Living In Spirit: June 2015

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Hot And Thirsty

Remember the scene in the old westerns where the tired, dusty and thirsty cowboy rides in, dismounts his horse and walks over to the pump by the water trough? He sticks his head under the spout, grabs the handle and starts pumping. For the first few pumps nothing happens, it is only after priming the pump, acting seemingly without demonstrating any real result for a time, that the water finally appears and his thirst is quenched. What if he had stopped pumping after one or two strokes? He would have remained thirsty and hot for he lost faith that his actions would demonstrate the desired result.

Faith: n. 1) Belief without evidence. 2) Confidence, trust. 3) Belief in God.

Faith, believing without hard evidence, trusting in what cannot be measured or explained in secular terms. On the back of a dollar bill it reads “IN GOD WE TRUST.” Writing it or saying it out loud does not make it so any more than sitting in a parking space provides a car. Only by quietly walking in faith, often trembling, do we demonstrate our trust in God. So work quietly but steadily; never struggle for struggle guarantees failure in our prayer life. We quietly demonstrate faith through our actions, for has it not been said that actions speak louder than words? We walk through life acting as though we believe, priming the pump, for in so doing we are demonstrating true faith and in due course the water will flow, our spiritual thirst quenched.

The Secret, Wayne Dyer, ACIM, Serenity, Enlightenment, Zen, Emmet Fox, How To Be Happy, Golden Key, Addicts Today, Chopra, Jesus, Healing Path Recovery, Einstein, Marianne Williamson, Sayeh Beheshti, AKUA

Monday, June 29, 2015

Smiling At The Prophets Of Doom And Gloom

Mankind’s history is replete with dozens upon dozens of boom and bust cycles. Additionally, there have been prophets of doom and gloom stating with absolute certainty the world was ending soon and we 1) are without hope and there is nothing we can do about it, or 2) we better all pull together to save ourselves before it is too late. These joyless individuals have been around since man first started keeping records. The one thing they all have in common is their perfect batting average: 0. Every single one has been wrong, the world hasn‘t ended, their dire predictions not with standing. Today’s doom and gloomers are as wrong as those who stood in the center of Rome prophesying the end of days 2000 years ago. How do I know? I believe in God. As the Lord's Prayer states so clearly, He is “Our Father.” Would you allow your children to be exterminated if it was in your power to avoid it? So, just for today, when we feel the sadness and fear the secular world dishes out unremittingly we turn to the truth: We are all children of God, and God has all power, bringing only good, that negative conditions are but passing illusions that dissolve when the shutters of fear and doubt are thrown open and the sunlight of the Spirit streams in. Just for today, when the next “expert” delivers solemnly the latest prophecy of doom, we can smile because we really do believe in God.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Oh, Not Again!

We all know someone who never misses an opportunity to retell their story of some past injustice, real or imagined. If they are close to us (family), we have heard the story so many times that we know it by heart, resisting the temptation (hopefully) to finish it for them. The tale explains why they haven’t or can’t and never will demonstrate over or put behind them some incident in their lives, always finishing the tale with a note of triumph and justification in their voice. Unfortunately many choose to hold on to past injustices and hurts to the point of shutting themselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. If we are to be free we must set free all who have harmed us, leaving their final disposition to their demonstration before God, getting us out of the retribution business. To be clear: there are those who have committed grievous acts beyond the pale, they will reap as they have sown, but harboring hurt and hate in our heart stunts our growth and limits our demonstrations, forgiving does not mean forgetting. Our job, since embarking on Living on the Spiritual Basis, is to forgive so that we and the whole Human race improves, but it is does not mean we have to place ourselves in a position to be harmed again.

So we forgive all who have harmed us, setting them and ourselves free, but we don’t have to go to lunch with them. If for some reason they do appear in our life or they are someone whom because of family or some other reason we will have to face, ask in prayer to be shown the way of patience, kindness, tolerance and love toward this individual and to be kept safe and free of new resentments in their presence. By saluting the Presence of God within them and releasing them you will be amazed by the results. To state the Great Teaching once again: simple but not easy, a price has to be paid and that price is the surrendering of self.

When we know, who walks beside us, on this path we have chosen, our fears fall from us.