Spiritual Solutions

We are standing on the threshold of a new year, a year filled with possibilities, new potential for you to explore, new songs to sing, new dreams to bring into visibility. But do you have the power to see it through? That’s the question I’d like to put to you today.

Sometimes it’s hard to get started in a new direction. We need that push forward through the inertia to get moving in a certain direction. When we think about our dreams and our goals and our visions and our purposes and begin to pray about them, they come alive to us. We begin to see what we want to achieve.

But we must go further than that. Let me illustrate by referring you to the scripture in Exodus 14:15, where we find Moses and the people of Israel on the edge of the Red Sea having escaped from Egypt and bondage. Here they are, faced with the Red Sea before them and no way to get across, the Pharaoh and his army in back of them approaching rapidly. What were they to do? They were panicking and Moses told them to stand still, that was the first thing, to “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” In other words, to pray, to get still. I’m sure he was praying pretty hard right then. What was going to happen? It was a scary moment. You’ve been in those moments, between a rock and a hard place.

Then he heard a voice. And the voice, the voice of God within him, said to him, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift your rod and stretch forth your hand and part the sea so the people of Israel can walk across the dry ground.” So God was saying to Moses, “Don’t just pray; get moving!”

And that’s what God is saying to us in respect to our visions and our purpose, and what it is that we want to achieve with our lives. Don’t only pray about it. Pray about it, yes, but do more than that; go forward, move forward.

There’s a story which comes out of the old medieval times: There were three young men who wanted to become the apprentice of the Master, who I this particular country was termed a Wizard. They come before the wizard on this particular day when he hires apprentices; one time every year. One of the young men was called Willow. 

The wizard comes out and he says, “Now, this is the test for my selection.” And he held out his hand. He said, “In which finger lies the power?” The first applicant hesitated a moment and then he pointed to his index finger, and the wizard shook his head. And the young man had to go off to war; that was the fate of anyone who was not selected, and of course each one of them really wanted to be an apprentice to the wizard and not to have to go off to war.

So the wizard kept his hand out there and the second applicant looked and he waited quite a while before finally pointing toward his thumb. And the wizard shook his head.

Then it came to Willow’s turn, and Willow looked in the wizard’s eyes to see if he could find some kind of response or indication of which one. There was nothing there, just a veiled quietness. Finally he pointed to his ring finger. And the wizard shook his head. He said, “There will be no apprentices this year, no selections this year.”

So the story goes on that Willow went out to war, and it follows his pathways through his struggles and his dark times, the crises in his life and his battles in the war. Finally after many years he comes back to the village and he comes to the master, the wizard, and he sits there for a moment. And the master says to him, “You remember the day you came before me? What were you thinking, that moment before you made your selection?” He responded, “I was thinking that the power is in my own hand, but I thought that was too arrogant to say that to you.” He said, “But, my son, that was the right answer.”

Willow responded, “Yes, I know, I have found that now after all of these years of holding to my truth and fighting my battles from the truth within myself. I know that the power lies within me.”

So, you see, just like Moses and just like Willow, the power lies in your own hand, or in your own being; your power to achieve, the power to get things done. It’s not in someone else, it’s not in some circumstance of everything being just right, it is within you. The power is in your own hand.

We often give our power away. Perhaps at this time of year, as you begin to get ready for the New Year and its new possibilities you can decide to take your power back. Take your power back from those you have given it to, those to whom you have given control your life and those with whom you have compared your life. We all have that power within us. But we have to claim it for ourselves; we have to know it for ourselves, in order to move into our purpose.

You just have to start where you are, with a sure knowing that you have a connection with an interior power that is available to you at all times. Is there some small thing you can do right now to move forward toward the realization of your dream? Take a small step forward, and know that you have the power to see it through!

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now.

Happy New Year!

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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