Robert Brumet

September 18, 2016 – The Art of Letting Go

by


Rev. Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
“The Art of Letting Go”

A mountain climber was playing Pokemon Go when he fell off a cliff. He grabbed at a branch sticking out from the mountainside. It stopped his fall. He looked down. He looked up. He cried out, “God, please save me. I’ll do anything!” The clouds parted and he heard a deep voice. “Do you trust me?” “Yes! I’ll do anything!” God repeated, “Do you really trust me?” “Yes! Yes!” “If you trust me, then let go.” The man looks down, and then looks up. “Is there anyone else up there?”

We do that. Sometimes our guidance can be a stretch. We don’t trust it. If the mountain climber had let go there was a ledge just a few inches below his feet, but he couldn’t see it.

There is so much going on in the world now we get confused. Charles Fillmore, in “Dynamics For Living”, said that it is essential we learn to let go to learn something new; that there is a balance between receiving and giving. It’s important we learn to let go.

The scripture I quoted on your handout is from Isaiah 43, “Remember not the former things…” which are the things that no longer serve that we’ve carried from childhood and young adulthood. They have shaped our lives, but a hand closed on the old isn’t open to the new. In Isaiah, God says, “I am doing a new thing…I will make a way in the wilderness (our uncultivated errant thoughts) and rivers (the flow of our vitality) in the desert (those dead things we carry that no longer serve but take up energy in our spirit and body of affairs).” Take for example, an old relationship or job that is no longer fulfilling, yet we stay and are miserable.

My favorite instructor in ministerial school was Dr. Robert Brumet, “Finding Yourself In Transition.” He wrote that each transition in life begins with an ending. But before the new beginning we must first let go. That brings the next stage, the void. We wander until we get to the new beginning. Many transitions are happening in our world and we are called to let go of old judgments, old habits, patterns and prejudices. Many of you are experiencing transitions in your lives right now. Right here, our Rev. David is leaving. We want to hang on, but God is doing a new thing. We must let Rev. David move forward on his new path. If we don’t let go we will be left in “the desert”.

Rev. Denise is coming but can only take us to the door. The ministerial search team is finding our new minister; our new minister will go through the door with us. So we have to let go. We have to prepare for this new thing God is placing in our path.

How do we release? How do we let go? I suggest several steps in the handout.

In step 1, if you have only a little willingness, give it to the Holy Spirit, who will take the necessary steps for you, (ACIM). In step 2 remember to do your work; you don’t want to get more of the same thing you had before. Step 3, there is really nothing to forgive because, as spiritual beings we learn on our spiritual path, and therefore nothing wrong really ever happened. Everyone can find good in those things we need to forgive. Step 4 is the void. It’s ok. Step 5, is ok. Get your cry on, your mad on; beat a pillow. In step 7. Celebrate!

We must Let go; let God. Let go; let God. Let go; let God.

I see for all of us an amazing future! I believe that you and I have the power to create infinite possibilities out of the challenges we are facing. I trust you and I trust God!

September 18, 2016 – The Art of Letting Go

by

Rev. Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
“The Art of Letting Go”

A mountain climber was playing Pokemon Go when he fell off a cliff. He grabbed at a branch sticking out from the mountainside. It stopped his fall. He looked down. He looked up. He cried out, “God, please save me. I’ll do anything!” The clouds parted and he heard a deep voice. “Do you trust me?” “Yes! I’ll do anything!” God repeated, “Do you really trust me?” “Yes! Yes!” “If you trust me, then let go.” The man looks down, and then looks up. “Is there anyone else up there?”

We do that. Sometimes our guidance can be a stretch. We don’t trust it. If the mountain climber had let go there was a ledge just a few inches below his feet, but he couldn’t see it.

There is so much going on in the world now we get confused. Charles Fillmore, in “Dynamics For Living”, said that it is essential we learn to let go to learn something new; that there is a balance between receiving and giving. It’s important we learn to let go.

The scripture I quoted on your handout is from Isaiah 43, “Remember not the former things…” which are the things that no longer serve that we’ve carried from childhood and young adulthood. They have shaped our lives, but a hand closed on the old isn’t open to the new. In Isaiah, God says, “I am doing a new thing…I will make a way in the wilderness (our uncultivated errant thoughts) and rivers (the flow of our vitality) in the desert (those dead things we carry that no longer serve but take up energy in our spirit and body of affairs).” Take for example, an old relationship or job that is no longer fulfilling, yet we stay and are miserable.

My favorite instructor in ministerial school was Dr. Robert Brumet, “Finding Yourself In Transition.” He wrote that each transition in life begins with an ending. But before the new beginning we must first let go. That brings the next stage, the void. We wander until we get to the new beginning. Many transitions are happening in our world and we are called to let go of old judgments, old habits, patterns and prejudices. Many of you are experiencing transitions in your lives right now. Right here, our Rev. David is leaving. We want to hang on, but God is doing a new thing. We must let Rev. David move forward on his new path. If we don’t let go we will be left in “the desert”.

Rev. Denise is coming but can only take us to the door. The ministerial search team is finding our new minister; our new minister will go through the door with us. So we have to let go. We have to prepare for this new thing God is placing in our path.

How do we release? How do we let go? I suggest several steps in the handout.

In step 1, if you have only a little willingness, give it to the Holy Spirit, who will take the necessary steps for you, (ACIM). In step 2 remember to do your work; you don’t want to get more of the same thing you had before. Step 3, there is really nothing to forgive because, as spiritual beings we learn on our spiritual path, and therefore nothing wrong really ever happened. Everyone can find good in those things we need to forgive. Step 4 is the void. It’s ok. Step 5, is ok. Get your cry on, your mad on; beat a pillow. In step 7. Celebrate!

We must Let go; let God. Let go; let God. Let go; let God.

I see for all of us an amazing future! I believe that you and I have the power to create infinite possibilities out of the challenges we are facing. I trust you and I trust God!

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October 26, 2014 – Transitions

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10/26/14 Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
Transitions

Look at what’s going on—ebola and terrorism in our own country, even changes in our own congregation. The best book I’ve read on change is Robert Brumet’s Finding Yourself in Transition. He says that change is similar to rights of passage. It is inevitable and extremely painful. But the suffering is optional. When we have a drastic, unexpected change in our lives it is a kind of death. Something we had depended on, loved, and felt we needed is ripped away. Our impulse is to grieve it. But we can embrace it.

Like the Israelite’s journey out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Promised Land, there are stages to our transitions as identified by Brumet. First is Endings. You’ve lost your feeling of safety, or your health. You retire or become an “empty nester”. There is disengagement, followed by disidentification—you are no longer a husband or wife, or part of a unit, or one of the healthy. You move into disenchantment, where you have lost your faith in love, or in your employability, and so on, even your faith in God. You feel lost, hopeless, discouraged. You don’t know who you are anymore. You are disoriented. But when you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hold on!

The second stage of transition is the Void. As the Israelites did, you are wondering in the wilderness. It doesn’t feel very good. Your only connection is to the God of your understanding. But know you are being guided. It is painful but it also has purpose. It is said that this is the point at which suicides occur. Don’t give up. The light is just around the corner. You are like a seed in the soil that has lost it’s covering, but now you can send down roots and grow into a strong new plant ready to bloom and bear fruit. You are being reborn into a more perfect self. You can appreciate the beautiful transition moving through you. You have the tools and ability to move forward into the unknown without giving up. In my Void, I was literally on the carpet with the pain, but then I saw clearly what it was for. I saw a new vision, a new way of being, the third stage of transition. It brought me to Unity.

Each time we set out on a journey that is pulling us away from what we feel we can’t live without, there is this divine spark within that will lead us through. It empowers us. Understand the power of transition. This is an inside job. You will know yourself more deeply than before. Keep making the effort to let go, to open to what Spirit has for you. Trust. Each transition lifts you to a higher level.

There is so much change in our lives right now. Expect the good, the Promised Land. What shows up isn’t what you prayed for, but what you expect. Trust. Expect. “…and goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life.”

Play

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October 26, 2014 – Transitions

by


10/26/14 Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
Transitions

Look at what’s going on—ebola and terrorism in our own country, even changes in our own congregation. The best book I’ve read on change is Robert Brumet’s Finding Yourself in Transition. He says that change is similar to rights of passage. It is inevitable and extremely painful. But the suffering is optional. When we have a drastic, unexpected change in our lives it is a kind of death. Something we had depended on, loved, and felt we needed is ripped away. Our impulse is to grieve it. But we can embrace it.

Like the Israelite’s journey out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the Promised Land, there are stages to our transitions as identified by Brumet. First is Endings. You’ve lost your feeling of safety, or your health. You retire or become an “empty nester”. There is disengagement, followed by disidentification—you are no longer a husband or wife, or part of a unit, or one of the healthy. You move into disenchantment, where you have lost your faith in love, or in your employability, and so on, even your faith in God. You feel lost, hopeless, discouraged. You don’t know who you are anymore. You are disoriented. But when you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hold on!

The second stage of transition is the Void. As the Israelites did, you are wondering in the wilderness. It doesn’t feel very good. Your only connection is to the God of your understanding. But know you are being guided. It is painful but it also has purpose. It is said that this is the point at which suicides occur. Don’t give up. The light is just around the corner. You are like a seed in the soil that has lost it’s covering, but now you can send down roots and grow into a strong new plant ready to bloom and bear fruit. You are being reborn into a more perfect self. You can appreciate the beautiful transition moving through you. You have the tools and ability to move forward into the unknown without giving up. In my Void, I was literally on the carpet with the pain, but then I saw clearly what it was for. I saw a new vision, a new way of being, the third stage of transition. It brought me to Unity.

Each time we set out on a journey that is pulling us away from what we feel we can’t live without, there is this divine spark within that will lead us through. It empowers us. Understand the power of transition. This is an inside job. You will know yourself more deeply than before. Keep making the effort to let go, to open to what Spirit has for you. Trust. Each transition lifts you to a higher level.

There is so much change in our lives right now. Expect the good, the Promised Land. What shows up isn’t what you prayed for, but what you expect. Trust. Expect. “…and goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life.”

October 20, 2013 – The Evolutionary Impulse

by


10/20/13 Rev. Robert Brumet
Let Go of the Past, and Stand Up to Who You Really Are

Your own heart beat is the same impulse which created the universe 14 billion years ago. Until about 100,000 years ago it was simply a biological impulse, evolving the animal forms. Then consciousness was born as the cutting edge of evolution. Now we are at another time of transition, but we have over developed knowledge and under developed wisdom; over developed power and under developed love. Some would say the greatest threat to human existence is human existence.

We have not created balance. We have taken over the course of our evolution but have done so blindly. The human mind which has created our survival has become our master. We rely on our human intelligence for our (mis)understanding of reality. We have evolved from instinct to intellect. We need to move to intuition. We have become addicted to our way and it’s all we know. We are afraid to move on.

From Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek: “Blowing through the heaven and earth, and in our hearts and the heart of every living thing, is a gigantic breath–a great Cry–which we call God. Plant life wished to continue its motionless sleep next to stagnant waters, but …the Cry, without pity, kept shaking its roots and shouting, “Away, let go of the earth, Walk!”…Animals appeared–worms–making themselves at home in water and mud. “We’re just fine here,” they said… But the terrible Cry hammered itself pitilessly into their loins. “Leave the mud, stand up, give birth to your betters!”… And lo! after thousands of eons, man emerged, trembling on his still unsolid legs… He has been fighting, again for thousands of eons, to draw himself, like a sword, out of his animalistic scabbard. He is also fighting–this is his new struggle–to draw himself out of his human scabbard. Man calls in despair, “Where can I go? I have reached the pinnacle, beyond is the abyss.” And the Cry answers, “I am beyond. Stand up!”

It is important to let go of the past and stand up into who we really are. We can’t make it happen but we can be willing. And so it is! God bless you!

October 20, 2013 – The Evolutionary Impulse

by

10/20/13 Rev. Robert Brumet
Let Go of the Past, and Stand Up to Who You Really Are

Your own heart beat is the same impulse which created the universe 14 billion years ago. Until about 100,000 years ago it was simply a biological impulse, evolving the animal forms. Then consciousness was born as the cutting edge of evolution. Now we are at another time of transition, but we have over developed knowledge and under developed wisdom; over developed power and under developed love. Some would say the greatest threat to human existence is human existence.

We have not created balance. We have taken over the course of our evolution but have done so blindly. The human mind which has created our survival has become our master. We rely on our human intelligence for our (mis)understanding of reality. We have evolved from instinct to intellect. We need to move to intuition. We have become addicted to our way and it’s all we know. We are afraid to move on.

From Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek: “Blowing through the heaven and earth, and in our hearts and the heart of every living thing, is a gigantic breath–a great Cry–which we call God. Plant life wished to continue its motionless sleep next to stagnant waters, but …the Cry, without pity, kept shaking its roots and shouting, “Away, let go of the earth, Walk!”…Animals appeared–worms–making themselves at home in water and mud. “We’re just fine here,” they said… But the terrible Cry hammered itself pitilessly into their loins. “Leave the mud, stand up, give birth to your betters!”… And lo! after thousands of eons, man emerged, trembling on his still unsolid legs… He has been fighting, again for thousands of eons, to draw himself, like a sword, out of his animalistic scabbard. He is also fighting–this is his new struggle–to draw himself out of his human scabbard. Man calls in despair, “Where can I go? I have reached the pinnacle, beyond is the abyss.” And the Cry answers, “I am beyond. Stand up!”

It is important to let go of the past and stand up into who we really are. We can’t make it happen but we can be willing. And so it is! God bless you!

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