Midweek Faith Lift
December 4, 2024
“Words of Hope- Words of Faith”
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Passages
November 25, 2024
It seems a man decided to write a book about churches around the country. He started by flying to San Francisco, and working east from there. He went to a very large church and began taking photographs, etc. He spots a golden telephone on a wall and is intrigued with a sign that read, "$10,000 a minute." Seeking the pastor, he asks about the phone and the sign. The pastor answers that this golden phone is, in fact, a direct line to Heaven and if he pays the price he can talk directly to God. He thanks the pastor and continues on his way. He visits churches in Seattle, Boise, Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, Atlanta, and on around the United States and he finds more golden phones, with the same sign, and the same answer from each pastor.
Finally, he arrives at a New Thought church. Upon entering, he sees the usual golden telephone. But this time, the sign read, "Calls 25 cents." Fascinated, he asks the minister, "Reverend, I have been in cities all across the country and in all kinds of churches, and in each one I found this golden telephone and have been told it is a direct line to Heaven and that I could talk to God, but, in the other churches the cost was $10,000 a minute. Your sign reads 25 cents a call. Why?" The minister smiled and replied, "Oh, that's easy to explain. You see, we know here that God is within you. It's a local call from here."
"Don't look for me in a human shape. I am inside your looking." – Rumi
"Everything is energy. Match the frequency of the reality you want, and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics." - Albert Einstein
Affirmative Prayer for Today-We open to the whole energy of God that we are and in this season of Advent, of seeing the light within, we cultivate holy resilience and spiritual strength. Amen
Today is the first Sunday of Advent and our focus is on Hope and it’s constant companion, Faith. Faith is one of our 12 spiritual powers but as we note in Scripture, Faith and Hope are entwined in our Divine/Human experience. The scripture reads:
Hebrews 11:1-4
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. (NRSV-UE)
This is a favorite passage of Charles Fillmore from the apostle Paul’s letter to the Hebrews. Frequently what is quoted is just the first part, about the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen. When you pause and think about the rest of the passage, it is a truly profound statement about the power of Faith and the understanding of Spirit as essentially invisible energy that created the worlds that we experience here and now. What is not yet realized in this passage is the understanding of the spiritual Truth that by the power of Faith, we are co-creators, along with that invisible energy, of what we experience here and now. That is the difference between calling God on a $10,000 line and the .25 local call to the God within that we understand in New Thought!
Several years ago for the first Sunday of Advent, I described the energy of hope as “Heart Open, Pure Energy!” I believe that fits even more now, especially after our study of the process of affirmative prayer. We embrace the season of Advent with Heart Open, expressing the Pure Energy of Spirit that we know we are. In this consciousness, we engage with others, our family and all of society and creation in the energy of love and expansion. And we do this without losing ourselves, our individuation as a unique expression of God. How can we manage that?
As we noted last week, when we explored the energy of gratitude, we acknowledged that fear can frequently rise up and derail our most deeply held beliefs and intentions, no matter how honorable. Whatever the fear is, the human experience of it can seem so very real and convincing and it can paralyze us. That is the classic flight, fight or freeze response to perceived threats. Psychologists have identified a fourth response whereby we fawn over the oppressor, seeking safety by agreeing with them even as we secretly disagree or despise them. How do we step out of this energy of fear and into a path of faith? How do I keep my heart open when I “feel” under attack?
We know that resistance is not the path to take because, as experience has demonstrated, what we resist persists! This is where holy resilience comes in, where the whole spirit of God in-fills our mind, body and spirit. The theme and focus of the Unity Advent booklet this year is “Be Not Afraid” which really fits the mood and energy of race consciousness right now! On p.11, Rev. Linda Martella-Whitsett shares a story and an antidote to this paralyzing fear. She quotes a guru, who said “just do the next thing.” What powerful focus that gives us, just do the next thing, whatever it is. Drink some water, stand up, use the bathroom, take out the trash, just do the next thing.
When our brain moves to concrete actions, it moves out of the amygdala, the origin of the fear response and into the frontal cortex, the more logical, planning part of the brain. And then breathe! The power of Faith has not abandoned us because we know, from our .25 phone call, that God never abandons us. God is as near as our next breath. We just sometimes feel lost and adrift from our God-self energy as we live in our human consciousness and experience. What then, do we do to navigate this human dimension more skillfully?
An article dated November 9, 2024, syndicated from Greater Good by Jenara Nerenberg came across my inbox. It’s a report of research being done by Julia Minson at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Minson and her colleagues are researching what they call “conversational receptiveness” which is language that shows we are open to someone else’s perspective. When we use that language, then the other person is more likely to be open to our perspective. Minson is training people to use these language patterns and then collecting data on resulting attidudes and behaviors. When people feel heard, then hearing someone else is more likely and the energy of this hearing is contagious! Truly I tell you, when I read this article, it gave me great hope!
What are they teaching people? Well they have an acronym, HEAR, for the steps they teach people and they have people practice these four steps. And they were able to demonstrate a positive effect even when only one party to the conversation was following the HEAR protocol. What is the HEAR protocol?
H is hedging – as in hedging your claims with words like “sometimes, maybe, perhaps, some people” The idea is that you don’t change your message, but you make your claim with a little less dogmatism.
The E stands for Emphasizing agreement, so words like “We both want to” or “I also think” or “I agree with some of what you are saying.” It doesn’t mean that your are compromising or changing your view or meeting in the middle, it just means that your recognize most disagreements are multidimensional, so there are some things you agree on.
The A is for Acknowledgment, commonly taught in active listening. There is an effective way to do this and an ineffective way. When we say, “I hear you, but here is where I’m coming from,” it is not likely to communicate that you really heard or understood what they said. Something more like, “I hear that this topic is really important to you because you feel like if we don’t address it, then these bad things are going to happen.” Now, you have more space to share your point.
R is for reframing to the positive, which is eliminating words of negation such as no, don’t, can’t, won’t and adding positive emotion words. So instead of “I could never agree to that….” We would say, “I would love to look for opportunities to evaluate the benefits of any potential projects.”
What a simple and powerful way to teach people the language that enhances our ability to really hear each other! To me the words of HEAR are words of HOPE and they help me to keep the faith! The researchers are teaching this pattern to adults and to students in high school and middle school with measurable success. Wow! Finding ways to increase the likelihood of people hearing each other, agreeing and resonating with one another, that is a powerful demonstration of Faith, and God does not even enter the vocabulary. That does not mean that the energy of God, of Love is not present in this work, however! We do not have to call it God for the true power and presence of God to be felt in our interactions with others. We are never truly lost, because God could never lose us!
Rev. Linda shares in her article, “Just Do the Next Thing” means that I take the easy way, the path of least resistance, walking through an open door. She shares a Nigerian proverb:
The snail has no hands,
The snail has no feet,
Gently the snail climbs the tree.
Perhaps we are making this much too hard….it needs to be filled with ease and peace as we learn to truly HEAR each other.
And finally, Rev. Linda shares a prayer/affirmation with us:
I just do the next thing.
Concentrating spiritual power.
I choose the easy way.
I go through the open door.
I follow the clear path.
I embody divine order,
Doing the next thing.
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb