Namaste,
As many of you know I am streaming "Sunday Night Alive"  on Facebook and YouTube Sunday evenings at 6pm EST.  I am happy to synthesize and broaden these topics for you each week.  the program is dedicated to Practical Spirituality - topics which provide the tools to walk and talk our spiritual journey with power, poise and confidence.  Enjoy my topic from Sunday, January 29th.

Love Life and Let Life Love You Back

It could not be a better time to have a meaningful dialog about loving life and allowing life to love us back.  It may sound like an easy thing to do but nothing is easy about love and there is ample evidence that we  aren’t doing a particularly good job at loving - which is crazy given that we are made by love for the purpose of loving.

In 2022 there were 633 reported mass murders in the United States.In January 2023, we have had more mass shootings than we have had days in the month. Add to this the brutal beating and murder of Tyre Nichols this past week and the bombing of the mosque in Pakistan, my heart says there must be something we can do. These are examples of what happens when we are living a life without enough love. These are extreme examples of what happens when the leaf on a tree believes itself to be alienated from the other leaves and not sourced by a deep and loving root system. There are less extreme consequences of this lovelessness affecting millions of people.  Though not everyone decides killing people is a good thing to do, many  suffer from life-style illnesses, depression, addiction, suicide, abuse, hunger and many other behaviors indicative of an under-loved culture. I think that the thing that we can do, and must do,  is to love more and let ourselves be loved back. We need a miracle!

"A Course in Miracles defines a miracle as “A Shift in Perception, from Fear to Love.
Miracles Occur naturally as expressions of love.
When miracles aren’t happening, it is said something has gone wrong.
We have leaned into fear and blocked ourselves from the healing love and light of Source energy.”

In our philosophy, faith, and way of life, we believe and teach that God is a God of all. No exceptions! We believe in a God of love, and only love.  When we speak of God, we are not talking about a super-man made in the image of humans, passing judgment and punishment. It is an impossibility that the creator of love and beauty could give love to only some or be arbitrary in Its dealings.  We are talking about a living and loving presence that is absent nowhere, present in all things and all beings.  In the end this means that love is the true nature and identity of Tyre Nichols as well as the men who killed him.  Thus, the charge to all of us interested in miracles and the ending of the madness, is to live this truth in ever expanding radical and bodacious ways.  Why?  Because it is the only way out of the mess that lovelessness creates.

I am a lover of love but above all else, a dedicated teacher of spiritual principle and possibility. I believe in the laws of Spirit just as I believe in gravity.  I believe in what Jesus taught us when he said, “It is done unto you as you believe.”  We cannot separate ourselves from how life appears before us personally or collectively.  These spiritual laws and principles say that the world will be to us what we are to the world.  They say that what you say and see is what will be.  These spiritual laws are eternal, immutable, and exact, just like the physical ones.  They include the law of cause and effect; reciprocity; mental equivalents and the law of change - to name a few of them.

One of my favorite quotes is this one by Albert Einstein. It addresses the role we play in how life rolls ..

"I think the most important question facing humanity is, ‘Is the universe a friendly place?’
This is the first and most basic question all people must answer for themselves.”

The reason the question is important is because of the efficacy and operation of these spiritual laws and principals exact for each depending on how the question is answered by each. We might want to think carefully before we answer. Einstein continues,

"For if we decide that the universe is an unfriendly place, then we will use our technology,
our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to achieve safety and power
by creating bigger walls to keep out the unfriendliness and bigger weapons
to destroy all that which is unfriendly…”. 

If you and I decide the universe is unfriendly, then we will live from a foundation of fear doing all the things that perpetuate the idea that we are threatened by the violence and the insanity.  We will cope with the consequences by building walls, buying guns, installing safes – all to make sure we are protected from the unfriendly influences all around us.

"If we decide that the universe is neither friendly nor unfriendly and that God is essentially
‘playing dice with the universe’,then we are simply victims to the random toss of the dice
and our lives have no real purpose or meaning.”

This second option is interesting in that Einstein postulates that if we believe there is not a Divine direction,  we will live in a state of perceived powerlessness which leaves us ‘victims’ of whichever way the wind decides to blow. Friendly one minute and unfriendly the next minute.  Safe today and in danger tomorrow. This would be a challenging way to live!

This third option offers and acknowledges the truth of Universal Intelligence and love and affirms our role in creation which is as a collaborator and co-conspirator.  We are co-creators as a function of the laws given to us by a God that I am sure never dreamed we would use them the way we use them. It is like knowing about gravity and then walking off a cliff. Einstein concludes;

"But if we decide that the universe is a friendly place,
then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources
to create tools and models for understanding that universe.
Because power and safety will come through understanding its workings and its motives."

If you believe, really believe, that the Universe is undergirded by a foundation and fabric of love; that these powers are for you and not against you, that the “stuff’ of the universe is conspiring for your greater good, then you will live a much different existence on earth than if you are afraid.  Not only will your material existence be better, but you will draw to yourself love in the form of a tribe, friends, and community, money, and vibrant well-being.  You will contribute to the mental, emotional, and spiritual health of others.  If enough of us will take the ‘no-trespassing’ sign off our hearts, and trust love, we will make the work of miracles welcomed.

I am sure that you share my heartache at what the lack of love continues to do to our relatives - human, animal, and plant. Some of us have never known what it means to let love out or let love in.  Some of us have forgotten as a result from the dirt and grit of the human journey. This not knowing or forgetting that we are loving and lovable, beautiful, and worthy is the source of every atrocity large and small.  I pray you will join me in the persistent and committed practice of seeing good everywhere. It is hard to not lean into fear when so much has and does go wrong.  I don’t know exactly how to make miracles show up, but I do know that we just move into action because ultimately, if you and I can’t do it, why would we think anyone can?  Here is our mandate - Forgive all.  Love, honor, and respect yourself.  Try not judge and condemn others because of their actions.  Those of us who haven’t been shown love or are in a state of forgetting, cannot be restored to their spiritual identity and nature without compassion.  God gives it, so can we!

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
~Jesus

This concludes today’s message for Living A Life of Spiritual Power
Next week – “Color Outside The Lines" February 5th 6pm
Until then,
Love, love and more love,
Rev. D