Spiritual Solutions

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-nine years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

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Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

Lent is a time of preparation for the Easter experience. I like to think of the word “Lent” in the form of two acrostics:

“Loosening every negative thought”
and
“Loving each new today”

For each day of Lent, starting on Ash Wednesday, through Easter Sunday, I would like to share with you some thoughts first expressed as a series of Lenten lessons by a former well-known and well-respected Unity minister, Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, and author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age, as well as other books and articles.

Here is the first of those Lenten lessons:

Ash Wednesday

That you are reading this is proof that you are consciously aware and on your way to a complete revelation of your true self and of the One that dwells within you.

 To learn the true message of this Presence, to have full awareness of it and to work instantly and consciously and constantly with this power is the most important assignment of your life today. It is the vital business of existence. To understand your own body, mind, and being is to understand the universe of which it is the miniature.

 This is not scientific research. This is the reverse; not looking at yourself as the physical body, as material and objective; not something to be studied from without, but to begin practicing a new way of learning from within. We shall listen to our own living body and let it teach us the truth of itself.

 Become as a Little Child.
 
Sit quietly and close your eyes. How do you know you have a body? Forget the feeding, clothing and your reflection in the mirror. Forget the important business man or woman you are or the position you hold in life. To Know Yourself is the end of all education and experience, the goal of all human effort. All great things are simple!

We let go of all that has gone before, all preconceived ideas about ourselves. We are letting go of anything contrary to this Truth – regardless of any appearance – or apparent condition or situation. Your body, this moment, is known to you as that which makes you aware of something else!

You feel strength and power, firmness and support; you feel that heart beat. You feel your chest rise as you breathe. Something within you, yet not you, moves in your body. It is Life! Life – we know It only in feeling the effects or signs of Its Presence! Life is God – Life, There is None Else. Be content at this point to feel Life and know it is working within you! This is God, God Expressing as You! Here – Just as You Are!

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine 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.
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The free gift of God is eternal life. – Rom. 6:23

How freeing it is to know life as a Universal flow! The flow is personalized in you and as you. You are an integral part of the Universe, where each part contains within it all the elements of the whole. Thus there is that of you that is more than your physical body, and the you that transcends the body is what Eric Butterworth called “a time-space parenthesis in the Universal dimension of eternity.” The important thing is that you are a unique individualization of God. What ever else life is, you are in it, you are its livingness, you are here, and you are alive and living. But where did you come from? Where will you go when you die? 

Unless we have a view of life that transcends or at least includes death, we will experience fear and dread about our own life, and confusing bereavement in facing the passing of another. Some persons are so unnerved at the passing of a loved one that their faith is shattered, and they turn away from religion because of the “untimely” death of a friend or loved one. This indicates that they were trying to understand God through their experiences, indicating a very limited concept of God.

The need is to begin with God as the underlying principle, and then to look at trouble from this transcendent perspective. Looking at death through the consciousness of God is to see not a void, but another dimension of life.

Some persons think it is negative to talk about death. However, fear of dealing with the subject could indicate a subconscious bondage to it. It may suggest that our faith does not include the wholeness of life that transcends death. When we get the realization of wholeness then we see death as a part of the wholeness and not a deviation from it.

Life that appears to begin with birth and end with death is like one instant in the movement of a wave in the ocean. In one instant the wave is a particular body of water. In this moment life for you is your body. But life is not limited to your body. If the body should be laid aside by death, it would not be the end of you or of the flow of life projected through you and as you. The wave moves on! Thus, it is not possible to understand life unless we are willing to look squarely into and through this thing called death.

It could be said that death is the other side of life, and life is the other side of death. Could it be that a transcendent self looks out through the eyes of an infant and sees with the unconscious wisdom of a previous life, and that the loved one who passes from our sight may be on the way to an inexorable new birth?

The important thing is to know that you are an eternal expression of the Universal flow, and that there is no beginning and no end to you. Thus, knowing that you are going to live forever, you can let go your apprehensions and anxieties about death, and get on with the business of living your life from within-out one day at a time.

The Psalmist says, “A day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day.” Imagine life between birth and death as one day of livingness. You rise in the morning, launch into the day, experience its problems and blessings, and then, even if you are not satisfied with the day, eventually you relax into a night’s sleep. And what is night? It is the “brief shadow through which we pass from sunlight to sunlight.” It brings rest and renewal. And the morning comes . . . and beginning again.

Obviously, all this is not easy to realize when you stand before the casket containing the physical form of one whom you have loved. But perhaps your understanding of life is not yet broad enough to encompass life that transcends birth and death. It is natural to have feelings of sadness, but the sadness can be tempered with the joy of knowing that your loved one is in the flow of life and that he or she goes forward to meet his or her good.

Seek to embrace a larger sphere, and know the Truth of a limitless flow of life. God is life, in whom there can be no beginning and ending. There can be no death in God, and thus there can be no death, in terms of the finality of life, for your loved one.

So what is death? Jesus said of the little girl, “She is not dead, but sleepeth.” Death is no more a reality or finality than sleep. Get this thought of the eternal flow of life that transcends death into your consciousness . . . and you will be free of fear of death, free from the burdens of worry over the passing of time or the deepness of grief over the passing of a loved one.

You can resolve to live each day as if it were the only day of all eternity . . . which in fact it is! Yesterday no longer exists, and tomorrow and the days of the future will simply unfold out of the continuous flow of the experience that is now in its unfoldment. In its complete sense, life simply is. Let us accept it, live it, and rejoice in it.

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.

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.

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Here is the truth about prosperity in just a few words:

 First: God is the source of all prosperity, of all substance, of all affluence. We have the promise: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.” This is simply a symbolical and theological way of stating that the source of all substance is nonmaterial, it’s in Spirit.

Second: There is no separation between you and God. The Scriptures tell us: “I and the Father are one.” And that’s the truth about you!

Third: God wants you to be prosperous and has already given you all that you can accept as belonging to you. The promise is: “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” And the kingdom is not “out there” somewhere. Jesus said that the kingdom is within you.

Now, put this into a simple statement of what you must know if you are to be free forever from lack and fear of lack: “God is my abundant supply. All that He has is mine, and He wants to give it to me. I now claim my abundance of good.” Take this affirmation and make it a part of you.

To claim your prosperity as already yours and not off in the future somewhere, it is essential to establish the identity of your oneness with the flow of good. We are all heirs to all God’s Infinite riches, but unless we realize our wealth, we fail to benefit from it. We cannot possibly use what we do not know we have.

Here’s what Wallace D. Wattles wrote in chapter six of his book, The Science of Getting Rich:

“You need not hesitate about asking largely . . . .

“Original Substance wants to live all that is possible in you, and wants you to have all that you can or will use for the living of the most abundant life.

“If you fix upon your consciousness the fact that the desire you feel for the possession of riches is one with the desire of Omnipotence for more complete expression, your faith becomes invincible.

“Once I saw a little boy sitting at a piano, and vainly trying to bring harmony out of the keys; and I saw that he was grieved and provoked by his inability to play real music. I asked him the cause of his vexation, and he answered, “I can feel the music in me, but I can’t make my hands go right.” The music in him was the URGE of Original Substance, containing all the possibilities of all life; all that there is of music was seeking expression through the child.

“God, the One Substance, is trying to live and do and enjoy things through humanity. He is saying “I want hands to build wonderful structures, to play divine harmonies, to paint glorious pictures; I want feet to run my errands, eyes to see my beauties, tongues to tell mighty truths and to sing marvelous songs,” and so on.

“All that there is of possibility is seeking expression through men. God wants those who can play music to have pianos and every other instrument, and to have the means to cultivate their talents to the fullest extent; He wants those who can appreciate beauty to be able to surround themselves with beautiful things; He wants those who can discern truth to have every opportunity to travel and observe; He wants those who can appreciate dress to be beautifully clothed, and those who can appreciate good food to be luxuriously fed.

“He wants all these things because it is Himself that enjoys and appreciates them; it is God who wants to play, and sing, and enjoy beauty, and proclaim truth and wear fine clothes, and eat good foods. ‘It is God that worketh in you to will and to do,’ said Paul.

“The desire you feel for riches is the Infinite, seeking to express Himself in you as He sought to find expression in the little boy at the piano.

“So you need not hesitate to ask largely.

“Your part is to focalize and express the desire to God.”

If you really want prosperity, it will pay you to be decisive and definite in your thinking. Prosperity, of course, means many things to many people. What does it mean to you? What is it that you really want? Maybe you don’t make your inner desires sharp and clear enough for them to be outpictured in your affairs.

Sit down quietly by yourself and make a specific list of the things that spell “prosperity” to you. Don’t be content to say simply, “I want more money,” because that’s indefinite. Substance must have something to fill, and it is up to you to hold out the receptacle. 

You don’t need to outline how your prosperity is going to come to you, because God has many channels through which He works. You can leave the ways and means to the Divine process. But God cannot help you if you don’t know what you want.

Remember, too, that Jesus gave us clear directions for finding true prosperity when he said: “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.” (Matt. 6:33)

First learn to seek the kingdom of God. It is not far off somewhere in time and space; it exists right here and now, because it is the state of consciousness that you enter when you realize that the real you is one with the Father, one with the creative flow of abundance. And what you seek you will surely find.

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.

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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Are you bogged down in the belief in sickness and impotence? Then right now bring yourself to the present moment, and become aware that you can use your God given dominion over all things. God’s spirit of life, dynamic energizing life, dwells within you. It is there, and you have only to call it forth, put it into action, and you will begin to manifest perfect health in spirit, mind, and body.

Perhaps you have allowed yourself to be handicapped by fear and indecision. The first thing to do is to take your mind off the problem and perplexities and fix your faith in God. When you place your affairs in the Father’s loving care, all anxieties cease. Worrying incapacitates us for meeting life’s crises.

Use your faith, declare your dominion now. In II Corinthians 6:2 we read, “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” And Jesus said, “Do you not say, ‘There are four months, then comes the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest.” (John 4:35)

Instead of having faith that sometime in the future your healing might take place, you can exercise your faith now, give thanks that your healing is already taking place and accept it now. “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Ps. 118:24)

God is ever with you. Let Him quicken your mind, put the proper tools in your hands and lead you in the right decision. Through the guidance of the indwelling power of God you will be able to say the right word and do the right thing in every situation that may confront you.

If you seem to be weighed down by some circumstance, a steadfast faith in God will help you to lift up your head and to face the situation unafraid and confident. God’s omnipotent power is yours. God’s love surrounds you. His light is within you to guide you.

Perhaps you’ve allowed yourself to be fettered by hatred, resentment or suspicion. Turn your eyes instead upon the blessings of life and the blessedness of other human beings. If you feel that you’ve been treated unfairly, misused, or abused, it‘s time to exercise forgiveness. Then put it out of your mind. The only reality in any situation is the thought we have concerning it, the way we feel about it. This is the law of life.

“Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely . . . think on these things.” (Phil. 4:8) Put the unpleasant thoughts right out of your mind by thinking of God’s goodness and greatness and love. Bless the person who has seemingly injured you. Behold the Christ in him or her.

Could it be that you have neglected the power of prayer? Prayer is the open sesame to the joys and riches of the kingdom, and yet we fail to use it.

Many marvelous answers to prayer have been outlined through the spontaneous faith of persons utterly unlearned in theology, psychology or metaphysics.

Remember the woman who came to Jesus for healing, hoping to push through the crowd to touch the hem of his garment without speaking or even being blessed by him? She probably knew nothing about the working of faith, but she had the secret of prayer. She had absolute faith, the courage to act, and the simplicity to accept. She used the necessary means. She believed if she could but touch the master, the healing would follow. And, confident in that faith, she pressed on, touched him, and was healed.

Simplicity of faith is the thing that always gets an answer, sometimes in the form of immediate, even seeming miraculous results. Sometimes, it may come slowly. Sometimes we lose patience and our faith grows weak. If we become faint hearted and fall back in our faith, then we must try again. Long years of wrong thinking, of imperfect practice, have often made deep grooves in the brain. It takes effort and continued practice before change.

Don’t be discouraged. Never give up. Keep faith in the latent powers within you. Remember those who have overcome insurmountable handicaps, and keep constantly in mind that you too can overcome. And you don’t have to wait. Whether your faith is small or great it is the key to riches of which you never dreamed. Remind yourself that “now is the acceptable time.”

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.

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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When I was in ministerial school at Unity Village many years ago, a Unity minister from Germany, Peter Wenzel, told me a story of when he was a member of the West Berlin police force. That was way back, before the Berlin Wall, when there was a demilitarized zone between East and West Berlin.

One of Peter’s responsibilities was to patrol the demilitarized zone; and it was common knowledge that if someone got too far into the East Berlin side of the demilitarized zone they were subject to being shot. One day Peter found himself in that area by himself and, all of a sudden, he was confronted by a Russian soldier with a rifle pointed right at him.

Peter, remembering that moment said, “All of a sudden I felt the presence of God with me; I looked at the other soldier and I saw that he was about my own age, a very young man. I looked in his eyes and without realizing what I was saying I said, ‘You cannot shoot me; I am your brother.’ And the man put down his gun, turned and walked away.”

How wonderful to recognize that core of oneness and know that we are, indeed, all brothers and sisters. It’s when we focus on our differences that we sometimes get into conflict and into wars.

Myrtle Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, said, “Nations will forget to fight as long as we continue to remember that we’re all expressing the one life.” We’ll forget to fight one another. So we must come to that realization of oneness and connectedness.

We most often see ourselves as separate. We are separate in expression, but we are all connected at a level we call the “Christ” level. When we come to the level of the presence of God in us it is the same God, it is the same presence, and it is the same power – the one presence and one power active in and through our lives, God, the good.

That is our level of connectedness, the Christ within us.

To give you an illustration, if you think of the Hawaiian Islands you see that there are many islands and they are not connected on the surface. But if you were able to go below the surface, you would see that under the surface all of the islands are connected. They are all joined together.

Author Paul Tillich called that connectedness in us “the ground of our being.” From his book, The Shaking of the Foundations, we read, “The name of the infinite and inexhaustible depth and ground of all being is God. That depth is what the word means and, if that word has meaning for you, translate it and speak of the depths of your life, of the source of your being, of your ultimate concern, of what you take seriously without reservation. For if you know that God means depth, then you know much about Him. He or she who knows about depth, knows about God.”

So depth is what we are seeking, a deeper understanding of ourselves. As we move deeper within ourselves, we also understand God in a greater way.

It was the poet Tennyson who said, “God is closer than breathing, closer than hands and feet.” God is as close to you as that. And that’s what we have to know, that there is no separation; we are one in God.

The apostle Paul talked about that also. We read I Corinthians 12: “For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body though many are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body: Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit. Now you are the body of Christ and, individually, members of it.”

Sometimes we forget that we were made in the image and likeness of God; sometimes we forget that we are spiritual beings having a human experience.  We forget our connectedness. But the more we can remember our connectedness with God and with one another, the more individually and uniquely we can express the truth of our own being.

When we come from that deeper level of our life we will truly be ourselves. Charles Fillmore said, “The journey of life for each of us should be a journey of jubilance.” We should be enjoying life; it should be an expression of the highest and best of us.

We have to begin to be friendly toward ourselves because there is more to us than we have understood. It was Walt Whitman who said, “I have found that I am not only that which is between my hat and my boots.”

There is so much more to us. You are a living expression of the Most High God. You are like one of those islands that have popped up in the universe, just as the islands of Hawaii popped up in the Pacific Ocean. The universe needs you; the universe would not be complete without you. Literally, the universe is not complete without you.

We need to treat ourselves kindly. In fact, we need to celebrate ourselves; we need to validate ourselves as someone worthwhile.

As we begin to celebrate ourselves we are then able to celebrate others too, we’re able to recognize the truth of them, and we’re able to recognize the Christ within them. If we see the Christ in them, we will treat them as a Christlike being; we will treat them as a worthy person.

In the play, Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle is talking about Professor Higgins. She says, “Anybody can do the simple things like learning how to dress properly and learning how to speak properly, but the way a person behaves is not what determines whether she is a lady or a flower-girl. It’s how she’s treated that determines whether she’s a lady or a flower-girl. Professor Higgins always thinks of me as a flower-girl, and to him I’ll always be a flower-girl. But you, you treat me like a lady and for you I can always be a lady.”

How we see a person is how we treat a person. If we see a person as stupid, then we’ll treat them as being stupid. If we see a person as being a loser, then we treat that person as being a loser. So we need to begin to look at people in a kindly way, as we would also hope to look at ourselves.

In the fairy stories, we find there’s very often a kindly act where the princess kisses a frog and the frog becomes a prince. Well, all of us feel like a frog sometimes and we all need a person to come along and affirm us as a worthy being. You are that other person; you can affirm the truth about other people.

So I invite you today and this week to do some frog-kissing. When you notice that someone is feeling low and unsure of themselves, give them a hug, give them a blessing, and give them a kiss. Do some frog-kissing; recognize the truth of them. And the truth is that they are one with you.

It was Walt Whitman who said, “In all men I see myself, not one barleycorn more and not one barleycorn less, and the good or bad I say of them I say of myself.” So when we celebrate with someone else, we are celebrating ourselves also.

Remember these words of Jesus: “If you did it to the least of these, my brethren, you also do it unto me.” In other words, he was saying we are connected; we are one with one another. Let us recognize the truth of that and celebrate the Christ within, celebrate our God-connectedness, and celebrate our oneness.

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.

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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GOD

3d Day, Friday. Read John 15:1-16.

“God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” We do not see God with our physical eyes excepting as He manifests Himself through His works. His attributes are therefore brought into expression by man who is His son and who is like Him in essence. Jesus was a true expression of God because He was like Him. If we would manifest the divine attributes, we must seek to attain the consciousness and the understanding that characterized Jesus. We must endeavor to raise our thoughts and feelings to God’s level if we would make ourselves channels through which He can come forth into expression and manifestation.

God transcendent suggests God as above and beyond His creation. This idea of God as remote from the practical affairs of man or from man’s own experience is false. God (perfection) is not out of reach of His offspring nor something beyond or above them. Tennyson tells us that “closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.”

I am centered in God because I focus my attention on His ideas and ideals. The Holy Spirit, which is the Word of God in action, leads me into a consciousness of my divine sonship and inheritance. My inheritance from Him is executive ability, abundant supply, faithfulness, joy, all good. “I am thy portion and thine inheritance.”

In the name of Jesus Christ I declare: “God’s perfect plan of bodily perfection is bearing fruit, and I am made whole.”

Questions:

1. How are God’s attributes brought into expression?

2. Why was Jesus a true expression of God? Explain.

3. What must we do to make ourselves channels through which God can come forth into expression?

4. What is our inheritance from God?

Jesus thought, spoke, and acted in accord with His divine Self. I too think, speak, and act in accord with my divine Self.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

—————————————————–             

 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight 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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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

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I dreamed I had an interview with God.

“So you would like to interview me?” God asked.

“If you have the time” I said.

God smiled. “My time is eternity.”

“What questions do you have in mind for me?”

“What surprises you most about humankind?”

God answered…

“That they get bored with childhood,

they rush to grow up, and then

long to be children again.”

“That they lose their health to make money…

and then lose their money to restore their health.”

“That by thinking anxiously about the future,

they forget the present,

such that they live in neither

the present nor the future.”

“That they live as if they will never die,

and die as though they had never lived.”

God’s hand took mine

and we were silent for a while.

 And then I asked…

“As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons

you want your children to learn?”

“To learn they cannot make anyone

love them. All they can do

is let themselves be loved.”

“To learn that it is not good

to compare themselves to others.”

“To learn to forgive

by practicing forgiveness.”

“To learn that it only takes a few seconds

to open profound wounds in those they love,

and it can take many years to heal them.”

“To learn that a rich person

is not one who has the most,

but is one who needs the least.”

“To learn that there are people

who love them dearly,

but simply have not yet learned

how to express or show their feelings.”

“To learn that two people can

look at the same thing

and see it differently.”

“To learn that it is not enough that they

forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves.”

“Thank you for your time,” I said humbly.

“Is there anything else

you would like your children to know?”

God smiled and said,

“Just know that I am here… always.”

-author unknown  

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In the Second Conversation of Brother Lawrence, we learned that he had always been governed by love and had resolved to make the love of God the end of all his actions. For the first four years in the religious life, he had been troubled in mind and expected the worst for his life, and initially it took a great deal of diligence to form the habit of conversing with God continually.

He found that in speaking to God plainly of his shortcomings, with the confidence that God would give him the strength to overcome them, he could release any concern he may have had. He realized that negative thoughts needed to be rejected as soon as they were perceived, and that his only business was to love and delight in God, and recommended that approach for all of us.

Now we turn to the THIRD CONVERSATION:

He told me that the foundaton of the spliritual life in him had been a high notion and esteem of God in faith; which when he had once well conceived, he had no other care at first but faithfully to reject every other thought, that he might perform all his actions for the love of God. That when sometimes he had not thought of God for a good while, he did not disquiet himself for it; but, after having acknowledged his wretchedness to God, he returned to Him with so much the greater trust in Him as he had found himself wretched through forgetting Him.

That the trust we put in God honors Him much and draws down great graces.

That it ws impossible not only that God should deceive, but also that He should long let a soul suffer which is perfectly resigned to Him, and resolved to endure everything for His sake.

That he had so often experienced the ready succours of divine grace upon all occasions, that from the same experience, when he had busines to do, he did not think of it beforehand; but when it was time to do it, he found in God, as in a clear mirror, all that was fit for him to do. That of late he had acted thus, without anticipatinng care; but before the experience above mentioned, he had used it in his affairs.

When outward business diverted him a little from the thought of God, a fresh remembrance coming from God invested his soul, and so inflamed and transported him that it was difficult for him to contain himself.

That he was more united to God in his outward employments than when he left them for devotion and retirement.

That he expected hereafter some great pain of body or mind; that the worst that could happen to him was to lose that sense of God which he had enjoyed so long; but that the goodness of God assured him He would not forsake him utterly, and that He would give him strength to bear whatever evil He permitted to happen to him; and therefore that he feared nothing, and had no occasion to consult with anybody about his state. That when he attempted to do it, he had always come away more perplexed; and that as he was conscious of his readiness to lay down his life for the love of God, he had no apprehension of danger. That perfect resignation to God was a sure way to heaven, a way in which we had always sufficient light for our conduct.

That in the beginning of the spiritual life we ought to be faithful in doing our duty and denying ourselves; but after that, unspeakable pleasures followed. That in difficulties we need only have recourse to Jesus Christ, and beg His grace; with that everything became easy. 

That many do not advance in the Christian progress because they stick in penances and particular exercises, while they neglect the love of God, which is the end. That this appeared plainly by their works, and was the reason why we see so little solid virtue.

That there need neither art nor science for going to God, but only a heart resolutely determined to apply itself to nothing but Him, or for His sake, and to love Him only.

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