Spiritual Solutions

“In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15)

In our last newsletter and blog post, we talked about the importance of the open door and the now moment, of clearing your mind of doubt and letting God direct your steps in how you spend each precious God-given day.

In this message, by no means do I want to diminish the importance of the open door and the now moment, but I do want to focus a little bit on the need for quiet, the need for silence, and periods where you can enjoy open areas of consciousness where you sit back and relax and just know your oneness.

We are living today in a period of speed and accomplishment, and we go more places and do more things in less time than at one time would seem imaginable. Without a doubt, it is the spirit of industry and ingenuity that has made our nation great. But I think we have come to the place where we must make a decision whether the machines and technology we have created are going to master us or whether we are going to master them; in other words, to dance to a little different drummer and keep ourselves in tune with the rhythm of the universe.

Whenever you feel that you have so much to do that you can’t possibly get it all done, then that is the very time to stop and take a break. If you go forward at this point, trying to do what you believe cannot be done, it is unwise and possibly dangerous. You have lost your focus, you are out of attunement, and you are out of the rhythm of life. And when you are out of rhythm then you are susceptible to all sorts of problems, accidents or anything else.

In a study a few years ago some specialists said that they were more concerned now, when a person had fallen and broken a bone, with why the person had become out of tune with the universe that caused the person to fall than the actual break in the bone. The idea behind this is that when a person is in tune on the inside with the rhythm of life, then there is always a compensating factor whereby he or she can adjust to the conditions on the outside.

If at any time you find yourself in a hurry, the need often is to pause for a moment; just allow yourself to get still and get yourself in tune, getting the thought of hurry and its related worry out of the mind.

There is a scripture that is helpful in these times: “In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” (Isa. 30:15 KJV)

Quietness would seem to suggest something soft and easy – but it really isn’t that at all. Quietness is strength. Only the really strong person can be quiet, and only the quiet person is really strong.

One of the great problems of the industrious, ambitious person is that he tends to cram his life full of every activity conceivable, and he prides himself on never having an idle moment. His or her philosophy often is, “Keep busy, get things done, do it now.”

The emphasis on “Do it now” sometimes keeps you in a rush and a bind and in a pressure, whereas sometimes to let things wait for a little while will allow the unfoldment of the divine process. The need is to rediscover the pleasure of the pause, the pause that refreshes.

Sometimes the most urgent need in the midst of a feeling of urgency is to pause and relax. Quite often we make rush and urgency such a habit that we come to a place where honestly we cannot really tell whether we are rushing because we feel things are urgent or whether we feel things are urgent because of the habit of rush.

The reason we feel so tense about things that must be done is that we are not realizing our inward resources through which they can be done easily and well. “Wait on the Lord.” Put off doing the thing so as to dispel the tension that results from urgency, and then let the subconscious mind help you to organize your ideas and solve the problem for you. If you plunge into a thing with the thought, “I must get it done immediately,” you are cutting yourself off from the creative flow, that subconscious creative activity that does much of the work for you.

All of us need to relearn the art of pausing, and it is an art which takes practice and skill. We need to practice the art of pausing, the art of doing nothing. We need to make time and not wait to find time. In this way we can, as someone has said, “Let our souls catch up with our bodies,” and get in tune with the rhythm of the universe. And let us resolve that we won’t be rushed, that we won’t necessarily “Do it now,” for as the prophet of Ecclesiastes puts it, “For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.” (Eccles. 3:1)

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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

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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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“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

The other day I got to thinking about Bobby, a friend I knew when I was just a boy. His parents were of modest means and they lived in a tiny stone row house in a little village just a few miles from where I lived.

Several years ago on a visit back to England, my mother happened to mention that Bobby Kitchener, this same young red-headed friend I had known, had become a minister. I remember my astonishment that our lives had taken similar paths, albeit in different countries.

Our lives may take many turns, and the world is full of people who have stopped in their tracks, turned about and become quite different persons. So now you probably want to know, “How can I, an ordinary person, turn about and lead a more satisfactory life?”

Sometimes just a little thing can bring us to a standstill, and it causes us to call upon all the resources of our being to lift us out of the pit of failure and despair.

To be driven into a corner, out of which there seems no escape, is often the turning point. “I’ll find a way,” the person thinks, “I’ll not be beaten. There’s nothing to lose, so I’ll try something new. Perhaps I’ll even turn about and win.” So this person who was living in the shadows finds himself on the road to achievement, and he becomes a different person. He is now courageous rather than fearful; he has turned around.

Provision has been made for our turning around, if only we would recognize that it is possible. But if things are not like we would want them to be then we must turn our efforts in a new direction. Don’t talk about the things in your life that you don’t want, or about the things you want to accomplish – the negative doubts of your listeners may add to your concerns.

Do not draw back when a new experience confronts you. The new experience may be your call to a changed life. Those who cling to safe, old, familiar things will never know the thrill of new adventure.

If you want to turn about and start a new life, you must let go of anger and resentment or wailing over the past. Forget the things that are behind and go forward to the things you most desire. Bring excitement and imagination to whatever you do and new doors will open for you.

Yours, in love and confidence,

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham 

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