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Unity co-founder,
Charles Fillmore, defined the activity of worship as humanity’s
efforts to sustain, strengthen, nourish, and nurture a positive and accurate
mental attitude toward God.
As we worship,
we offer the God of our understanding our love, our reverence and our
respect. We also offer love, reverence, and respect to those with whom we
share the worship experience as we behold the Divine, the Christ Essence
within ourselves and within each other.
As we worship
we allow ourselves to identify with that which is of Spirt in an attitude of
joy, unity, peace and in the belief that within our willingness to do so, we
evolve spiritually, in wisdom and in understanding.
So, now is the time
to worship.
May we come to
realize that we are breathing the one breathe of God and within the One
breath lies our unity as spiritual beings.
At the level of
Spirit, we are one with each other as we are One with our God.
Our spirit is so
much more than can be contained within our body temple; spirit overflows ...
so that there is no place where my spirit stops and yours begins.
We are spiritual
beings sharing the energies of our Creator’s Light, Love and Life; as much
or as little as we dare claim.
The Spirit of Light,
Love, and Life is flowing like a river;
Flowing out of you and me. Flowing out into the desert;
Setting all the captives free.
And as we allow our
awareness to rest in this moment, as we welcome this opportunity to worship,
we say, “Thank You, God.”
And so may it be and amen.
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I was born on a hot
summer day .....
Don’t you love it
when you ask a person to tell you a little bit about themselves and this is
how the story begins?
You know you’re in
for a long haul; depending on how old the story teller happens to be.
I really was born on
a hot summer day which is probably why I have an affinity with summer.
However, summers
here in Southwest Florida do seem to be getting longer and hotter. Maybe
I’m just getting older and less tolerant.
Inside, in the air
conditioning feels like the most comfortable place to be unless we’re up to
our neck in water somewhere and even the water feels warm.
Not complaining,
it’s just summer in Florida, and I’d much rather deal with the heat than
shovel the snow.
This past week, I
spent an inordinate amount of time inside, in the air conditioning, cleaning
my office; continuing the seemingly endless task of getting my “life in
order.”
A by product of this
effort was the re- discovering of bits of inspiration that I had “put away”
for later and promptly forgot.
One treasure was an
article entitled “The Question Holds the Lantern” by John O’Donohue, an
Irish poet, philosopher, and former priest.
O’Donohue wrote:
“When your soul awakens, you begin to truly inherit your life. You leave
the kingdom of fake surfaces, repetitive talk, and weary roles and slip
deeper into the true adventure of who you are and who you are called to
become.”
Something of the
Spirit leapt within me when I read this.
Over the summer, I had two friends who appeared to be strong, healthy and
full of life, transition from this world suddenly.
Also, I made a trip
to Haiti and saw unfathomable suffering, poverty, and a sense of
hopelessness that takes your breath away.
As a result of
trying to incorporate these summer events into my life experience; I find
that I have lost all tolerance for the petty.
For a while there, I
wanted to slap a Kardashion so bad it ached.
I wanted to wring Lindsey Lohan’s neck.
I wanted to shake politicians until their teeth rattled.
My counselor told me
that in time, these feelings would pass.
They have not so
much passed as I have realized that, within all that has happened this
summer, my soul is awakening and I am, indeed, weary of fake surfaces, and
repetitive talk and I do, indeed, wish to slip deeper into the adventure of
who I am and who and what I am being called to become.
Perhaps some of you
understand.
I think that the souls of my core of zealous and unperturbed spiritual
seekers who hung in through the entirety of our Wednesday morning book
study .... understand.
We understand when
John Shelby Spong, in his book, A New Christianity for a New World,
(obviously not an easy read) defines God.
He writes:
“God is life, we say, and we worship this God by living fully.
God is love, we say, and we worship this God by loving wastefully.
God is Being, we say, and we worship this God by having the courage to be
all that we can be.”
John O’Donohue
continues:
“Once you start to awaken, no one can ever claim you again for the old
patterns.
Now you realize how precious your time here is.
You are no longer willing to squander your essence on undertakings that do
not nourish your true self; your patience grows thin with tired talk and
dead language.
You see
through the rosters of expectation which promise you safety and the
confirmation of your outer identity.
Now you are
impatient for growth, willing to put yourself in the direction of change.
You want your work to become an expression of your gift.
You want your relationship to voyage beyond the pallid frontiers to where
the danger of transformation dwells.
You want your God to be wild and to call you to where your destiny awaits.”
I think the long,
hot days of summer can sometimes make us impatient and maybe just a bit
..... grumpy.
O’Donohue’s words
were like the rediscovery of fire for me.
He touched
something, a divine discontent, that I could feel but not adequately
articulate.
I am, as I sense
some of you are, impatient for growth.
And, I do believe that many of us are ready to place ourselves into the
direction of change.
What does all this
mean? I’m not sure I know.
But I’m willing and I’m ready to find out.
As I was cleaning my
office, I came across a tool of transformation that some of us have used in
the past, perhaps some still do.
This tool is a
framework to assist in the creation of a purposeful and meaningful life one
day at a time.
It’s called the
Create Your Day affirmations.
Here’s how they work:
First thing in the morning, as a part of spiritual practice, we affirm:
Today, I will know an extraordinary person ... or extraordinary people.
Today, I will have an experience with the unusual.
Today, Spirit will move in my life in ways impossible to ignore.
Today, I will know wealth in a way that I have never known wealth before.
Today, will be an extraordinary day.
At the end of each
day, we look back and recall the extraordinary person, the unusual
experience, how Spirit moved in ways impossible to ignore, and how we
experienced a new definition of wealth.
We will then, give thanks for a most extraordinary day.
After following this
practice for a few weeks, an interesting phenomenon begins to take place.
Rather than simply
looking for these events to fill the bill of our new affirmations, we start
to anticipate them, and as we start to anticipate them, we begin to create
them in our lives, we start to recognize the many, many extraordinarily
magnificent experiences that we might have missed as we moved through our
lives in our usual state of slumber and sleep walk.
We open ourselves to
change and transformation in a positive and creative way.
This summer, I came
to know two very extraordinary people. I have two new granddaughters whose
innocence and purity and intensity gives me so much hope.
I have experienced
the unusual; the beauty and mystery of Haiti, the regal appearance of her
people bring to mind the song by Leonard Cohen that reminds us that love
shows us where to look among the garbage and the flowers.
Spirit has moved in
my life this summer in ways impossible to ignore.
Just finding these forgotten treasures in my own house is proof of this.
And if friends,
family, health, beauty, inspiration, insight, joy, and wasteful love are
counted as wealth, I become wealthier every day in wonderful and magnificent
ways.
And as we go from
this place into the rest of our lives, my prayer for you is that you will
have extraordinary day after extraordinary day;
that wonder will follow wonder and miracles will never cease.
And so may it be. |
