Can You Hear Me Now?

You are probably familiar with the phone commercial on TV which shows a techie testing the phone reception as he stops and says, "Can you hear me now?" Then he takes a few more steps, stops again, and repeats his question, "Can you hear me now?"

In the TV commercial, it's all about clarity of reception and dropped calls. Spiritually, it's about unanswered prayer. The Bible is full of unanswered prayers. The Koran is full of unanswered prayers. The Torah is full of unanswered prayers. The Bagavad Gita is full of … well, you get the picture.

You may even have your share of unanswered prayers. If so, you're not alone. As a matter of fact you're in good company:

Moses prays to enter the Promised Land, but his request is refused, and he dies on Mt. Nebo. Job says, "I cry to Thee, and You do not answer me!" (Job 30:20). King David laments, "…God does not hear me!" (Psalm 66:18)

You may even have asked out of frustration, hurt, or anger, "God, can you hear me now? Are you listening?" Many a grieving parent or widow/widower has asked, "God where are you?"

On Sept. 11th 2001 three hundred million Americans asked, "How could you let this happen God? Where were you? Where are you now?"

Unanswered prayers have one thing in common. James, the brother of Jesus reports Jesus as saying, "You ask, and receive not because … you ask amiss!" (James 4:3)

What does he mean by 'amiss' ? What causes our prayers to go unanswered? Here's the answer! Are you ready? Jesus the Christ said, … are you sure you're ready? … He said, "If we do not forgive others, our prayers will not be answered." (Matt.6:15)

He didn't say – If we fail to forgive others, it will be difficult to get our prayers answered, or that it may take a little longer to get them answered, or that our prayers will be answered anyway because were nice people.

He said if we don't forgive others, our own prayers will not be answered. Seems pretty harsh doesn't it? He's giving us absolutely no wiggle room.

Unity's founder, Charles Fillmore says, "The mind must let go of every unforgiving thought."

Seems pretty clear doesn't it? We pray amiss if we don't forgive. And until we forgive, our prayers will not be answered.

Look into your own heart and forgive anyone and everyone who has ever upset you, disappointed you, wronged you, or harmed you in any way. That may be a tall order for some of you. You may have been significantly wronged, or harmed, or upset by someone. You may feel forgiveness is out of the question.

But if you want your prayers answered, you've got to learn to forgive.

From a metaphysical perspective, forgiveness is a necessary condition for answered prayer. Metaphysically, forgiveness means giving up the false for the true. It means living from our Christ Consciousness instead of our human consciousness.

We cannot walk the spiritual path on unforgiving feet. When we tighten our connection to Spirit by letting to of an unforgiving spirit, we won't have to ask, "Can you hear me now?"

When we eliminate the static of unforgiveness, the reception will be crystal clear.

I'm holding the high watch!

Rev. Donna

It's My Ego, Amigo!

I've been pondering an incident in my own life...my ego was shocked and bruised by what was happening. I couldn't imagine how this could happen to a nice person like me...and then I realized I was taking it personally.

I wonder how much of our pain and trouble is caused because we misinterpret what people say and do to us?

Our ego-centric nature is what causes us to think the worst and to take everything personally. It's not in our nature to think...”I wonder what's going on for him right now? What pain inside caused her to do or say that?”

When we take the actions of other people personally, this is our ego speaking, telling us that we are the center of the universe, that everything that happens in our lives revolves around us. Our ego is the veil separating us from the true, spiritual reality.

Today, I am believing that the more I tame my ego-centric thinking, & the more I don't take it personally, the more connected to Spirit I will be.

Hmmm, I feel better already!

I'm holding the high watch!

Rev. Donna

Bend, don't break

The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists. -~Japanese Proverb

Many times we see change as a threat. We become pessimistic towards the idea of newness, or we allow ourselves to remain within comfort zones because of our pride...or to avoid the risk of failure.

Resisting change means resisting growth. Those who succeed are those who take chances, and that means not only accepting change, but embracing it as a gift.

Embrace change...turn your vision into reality.

I'm holding the high watch!

Rev. Donna

Tug Of War

Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong; sometimes
it's letting go.

- Sylvia Robinson
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In the midst of dreading another disagreement...another tug-of-
war with a loved one, I had a thought. It takes two sides to play
ideological tug-of-war. What if I simply let go of my end of the
rope?

The game of tug-of-war involves two sides pulling on a rope as hard
as they can, with each side trying to topple the other. To win, you
can either pull the rope hard enough to drag your opponent over to
your side—or you can let go of the rope at the peak of the contest,
when both sides are straining as hard as they can in opposite
directions. Then your opponent goes flying, because your resistance
was what was holding him up.

So, as long as I held fast to my end of the tug-of-war rope...or as
long as I resisted, full of righteous indignation...the other side
would keep pulling just as hard in the opposite direction. My
struggle doesn't weaken my opponent's position—it supports it. The
secret is to be non-resistant...to affirm that there is only One
Power and One Presence in my life, God, who is Good, who is
Omnipotence. It isn't giving up...it is giving way to Spirit.

Yesterday I let go of my end of the rope two times.

Donna

Why Did You Have A Heart Attack?

Best-selling novelist Michael Crichton tells a story about his medical school years in his book Travels. He and his intern pals were bored, because nearly the whole surgical floor was filled with heart attack patients. Although a heart attack is pretty dramatic for the patient, apparently it’s not the most exciting challenge for doctors-in-training. Hoping to liven up patient rounds, he decided he’d ask a different question from the usual checklist of symptoms. He asked instead, “Why did you have a heart attack?”

The responses shook him to his core and changed his entire view of medicine. First, every patient had an immediate answer. It was as if they had been asking themselves that question and waiting for a doctor smart enough to ask it. Second, every single patient reported a psychological or emotional reason. Nobody said it was too much bacon and too little exercise. They gave answers such as the following: “I lost my job and my pension.” “I want a divorce, and I feel guilty.” “My daughter wants to marry someone of a different race.”

The astounded Crichton took his findings to the chief of medicine, who responded with a story of his own. He once was hospitalized with a slipped disc precisely when he had to reject a paper written by a close colleague. He understood that the slipped disc had postponed facing an unpleasant circumstance, and he saw a clear cause and effect.

Although you can’t be precisely sure of the content of your mindset, you can be sure it’s affecting your life experiences. Through this experience, Crichton began to understand what every Truth student understands: your mindset and emotions create your reality. In every area of your life, your skills, contacts, education, and intelligence, all get trumped by your mindset and emotions. That’s why we focus first on the right mindset. We know that if we don’t get that right, the rest is wasted energy.

Here’s a question that might give you some interesting insights.

Ask yourself a version of “Why did I have a heart attack?” Ask, “What is my greatest desire right now, and what mindset, beliefs, and thoughts are keeping me from it?” See what comes up. If you’re honest with yourself, your answer can lead you to inner changes that can create positive outer results.

Let Your Light Shine!

Matthew 7: 7-11
"Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

I am told that alligators bred in a fenced area for many generations won't go beyond the fenced perimeter, even after the fence is removed.

I’ve also heard that elephants tied to a stake when they are babies don’t have the strength to break the rope to become free. It is impossible to do and so when they are older, bigger, and stronger…they no longer try to break free. They still believe it is impossible and that’s why you will see a large elephant tied to a small stake with a weak rope.

We are not all that different, believing we can't do . . . whatever. (Fill in the blank.) We become certain that a mistake we’ve made, the influence of a person or a group of people, or certain limitations will determine our destiny.

God is in the business of bending time, creating new possibility from disaster, and you and I have inherited that business. Release yourself. Go beyond the perimeter…pull the stake out of the ground and set yourself free!

Are you feeling stuck or limited today? Ask, search, & knock with confidence and the door will be opened. We must try, try again.

Thomas Edison tried 1500 different types of wire to use on the light bulb. If Edison thought like us, we would never have light. So in a sense, unless we begin to think like Edison, we’ll stay in the dark!

I'm holding the high watch!

Donna

Abundance Paradigm

An abundance paradigm is a model that is composed of all our ideas, beliefs, concepts and assumptions about abundance. Paradigms change slowly and bit by bit…but when the fundamentals about the paradigm begin to change, it becomes a paradigm shift.

We are now in a paradigm shift about abundance. There is a new paradigm emerging concerning money, abundance and our power to manifest the things we want in our lives.

The old paradigm about money and abundance and our power around it says the material world is fixed and finite and exists separately from our perception of it. It says everything is limited in supply and subject to shortage. In other words, there is a limited amount of money and abundance in the world and it could run out at any moment.

A sociologist named Thomas Kuhn has identified 3 phases in the birth and acceptance of a new paradigm.

Phase 1: Total resistance of the ideas and also ridicule of the people proposing the new paradigm.

In the last 200 years, more and more people are proposing a new paradigm about money, abundance and our power around it; Emerson, the Fillmores, Emma Curtis Hopkins, Ernest Holmes, to name a few. Many people have ridiculed them. Many people have shown resistance to believe them.

Phase 2: Kuhn says Phase 2 is slow and grudging acceptance of the new ideas but people attempt to explain it using the language of the old paradigm because they are desperate to make it fit the old paradigm.

When I was in a Yoga class at college in 1967, it was viewed by radical or evangelical Christians as a dangerous, evil “Eastern religion” that could send any of its practitioners to Hell. In the 80’s Christian exercise class leaders were using the asanas (poses) in their routines but not calling it Yoga…simply a new exercise. Apparently, Yoga by another name is not evil or threatening!

Phase 3: Total acceptance of the new paradigm because it is now self evident that it is true.

We are SO VERY CLOSE to that phase 3. The old world paradigm is based on the scientific worldview of Newton and the new paradigm is founded upon quantum physics. Even those of us who aren’t intimately acquainted with physics can see that it IS our CSN that brings the material world into existence.

This means that the universe is a system of total abundance and there is no shortage of anything. We simply manifest it when needed through our CSN.

So…be careful what you ask for…you might get it! Because we ASK by our thoughts, our words, and our beliefs. If you believe (and think and say) that life is hard, there is lots of sorrow, and you only get what you work long and hard for…for you, life will be hard, filled with sorrow and you will work long and hard for whatever you get in life.

The good news is…Prosperity is as simple as A, B, C!!

Ask for what you REALLY want. Happiness, joy, abundance, love…all good things.

Believe it is already here for you and be grateful. Believe that you deserve all good things.

Claim your prosperity and share it. Be ready to step up when your prosperity shows up…and share it with others.

Abundance is the natural condition of the Universe. There is no shortage of anything. We are amazing creators, manifesting what we desire, knowing we deserve to have our desires fulfilled.

It really IS all about you. You have SOUL responsibility for your life.

Who? Me? Addicted?

I spent some time recently with a friend that I don't see or hear from very often any more. Addiction takes up most of my friend's life now. There are many reasons for my friend to hide in addiction, beginning with a horrific childhood. But all I know is...I just feel a loss and a sadness from what used to be to 'what is' today.

And as I contemplated my friend's habits, I started reviewing my own. Ouch! That didn't feel good. Yes, I have a few habits I'd like to change but, for heaven's sake, I wouldn't say I'm addicted. I mean, I would never consider stealing to pay for my habits. I don’t lock myself in the bathroom and shove a needle up my arm or snort things through my nose. My addictions don’t cause car accidents or impair my ability to make decisions. So my addictions certainly aren't dangerous or serious...OR is it just that my addictions are socially acceptable?

I could be dangerous if you try to take my computer or my cell phone away from me! And talk about serious...what about shopping for stress relief? I especially enjoy shopping on QVC or HSN. They make it so easy. I see it, I love it, I order it. The very act of ordering relieves my stress, and I forget almost immediately that I've ordered something. Then there is the "surprise" when the items come to my home. I love getting "surprises" delivered to my door.

Exercise, internet blogging/gaming, eating, caffeine, shopping, cell phones...all socially acceptable addictions...and I've overdone most of them at one time, as most people have. So perhaps we don't bankrupt the family by shopping, or cripple ourself with exercise, or hide to use the internet...but maybe we are all more addicted than we know.

And maybe some of the sadness I feel for my friend, I'm also feeling for myself.

Matthew 7:3-5
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

I'm holding the high watch...even with a beam in my eye!
Rev. Donna

Know Thyself

"Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have." -Doris Mortman

Making peace with who you are means knowing who you are. It means respecting yourself and respecting others...being kind, loving, and ethical...in other words, being moral. In Buddhist teaching, morality does not mean a forced or puritanical abiding by rules.

In my own definition, morality means living with intentions that reflect love and compassion for ourselves as well as caring for others. As the philosopher George Santayana said, "Morality is the desire to lessen suffering in the world." Living in a way that doesn't perpetuate hurting ourselves or hurting another is considered to be an expression both of great power and great compassion.

The Buddha said that if we truly loved ourselves we would never harm another, because if we harm another it is in some way diminishing who we are. There is no way to lash out at someone physically or verbally, to belittle their achievements, to exploit them in some way, to consider them unworthy of hearing the truth, and emerge undamaged ourselves. We are capable of so much more, and we dishonor that potential when we don't live with integrity.

How about trying a Buddhist practice of morality? It does involve loving ourselves and others...but isn't peace worth it?

Rev. Donna

monday morning ministerial musings...

Drinking coffee on the porch and thinking about...

Intellectual Knowledge and Spiritual Understanding

Intellectual knowledge comes from outside yourself...from books, lectures, and the opinions of speakers. Actually, it is information rather than knowledge. What we refer to as intellectual knowledge is just suggestions and opinions you have accepted from others.

Spiritual understanding comes from within. It can only happen with frequent periods of silence, inner stillness, meditation or whatever term you use for the act of getting quiet, going within, and listening, waiting, desiring, yearning for understanding.

In Matthew 16, Jesus asked, "Who do men say that the Son of man is?" The answer, "Some say John the Baptist, other say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." That answer came from intellectual informantion.

Then Jesus said, "But who do YOU say that I am?" And Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." This wasn't information from a book or a teacher...this was spiritual understanding from Peter's illumined mind.

Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven."

Intellectual knowledge...a book, a lecture, a radio program can be helpful but it only tells you ABOUT a power, a potential...ABOUT God. Spiritual understanding allows you to KNOW God. Knowing "about" is intellectual knowledge, but spiritual understanding is KNOWING.

Day by day, hour by hour...work at being aware of an invisible Power and Presence. Act from the guidance of the Light with you, instead of reacting the way the outer condition or person tells you to do.

I'm holding the high watch...

Rev. Donna

Stages of Spiritual Development

Four Stages of Spiritual Development

• Why Me/Mortal – victim, blame consciousness. Me! Me! Me!

We are all born as mortals. Many of us are born TO mortals and are told “this is all there is.”

• By Me/Metaphysician – vital phase of growth but not the end; learning to be a co-creator; taking responsibility for self; getting/manifesting is important here.

This is the phase were we to all the classes, read all the books and attend all the workshops.

• Through Me/Mystic – focus is more on knowing God than manifesting anything in particular; dwelling in the Presence; surrender; setting the ego aside so that God can express through

We begin to “get it” and understand the mystery a bit. We are eager to know more of God.

• As Me/Master – connection with God so strong that manifestation happens instantly; Christ consciousness; Jesus our beautiful role model.

We don’t know much about this phase but we do know this is where we are all headed.

Where are YOU on the scale? Is it time for the next step? What do you need to let go of or grab hold of?

What are you waiting for?

I’m holding the high watch! Rev. Donna