Thinking about women series

A new podcast I participated in has been posted.

"Thinking about women," part of a series on tmcyouth.com.

We ask the question, "Are sexual cravings really spiritual cravings?"

Listen in and see what you think.

Fame or greatness?

"Not everyone can be famous but everyone can be great..."

~ Martin Luther King

I like this quote because it gives needed perspective to the ambitious personality.

We don't need to be famous to live a rich successful life if our goal is to be a better person.

We don't need to be seen and recognized by others to be satisfied that we're doing a good job, if that is what we're doing.

We don't need our name printed in the headlines to verify our worth and value if we measure worth spiritually.

We don't need to be remembered for assurance that our efforts bore fruit, if our efforts were unselfishly motivated.

Why?

Because we are who we are, and what we do is what matters most, not what others think or we think they ought to think.

Our greatness is not a function of fame, but of the love and truth we live and express.

One can have fame without greatness. But one who has achieved true greatness can easily live without fame.

You're part of a team

A man was lost while driving through the country. As he tried to reach for the map, he accidentally drove off the road into a ditch. Though he wasn’t injured, his car was stuck deep in the mud. So the man walked to a nearby farm to ask for help.

“Warwick can get you out of that ditch,” said the farmer, pointing to an old mule standing in a field. The man looked at the decrepit old mule and looked at the farmer who just stood there repeating, “Yep, old Warwick can do the job.” The man figured he had nothing to lose. The two men and the mule made their way back to the ditch. The farmer hitched the mule to the car. With a snap of the reins, he shouted,

“Pull, Fred! Pull, Jack! Pull, Ted! Pull, Warwick!”

And the mule pulled that car right out of the ditch.

The man was amazed. He thanked the farmer, patted the mule, and asked, “Why did you call out all of those names before you called Warwick?”

The farmer grinned and said, “Old Warwick is just about blind. As long as he believes he’s part of a team, he doesn’t mind pulling.”


I chuckled when I read this story because it reminded me of team-power. I thought of the times when someone else was pulling just as hard as I was at my side, and how, together, we accomplished something much greater than we could have done alone.

What about the times when no team members are in sight, though? The times when we feel alone, single and without a partner to pull with? Aw, but this is impossible, I realized. God’s angels are our team-members at all times. We’re never alone. Like Warwick. He was not alone. He was spiritually empowered to do the job, and his owner proved it, in a bit of a tricky way, but successfully.

God’s helper angels take different forms in our lives at different times. Sometimes an angel comes in the form of a person standing at our side pulling on the rope like we are, or a person offering encouragement and support from a distance. Other times angels take the form of courage, confidence, and inspiration from within that assures us the task will be accomplished without another person standing at our side.

We often never know ahead of time what form our angel-helper will take, but it will be there when we need it.

If we keep our thought open to what God sends our way, we’ll be ready for its arrival. If we outline physically what form we think the angel should take, we’re likely to miss its helpful presence altogether.

Like Warwick the mule, we can know ahead of time that we are part of a team—God’s team--of competent and able angels. Each of us are God’s angels.

When the command from above comes to “Pull,” we’ll start pulling without looking around first to determine whether we’ll succeed because we know we're part of a team, and we know our whole team is always pulling with us. Our brother and sister angels will be working in full force along our side. And the stuck vehicle will come out of the ditch.

Have fun with your team today!

Finding lost items

I heard an inspiring testimony last night from a woman who explained how she found lost items.

She reasoned that divine Mind knows all. We live in a universe of Mind, and the whereabouts of every item in Mind is known by the Mind that beholds it.

She also pointed out that we all reflect the knowledge of the one Mind, so it's natural for us to look wherever a needed item is located.

She went on to explain that when she can't find something she needs, she says, "Look where it is!"

I loved it.

"Look where it is!"

People spend a lot of time looking where things aren't. Why not save wasted effort and simply "Look where it is!"

She shared how she had discovered the diamond stone in her ring gone.

So, she prayed, "Look where it is." And an inner voice told her to look in a file box of papers. She unloaded the papers, and heard a rattle-rattle. There was the stone.

Dancing with God

For all you dancers!

Dancing With God

When I meditated on the word “Guidance,”

I kept seeing "dance" at the end of the word.

I remember reading that doing God's will is a lot like dancing.

When two people try to lead, nothing feels right.
The movement doesn't flow with the music,
and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.

When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead,
both bodies begin to flow with the music.

One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back
or by pressing lightly in one direction or another.
It's as if two become one body, moving beautifully.

The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other.

My eyes drew back to the word "Guidance."
When I saw "G": I thought of God, followed by "u" and "i".
"God, "u" and "i" dance."
God, you, and I dance.

As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust
that I would get guidance about my life.

Once again, I became willing to let God lead.

My prayer for you today is that God's blessings
and mercies are upon you on this day and everyday.

May you abide in God, as God abides in you.
Dance together with God, trusting God to lead
and to guide you through each season of your life.

Contradictions

A flower's appeal is in its contradictions –
so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance,
so small in size yet big in beauty,
so short in life yet long on effect.

~ Adabella Radici

After reading the above, I thought about the contradictions often associated with struggling to live a spiritual life. Jesus Christ said we had to lose our life to find it, and to be rich we had to be poor. How much more contradictory can you get!

Jesus’ commands make sense though when put into a spiritual context. He meant we had to lose our material sense of life to gain the spiritual, and we needed to be poor in worldly desire to be rich in spiritual growth.

Like the flower that may be “small in size yet big in beauty,” we too, may feel small in size compared to others who are famous and popular, rich and successful, but it’s not our fame and popularity that matter in the long run. It’s the love we live and express. It’s our spirituality manifest that makes us “big in beauty.” And we all have equal access to that privilege.

A quiet mind

Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted.
Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.

~ Hans Margolius

I like the above quote because it reminds me of what happens when we put Christian Science into practice.

From a material point of view, the universe looks chaotic, disordered, diseased, and rife with death. The human mind, absorbed by the material evidence, likewise feels chaotic, disordered, diseased, and subject to death.

But adopt a spiritual perspective of the universe, the "kingdom of heaven at hand" that Jesus Christ preached, and the disturbances in the human mind begin to calm and disappear. Quiet takes over. And when quieted by spiritual truth, the human mind becomes as a mirror for what is real in Spirit.

A "quiet mind" is not a dormant mind, but a spiritually peaceful consciousness of Truth and Love. In this divine consciousness, spiritual reality appears, and the world is seen correctly, from the point of view that God created it in the first place--as wholly good.

And that's a wonderful place to be.

For the New Year

"Meeting that special someone," is a new blog of mine posted recently on tmcyouth.com