Midweek Faith Lift
Living a Resurrected Life
April 14, 2021
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
It's funny how many of our problems result from our entirely unrealistic expectations of what “Life is Supposed to be Like.” I don't see inscribed anywhere on my birth certificate a promise that life was going to be easy or simple — and yet a part of me deeply resents the fact that it isn't easy or simple, as though I had a right to that.
— Molly Wolf in A Place Like Any Other by Molly Wolf
To Practice This Thought:
Quit expecting life to be one way or another.
This statement goes along with the sentiment, we make plans and God laughs! Not because God is going to spoil or ruin those plans but because we entertain the notion that we are in control of things and can determine exactly how things should or will unfold. It will be 32 years ago this coming August that I found 12-Step recovery for Adult Children of Alcoholics and Unity. It was then that I started on a path that was one of resurrection, of living an increasingly awakened life. What lay ahead of me were a great many plot twists and challenges over which I had no control despite all my efforts and delusions!
Giving up the illusion of control is never easy and learning to live with the paradox that surrender is actually a place of great power is something I had to demonstrate for myself repeatedly to really “get” the Truth of it. In all 12- step Programs, the very first step is to admit that you are powerless over…..???? You fill in the blank with alcohol, drugs, food or the name of another person, and yes we can be addicted to another person. We call that co-dependency and we all share in that one! Then you admit that your life has become unmanageable, despite all your attempts to manage and control everything. It is the most profound letting go because our illusions of control do not die easily. If we could just find that one thing that would give our partner peace, we could relax and be happy. We have not learned how to just be with what is, to surrender.
Surrender sounds like giving up, and in a way it is, but it is an active “giving up” not a passive one. It is a recognition that how you have been living in your un-resurrected life is truly a dead end and you are making an active choice to surrender, meaning to “go over to the winning side.” Surrender in this mode is to consciously step out of victim consciousness and embrace the steps that bring you into spiritual and emotional maturity. These are the “lessons” that Myrtle Fillmore speaks of when she talks of life as a school and that we are here to learn lessons.
When I first read that, it was transformative, because what I had labeled as “failures” or “disasters” became lessons. The question shifted from “what did I do wrong?” to “what did I learn from this?” The energy shifted from looking for someone to blame to reflecting on what was my part in this, how did I help to create this situation? The answers to these questions became the stepping-stones to living a “resurrected” life and we take them one by one, learning each lesson as we are willing and able to embrace it. And to be completely honest, I did not embrace them easily or on the first attempt. It took a lot of practice and trial and error learning which is the most frustrating kind. But I did not give up!
What I loved so much about Unity when I first started to attend the Unity Church in Des Moines is that the whole emphasis was on practice, on what you did and how you looked at your life and how you lived your life. It was not on what you believed or learning the rules. Instead, the emphasis was on a God of Love whose energy was devoted to helping you, not judging you….helping me, not judging me. It was then that I started to learn about what real prayer was and how it helps me stay aligned with my Christ self. It was a whole new way of Being, of showing up in my life. And I had a lot to learn!
One of the most profound shifts in consciousness was to consider and then really live into the notion of my “human/divine” self and to regard Jesus as an example of how to do this. When I began to look at Jesus as an elder brother, as a Way Shower, as someone whose life and teachings could show me a new way how to live, I began to realize that this version of Christianity was how it was meant to be before it all went off the rails with rules, dogma and patriarchy. Interpreting Scripture metaphysically was so refreshing, such a joy! It was the only way I could make any sense of it.
When we look at the life and death of Jesus it is a model of surrender, a demonstration of surrender, faith and unconditional love. We read the words of Jesus on the cross:
Luke 23:46
46 Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last. (NRSV)
In that moment Jesus let go of his human life for a transformed, resurrected life. That is his last great teaching or demonstration for us. It is the ultimate example of “let go and let God” which as we live our resurrected life, we do this again and again and again. No matter how many times we want to take it back, we are in process and we practice letting go and letting God. It is living in surrender, it is living a resurrected life.
Surrender is the highest form of “giving up” because it is choosing to live in the reality of the Divine Paradox. The more we surrender, the more we are empowered to truly be present to what is here right now, no matter what it is. We can be with our feelings and thoughts without being driven by them to say or do something we have to later make amends for saying and doing. What a relief that is! We learn from each event where surrender is required so that we recognize it in the future and can make different choices if needed. As Rev. Mark Anthony Lord says in the Release and Renew booklet on p. 63:
Over many years of practice we deepen our understanding, willingness and experience of surrender. Surrendering is a process that is infinite, and there are always deeper layers to dive into until enlightenment is reached….
Maybe enlightenment is what we said at the beginning: we let go of the expectation that life should be one way or the other! What a relief that would be!
Collectively, as a human race, we are really struggling right now with this kind of Divine surrender especially in the struggle with the COVID 19 pandemic. Depression is reportedly widespread because of feelings of loss that run really deep. And we have lost a lot, there is no question of that. We have had to look at ourselves in ways that have been very uncomfortable for all of us. We look at each other as potential “spreaders” of the virus, and we judge one another for the choices we all have made. I have done that, and I have been judged for the choices that I have made. In living a resurrected life, it becomes clear that we are not punished for our “sins” but we are punished by them, by our choices.
We don’t want to be aware, we don’t want to wake up, we don’t want to live a resurrected life. But as we have learned, the mistakes we make, both individually and collectively serve as stepping-stones to our greater awakening, to our growth in consciousness. As it is painful, it is also joyful to live a resurrected life because it continually opens our hearts to more love and a deeper faith. And when that happens, you don’t fit in your old life anymore, you have to find a new one!
There is a story, which I heard in an episode of “On Being” with Krista Tippett. It is a story told by two young men of college age, one Jewish and one a white supremacist. They were both students at a Florida University and both felt out of place on this campus. The conservative young man was steeped in the traditions of his religion and his godfather was David Duke, head of the KKK. The young Jewish man also felt isolated and alone on this liberal campus, so he put up a notice inviting anyone who wanted to do so to come to his dorm and share the Sabbath meal on Friday nights. Guess who went? The godson of David Duke! And he kept attending and the two young men got to know one another and became friends. When that happened, they could no longer hate each other or really participate in anything that supported that pattern of hate.
They were both living a “resurrected” life that now expanded what the actual practice of love and acceptance meant. They were tested in faith to understand how they could live in dissolving the notion of “enemy” and “us v. them” as a way of life. They both spoke of how powerful and healing this was, as well as how disorienting and unsettling it was and is. To live a truly resurrected life is freeing and exhilarating but not easy. It requires faith, prayer, and a constant surrender. That is what Jesus came to show us, to demonstrate for us. That is the message of the Buddha and all the great spiritual teachers. Love has no conditions and joy has no bounds. There is a peace that is beyond all understanding, there is a “kingdom of heaven” and consciousness of God in which we choose to dwell in our resurrected life. May it be so!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb