Spiritual Solutions

Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt. 5:5) At first glance, this would appear to be a mistake, for it seems to us that it is the strong that inherit the earth and possess all the blessings of it.

In fact, I was reading an article recently by a motivational author and speaker who claimed that we should throw out the idea of the meek inheriting the earth, totally belittling its validity. The author said that what we need to do was the opposite of being meek, which was to stand tall and possess the earth.

Well, like many of us, the author had a misunderstanding of the meaning of the word “meek.” The Greek word “praeis” which we translate as “meek” really means tame, in the sense of being opposite of wild or unrestrained; it refers to a harnessing and mobilizing of one’s powers. It is not a weakness but rather a strength, because all the inner powers are harnessed, not dissipated in bluster and aggression and show.

The French translation of this beatitude is “Blessed are the debonair,” meaning of “good manner,” or in other words, pleasant, courteous, and gracious, or charming and carefree. Today we might say, “Blessed are the cool,” implying one who is flexible, adaptive, big enough that he or she does not need to belittle.

Man is always at his best when he expresses love, meekness, humiity, and gentleness. The gentle person knows when to step back, when to yield, when to give way; when to go on might simply indicate willfulness. The meek inherit the earth because the consciousness of meekness and gentleness leads to a free experience in the world while the aggressor is chained by his own aggressive thoughts.

We tend to think of the dynamic person as the one who is aggressive, domineering, flamboyant, thundering through life. The really dynamic person is not noisy; he or she is meek in the sense of being tame. His powers are in control. He can speak with authority, take decisive action, act with power and conviction, without beating the drum. Instead of thundering, he employs the lightning of ideas. Instead of thrashing about in the darkness, he switches on a light.

I think it would behoove us all to give more thought to becoming gentle creatures, gentle persons, and gentle at heart; becoming “debonair,” becoming “cool.” Yes, “Blessed are the cool”

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions. Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Hello Friends,

Here’s a provocative blog post from Karl Moore, www.karlblog.com:

Are you a survivor – or an adventurer?

It’s an interesting question and your answer can prove to be quite revealing.

You see, if you consider yourself to be a survivor then it appears that you see life as being a struggle, one that you’ve had to toil over or made sacrifices for.

Survivors tend to believe that life is one obstacle after another that they have to overcome.

If you consider yourself to be an adventurer, then life has a completely different outlook … life is full of excitement, abundance and wonderful places to explore.

Adventurers believe that life is full of amazing experiences that they can enthusiastically embrace.

What you choose can make a difference to your outlook on life.

Adventurers tend to have a much more positive experience – even if some of their escapades appear to have been a lesson in survival!

Survivors, on the other hand, tend to have more negative experiences. They think life is going to be tough and, inevitably, it is.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

‘We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities’.

We create our journey … we decide whether it will be an exercise in survival or a wonderful adventure.

I know which one I’d choose.

Do you?

Enjoy an adventurous day!

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions. Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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I remember Jack Boland telling the story of a friend of his who was in a Master Mind Group and was practicing the principles but had a really hard time accepting the idea of surrender. He was a rugged individualist, a self-determined man who had always forged ahead on his own terms. He was struggling now in several areas of his life, not least in his feeling of being lost and alone in the challenges facing him.

This man then had a dream which turned his life around and which he recounted in the following manner: “I dreamed I was by myself on a bicycle built for two, a tandem, and I was pedaling along country roads enjoying myself as I rode. But then the road I was on gradually became steeper and steeper, until I was not able to go any further; I was out of breath, exhausted, and I came to a stop.

“As I stood there, straddling the bicycle, trying to catch my breath, I glanced over to my right and saw a young man standing there smiling. He was radiant and I had the feeling he was right there at that place and time because somehow he knew that’s where I would run out of gas. I asked him, ‘Can you help me?’ He nodded and, smiling broadly, came over to me and climbed on the rear seat of the bicycle; with a push on the pedals we were off along the road.

“The steep hill I had been climbing now seemed like it took no effort at all and we pedaled along at a fair clip, up hill and down dale. After a while I was looking around and enjoying it so much that I stopped pedaling. That was when the bicycle came to a halt and the young man stepped off and said to me, ‘You’ve got to keep pumping. I’m always ready and available to help you but you also have to help yourself. You’ve got to keep pumping.’

“It was then that I understood that surrender was not giving up or giving in, but was giving my life over to a higher power. I was to surrender my personal will to Divine Will, and cooperate with the Spirit of God within me.”

This man’s life changed after he had that dream, and changed for the better as he gave up his need to control every aspect of his life and allowed God within to guide and direct his path.

There’s an interesting Taoist story that was told by Chuang Tzu about Confucius whom he sometimes presents as a Taoist master. In the story Confucius and some of his students are on a side trip to see a beautiful waterfall. One of the students said he had grown up near a waterfall and that he and other children often went swimming there. Another student said that the waterfall they were going to see wasn’t fit for swimming; the water fell from a great height and with such force that it made the water turbulent and much too dangerous for swimming.

They were able to hear the roar of the waterfall before they could see it, and could feel the ground trembling. As the waterfall came into view they saw that a man was caught in the turbulent water, being tossed around by the swirling currents. They ran to try to save him but lost sight of him as they went down the hillside to the river below.

When they got down to the river a little downstream from the waterfall, they expected to find the body of the man floating in the water or caught on a rock or overhanging tree branch. Instead they saw him casually swimming away from the waterfall and climbing onto the river bank, clearly enjoying himself and singing a little song.

Confucius told the man they had been concerned for his life and asked him how he managed to swim there. The man responded that he had grown up around there and began swimming at that spot as a boy. He said he had known the waterfall and its rapids all his life, and just followed the nature of the water.

When asked what he meant by that, he said that when the currents threw him around he let them. If they pulled him down, he dives with them. He said that he knew that when he reached the bottom the current would shoot him back up again; he waited for that moment, and when it happened he would swim with it. He said that although the currents are very powerful, they were like a friend he was familiar with. So he could sense what they were going to do and he was able to adjust to their movements.

In the story, the waterfall and its rapids represent the challenges we all face as we swim in the river of life. We often feel dragged along by events and helpless; we are overwhelmed and pushed in directions we do not want to go. We struggle to stay afloat and swim, but frequently the water dashes us against the rocks or drags us under.

If we respect the nature of reality we can endure reverses and master the flood of events. We don’t just passively “go with the flow” but we are alert to the forces in our environment that push and pull, and once we are aware of a current we can ride it like a surfer on a wave.

(This story is adapted from an epicycle entitled The Swimmer in the Summer 2009 edition of Parabola magazine, previously adapted from “The Waterfall” by Derek Lin on the website www.taoism.net, and based on a story and commentary in the writings of Chuang Tzu.)

Both these stories help us reflect on the truth that in our spiritual development, surrender is vital. It means giving up our resistance and letting our God Self direct our lives.

God is Blessing You, Right Now, with Sweet Surrender!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan Rowbotham, a Unity minister for more than thirty-five years, invites you to enjoy more articles on Spiritual Solutions and/or subscribe to the free Spiritual Solutions newsletter at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish the article if you include this reference box. Thank you.
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Here’s a poem I wrote when I was in ministerial school about forty years ago, after recovering with sympathetic help from a difficult time and finding my spiritual connection again. My wife, Kathryn, found the poem when going through some old papers. Whether or not it is acceptable poetry, I do think the sentiments expressed have some merit and may trigger some reflection within you. So here it is:

The Listening Ear

Gently, gently, gentle touch, the hand of God moves on;

Pushing here, persuading there, the will of God is done.

If we would accept His love and put our trust in Him,

How easily we would glide through life; He’d grant our every whim.

But stubborn we, we think we know, and block the inner voice;

An ear that never listens, cannot hear the choice.

This way, that way, here and there we run;

Yet when we learn to listen, our new life has begun.

Love flows freely in our veins, our hearts then pulse with joy,

If we would learn to listen. With God we cannot toy,

And only use Him when we please; He’s not a part-time King,

But full-time, all-time, living now, as One with every thing.

All creation is the Lord’s, each hand, each leaf, each tree;

If only we accept Him now, then only are we free.

Take not a step, nor speak a word, not start a brand new day,

Without you listen to your God, and act upon His way.

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan Rowbotham, a Unity minister for more than thirty-five years, invites you to enjoy more articles on Spiritual Solutions and/or subscribe to the free Spiritual Solutions newsletter at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish the article if you include this reference box. Thank you.
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Have you ever been excited about a project you had embarked upon, and then after putting your energies to it for a while realized that it wasn’t working out in the way you had hoped? You became discouraged, maybe continued with it half-heartedly but the bottom had dropped out for you and finally you gave up on it.

Didn’t it make you heart-sick, disappointed, disenchanted? What you hoped was going to be something you would make a success of turned out to be just another money-sucking promotion. You perhaps felt cheated, and stupid for being taken in again. How many times had that happened before?

This is what is called in Proverbs 13:12, “hope deferred.” In fact it says right there in that proverb, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”

You’ve experienced it, and perhaps sometimes you’ve caused hope to be deferred in the hearts of loved ones. Maybe your wife or husband or partner had been looking forward to some outcome you’d led him or her to expect, but then it didn’t happen after all. That was hope deferred, and it makes the heart sick. If it happens often, then the person loses hope entirely.

Perhaps you had promised your child or children something special that they were excited about, but then for some reason your promise was not fulfilled. That was hope deferred, and it makes the heart sick.

Some wise person has said that we ought not to promise a child something if we didn’t intend to fulfill that promise in the way we had led the child to believe. If it happens a lot for a child, it not only defers hope but often can limit the power of hope for that person throughout life.

Is there one among us who has never deferred hope for someone? I doubt it. We have good intentions, but sometimes don’t follow through. How about in our work life? Has hope ever been deferred for you by an employer who implied that you would soon be promoted or given a better-paying job? Or have you deferred hope for an employer who expected more of you than you delivered?

I believe we’ve all probably experienced hope deferred, and have all probably deferred hope in others without even realizing it.

The proverb says it makes the heart sick. That means a kind of soul-sickness, a shriveling up inside of ourselves which becomes a limiting factor in making real progress in life and in relationships.

But the converse of hope deferred holds tremendous promise. Here’s what the proverb goes on to say:

“. . . but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”

A desire fulfilled, a project completed successfully, a promise delivered, a reward realized . . . is a tree of life!

Have you had the experience of that kind of fulfillment?

And if you have, didn’t it lead you on with renewed enthusiasm, with excitement, with greater desires and confidence that you could achieve them? If you’ve fulfilled any special desire or expectation of a loved one, hasn’t that person responded with joy and gratitude, with excitement?

So how can we fulfill our desires more readily and not defer hope for ourselves or others?

At the risk of repeating myself from a couple of weeks ago, I would suggest that you create a clear and precise vision for your most important desires or dreams, then for each vision to write down the specific goals, steps to take, and any tasks involved. In this way you will have a detailed roadmap to follow in the achievement of that vision. Go to my previous article on “How to Achieve Your Dreams” to see a more detailed outline of the process.

As you complete each task, each step, each goal, it will confirm the hope within you and move you ever closer to the achievement of your dreams.

Hope is not just a wish; it is a tremendous power within you. Hope is of the Spirit, it gives us an inner confidence to keep moving forward against all the odds. And when we have a roadmap to follow it doesn’t even matter if someone along the way defers our hope; we still have other steps we can take to reach our goals. Hope activates the Spirit within us which then brings right answers to us and guides us in right directions.

“Desire fulfilled is a Tree Of Life.” Each fulfilled desire brings new energy and new ideas. Just like a tree spreading its branches in all directions, a fulfilled desire generates other ideas and expanded dreams that would never have come to you without the fulfillment of that first desire. A tree of life is a thing of great beauty, birds (other ideas) rest in its branches. It provides shade when the sun (or circumstance) gets too hot for comfort. It gives a sense of belonging to the earth and a realization of purpose in life.

When you’ve been the agent of a desire fulfilled for someone else, it gives you great joy and satisfaction to see their delight and feel their excitement.

I remember when I first brought my family to the United States, my daughter Diane came running in the house one day to say, “Daddy, can I have a bicycle?” I said to her, “Diane, can you ride a bicycle?” “No, Daddy, but I can learn.” She was so excited; she had been playing with a little friend who had a bicycle and to have her own bicycle was a desire planted deep in her heart and mind. I said, “Well, Diane, I suggest you learn to ride a bicycle. Maybe you could ask your friend to let you try to ride hers. Then when you show me you can ride a bicycle, we’ll buy a bicycle for you.”

She ran out of the house to her friend and I didn’t see her in the house the rest of the day; she didn’t even come in for lunch. Every so often I would peep out of the window and would see her wobbling along, falling off, hitting a tree, getting on again with her friend running alongside shouting encouragement. Then, late in the afternoon, she came in the house all out of breath, flushed and excited, “Daddy, I can ride a bicycle! Come and see.” So out I went and sure enough, she had mastered the art of balance and riding her friend’s bicycle. Proud and excited, she said, “Daddy, can I have a bicycle now?” And what could I say but, “Yes, Diane, we’ll get you your own bicycle now.”

As I look back and remember that experience, I’m so glad I didn’t defer Diane’s hope and that I fueled her desire by giving her some steps to take and a goal to accomplish for her to achieve that very important desire of her heart at that time in her life. It still brings me a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction to recall her delight, her joy, her excitement, on that day.

“Desire fulfilled is a Tree of Life.” Take a little time today to remember the feeling when you were the agent of a desire fulfilled for a loved one, or when you experienced the excitement of a desire fulfilled in your own life. Just the remembrance will stir up the gift and the power of hope within you. And that hope can take you places that you’ve never even dreamed of.

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

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