Good Morning Beloved

A man was sitting at the bar staring at his drink when a large, trouble-making biker steps up next to him, grabs his drink and gulps it down in one swig and menacingly says,

“Thanks SHORTIE, whatcha going to do about it?”

The man burst into tears.

“Come on, man,” the biker says, “I didn’t think you’d CRY. I can’t stand to see a man crying. What’s your problem?”

“This is the worst day of my life,” he says. “I’m a complete failure. I was late to a meeting and my boss fired me. When I went to the parking lot, I found my car had been stolen and I don’t have any insurance. I left my wallet in the cab I took home. I found my wife in bed with the postman and then my dog bit me.”

“So I came to this bar to work up the courage to put an end to it all. I buy a drink; drop a capsule in and sit here watching the poison dissolve; then you show up and drink the whole thing!”

“But enough about me, how’s your day going?”

Will & Strength of Spirit

Strength of Spirit is this month’s theme. And we wish to marry that theme with the Power of the WILL.

When you think of strength of Spirit…what comes to mind? Often when we think of strength we think of physical strength, but that is not what we want to focus on today.

Strength of spirit fits so well with the Power of the Will because we must relinquish our will, which is pretty much our ego, and let Spirit take over.

When we realize that our ego has taken control of more than what it is intended to control, we “miss the mark.”

What is ego necessary for? It is needed in order that we survive. Well, physical survival, right? If our ego didn’t want to survive, we wouldn’t concern ourselves about traffic, or fingers in fire, or shelter in a storm.

But we also, wouldn’t fight so hard to establish and maintain ourselves, our personalities. We need some of that to experience life as we are meant to experience it.

Eckhart Tolle says, “The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often political, nationalistic, racial, religious and other collective identifications. None of these are you.”

This is the point where the ego, let’s say, over extends itself. It wants to be in charge All the time. It wants to control others, wants to always be right, it wants to do whatever it must to be in charge. The ego sometimes thinks it knows what is best for us, and so exerts itself to control our thoughts and actions. It wants to edge God out.

And this, my friends, is where our WILL and Strength of Spirit comes into play.

The Will is the ability to choose, lead, determine. It represents the choice-making part of the brain.

It is our job in developing our God-given potentialities to reeducate the will, to teach it to become receptive to spiritual motivation, rather than to goals determined by our materialistic pursuits alone.

One way or another, we are using our will, all the time. We choose a course of action. We resist or resent. We submit or fight back. We aim high or we slide backward. Or we are willing to consecrate and dedicate our will to God and to let it be reeducated to go the way of Spirit.

Jesus is our great Way Shower in overcoming the human, selfish motivation of the will and allowing it to be replaced by a great unification with the divine will, thus producing good for all. That is the definition of God’s will…good for all.

The rewards of unifying our wills with the will of God are great. They include health, happiness, joy, peace, harmony, prosperity and other good that we cannot even visualize in our present state of consciousness.

When we begin to discover who and what we truly are, sometimes, – admit it, we find we have to battle a strong ego. This is where Strength of Spirit helps us.

Jack Kornfield said, “We each need to make our lions roar – to persevere with unshakable courage when faced with all manners of doubt and sorrows and fears – to declare our right to awaken.”

We use our strength of spirit to awaken, to become the Spiritual being in this human form. Think about all the people who have overcome what we would call hardships in this physical life…how do you think they did that?

With a strong will to tap into their spiritual strength. That’s how the survivors of the death camps during World War II survived; that’s how parents who must overcome the death of a child survive; that’s how we all survive when we are faced with the ‘growth opportunities’ that life presents to us survive.

These are instances where the ego works with the will for survival by stepping aside so we can tap into our spiritual strength.

If that doesn’t happen, anger, hurt, victimhood, etc. exists. And that holds us back from awakening, from enlightenment.

Many in-harmonies in human relationships result from the clash of human wills. Learning to activate the divine will in your life does not mean that you will simply submit to the human will of others. Instead, it will give you a new freedom that recognizes the human force applied by others but does not submit to it.

When you find yourself confronted by a strong will that insists you go its way, turn within to the Christ, the God Self, the spiritual core of your nature, and silently say to the other person, “The Christ in me beholds the Christ in you.” Let the love of God and the understanding of the spiritual nature of that other person pour forth from you so strongly that there is no conflict of human wills. Rather, there is a higher power at work, establishing harmony and order.

This is what ‘NAMASTE’ means – my soul honors your soul. I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides. I honor the light, love, truth, beauty and peace within you because it is also within me. In sharing these things, we are united. We are the same. We are ONE.

This is part of the forgiveness process.

We can start first to awaken the will and train it by consciously watching its activities and directing it through our growing spiritual understanding.

Deepak Chopra suggests; “Instead of thinking outside the box, get rid of the box.”

A very good idea as we take control of our ego and will and tap into our inner strength, the strength of spirit that we all have. We do not have to follow what has always been done. We do not have to listen to our domestication. We do not have to be our mother or our father or someone that another is trying to make us into…we get to be ourselves.

You. Me. Each and everyone one of you get to be who you are meant to be….

What will that be? Who will that be?

Here are five basic ideas to help use our Spiritual Strength; ways to redirect your personal will in accordance with the divine will, adapted from Dr. Barbara King:

Seek personal truth. We must live beyond the ego and get in touch with the heart. Intellect is not enough. Cultivate daily relaxation, meditation, prayer and spiritual study. Place your journal nearby and note what comes up in these times. Ask the question, “Thy will or mine be done?” Journal what comes up?

Stay on course. Positive change begins with the individual. God never overrides our will, even if it is divided and conflicted. Whenever the question, “What good can I bring about?” is replaced by “How can I get my own way?” the will is being directed by the ego rather than God. Think about a situation in which you have experienced difficulty. What did you really want in it? Try asking yourself this question repeatedly until you get a sense of which basic question was orienting your will. If you find your response was ego motivated, what would it take to shift to God’s direction? Stay with it until you feel a shift. This process can also be helpful when written out in your journal.

Cultivate an awareness of your human resources. A sense of shared humanity with all people teaches us the value of each of us and the gifts we all bring. Consider what it would look like to have your will more closely directed by God. What would your next steps be? Take this into prayer, considering the possibility of being in closer community with others on this path or those who would stretch you on this path. Discuss any new ideas with a close spiritual friend or counselor. In what ways can you offer support for one another?

Develop and maintain a sense of destiny. Great leaders inspire others to the degree that they are able to reach into the future. Write an affirmation and use it throughout the day. Take it into prayer, slowly “chewing” on the words until the meaning begins to seep into your heart. What insights do you have about the power of the will?

Become involved in life. Knowing the Truth is not enough you must practice the Truth you know. Try serving others in such a way that getting your way takes a back seat to serving God in others. This may take place at Unity, your work, with friends, or at home.

Let’s take this prayer into meditation: We open our hearts and minds to the love that IS, that we all are. We connect with the Oneness of the multiverse that this planet is a part of.   We choose to release the self-centered ego and open ourselves to the Christ center that is our true self.   We now choose to cleanse ourselves and release any and all thought forms, beings, situations and energies that are no longer of service to our highest and greatest good…we choose this across all planes of our existence, across all universes, and across all lifetimes, We ask that all energies that are less than love be transmuted for the highest good of all. And so it is.