the world to touch it—a possibility of connection that wasn’t there before. When one of us heals, we all heal. You can’t explain it, but you know it’s true. Every prayer you say lifts everyone here. For that we thank you!

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!

January 29, 2012 – Voices in the Balcony

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01/29/12 Rev. Max Lafser

“Be still and know that I am God.” Be still to know that I am God. Note the difference. We can quiet the mind and open to the presence, the wonderful consciousness that is, in whom we live and move and have our being. Things come up to be healed. We don’t have to deal with each thing as it comes up. As we vibrate with the One consciousness in the stillness, we can watch it pass by into healing.

In a work from the 14th century Persian poet, Hafiz, “All In All”, when the elephant felt unable to help the ant, he prayed. It seemed to work, and the elephant’s faith was increased and the ant was less of an agnostic. “All in all, seems things are moving ahead, working out for the best. Yep.”

When we feel like we’re just stomping all over ourselves and nothing we do is working, get still, and go into the silence. Recognize the truth of our oneness with that divine power and with each other in That single consciousness. Commit to the following agreements:

TRUTH. I agree to:
Live my mission.
Speak my truth, with compassion.
Look within when I react.
Keep doing what works and change what doesn’t.

ACCEPTANCE. I agree to:
Listen with my heart.
Respect our differences.
Resolve conflicts directly.
Honor our choices.

GRATITUDE. I agree to:
Give and receive thanks.
See the best in myself and others.
Look for blessings in disguise.
Lighten up!

January 22, 2012 – Beauty and the Beast

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01/22/12 Rev. David McArthur

Beauty and the Beast is a picture of major spiritual transformation. Every character shows us a part of our self. The father represents the adult male part in all of us that seeks after truth through the mind. Beauty is that feeling part of us which is appreciation, love.

In a snow storm one night, the father arrives at a great castle where his every need is provided. The storm is the veil which keeps us from seeing ourselves, our true riches. The castle pictures the divine presence which provides and sustains us. Leaving the castle, the father picks a rose from the castle garden for Beauty. The Beast appears and declares the man’s life is now forfeit. (The rose stands for understanding, and once you have that, your life up to then is over, because you can’t go back to the way you were.) Beast lets the father go if Beauty (the ability to touch goodness) will come in his place.

Beauty appreciates everything about the castle except that she must dine with the ugly Beast every evening. The Beast is also something within us, that part where we see ourselves as ugly and frightening. It might be addiction, low self esteem, hurt expressing as anger and violence, or fear that keeps us from living our life. It is legitimate to see it as ugly and to be afraid. Going into the castle is growing into a greater knowledge of ourselves and we have power then to see that ugly painful part of our self. We have to get to know it, to see it and to become consciously aware of our self.

Beauty is allowed to go home for two months, but then doesn’t want to return to the castle. (We fall back asleep, finding comfort where we had been.) Beauty dreams (dreaming is awareness coming into our “sleep”) that the Beast is dying. With great compassion for him, she goes back. Compassion awakens us to truth. Her tears (tears of forgiveness) revive him. (Tears of forgiveness wash away the ugly, painful part which was a constant cry to be touched by the love that heals. The forgiveness comes from feeling that love.) The Beast’s ugliness falls away and the young man comes forth filled with power, wisdom– a receptivity which lets divine presence and power flow.

In this tale abundance and ugliness represent God and the Devil. But you know there is no truth in that! You know There is only One presence and One power in the universe and in your life, the all loving goodness of God. One presence! One power! And you do know “they lived happily ever after”!

January 15, 2012 – Here and Now Through Love

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01/15/12 Rev. David McArthur

You are one with a presence and power that has always been and always will be. The walls, your body, are just space! Hundreds of years ago a master pointed to a boulder, saying, “That boulder out there– is it really there or is it just in your mind?” One bold monk answered that it was only in his mind. The master replied “You must have a very heavy head!” Whatever the illusion, it is what we have here to deal with. It may not be real, but the assignment to deal with it is.

We do touch what is real, what doesn’t change, and when we touch the greater reality, our journey changes. We touch it in meditation and in “the silence”,– a totally private place, deeper than our mind, deeper than our emotion. We rest in that beingness which is here, now, present here in this moment. We align and “be”, one with that state of being.

Another way is doing rather than being. It is the experience of love, of loving. That greater reality is expressed in us, through us, as us. Go into the active way with your life radiating your love. (So often it is not a first response in our busy day, but it is always an option.)

Even more active is the experience of “God is love”. That greater reality is always present and in it is total wholeness and harmony. It can’t be anything else. Your experience becomes love. Radiate your love to one for whom you have resistance. Fill your heart with love “to the millionth power” and radiate it to this person until you feel delight in that beautiful child of God. You are experiencing the greater reality. That is the presence of God and it is who you are here, now!

January 8, 2012 – Creating a Consciousness of Prayer

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01/08/12 Rev. David McArthur

The situations in our world needing change can only be overcome through care. But we get overwhelmed and our caring shuts down. What shuts us down is the perception that we are separate, that “It’s just me” –that we can’t fix it on our own. But we are a part of the One and we have the capacity for transformation. It starts with the consciousness that it is a spiritual problem which needs a spiritual solution. (And we are one with that unlimited spiritual power.)

There is a physical energy that goes out to those to whom we direct our love. Some people can see it like ribbons. The love, God, is the intelligence and cannot be less. And you, too, begin to change when you send out the love and intelligence, when you step into that consciousness. The transformation comes in us when we meet and perceive our oneness. Know you are one also with the victim and the perpetrator of the situation needing change. A natural way to send them this love and intelligence is prayer, especially the Prayer of Protection. Pray

The light of God surrounds you;
The love of God enfolds you;
The power of God protects you;
The presence of God watches over you;
Wherever you are, God is!
And all is well.

What follows for you is the understanding of what it is yours to do. The mind might tell you what it takes to fix it all. But the understanding of what it is for you to do comes to you as part of the transformation. Work at the level of the cause rather than the effect. For example, living sustainably and caring for our Earth and all life on it. Choose harmony. Commit to a state of consciousness that can bring about the change “for the greatest good of all creation.” Remember, God is good all the time!

For each of the next 7 days, give yourself the experience of caring for someone you wouldn’t ordinarily. Send out the experience of care and follow it with what it is for you to do which comes to you. Watch what happens to you. The time of problems in the world is over. The good of the presence of God is right now!