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July 15, 2012 – Pooh Bear on Getting Unstuck

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7/15/12 Rev. David McArthur

Pooh Bear on Getting Unstuck

The “gospel” of Winnie the Pooh tells us a lot about ourselves. When Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit’s front doorway because he ate too much, it’s like when we get stuck from our own best intentions, but blame someone else for our stuckness.  Stuck with relationship, with health, with money. However, your first step is knowing your are stuck. The second is turning to God for help, like Rabbit running to get Christopher Robin.

Step three is a point where you let go and figure out you can’t figure it out. You don’t get to—you already tried that. You did the math; you figured there’s no way out. And after all the disappointments, asking for what is impossible seems pretty foolish. What seems impossible by yourself is not to God! Let go. Ask in prayer for what you really need. Jesus demonstrated mastery by showing you need to be a co-creator. “The Father already knows. The Father will, if you ask.” Isn’t it time to be free? But you have to ask, to be willing to go to that place of sincere prayer, step four.

Lao Tsu wrote, “The master observes the world”– recognize you are stuck.
“but trusts his inner vision.”– turn to God, that beautiful inner wisdom that can guide you.
“He allows things to come and go.”– let go, and allow life to unfold.
“His heart is open as the sky.”– open to infinite possibilities of the Divine Presence that doesn’t buy into your limits. It is sincere prayer.

Most prayer comes from the head, as if Infinite Intelligence doesn’t know what you’re about. But God is good all the time, and letting go isn’t about right now, right away. It’s not about giving up, it’s about giving over—giving over to an intelligence which is part of you but you haven’t been using. God is good when you are stuck. God is good when you are figuring there’s no way out. God is good when you are feeling foolish but listening to what you are guided to do. And God is good when you are allowing it to unfold, open to infinite divine possibilities.

“But Christopher Robin looked at Pooh lovingly and said to himself, ‘silly old bear!’ “

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July 8, 2012 – Communion of the Heart

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7/8/12 Rev. Susan Galvan

Communion of the Heart

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’ Matthew 22:37

How do we do that? It’s all about relationships. It’s the essence of the spiritual life. Life is not a solo project. We are all connected in a web of relationships. It comes down to two words, “be with” —another, your self, with the divine. Be present, with an empty center—a beautiful emptiness without attachment, and allow the breath of God to flow through. Fools Crow, of the Lakota, called it being “a hollow bone”.

How is being empty being with another? Let go of your concerns, judgments, and cravings. Enter a state of deep receptivity. Listen with the heart, open, free of agenda. It is a sacred space where veils fall away and you are available.

Ray, a highly successful business man, worked so hard he lost his wife and family. He wasn’t there for them. Through divorce, his dreams were demolished. Seeking relief from deep depression he entered a bicycle race and encountered Lance Armstrong. He asked Lance how he had overcome divorce and then cancer. Armstrong put his arm around him and with a squeeze said, “It could have been much worse.” In that moment Ray’s life changed. He understood that he was not alone, there was still a lot of life in front of him. Lance Armstrong, in a moment of empathy, gave a wonderful gift. This empathic gift is in you and me. We are all redeemers. Give the gift of a listening heart. It is transformational. Step out of your own energy and have empathy for the other being.
Ibn Arabi said, “My heart has become capable of every form; it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks, and a temple for idols and the pilgrim’s Ka’ba, and the tablets for the Torah and the book of the Koran. I follow where the camels of love go. That is my religion.”

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July 1, 2012 – Self Love Through Forgiveness

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7/1/12 Rev. David McArthur

Self Love Through Forgiveness

July. Freedom. We only get freedom if we are willing to do self love. Otherwise we let a lot of things hang on and control us.

Lao Tzu, in the Tao Te Ching, wrote, “The Master stays behind; that is why she is ahead. She is detached from all things; that is why she is one with them. Because she has let go of herself, she is perfectly fulfilled.”

Anita Moorjani, as a girl at a Catholic school in Hong Kong and a Hindu of Indian heritage, was very much the outsider in her classes. Repeatedly the subject of cruel bullying throughout her school years, she recalled, as an adult dying of cancer, how so much of the time she had felt bad about herself. But she knew that being bound this way was not ok. In her near death experience she saw how this led to her deadly cancer. However, she also saw this wasn’t who she was at all—but that she was a magnificent spiritual being, and that should never be hidden. “I am a magnificent spiritual being!” Filled with this knowledge her body would not support the cancer, and on what was expected to be her deathbed, she became free of the cancer.

The way to spiritual freedom is forgiveness. We are trapped in perceptions of ourselves which are not true. Forgive yourselves and those “bullies” in your memories. They have journeyed with you long enough.

Steve Backman, trying to deal with his “bullies” by drinking, drove his car one night into one driven by Chris Loukas. With nearly every bone in his body broken, Chris Loukas hovered near death in a coma for six weeks, but eventually roused. Finally, unable to tolerate his anguish any longer, Steve braved the Loukas family and asked if he might see Chris. He begged Chris’ forgiveness, and Chris opened his arms and they hugged and wept. And they both were freed.

Enter into freedom through forgiveness—of others and of yourself. Love yourself enough to let go of all that stuff! Be free. Be who you really are—a magnificent spiritual being! It starts when you love yourself enough to let go of yourself. “Because she loves herself enough she is fulfilled.” “I choose to be free and live in my fulfillment.” When you make that choice it really gets fun!

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June 24, 2012 – The Heart Path to the Christ

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6/24/12 Rev. David McArthur

The Heart Path to the Christ

There are those who, in great pain, have prayed to Jesus for help and have gotten it. Others have prayed to Krishna and have touched incredible love. Some do not attribute this beautiful, powerful experience to Jesus, Buddha, or Krishna, and yet their experience is very real. There are those, too, who find deep in their being a voice that says, “Do not put your faith in another. Get about helping yourself!”

Those who call on Jesus call on someone who stepped into the consciousness of the Christ, of that infinite wisdom, an incarnation of God. Is Krishna an incarnation of God? Of course he is! We are all talking about beings of consciousness that have traveled before us and are available to us according to how our soul calls. There are those too that have to do it themselves, but we are all doing the same thing. It’s an awareness of the higher self (Atman) and an awareness of connection with the all, the cosmic soul (Brahman). And it’s ok to get help upon the way.

It’s about learning to love a little more. In her book Love Without End, Glenda Green spoke of her conversations with Jesus. To Jesus, the heart is sacred. He said that it integrates your own unique character with that which is beyond your own comprehension. She goes on to tell us that Jesus said that the highest intelligence is love itself. “Love alone holds the ultimate secrets and solution of existence.” Repeat, “Love alone holds the ultimate secrets and solution of existence.” If you have an experience with Jesus or Krishna, it is love. If you look inside yourself for answers, it is love you have found.

If you want to do it through Jesus, thank God! If you want to do it through Krishna or Hindu chants or through lighting the candles of a menorah, thank God! You are the love of the divine, here, now! Live it! Experience it! Enjoy it!

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June 17, 2012 – The Father Principle

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6/17/12 Rev. David McArthur

Father’s Day! Becoming a father is when the spiritual journey really begins!

What ‘father’ really is, in part, is pure divine principle, immutable law, that, in love, does not support choices of self destruction, even when that means telling a child who is an addict that they are not welcome in the family any longer. It is the divine love which accepts accountability. Yet it is there when the choice is made to leave the destructive living behind.

It is “fathering” an organization which reaches out and touches the world, calling forth the highest, holding a vision of what can be. It is having a commitment to the love and abundance which lead us through difficult times. It is being the instrument of that divine principle.

One of the purposes of a father is to see who we really are and acknowledge that in us, to call forth in us who we really are because there was that love that had called him forth to be who he really was.

There is divine energy flowing through the universe and life. It is a pulse in us when we are “on purpose”. When it flows through us, transformation takes place and the universe is changed. We don’t know how.

The divine ‘father’ principle is in you, whether you are a man or a woman. See the light in others, see the purpose and the light flowing through them. What is there is Father, God. Call it forth again and again.

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June 10, 2012 – Lighting the Torch of the Soul

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6/10/12 Rev. Susan Galvan

Lighting the Torch of the Soul

Lighting the Torch of the Soul is bringing the heart’s core out into the open. So often, because of our busy-ness, we put it on the back burner until, late in life, it’s still “in the closet” and we are filled with regret. What brings us power to live in the light—in the Christ consciousness?

To do it, stop. At a mosque, each person upon entering, stops and washes off the outside life and leaves their shoes inside the door, so as not to bring the world with them into the holy space. So stop, and leave your world and go into your empty space.

Then get quiet. Come into the moment—no past; no future—step out of your exhausting story into where you are clear and still. Where your heart knows no limits. Experience that warmth of love. It is always there within, whether we are in it or not. It is where nothing is missing or needs fixing or re-arranging. Experience the lightness of being and gratitude which lifts the heart. Where you are at peace.

Next, appreciate your abundance, even the traumas you had which are part of what got you to this point. And appreciate each other. We each need an ally, a friend to point out our blind spots, to bring us back. This is not a solo journey. Together we move to where we want to be. Support each other’s dreams. Do not practice “dream-icide” upon yourself or others.

Finally we each need a plan. It might change, but follow. How do we recognize our plan—that we are manifesting the Christ consciousness? It’s when we light up. It’s doing things for which we are enthusiastic (en-theos, which is Greek for “filled with God”). It’s doing things that energize us. Remember you don’t have to know how, just what. In expressing your heart’s core values wonderful things do happen in ways never expected. Keep listening, opening, following. Affirm, “I am open and willing to allow the Christ to express in me, through me, as me!” “I am open and willing to allow the Christ to express in me, through me, as me!”

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