Spiritual Solutions

When we lived in our previous home we had some French doors put in from our bedroom to the back deck and garden which overlooked the bayou. They had been delayed along the way and finally they got the doors in and painted and so on, and the head of the company came and apologized for the length of time it had taken. We got to talking – he was a young man – and he began to tell us some of his life story.

He shared with us that he was the eldest of nine children and that he’d had a pretty tough life but he had focused on this goal of developing this company. He remembered people along the way that had helped him; he said that his father had died when he was about five years old, his mother had remarried and he didn’t get along with his stepfather who, he said was a drinking man and was away a lot of the time and abusive when he was home. He said his mother always seemed to be working.

But he remembered a person who often came by to look in at the kids and bring them food if they didn’t have any; she would also come and take them to Sunday school – she was a Sunday school teacher. He remembered her as being one who had nurtured him and he told us he had just seen her again after many years and was going to have her over to dinner on the weekend.

As I listened to the story I thought that all of us have stories of people who have touched our lives, memories that are important to us and that we need to remember.

We mustn’t judge ourselves or another about where we seem to be in life but we must, as Jesus said, “judge righteous judgment” by judging from the truth of what we are – children of God, spiritual beings, individuals bringing forth our potential to the best of our ability.

Where we are is really immaterial; we are somewhere on the journey from sense to soul, becoming conscious of what we truly are, beginning to express that in our lives, and touching other lives by what we are and what we are becoming.

So we need to look from that inner perspective when we look at ourselves or others. We call that “beholding the Christ.” We are seeing the true nature of that person, whether it is ourselves or another person. When we do that, no matter what situation we’re looking at, no matter what object, no matter what person, we are able to catch a sort of translucent view of things where the events, objects and people are not just as they are but that there is a thin membrane, as it were, that gives a sense of something that is deeper.

There is more there, a different level of being, where we see a whole different value system, where we sense the truth of our being, the truth of the situation, the truth of that person. It’s just a thin membrane between the appearances that we get involved in and the truth that is always there. And once we capture a glimpse of it, once we see that truth, we know that it is the truth. The unknown but very real presence is always with us.

That is true faith. Faith is not just belief, because belief engenders doubt also. Belief is often just opening. True faith is in that inner knowing, when we experience a glimpse of something that is there beyond what seems to be.

There are times when we almost stand on tiptoe; it may be the birth of a new baby, it may be the death of a loved one, it may be a time of crisis, it may be a time of great joy. But it’s a time when we stand on tiptoe and we see from a new perspective, from a God perspective, the truth of being. We have a new understanding of life, we see through to what Jesus called the kingdom of heaven; it is a kingdom consciousness.

Some years ago, Kathryn and I were privileged to spend time with someone who was in the last stages of her life on this plane; she had terminal cancer. On the following Sunday morning we got the message later that while we were speaking at the early service she had passed away at the hospital. We had been to see her on the previous Friday. She was not capable of speaking more than a few words but she smiled and nodded.

So we got to share with her at that special time when she knew she was soon going to die; the doctor had already told her that the end was very near. We were able to say to her, “You are enfolded in God’s love. Remember this; this is something to hold on to. And there are things to release also. There are things to release such as resentments and unforgiveness and any bitterness. It’s time to let that go now and just relax into the knowing of God’s presence within you.”

Both at the same time, Kathryn and I thought of a little song that we’d like to sing to her. It goes like this:

“May the blessings of God rest upon you, may God’s peace abide in you; may the presence of God illuminate your heart, now and forevermore.”

 So I’m going to sing the song to you also, because it may be that you are hurting in some way today. You don’t have to be as this lady was, in the last stages of life, but there may be something that is challenging you or painful to you, maybe your own health or a relationship you’re in. I want you to know that you are enfolded in God’s love right now, and I’d like to sing this little song to you as a blessing for you. Click below to listen to it.

Please remember that; it’s something to remember.

There are also things we need to forget, because Jesus lived in that perfect balance of remembering and forgetting; he lived in that translucent quality of life and was able to see the truth beyond the appearance. Jesus knew that the balance was precarious and so often we get caught up in clutching tightly to things.

In one story of Jesus, three men came to him one at a time wanting to follow him. He sensed that he needed to break some tie they had that they were holding tightly. The first one said he wanted to follow him, and Jesus recognized that he needed to put his faith in something other than what he was presently putting his faith in. He said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” He was challenging him to look from the outer support in life to the inner support, the support of Spirit, a different sense of supply that is always there. He needed to look from a different point of view if he wanted to follow Jesus’ way of life.

Another man came to him and asked to follow him, but first he had to go and bury his father. And Jesus said a strange thing to him: “Let the dead bury their dead, and you go and publish the news of the kingdom.” Maybe it sounded harsh, but what he was trying to do was to break some of those superficial and traditional rites that we hold onto in our minds. He wasn’t talking about that particular occasion or relationship but about those things we hold onto so tightly and saying, let’s look at it from another point of view, let those dead issues of mind die but focus instead on life, focus instead on bringing service, reverence the dead by bringing life, bringing a life of service.

He was saying in effect, if you’ve had things in your past – an old belief you need to let go of – let it go and don’t keep talking about it. If you’ve had a relationship that was not a happy or healthy relationship, don’t keep rehearsing it – let it go. If you’ve had a difficult time or a serious illness, don’t keep talking about it – let it go. Don’t keep bringing it up. Move on, move on into the future, and publish the good news. In other words, speak the truth for yourself. Maybe it was a hard winter, but now you’re in fair skies; you’re in a different time of your life, so move into that.

The third man wanted to say goodbye to his friends first before he followed Jesus, so to him he said, “Once a man has put his hand to the plow, if he looks back he is not fit for the kingdom of God.” In other words, he is saying to us we must move into that consciousness with a whole heart, with a whole consciousness to know the oneness of God in our lives. We must forget the separateness and know the wholeness of God’s presence, that wherever we are, God is. That’s something we must remember.

So let go the things that are holding you in old patterns of behavior, and remember that God’s presence is always with you and that the blessings of God are always within your reach.

God is Blessing You, right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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

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