Lent 2016 – Day Ten – Power

We are the power of God within. We have the power to be and do what we want to be.  The power to control our thinking is the highest gift mankind has been given.

 

I remember the first time I said out loud that I would not ever let anyone have power over me.  I was walking along the track at my junior high when my P.E. teacher yelled at me and my friend to run.  At age thirteen, I was skinny, uncoordinated, and not in the least bit athletic.  We had run for what seemed forever and the heat and humidity of that day seemed overwhelming.  I believed in my heart that I could not run anymore.  My teacher come up from behind us and instead of encouraging us with positive reinforcement or urging us with empowering words, she belittled us and continued to embarrass us.  Something snapped in me and I just stopped and I started walking.  When I got to the gate, I walked back to the gym and got dressed in my school clothes.  I’m not sure I passed my physical fitness test, nor did I care.  It was a wonderful feeling to say out loud to my friend never again. And I stuck to that the rest of my life.  What I did learn from the experience is that power can be misused and only I can decide which way to use it.  I chose to use my power from my heart.

Power comes from within.  I am not alone. I know that power is a spiritual tool that leads me in an abundant life.  We live with the truth that all power comes from love.

“I use my power to manifest the life I want.” ~ Rev. Paula Mekdeci, Unity

Lent 2016 – Day Nine – Love

Yesterday’s 2016 Lenten theme was Love. The Rev. Evelyn Foreman writes, “Like the sun, love’s joy is pure, nourishing, and continually giving.”

Susannah Conway challenged me to find heart-shaped objects or just hearts.  Love is a theme for the month of February.  Hearts, flowers, Valentine cards, and chocolate candy all have a common thread – love.

Finding the hearts has not been easy.  I have a beautiful book by Connie Smith, a cancer survivor, entitled “Never Lose Heart; hope for the journey.”  It is filled with photographs of hearts and inspiring poetry.  Slightly intimidated, I have begun my search.

 

I found: a cut paper lamp shade that has been a bedside table lamp for years, a Pennsylvania Dutch print wedding announcement, a gift from my parents;  a Pirkenhammer tea cup, originally from Czechoslovakia in the 1800’s that belonged to Mark’s grandmother;  a drawing by my granddaughter Lexi; a signed and dated poster of the Canton (MS) annual Flea Market showing hearts on the clown’s face; and a heart-shaped frame of my precious dog, Speck who shared 16 years of his life with our family.  All these heart shapes are symbols of the love that lives in my heart. (Excerpt taken from my Facebook Musing.)

 

“Love in Divine Mind, is the idea of Universal unity.  In expression, it is the power that joins and binds together the universe and everything in it.  Love is a harmonizing, constructive power.  When it is made active in consciousness, it conserves substance and reconstructs, rebuilds, and restores mankind and its world.” – Charles Fillmore

When we know the Truth we know that we are all one, that there is no separation whatsoever.  We learn by experience that love must be directed by wisdom.  God is kindness; God is love.  Loving-kindness is a word of rare compound.  Our greatest good comes in the welfare of all.  Divine love sees no distinction among persons.  When we even faintly realize the love of God, we begin to love our fellow man.

Love is more than gifts one time a year, it has no boundaries and knows no limits—it soars beyond strife or struggle.  And remember through love all things are possible.

“I am blessed by the overcoming power of love.”

~ Rev. Toni Stephens Coleman, Unity

Lent 2016 – Day Three – God

“God is good and everywhere present.” ~ Lent 2016, Unity

The Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Shepherd writes about the importance of seeing things from a higher ground and also the lower ground.  He writes, “Higher ground is everywhere—when women and men take a stand for faith and justice and open their arms to people from all branches of the human family tree.”

When I was a little girl, the most impressive place in the church, to me was the alter.  The brass cross, candelabra’s, huge white Bible, and sometimes flowers.  Growing up in the Episcopal Church, rituals and pageantry was a staple.  For a time, I helped my mother and other women clean the communion plates, polish the brass and pews.  We worked in a side room off the chancel.  I remember thinking the Alter looked so bare when we did our polishing.  I thought God wasn’t in the church unless the Alter was set up perfectly.

Trinity Episcopal Church, Baton Rouge, LA

 

 

 

Of course I grew out of those feelings and even began to take the Alter for granted.  Then one day many years later, I realized that the Alter with all its beauty was just a symbol.  It is that place of consciousness where we are willing to let go of the lesser for the greater, to let go of personality and enter into individuality.  Today, I know God is not just on the Alter, but is everywhere present.  In the words of Charles Fillmore, “God as principle is the unchangeable life, love, substance, and intelligence of Being.”

Rev. Shepherd goes on to say, “Lower ground is the root system, telling me who I am and where I’ve come from and how to celebrate the joys and challenges that have brought me here, today.” Every day I make choices and every day I look for my greater good.  I do this by letting go and letting God live through me.  For me, God is very real.  God is Love, Wisdom, Intelligence, Power, Substance, Mind, and the Truth and I find God when inside me as Tennyson said, “Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.”  I go to the Alter and find myself with God and I am grateful.

“There is only One Presence and One Power in the Universe and in my life, God the Good.”

 ~ Rev Pat Veenema, Unity

 

 

Magic Hour at Chickamauga Lake 001 by Janice Kennedy

First Day of Lent 2016

 Ash Wednesday - Denial

Negative thoughts have no power over me.  I am centered and peaceful.

Just as spring is the season for new and expanded life, Lent is a time of spiritual rebirth and renewal. It is a time for realigning ourselves with the Christ Mind and allowing ourselves to be transformed at depth.  Lent is a time for rising in consciousness to higher ground. As we ascend to the mountaintop of spiritual perspective, we see the patterns of our lives—what we want to continue and what we want to release. We call upon the Christ within to make positive changes and help us know our Oneness with God every day. ~ Unity



The challenge for me this Lenten season is to find a way to combine a spiritual rebirth and renewal as I explore my senses and look for RADIANT beams shining in and through me.  

The days are getting longer and my free time seems to be extended as well.  This seems the perfect time to challenge myself to be the person I am called to be.   Rev. Toni Stephens Coleman writes, “I have learned to put my trust not in material things, but in spiritual principle. Unity cofounder Charles Fillmore defines principle as ‘Fundamental Truth … the underlying plan by which Spirit (God) moves in expressing itself.’ ”

I cannot deny that I already know what that fundamental truth is: that I am called to live from the Divine in me.  Today I am turning to God within to guide me into my best life.

When we give no power to any thought or action that does not serve us, we are free to manifest what we truly desire in our lives.  When training a puppy, we don’t say “stop jumping up on Johnny” or “no chewing on that slipper.”  Instead, a simple “Stop” or “No” is all that is required.  The same is true for stopping thoughts or actions that don’t serve us. Whether I’m making a conscious decision to lose weight, eat healthier, meditate longer, walk farther, sing louder, or shout to the world my joy, I know deep in my heart what is right for me.  I turn away from a belief of negative thoughts to the spirit of Divine love where anything is possible.

“The Divine Light within is infusing all my surroundings with a delightful spirit of

wisdom, dignity, and peace.” ~ Charles Fillmore