March 15, 2015 – Beauty & the Beast, Part 1: Healing Relationship Pain

03/15/15 Rev. David McArthur
Beauty and the Beast 1 – Healing Relationship Pain

When we carry past relationship hurt within, our mind wants to protect us with words like “me”, “them”, and “righteous indignation”. Such words of separation cause pain and express fear. This can be healthy at one level, but we use such words to escape our assignment (which is to heal the inner). The outer will change. Jesus said, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? …You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Sometimes I hate that, but on this assignment I also heard wise words of responsibility, caring, healing, connecting.

A story with very helpful images on this path to wholeness is “Beauty and the Beast”. A merchant, lost in a deep dark wood in a storm, finds a wonderful sunlit castle. There all his needs are met—food, a bed, even breakfast. For his daughter, Beauty, he plucks a rose. Immediately an ugly, terrifying beast confronts him. “Your life is forfeit!” The horrified merchant strikes a deal. If Beauty came to live in the castle with the Beast, all would be provided her, but each evening she had to sit down and dine with the Beast. Pretty clear spiritual symbolism isn’t it? There is no lasting satisfaction in pursuing material goods. The brightly lit castle in the midst of the dark forest is obviously the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are aware that Divine Love provides all our needs. But we pluck the rose (spiritual understanding) for the feelings of the growing soul. Once you take it, life as you know it is over. To embrace and enter into spiritual understanding, you must sit down with your Beast.

It’s the ugly we see inside ourselves. Deal with that pain. That’s your journey, your assignment. Enter the heart (the castle grounds). Breathe the feeling of Ease (that everything is provided by God). Give permission to yourself to feel the pain. The head will enter into blame/control. But breathe Ease, and just hold the pain in your heart. Your brain does not have to protect you from something that’s not there. There’s no need to fix, blame, or judge. Breathe Ease and hold the pain in your heart. Invite the power of your spiritual heart to flow in and start the healing. I breathe Ease and Hold It in My Heart. I breathe Ease and Hold It in My Heart. I breathe Ease and Hold It in My Heart. It is important to fulfill our assignment to heal the past relationship pain, the hurt, we carry. Then we can move into that place we know as “Happily Ever After”!

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March 15, 2015 – Beauty & the Beast, Part 1: Healing Relationship Pain


03/15/15 Rev. David McArthur
Beauty and the Beast 1 – Healing Relationship Pain

When we carry past relationship hurt within, our mind wants to protect us with words like “me”, “them”, and “righteous indignation”. Such words of separation cause pain and express fear. This can be healthy at one level, but we use such words to escape our assignment (which is to heal the inner). The outer will change. Jesus said, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? …You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Sometimes I hate that, but on this assignment I also heard wise words of responsibility, caring, healing, connecting.

A story with very helpful images on this path to wholeness is “Beauty and the Beast”. A merchant, lost in a deep dark wood in a storm, finds a wonderful sunlit castle. There all his needs are met—food, a bed, even breakfast. For his daughter, Beauty, he plucks a rose. Immediately an ugly, terrifying beast confronts him. “Your life is forfeit!” The horrified merchant strikes a deal. If Beauty came to live in the castle with the Beast, all would be provided her, but each evening she had to sit down and dine with the Beast. Pretty clear spiritual symbolism isn’t it? There is no lasting satisfaction in pursuing material goods. The brightly lit castle in the midst of the dark forest is obviously the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are aware that Divine Love provides all our needs. But we pluck the rose (spiritual understanding) for the feelings of the growing soul. Once you take it, life as you know it is over. To embrace and enter into spiritual understanding, you must sit down with your Beast.

It’s the ugly we see inside ourselves. Deal with that pain. That’s your journey, your assignment. Enter the heart (the castle grounds). Breathe the feeling of Ease (that everything is provided by God). Give permission to yourself to feel the pain. The head will enter into blame/control. But breathe Ease, and just hold the pain in your heart. Your brain does not have to protect you from something that’s not there. There’s no need to fix, blame, or judge. Breathe Ease and hold the pain in your heart. Invite the power of your spiritual heart to flow in and start the healing. I breathe Ease and Hold It in My Heart. I breathe Ease and Hold It in My Heart. I breathe Ease and Hold It in My Heart. It is important to fulfill our assignment to heal the past relationship pain, the hurt, we carry. Then we can move into that place we know as “Happily Ever After.”!
 

March 8, 2015 – Tithing — A Four-Letter Word…Love

03/08/15 Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
Tithing – A Four-Letter Word…Love

My friend, Dot, joyfully told of the card and money she had prepared for her grandson Langston’s birthday. I could tell the card was filled with love. She was so excited. When you select a gift with such care you imagine how great the loved one will feel when they open it. Give like that when you tithe to wherever you receive your spiritual instruction, support, and enlightenment, your spiritual good. Give by joy. The energy of connection with the universe, when giving from joy, goes out into the universe and the universe is inspired to return it. When giving in joy you are also giving to yourself.
If 10% is fearful for you, you can start small and graduate to 10%. Why 10? 10 is the number of perfect balance, of the balance of masculine and feminine, of resplendent love. It is the divine number, and reduces to 1—indicating our oneness with the universe, that when we are aligned with the universe we are connected and there is no difference between us and God.

When I lost half my income I stopped tithing. Then I started losing track of money; I just couldn’t find it. My paying engagements started drying up. Then I fell and broke my wrist. What was going on? Then I remembered I had quit tithing. So I immediately wrote a check. In fear I had stopped tithing, but then when I did give I gave in love. To give only because you get is not in alignment with the law of giving and receiving. In a month or 6 weeks I was clearly in a better situation.

You can tithe not only money, but your time or service. Give somewhere, somehow, to someone. Are you giving in love to your family? To you community? To your job? Our goal is to give in love across the board, giving in love to our world. Seek to live a life of giving love. The steps are listed in the attached outline.

This week look at every place you go, and give in love. Be aware of how you are giving to our world. Even how you speak is giving. Find a way to give love even if it’s just a little bit, because love changes everything.

I give you love; I give you peace; I give you joy. May you find this every day in your life and relationships.

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