Midweek Faith Lift
October 30, 2024
What’s Up When Prayer Isn’t “Working?”
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Passages
October 18, 2024
Long-Lost Tree Grown from a 1,000-year-old Seed
A Symbol of spiritual awakening
In a ground-breaking discovery, botanists have grown a long-lost tree species from a 1,000-year-old seed found in a cave in the Judean Desert in the 1980s. Researchers say they believe the tree species, which is thought to be extinct today, could have been the source of a healing balm mentioned in the Bible and other ancient texts. The seed was unearthed during an archaeological dig in a region north of Jerusalem. The ancient seed was determined to be in pristine condition, but the scientists weren’t able to identify the type of tree from the seed alone. The team, led by researcher Sarah Sallon, planted the seed more than a dozen years ago to further investigate its origin. The approach involved soaking the seed in water mixed with hormones and fertilizer before planting it in a pot of sterile soil. “About five weeks later, up jumps this nice little shoot,” Sallon said. Not long after, the tree began to sprout leaves. Sallon and other scientists continue to study the plant, which is now almost 10 feet tall.
"Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed planted, and I am prepared to expect wonders." - Henry David Thoreau
"Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed."- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Affirmative Prayer for today: Infinite Spirit which is expressed in, through and as each of us, cultivate wisdom, love and the power that initiates, supports and sustains the seed thoughts and transformative process that is affirmative prayer. Amen.
I love the story about this ancient seed and the spiritual truth it represents for us. And that truth is that growth is always possible, healing is always possible, change and transformation is ALWAYS possible…..given the conditions that support and sustain it no matter how long it takes. Our challenge, as that of the scientists and botanists in this situation, is to seek and co-create with Spirit the right and perfect conditions that support and sustain that growth and transformation.
We were just in Ireland for two weeks in a country with an ancient history that includes famine, death, depravation, oppression, war and so much grief as well as breathtaking beauty. As we toured the countryside, we saw green fields of growth as well as monuments and statues to the grief and sadness in the fabric of the Irish culture. In the port town of Cobh, or Cove, there was a statue of Annie Moore, a 17-year-old girl and her two brothers who were the first Irish immigrants to enter the US through Ellis Island in New York. She was part of the Irish Diaspora of the potato famine. That very same statue of Annie Moore is in the museum on Ellis Island in New York.
This port town of Cobh was also the last place for many Irish people to board the Titanic praying for hope and opportunity in the new land of America. Clearly, there were answered prayers for some leaving this port and not for others. What does that say about prayer that we can understand in our lives today? One of the points that Rev. Linda makes about prayer, our affirmative prayer process is that it takes place in a larger context which Unity calls “race consciousness” which impacts our own consciousness even when we don’t see or realize it. When prayer does not seem to be “answered” perhaps we are on some version of the Titanic and we don’t realize it.
Silence, meditation and deep listening are also part of this affirmative prayer process that are essential to the practice if we are truly invested in the transformation within our consciousness that is possible. The question for us, as always, is what have you learned from surviving the Titanic? Each part of our journey is fuel, energy, and fertilizer for our growth in consciousness that supports the next part. We bring our fears, our frustrations, our despair, all of it to this process of prayer. It is like this ancient seed…..it may take a lot of time to bear fruit, but don’t ever give up, especially once you find the seed thought that holds the potential for you. On your own unique journey, you will find your own unique seed thought which only you can find and nurture.
Pause and realize that some folks who have earnest desires and prayers will not find that seed thought that leads to healing because they are seeking that answer from outside of them, from someone else. That does not work, and if prayer does not seem to be “working” for you, pause to reflect if you are also on that path of seeking answers from outside yourself. A true, deep shift in consciousness does not happen in the soil outside your soul but only deep within it. And all your life experiences, good and bad, welcome and unwelcome are the compost for that shift that is a growth in consciousness that yields the desired results. Rev. Linda and DeAnn say it this way on p. 120 of Discover Your Divinity:
Bring your fear. Bring your frustration. Bring it all again and again. Allow realization of your divinity to emerge and transform your small ideas about who you have come here to be.
All of you is part of this Affirmative prayer process, no exceptions! It is in the grappling with all of it that you find your strength and your true divine expression! As Cynthia Occelli, wisdom teacher and lawyer states it:
"For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction."
It is only in the undoing, the cracking and letting go that the wholly new can emerge, sprout and grow.
When you finally have a deep, deep realization of spiritual truth, then that which has lain dormant within you, like the 1000-year-old seed will begin to grow and bear fruit. As Ernest Holmes expressed it in Seminar Lectures:
The perception of wholeness is the consciousness of healing….in practice…the one who has the greatest feeling of wholeness and the greatest subjective embodiment of this wholeness will speak from the greatest degree of wholeness.
And that perception of wholeness is the tiny seed thought of healing, of prosperity, of harmone: the seed of the fullness of healing that eventually bears fruit. So nurture that tiny seed to embrace the fullness of your Divine self that is contained within it. This is NOT a passive process, this is an active declaration that requires you to take action and move your feet.
In John13:17, ASV, Jesus said, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” If you know the Truth, spiritual Truth, and not just the facts, then take the next step, even if it is not the right step: you will be blessed in what you learn. I can’t imagine Annie Moore had full certainty in the outcome of her journey from Ireland to Ellis Island. Eric Butterworth in The Universe is Calling says it this way:
Beyond the Amen of prayer, the next step is to act as if you believe what you have affirmed is really true. Go and do what comes naturally, and it will come naturally, because it is the activity of God in you that has revealed the goal, and has given you the faith in it.
As the Quakers say, when you pray, move your feet!
That is what has happened in Ireland. The Irish have decided to stop fighting about religion, fighting the English and the last war. They have come into the 21st century regarding abortion and birth control and their economy. They said yes to the European Union in the 70’s and accepted the financial supports that this afforded them with faith in the seeds this would plant. Today, the evidence of those choices is everywhere. The economy is strong, young people are coming “home” to Ireland because there are jobs and reasons to be there, a sense of purpose. There are lots of new buildings going up in Dublin, lots of new housing being built for young families. Many foreign companies including American ones are investing in Ireland because of the stability of the government and the economy and the people.
My observation after watching, learning and listening to our Irish tour guides is that the seeds of hope are more powerful than the seeds of hate and discord and the people of Ireland have realized the deep, spiritual truth of that knowing.
"A seed knows how to wait. It's alive while it waits." - Hope Jahren, an American geobiologist at the University of Oslo in Norway
And finally, in the friendliness of the Irish people, in their music and devotion to the land that is Ireland, there is an energy of deep love and dedication that transcends any religion. We heard it from a Celtic musician who said he doesn’t much care what the “church” has to say about anything, but he has a deep spirituality that has carried him through all of his life! I believe he has lived the affirmative pray process, especially in his flute, whistle and harp. He has kept the music of love alive in the fertile fields of Ireland and in his heart.
Finally, in the words of Rumi, "In this soil, this pure field, let’s not plant any seed other than seeds of compassion and love."
May your inner fields be pure and fertile!
Blessings on the Path!
Rev. Deb