Spiritual Solutions

Here’s a great article by Kevin Schoeninger of Mind-Body Training and Spiritual Growth Monthly that I don’t want you to miss, because it highlights so well the difference between assumption and experience. So, I’ll just let your experience of the story speak for itself. . . .

Is It Possible To Move Beyond Judgment?

Have you ever been in the supermarket where you witness a mother or father struggling with their kids and yelling at them? Did you get upset at the “meanness” of these parents? Did you feel that the kids weren’t being respected and cared for? Have you ever been shocked to find yourself being that parent?

Or have you found yourself annoyed at a driver weaving in and out of traffic because he was only thinking of himself and putting the rest of us at risk? Have you also found yourself occasionally being that driver?

Do you get angry when you see wars of religion—one trying to dominate the other with its “right” point of view? Do you find yourself being intolerant of intolerance?
The web of judgment is certainly tangled.

Is it possible to move beyond that?

Let me share a brief story that opened my eyes about this.
 
As I related in last week’s post, my wife and I take an annual trip to Sedona Arizona for our anniversary. On this trip we like to take a hike up onto Cathedral Rock. It’s one of our favorite spots. The lush environment around the base of the rock is so peaceful and serene, while the heights of the perches at the top are simply majestic. Legend has it that this gigantic red rock formation has a powerful energy that comforts you and makes you feel like everything is O.K. It’s even said, as I shared last week, that, if you are open to it, you can receive messages from this rock.

Any judgments come up for you yet?

So, my wife and I are enjoying the two hour climb around the north face to east face and upward to the top. At several points, the rock gets pretty steep and some folks balk at this point. On my first time here, I had serious doubts and had to take a moment to relax and dig for some courage. To an experienced hiker or climber, it’s probably nothing too exciting or dangerous. Nevertheless, everyone seems quite accepting of varying levels of courage when you reach these points. The comfortable ones take a break and wait for the less confident ones. The fearless ones assure the scared ones that everything will be O.K.

When my wife and I reached the top, or as high as you can go without equipment, we took some pictures and then settled into a comfortable spot to rest up and enjoy the “energy” of the mountain. We lay down on the red rocks, my wife in the sun and me with my back against the cool red rock wall in the shade. I enjoyed the silence, punctuated only by the occasional “thunderous” helicopter flying by for a bird’s eye view. As an experiment, I asked the big rock if it had any message for me.

Shortly, there came a blustery, athletic presence storming up the hill, huffing and puffing. He took the top, had a brief look around, made some loud comments to his girlfriend, and then quickly began his descent. “In it for the workout,” came to my mind.

Next there came a middle-aged couple. When they reached the top it was clear that the woman was pretty scared. She stared at the way back down with trepidation. Almost immediately she began her descent, backing down on all fours, while being coached enthusiastically by her husband. “Missed the experience,” I thought.
Soon thereafter, came a barefooted girl with tattoos on her arms. She arrived at the top silently, like a cat, found a nice slab in the sun, and lay down with a smile on her face. “She’s really got it right,” I thought.

I followed suit, closed my eyes, and felt “soooo” relaxed against the soft, cool, red rock. I asked again for a message.

Before long these words came into my head: “Everyone’s experience is valid.”

I instantly felt how this released my judgments against those who “raced” up the mountain, were “too scared” to enjoy the experience at the top, or “too noisy” to listen and feel the silence. As I let this realization soak in, I understood it in a visceral way, in a way I hadn’t before.

Everyone’s experience is valid from their point of view. It makes sense to them given who they are, where they’ve come from, and where they are going. Who am I to judge that? I have no idea about any of those things for someone else.

In that moment, I felt free of judgment toward others and free to be myself. These two fit perfectly hand in hand. I’ve since discovered that, when I carry this phrase into life—“everyone’s experience is valid”—it frees me to appreciate the unique qualities that each of us bring to the table. The consciousness behind this phrase creates a fertile ground of understanding which can be used to resolve conflict and cooperate toward what we all truly desire—which is, at once, different and the same.

Enjoy your practice,

Kevin

Kevin Schoeninger

If you are interested in knowing more about the Mind-Body Training Community and Spiritual Growth Monthly, I can tell you that I have enjoyed several of their programs and the Spiritual Growth Monthly newsletter for several years. You can go to Raise Your Vibration / Core Energy Meditation (Gift Page) for a powerful free meditation technique.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

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

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It is through the images in our lives that we really begin to tap into the truth of our being and to give expression to it. Even in times of challenge or loss we can move on through it to the healing, because as we tap into the truth of our being we connect with our Divine self and know the truth of God’s presence in our lives. We know that no matter what is happening, the love is there, the life is there and is streaming forth through our loss whatever it may be.

But we don’t often start with that; we have to go through the process. We have to first acknowledge our loss, whether it’s the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of a relationship, or perhaps a child has gone off to school somewhere. When we begin to identify and accept what it truly is that is our loss or challenge we can move through it.

We have certain images that we carry in our minds about the situation. It may be an empty nest; it may be a chrysalis. Sue Monk Kidd, in a book called The Heart Still Waits, relates how when she was going through a mid-life crisis finally came upon an image in her mind of a chrysalis, of a caterpillar that had formed a cocoon.

She realized she was going through a time of incubating the darkness and that she couldn’t rush the process, that even when moving toward new life she had to incubate within that darkness and couldn’t force the chrysalis to open. But she recognized that out of that chrysalis would emerge the new life of the butterfly. And she knew that if she focused on the butterfly, the representation of her true self, she would be lifted out of the pain and darkness.

Sometimes it’s in the familiar images of life that we are nurtured and begin to reorient ourselves to the truth of ourselves and that life goes on; we must release and let go of the things that have held us, of the things that have bound us to them. There comes a time to move on, to let go.

It was really not until after Pentecost that the disciples were able to understand and look back and value the experience that they had gone through. Then they were able to take the riches they had shared with Jesus and apply them in their own lives. They recognized that the Spirit was alive in them also and they had a sense of new vitality and new enthusiasm and began to look forward toward life.

We all have our Pentecost moments. We get to that point of awakening, of opening our eyes to the truth of our being that we hadn’t really seen before. We move beyond the thoughts we had about what happened to now feel and know that new life within us. Love’s great presence is always with us, lifting us up, healing us and moving us through the limiting experience.

An image that really speaks to me is contained within a quote by Rabindranath Tagore. He says, “When old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart. And where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.”

Think of those new melodies, think of that new song that is waiting to be sung in you. It’s there, new roads, new ways are being revealed to you, new country is opening up to you. God in you is saying, “I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” It’s always there for you, if you will let go.

In the book of Lamentations there is a wonderful quote of how we can move through this process of recovery. It says, “This is what I shall tell my heart and so recover hope: ‘The favors of Yahweh are not all past. God’s kindnesses are not all exhausted. Every morning they are renewed; great is God’s faithfulness.’”

There is new country waiting for you, there are new melodies that yearn to be sung in your spirit. Even in the most desolate times the season of springtime, of new life, is always awaiting you.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

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

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You’ve heard of the saying, “It’s a hard act to follow.” And that certainly might be said about the story of the resurrection. However, I suggest it was not a hard act but a heart act. It was a heart act, an act of love, of reaching beyond seeming human limitations to draw on the strength and the power of the living God.

We can follow that heart act in our own lives. Even in the midst of our losses, even in the midst of challenges and when we don’t understand them there is a presence and a power to draw upon that is enfolded in and contained within us, the very love of God. The presence of God is the presence of love within us; our true nature is that of love. As we let that be our focus we can begin to make our lives a heart act instead of a hard act.

We often struggle with our lives and make it a really hard act. But we can change that and instead make it a heart act. Sometimes it comes through suffering and loss. When we experience challenge or loss, our hearts often seem to become paralyzed, we don’t know what to do, we become stuck, and we are not able to move on. We get in our heads to see what’s going on and we don’t come into our hearts because it’s just too painful.

It reminds me of the true story of a young man who was twenty-four years old and had bone cancer and had to have his leg amputated from the hip. He became a patient of Dr. Rachel Naomi Ramen, who worked with him for two years to try to bring him into a new sense of himself after the tremendous loss he had experienced. He was embittered, angry, and even full of hate toward people who were well.

So she had to work with him to have him understand that he had lost not only his leg but much more than that. He had lost the sense of his own personhood, the sense of his own being, the sense of his oneness with God. She had to help him reflect upon what had happened, to look at it and sit with it, not to avoid it but to look at it.

She had him draw his life and draw how his body looked, how he felt about himself, and to try to tap into his deeper inner self.

It was toward the end of the two years she worked with him that he really started to come out of it and he began to visit hospital patients that had experienced serious losses of their own.

He lived in Palo Alto, California, and one hot day he was going to the hospital wearing shorts and of course his prosthesis, his artificial leg, could be seen. He walked into the room of a young woman about his own age that was deep in depression because of the loss of both breasts. She was so depressed she wouldn’t even look at him.

The nurse had left the radio on in the room to try to cheer her up a bit, but she was just lying there with her face turned away from him. At first he didn’t know what to do, so to get her attention he unstrapped his leg and took his prosthesis off. Then he started dancing around on one leg and snapping his fingers to the music. He came around the bed so she could see him dancing. At first she ignored him and then she took a little look. Finally she burst out laughing and said, “If you can dance, man, I can sing.” Her response to her loss changed in that moment.

Dr. Ramen said that, after the two years, she was reviewing his progress and they were looking through some of the drawings he had done. They came across a drawing of a vase that had a deep crack in it. She had asked him to draw a picture of his body as he saw it, and he drew the picture of the vase with the deep crack across it. She remembered that when he drew that, he was gritting his teeth with anger and rage and bearing down hard on that crack across the vase. He saw that vase as his life that was broken and would not hold water any more.

As they went through the pictures, he saw that one. He took it and said, “You know, this one isn’t finished yet.” And she said to him, “Well, would you like to finish it now?” He said, “Yes, I would.” He took a yellow crayon and he put his finger on the crack in the vase and he said, “You see this crack? This is where the light comes from.” And he began to draw streams of light coming out of that crack in the vase.

We can become strong at the broken places, because there is a power and a love there for us that endures and which we can draw upon through all situations. Yes, he had sustained a great loss but that great loss turned into triumph once he began to feel his own wholeness and he was able to touch people’s lives in a new way. Yes, he may have lost a leg, but he hadn’t lost his true being. That’s the important thing.

What is the image that you carry about the losses in your own life? Is it time for you to revisit that image and let the light of God’s presence stream forth with new life? It’s a heart act you can follow.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

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

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It was Ann Landers who said, “Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.”

Yes, we have to know when to let go. And more than that, we have to be willing to let go and then allow ourselves to do it. In Unity, we often say that we need to “Let Go and Let God.” So after being willing to let go and allowing ourselves to let go, it’s important to realize that we are letting it go – whatever it might be – so that God can bring about the right outcome through us. Or, as Meister Eckhart famously said, “Let God be God in you.”

In this article I’d like to expand on that idea with excerpts from an article by the late Mary L. Kupferle, Unity minister and author, titled Let Go! Let God’s Love Do the Work!, printed in the February 1988 issue of Daily Word magazine. I hope you will find it inspiring and helpful to you in the letting go process:

Let go, dear friend, and let God’s love do the work. Give up all striving and struggling to accomplish. Whatever has been difficult for you to handle, hard for you to release, or impossible for you to solve can be given to the loving Father. God’s love will do the work and bring about the healing, the answer, the blessing you cannot accomplish of yourself. Let love – God’s love – do the work!

God has created this beautiful universe and knows how to help you surmount any doubt or disbelief. God’s love has fashioned you and has given you wisdom that you can call on, unlimited peace that you can accept, and unceasing goodness that you can experience.

If you have been discouraged about a delay in receiving a physical healing, turn this specific challenge over to the love of the Father. Tell yourself, “I let go and let God’s love do the work.” Accept the help of that love. Let it think through you. Give up the belief that you must struggle and fight your Way through any challenge. Let the Father take over. Put all in the light of love. Again and again, let go and let God’s love do the work!

To help yourself begin the process of letting go and letting God’s love do the work, take a few minutes now and daily – as often as needed – to consciously assume a quiet, receptive state of being. You are physically quiet as you turn your thoughts to the Mater’s words, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow . . .” (Matt. 6:28), and relax every muscle of your body in readiness to receive.

Patiently wait upon the Father’s love as a growing plant waits upon the light of the morning sun. “Consider” how the rays of light and warmth enfold a plant and move down through the leaves and stalk into the roots within the soil. Think about the invisible working of the sunlight, reaching to the depths of the plant and encouraging its growth, strength, and unfoldment.

Realize that somehow, in some wonderful and miraculous way, the love of God is continuously flowing into your mind, emotions, and body, touching all with life-giving power and renewal.

Let go! Let God’s love do the work! Give that love an opportunity to work through you and your life and affairs. Take the time needed to “consider” again and again the miracle-working love of your Father. Continue until you find yourself accepting it more and more naturally. Results will speak for themselves. You will be encouraged to find new awareness of God’s presence and new comprehension of God’s spirit moving within you.

Do not try to understand how this is happening or the means by which the answers will follow. Just – for this time – be willing to accept being loved. Take no thought – just “consider” the presence and power of God’s love. Letting go, you will let divine love harmonize the feelings within your heart, the thoughts within your mind, the functions within your body, and the activities and relationships within your life.

Jesus gave his days and nights, words and actions, thoughts and feelings, prayers and teachings to the Father, knowing that the Father through miracle-working love could do the work freely. He gave himself mentally, emotionally, and physically to that same wonderful love and became the visible example of love in action that overcame every limitation of humankind. He came to demonstrate that this is what happens when we turn away from burdensome thinking and struggling to the quietness of letting go and letting God and His love do the work.

This same love is available to you now. Let this love supply strength and healing for your physical being. Let it satisfy your longings for inner peace and greater faith. Let God’s love dissolve your feelings of unsureness or need to grasp for wisdom. Let His love handle every challenge, every undesirable thought, every unwanted emotion, and every binding habit. Let go of believing that you must continue to struggle with yourself and by yourself. Instead, accept the great love of your Father. Let go, dear friend. Again and again, practice letting go and letting God’s love do the work.

The love of God is greater than any opposition, any appearance of evil, and any claim of limitation. The love of God is your safety, your security, your guide, your comfort, your assurance, your clear vision, your accomplishment, your peace, and your light for every path of life.

Take hold of this love, dear friend, in total assurance that God’s love will do the work. Let go! Let go! Let go! Let God’s love do the work! All you feel you have been unable to do, God shall accomplish. God’s love will do all that your willingness will let it do. Let God’s love reach into the very roots of your being. Let God’s miracles of love begin now. Let go! Let God’s love do the work!

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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In praying for oneself or another, first there is the awareness of a need. Not a sense of lack that implies a limitation, but the concern of a need and the concern of its fulfillment. The concern you may have over someone you love or about conditions in general is a step in the direction of demonstration, but we cannot stop with concern alone or else we settle into the dead-end street of worry and despair.

If you are concerned about another, nothing can be accomplished in prayer until we overcome this concern. Whatever or whoever you are praying for, remember this first step. Lay aside your concern and dwell in the consciousness of your Oneness. It is your attunement with power. Then you are ready to pray.

The next logical step is faith in and awareness of the principle. First the concern, or the awareness of the need, then the healing of the concern, or the awareness of God’s all-sufficiency in all things. The thing for us to do is to realize the Truth of the promise, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.” (Ps. 138:8)

By nature the average person is concerned about the health or the welfare of those about him or her. The most helpful step that we can take, in the interest of that with which we are concerned, is the step in faith from the thought of concern to the dynamic idea of Truth.

You can pray about the situation and pray for the welfare of the one who concerns you, but your prayer must be based on right thinking and right seeing. To hold the problem in negative thought or to see it in anxious concern is, as Paul would say, seeing “in a mirror dimly.”

The most helpful thing you can do for another, regardless of his or her need, is to think positive thoughts about the person. Positive thinking might actually be a synonym for prayer. You may define prayer in many ways but essentially it is the act of changing our thought from the limited to the limitless. “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind,” we have been told in Romans 12:2 and this must be the starting point of all effective prayer.

Certainly, almost unbelievable, wonderful demonstrations of health and guidance and success through prayer can be observed all the time. However, we must clearly understand that prayer is not begging God to do something for someone or something that concerns us. When you pray about something, if there is any action as a result of prayer, you help in the action. But God can do no more for you than God can do through you. You are a channel for the expression of His wisdom, love, substance and power.

Often we are urged, “Let go and let God.” This means to let go of your tense, anxious concern over a situation and let God express His omnipresence through your positive awareness. True prayer is the stirring up within you a sense of God-power and turning the full force of this power, like a powerful searchlight, on that which may concern you.

When you desire to help someone else, the starting point of that help must be within yourself. You may say, “But it’s my husband (or wife, or friend, etc.) who needs help.” Yes, but it is you who are concerned and, as long as you feel anxious concern, you are giving life and substance to that about which you are concerned.

Your thought of fear, your image of some terrible possibility, or your gnawing anxiety is really a very powerful and continuing prayer in reverse. No matter how great may be your desire to help or bless someone or some condition, your negative concern may effectively completely negate your successful wish and prayer for healing.

No matter what you may be concerned about in the life or experience of another, if you really want to help, you must change your thought from fear to faith; you must correct your faulty vision in which you are focusing your attention on that which is disturbing. You must heal your thought of concern.

When you feel a release, a sense of freedom from fear and concern, then the work within you is done. At that point, in the consciousness and with a positive declaration of Truth, speak the word of healing, harmony and peace, and know that “it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Is. 55:11) It is in this way that you fulfill the assurance which is “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.”

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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In the drama which is the book of Job, we can learn a valuable and transforming lesson for ourselves. You will remember that Job had a recurring series of trials and problems, and his three friends were all too ready to come up with reasons for his difficulties.

Yet it was constantly emphasized in the narrative that Job was a good man, and thus his trials could not be the result of sin. But one thing was overlooked, as it often is today, that the laws of life are exact and exacting, and goodness covers a much broader area than those connected with conformity to religious practice.

As the drama goes on, in a moment of despondency the Christ-light begins to shine within Job’s soul and a few wonderful, quiet words of Truth cleared the way for his eventual full acceptance of the power of God within him, the power to help and heal, because they pointed to his true problem, his manner of speaking.

The words that blessed Job were these: “Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: Thereby good shall come unto thee. Receive, I pray thee, the law from His mouth and lay up His words in thy heart. If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up . . . and the Almighty will be thy treasure, and precious silver unto thee. For then shalt thou delight thyself in the Almighty and shalt lift up thy face unto God. Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him, and He will hear thee; and thou shalt pay thy vows. Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee; and light shall shine upon thy ways.” (Job 22:21-28)

The implication of this fruit of Job’s inspiration is so great it opened the way to a complete overcoming for Job. And it can open the way for a transforming experience for you, too, if you grasp its meaning. It concerns the power of the spoken word. Job is told, “Lay up His words in thy heart. . . .”

It points up the Truth that is in the negative use of the spoken word lies the cause of many of the ills and misfortunes of humankind. A cause so simple that many, like Job, look in vain for various causes and thus cannot find any answer to their problems until this inspiration dawns in consciousness that our life and death, our health or sickness, our success or failure, are veritably determined by the content of our speech and our manner of speaking.

Have you ever thought that when you used anxious, worried and negative words all through the day that you are really praying for trouble? Words are prayers. Just think back in the last twenty-four hours and check up on your manner of speech.

One of the most important disciplines in spiritual living is the care and preservation of positive words and speech. And even beyond the positive nature of words is the manner of their speaking. It is often not what we say, but how we say it that counts. You may be striving with all your heart to speak words that express positive thought. But, through force of habit, you may be speaking them with a negative tone.

Work at putting joy and enthusiasm into your voice. Work at making the tone of your voice musically interesting. When you open your mouth to speak, let your speech express you in a positive way. Give voice to your thoughts in a relaxed and friendly manner; speak in agreement with your highest sense of good. Words that come from a heart overflowing with love and a mind filled with the goodness of God are words that bless.

Job couldn’t understand why all these horrible things were happening to him, since he was a good man. Finally it came to him that his problem was his manner of speaking, that he should lay up the words of God in his heart. Ultimately then, “Thou shalt make thy prayer and He shall hear thee,” because your prayer will be your manner of speaking.

Allow the Christ love within you to give shape and substance to your thoughts as they become the words that you speak, words that bless. “Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee; and light shall shine upon thy ways.”

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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My wife and fellow Unity minister, Kathryn, counseling a woman who was upset, frustrated and unhappy with her partner, told her gently, “Just be kind!” And truly, this is the key to happiness.

Moment by moment, as we go about our daily tasks, the answer comes. “Just be kind!” life whispers. Be kind. We do not understand. It is too simple. Yet life, considering that every individual in the world is unique, repeats again and again, “Just be kind!” There is a great hunger in the world today for simple kindness, as there has been for many years. It is brought home to us in so many ways.

Some time ago, a sensitive and highly gifted woman in this country found herself suddenly thrown amid circumstances where she had almost no privacy. As a result, she began to dislike people; she shrank from contact with them, wishing she might never have to see them. Her dominant desire was to escape to some desert solitude, where she could feel the freedom of space and the healing balm of silence.

That being impossible, she decided she would play a game with life. She would pretend that she was “Mother of the Universe,” and that all beings in it were her children. If they misbehaved, it was because they had not been brought up properly. She would have to tolerate their short-comings, and see what she could do to re-educate them.

Sometimes she knew the people well enough to make some constructive suggestions. If a person was cruel or critical or unkind to some other person in her home, she would tactfully try to awaken in him or her a truer sense of values, either through speech or through example. If someone was greedy, she would be generous. If someone was afraid, she would be calm and serene, and either explain to him or show her that there was nothing to fear.

If she was among strangers, as on a bus for example, and people eager for seats trampled over others to get them, she would imagine that they were her own errant children whom she loved in spite of their waywardness, misbehaving in surroundings where she could not easily correct them. Then she would visualize them as considerate, instead.

In any event, her game of pretending that she was “Mother of the Universe” promoted understanding, sympathy and tolerance, and she found herself loving people again instead of hating them, welcoming people instead of avoiding them, performing acts of kindness instead of being critical, enjoying harmony instead of feeling discord.

Friends, life is made up of simple situations; if we can learn to handle little tasks with love, they will become great, and so will we. Kindness is more than a virtue; it is a power in the up building and restoration of prosperity. It is the antidote for unkindness, the only cure for the aftereffects of unkindness.

Kindness may be administered by the least as well as the greatest. It will restore confidence, spread good will, enrich the consciousness as well as the coffers of the individual, business firm, and government.

Yes, the eternal cry of life is “Just be kind!” Be kind in little things. Handle little things with love, and you will be happy, unworried, even more prosperous and healthy.

Practice the spirit of mothering, of loving, of being kind and understanding, patient and tolerant. Not only will your individual world become harmonious and peaceful and happy, but the world in general will have just that more weight on the constructive side.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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Today I choose to be a peacemaker. If I am experiencing disharmony within myself or with another, I affirm this simple, yet powerful. statement. Let us then consider this statement in light of four roads to peace that have been suggested by the Bible.

First, The Damascus Road. Paul was traveling this road with the intention to completely destroy the Christian movement. He was on his way to Damascus on this militant mission when he was struck blind in a spiritual experience, and when several days later the “scales fell from his eyes,” he began to see for the first time in the light of Truth.

It was not just a changing of sides or a switch from one persuasion to another. It was an awakening to a new level of consciousness on which he began to perceive things from an entirely new frame of reference. Paul had been sure of his rightness in his devotion to the destruction of the Christian movement which was to him the road to peace. But the true road to peace for him was an awakening, a change, a conversion. This was symbolized in the change of names, from Saul to Paul; there had likewise to be a change of nature.

We must understand this, that we cannot find peace in a fast-changing world by the methods and concepts applied in the past. As Jesus said, “Except you be born anew, you shall not see the Kingdom.” There must be an awakening, a new birth, a new view, an enlargement of the concept. Paul thus revealed a spiritual inroad to peace, the Truth with a capital “T” which urges us to follow the divinity within ourselves. He knew that only by doing so could the new heaven and the new earth come into manifestation.

Second, The Emmaus Road. Two of the disciples were on the road to Emmaus after the crucifixion, and along the way the resurrected Christ appeared to them. On the Emmaus Road a new concept was born: “Immanuel,” God with us, for here was the demonstration of the ever-living Christ, the Christ of every road.

The Emmaus Road is the revelation of the Christ within, the rediscovery of what Jesus had in mind, the divinity of humankind, the realization that worship is not a performance but an inner experience. This leads to a road to peace that is a road of love and understanding, of believing in the inherent divinity in all persons, of seeing the Truth of the Christ in ourselves and working to deal with people everywhere on the level of the Christ in them. The Road to Emmaus leads us to a new level of consciousness on which we can be honest with ourselves and others as we recognize the Truth of being and sense the non-material “peace that passes understanding.”

Third, The Road to Jericho. We are all familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan who helped the man who had been injured and robbed by thieves then left to die by the side of the road. The Samaritan treated his wounds and took him to the inn and cared for him. The priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side were religious and had the means to help, but they did not do so. They represent ignorance and indifference to the spiritual dimension of life. The Samaritan had the courage and the strength and the power to help, but he had one thing more – he had the compassion to act.

The story points up an important realization, not that I am my brother’s keeper, but that I am my brother’s brother. Even more, as Emerson puts it, “The heart and soul of all men being one, this bitterness of his and mine ceases; he is mine – I am my brother and my brother is me.” There is thus the compassion to act.

The Jericho Road to peace starts with the compassion to act with one person, in the recognition that we are all one; it begins with a commitment to do what we can with what we have for whom we are able.

Finally, The Road to Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Road is that of commitment to goals higher than personal. It is the victory of the divine over the human. Jesus knew what was ahead, but to be lifted up he had to go to Jerusalem, to “lose his life so that he could find it.”

So it is with us; we must be willing to let go much of what we hold on to in consciousness in order that we may find the peace and freedom so deeply desired by us. As has been said, everyone wants peace but not many are willing to do that which makes for peace. Are we willing to walk the Jerusalem Road, the road to true peace? Are we willing to renounce our warlike nature and everything based on fighting and violence? For there will be no peace until we have peaceful hearts and a loving consciousness. Peace begins with you. This is the Jerusalem Road to peace. Are you ready to be a peacemaker?

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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It was Lao-tzu who said that one lives in proportion to the number of points with which he or she contacts life and the world, inferring that the flow of life must go outward to form a harmonious interaction with people. To love God and your neighbor, as Jesus instructs us, is to “establish points” with which you contact life and the world. It is to get into the flow of love. You will invariably find it easier to get along with people when you go along with the movement of the flow of love.

There is a flow of love and harmony everywhere, whether you are aware of it or not, and whether you are consciously moving in it or not. This is what the omnipresence of God means. You are never out of the Presence of God even though you may be out of the consciousness of the Presence. You are never out of the flow of love and life. The important thing is to be in conscious awareness of this flow.

If you could realize the importance of keeping consciously in the flow of life and the danger of getting out of this flow even for one instant, you might see any episode of confrontation in the light of what it reveals about you rather than the other person. Then take a moment to “be still and know” and use it as a reminder to get back in the flow.

The key to staying in the flow of love is conscious awareness. I remember a significant moment for me from many years ago, when my children were acting up and I was yelling at them to behave. I suddenly became aware that I was acting out my own father, who sometimes yelled at us kids like that when he was frustrated with us. I realized that I didn’t need to do that, I didn’t need to yell at my kids and it didn’t do any good anyway, in fact it made matters worse. It was a moment of conscious awareness for which I am very grateful. Since that time so long ago, I have noticed that being consciously aware is an integral part of my spiritual growth. 

Well, what can you do when you think a person is being mean and nasty toward you? When Jesus says, “Pray for those who despitefully use you,” he indicates the need to elevate your thoughts about them, for they are your thoughts that are obstructing the flow in your mind. In other words, stop resisting and start loving. Get yourself back in the flow. The Truth is, if you could really know this person and vice-versa, there would only be love between you. For that is the reality of life which human experiences and one’s reactions to them tend to obscure.

Then what can you do when you seem to be surrounded by people with whom you have so little in common, people who may appear to be beneath you, and people who resist your efforts even to get along with them? You can turn on more light. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” (Matt. 5:14) You may wonder why you are there. You are there to let your light shine. The important thing is that, at the moment you are there. And wherever you are, God is. Wherever you are, there is a flow of light and love. Get in the consciousness of it.

Former Unity minister and author, Eric Butterworth, in his book In the Flow of Life, suggests that every morning, before setting out into the world, or before making the initial contact with the world through watching or reading the morning news, it is the better part of wisdom to prepare yourself by a prayer or meditation to get consciously in the flow of life. He says, “It is a simple matter of getting your lights turned on before you face any darkness in the world or in human behavior. In the flow of love you will tend to see and respond to the divinity in all persons, and so you will establish yourself in the kind of consciousness that you desire to experience, letting it flow through you and go from you.”

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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Thanksgiving Day is almost upon us, and at this time it brings me to thoughts of family. Our family is scattered around the globe, in England, New Zealand and Australia, as well as around the United States in California, Washington State and Iowa.

We’ve had some additions to our family in the last couple of months – two great-grandchildren, a baby boy in California and a baby girl in Washington State, and our nephew and his wife in Australia had a baby boy.

We had a great visit with our granddaughter Emma, from England, recently. She and two friends from the university where they are students came to Florida to do some research on hurricanes and hurricane preparation. It was refreshing to see the enthusiasm and exuberance they brought to their task, and the enjoyment they got out of it all.

Our grandson in England recently graduated from Gloucester University with a Bachelor of Science degree and honors, and is now running a gym and teaching physical education and nutrition. And our granddaughter in California graduated earlier this year from San Diego University with two degrees.

As you can tell, we are proud of our growing family. We just wish they were closer in proximity so we could be together more often, especially at special holidays such as Thanksgiving.

I know there are many people without families, and it is especially hard at holidays when families traditionally get together. But for all of us, I think we can expand our understanding of family to include everyone. In other words, that in truth we’re all family, one with one another. We can reach out to friends and all people to embrace them in the consciousness of family and share love and gratitude with each other.

Notice I said we can embrace and reach out to share love and gratitude. That means love and gratitude begins within, and is not dependent upon external circumstances. Thanksgiving starts within us, it’s not a matter of what am I thankful for, but what am I thankful from? What am I grateful from? Let your consciousness rest on a divine flow of gratitude from your inner being. We can be grateful from that consciousness that we are forever one with the divine flow, giving thanks from the consciousness of oneness with God.

I remember Janie Paulson, the former Unity minister, who loved to sing and have everyone sing “We’re a family; we’re a family, a family of love!” Be still – know your oneness with God; that God is the one reality at the heart of you; that you live and move and have your being in the heart of God. Get your consciousness in tune with the divine flow, giving thanks from that consciousness. As the song says,

“Our family is a little world,
Of ten, or six, or three;
Our family is a larger world
With billions just like you and me.

“We live together, that’s the way;
We live together as we say,
We’re a family, we’re a family,
We’re a family of love!”

As Paul says, “Give thanks in all circumstances.” (I Th. 5:18) He didn’t say “for” all circumstances, he says “in” all circumstances. In other words, you have the sense of gratitude, and you give that gratitude, that praise, that thanksgiving regardless of what the conditions and circumstances are around you because you are keeping in touch with the divine flow. You give thanks from the consciousness of your oneness with God. You are grateful for the realization you are a spiritual being and that you have within you the capability to cope with all the changing circumstances of life.

When you begin with gratitude in this sense, I think you will find that gratitude and thanksgiving will take on an entirely different meaning. In the process you will have a much broader perception of the inherent good that is within all things, and you will begin to find that it is much easier to give thanks for the many blessings in your life.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

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