Listen to the PodCast of "Kindness Grows" with the Unity Palo Alto Youth of Unity. 

What a wonderful Mother's Day service from our own Youth of Unity, who showed us how a simple act of kindness, like a hug, can make such a difference in someone's life. Their talk reminds us the we are all connected and we each have an innate ability to Love.

Scripture: "Love never ends." 1st Chorinthians.

Quote: "True love must be shared; it cannot be horded.  To be blessed by love it must be expressed not repressed." -How to Use the Power of Prayer, by Harold Sherman

Affirmation: I am here to spread God's Love!

On Sunday, our Prayer Chaplains led a wonderful dedication service focusing on the fourth principle in Unity, the constructive power of prayer and meditation. Their message is that the practice of prayer connects us with the creative, constructive power of God to work in and through us. As we pray, we come to see that the purpose of prayer is not only to fill our earthly needs but alto to satisfy our deeper need to feel our oneness with God, to sense the comfort and the guidance and the healing that rise up out of  opening ourselves to God.

"While historically we may have prayed to a Higher Power outside ourselves, imploring for things and outer changes in our lives, we are now discovering that this Power is omnipresent and dwells within each of us." -Mary-Alice and Richard Jafolla

"With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

Affirmation: "I pray to know God and as I experience God, the people and circumstances of my life change in more loving ways. And this is so."

Principle: “There is only God, God within, God all around. Let us remember, really remember who and what we are and what we were created to be.”

Scripture: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Matthew 6:25

Quote: “Most people are so distraced by their thoughts, so identified with the voices in their heads, they can no longer feel the aliveness within them.” Eckart Tolle

Affirmation: “Today I choose to remember. Today I choose to see the Love of God in everything including me.”

Scripture: God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them." Genesis 1:27 (The Message)

Quote: "The art of life is to live in the present moment, and to make that moment as perfect as we can by the realization that we are the instruments and expression of God Itself." Emmet Fox

Affirmation: I am the coming forth of God into self-expression.

Scripture: And they said among themselves, who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us, for it was very large? And the looked and saw that the stone was rolled away. -Mark 16:3-4

Quote: Easter says to everyone, "No matter what challenges you may be facing in your life, with the right attitude you can go through them, and no tomb of human despair can hold you back." -Eric Butterworth

Affirmation: I roll away any barrier I am experiencing with joy, courage and zeal, into a new consciousness of life.

Last Sunday, Rev. Karyn Bradley led a special service where we combined both the 8:45 and 11:00 services into one service to celebrate our spiritul community, to celebrate our Oneness! Metaphysically, Jerusalem, the Holy City, represents the love center in our consciousness. What better way to prepare the way for a rising of our consciousness than to celebrate the love we have for each other.

Scripture: "Behold, I send my messenger... which shall prepare thy way before thee." -Mark 1:2

Quote: "When we are capable of living in the moment free from the tyranny of "shoulds" free from the nagging sensation that this moment isn't right, we will have peaceful hearts." -Karen Horney

Affirmation: "I prepare myself in faith and ability to live in love, peace and harmony."

Principle: As you look at all persons as a part of yourself. When you know that your good and their good is bound by immutable laws, you will set free the imprisoned love within you, and you will experience universal, unconditional love.

Scripture: Let your aims be common, and your hearts of one accord, and all of you be of one mind, so you may live well together. Rig Veda 10.191.2-4

Quote: In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it. Marianne Williamson

Affirmation: I walk in peace, I live in love and I create a community of harmony wherever I go.

Principle: Unity teachings promotes self-knowledge and conscious spiritual growth as the path to returning to our innate wholeness. It reminds us that we draw strength and wisdom from the spiritual universe by looking within ourselves.

Scripture: “Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.’ Romans 12:2 New Living Translation

Quote: “One of the most significant findings in psychology in the last 20 years is that individuals can choose the way they think.” Martin Seligman

Affirmation: “I walk in peace, I live in love and I create a community of harmony wherever I go.”

Rev. Karyn Bradley continues to help us define what a meaningful life is with the question from last week, “How then shall we live, knowing we will die?” Today’s lesson is about the nature of God’s love within us and how expanding our capacity to love enables us to comprehend God’s love for us.

Karyn made some thought provoking points in her talk, such as; “How can I love in this situation?”(Difficult situations with people we find challenging.) She told the story of Tommy, the atheist, and how Tommy finally had a relationship with God when he opened up his heart to express the love in his heart. Tommy’s question was, “Why did I wait so long?”

Yes, why do we wait so long? What are we afraid of? Well, right off the top, a few things come up. What if they reject my love? What if they don’t love me back? Which then leads to the question, does any of that matter? What do you think?

Expressing love changes us. Karyn spoke about awakening in us, the capacity to love so we can comprehend the expansiveness and the depth of God’s love for us. A love so beyond human expression, that It cannot be described in words but only experienced.

If the end result of loving deeply, fully, and wisely (not advocating co-dependence but healthy love) with compassion and understanding, is experiencing God’s love, how can we hold back?

The more we love, the more we experience love and the more capacity we have for love and the more we feel God’s love. It all keeps expanding and deepening.

Given all that we gleaned from Karyn’s talk, I ask the following questions.
Who is the person that if you express love to them, will open your heart the most?
Who is the difficult one and why?
How can you love them in a way that they will understand?
Can you let go of an expected outcome and just express love in a healthy way?
Do you feel God’s love for you? How does it differ from experiencing human love (if it does)?
What insights do you have or stories you would like to share?

Principle: The heart of most spiritual practice is simply this: Remember. Remember who you are. Remember what you love. Remember what is sacred. Remember what is true. Remember that you will die, and that this day is a gift. Remember how you wish to live. Graceful Passages

Scripture: “Love is patient; love is kind; love envies no one. Love does not make a vain display of itself; it does not boast; it keeps no scores of right or wrong, but delights in the truth. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5

Quote: "But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things". Vincent van Gogh

Affirmation: I am a radiating center of divine love, mighty to attract my good and to radiate good to others.

Rev. Karyn Bradley continues the series continues on how to live in heaven on earth. Today Karyn spoke about Acceptance. It’s so hard for us sometimes to accept compliments or to accept the good things about ourselves and the good that is God within us.

We need to open ourselves up to Radical Acceptance. One Presence, One Power that we call God is always here. Heaven is always here. All we have to do is accept it, open ourselves to it, realize it, and enter into it right here, right now.

Karyn reminded us of the parable of the “Prodigal Son.” The perfect lesson to remind us that we are always loved, always accepted by God.

God Mind does not condemn, God only loves, that is all God can do because that is what God is and that is what we are too.

Have you ever loved or been loved unconditionally? My Auntie Vi loved me unconditionally. No matter what, she loved me and thought I was wonderful. Her love kept me alive through some really tough times. My love for her was unconditional too and it is absolute heaven to have that experience of loving and being loved unconditionally. This kind of love is thought of as a rarity but the opposite is true. Sometimes we hide our love or have an error thought that we aren’t loved or we are unlovable but nothing could be further from the Truth. Unconditional love is truly the way of things, to not feel ourselves in the overflow of Divine Love is the oddity.

Accepting this love means giving up some of our stories and beliefs about not being enough. We have tricked ourselves into believing that we have spent our inheritance, like the Prodigal Son. We sometimes believe that only one person or group of people will give us the love we need and crave. But the Love of God is within us. We have it, we have more than we can humanly experience--it is just that strong.

God is within us, as Love. It is impossible for us not to be loved or to love. We just have to get quiet enough to feel it and brave enough to accept it. Are you ready?

First, I would invite everyone to listen again, via podcast, to Rev. Karyn Bradley’s powerful message on radical forgiveness. Why? If you are like me depending on where I am in my life, I hear certain things and I tune certain things out. I don’t want to tune anything out anymore.

Knowing that we are all at different places in our lives and in our understanding, I posit that no matter where we are in our journey, learning to forgive and to awaken to our inner Truth are the mainstays we carry with us on the path and when we get lost.

Forgiveness was the message of Jesus; forgiveness is the message of Unity, Course in Miracles and every major religion. But as Karyn pointed out often times we aren’t really forgiving if we still harbor feelings of ill will or see ourselves as a victim.

When we become aware of the fullness of God within, Karyn says, and live from our higher Truth--hurt, anger, blame and resentment will have no place in our lives.

We become aware that we live in the human world and the world of the divine. We marry heaven and earth and live from a deeper more profound place. How do we achieve this? Radical forgiveness.

Why would one type of forgiveness be more radical than another? Because with radical forgiveness we are no longer a victim but a creator, therefore there is nothing to forgive. We come from a knowing that everything happens for a reason. I appreciated Karyn’s interpretation of Jesus’ “turn the other check.” It’s about turning to see something different, to get another perspective.

There are many things that have happened in my life that in hindsight no longer appear tragic but a necessary part of my awakening. That is what radical forgiveness is, seeing that no matter what horrible thing has happened to us to open ourselves up to the possibility that we attracted this into our lives for growth. We become willing to see a greater reality beneath all that goes on and create from that.
We choose peace. This isn’t always easy to hear and not always easy to do but if we truly want a world that works for all, this is a concrete way to achieve our goal. Namaste.

Rev. Karyn Bradley’s talk was about marrying the small, earthly human self to the higher Self, the higher consciousness Self, so that we can make the changes we desire in our life. So we can be the highest and best expression of God, as us.

What the talk brought up for me is self-love. I was raised in a religion that emphasized selflessness and suffering. Thinking of others and doing good works is admirable but I got the impression from my parents and my birth religion that thinking well of oneself was frowned upon. My parents and my teachers hadn’t adequately explained the difference between true humility and self-loathing. Some of their message involved being encouraged to believe that we were unworthy and by nature sinful. My internal knowing said that this was not right.

Finding Unity was a blessing and a lifesaver. I had always been confused by Jesus’ message, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If I didn’t love myself and shouldn’t love myself then how could I love my neighbor?

Karyn’s talk reminded me that God is Love, Unconditional Love. And I am an expression of God on earth. Therefore, I have unconditional love within me, for me and for others. The more awareness I have of this, the happier and more peaceful I am because I am in alignment with Truth.

It is the illusion of separation from God that creates so much pain. The illusion that love is something we receive from others creates more pain. When we love, we are expressing what is already there and that is what feels so wonderful. When we love unconditionally we have the opportunity be our highest expression. We are aware and awake to who we truly are and we are living our divine purpose.

So loving oneself and bring the reality of our divinity in alignment with our humanity elevates the human experience and we are all the richer for it. Thank you Karyn for this reminder.

When I was a child, the concepts of heaven and hell were used as motivators-be good, go to heaven; be bad and burn in the eternal fires of hell. Which one to choose seemed pretty easy but the doing the good things to get to that place in the ethers called heaven, proved to be more difficult.

As Rev. Karyn Bradley so beautifully expressed in her talk, “Clearing out hell so heaven can reign,” what we create is up to us. We can be aware of our divine nature and create heaven from that awareness or we can stay in fear and blame and create hell.

What I received from her talk is that when we claim our divine nature we can bring that to our earthly experience. We are always at choice. We can choose thoughts of love and forgiveness, understanding, and right judgment or we can hold on to thoughts and actions that focus on fear and blame.

What’s difficult sometimes is taking the responsibility for what we have created. We are like that monkey that Karyn spoke of weeks ago, who wouldn’t let go of the treat to get its hand out of the jar. We are like that too, we hang on to ideas, beliefs and ways of being that promote fear. We look outside ourselves for the cause of our misery and blame others. When we take responsibility we are empowered, because we have tapped into something deeper, something real and that guides us.

We must have a singleness of purpose and chip away anything that keeps us stuck and that keeps us feeling we are separate from God and each other.

I choose heaven today and I know with prayer, meditation and right thinking I can see a bit more heaven each and every day.

Right before Our Eyes is the title of Rev. Karyn Bradley’s talk this past Sunday. She spoke about not just hearing about Unity principles and Truth teachings but living them. We live them by creating opportunities to be reminded of them.

We all need reminders to live from a deeper place. We all need those reminders that we are enough, in fact, we are the Christ! We are the living expressions of God which in Unity we refer to as the Christ. So, we stop and we remember who we are and who we came here to be. In fact, reminders are right before our very eyes.

Karyn gave us some tools to remind us, one of which was the Sunday bulletin. The bulletin has been revamped and has a new look. But how many knew the bulletin was actually a spiritual tool? It is organized so that a glance at the cover is all we need to bring us back to center: the principle, the scripture, the quote and the practice are all there-right before our eyes.

If we want to change our lives, we have to change our daily practices. It is so easy to become distracted in this world. We have more distractions than ever before. Why not use technology or our distractions to remind us to go within or to pray, or to be grateful, or to see the Christ in ourselves or others.

Unity Palo Alto’s ministerial team has made it easy for us, just look at the bulletin and know that there is a different way to be, that we can internalize these principles and live from them more fully. We just have to remember we are the Christ-it’s our job, it’s who we are and who we have come here to be.

On Sunday, John talked about how we can create a moment of joy in our lives. In his talk he asked us to take a moment to think about something in your life that brings you a deep sense of appreciation and gratitude. It could be the memory of holding your grandchild for the first time or hiking in the beauty of Yosemite. It may be an accomplishment like giving the best presentation of your life at work or making that perfect swing on the golf course. Perhaps the feeling came as the result of spending time in the silence in the Prayer Chapel at Unity Village. Hold that image and allow the feeling of joy to fill your heart. Wouldn’t be wonderful to feel that feeling throughout our day?

Joy is the result of realizing our oneness with the Divine within us, when our state of consciousness in harmony with the thoughts of God. And, this realization can only be done when we are fully present. There are many things that can pull us away from being fully present in whatever we are doing and consciously realizing our oneness. One of the biggest challenges comes from the human nature of story telling.

We are wonderful story tellers. When coming from our human nature, we have the ability to create a rich soap-opera story of our life. Stories of why people don’t like us, why we are not worthy, why our lives are heading in the wrong direction. How often do we live our lives through our stories about the past or about the future?

When we become aware that our human nature is telling stories we can use the deep spiritual principle of “Stop It!” then, bring to mind a story from our book of joy. Take a breath and allow that memory of joy to bring you back to the present, to give you strength and to focus on God.
 

Below is the video shown at the Sunday Service. Remember, this is a metaphor for our own consciousness, an example of our ability to deny the human nature stories we play have any power over us. It is not mean to be practiced with other people!
 

On Sunday, Karyn gave a wonderful talk about the dream Martin Luther King, Jr. had and the dreams we all have. The principle: Before there can be the manifestation in the outer, we must hold our vision. Before there is fulfillment on earth, our part is the vision. We took some time together in the silence to discern what our own individual vision of Unity Palo Alto is and in this consciousness, everyone completed a church-wide survey.

Principle: Before there can be the manifestation in the outer, we must hold our vision. Before there is fulfillment on earth, our part is the vision.

Scripture: …with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6 (NIV)

Quote: "Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world." Harriet Tubman

Affirmation: I proceed confidently in the direction of my dreams

Our guest speaker, Melanie Dewberry Jones loves words, not just for the sound of them or even there meaning but the resonance that words have. Words carry energy. Some words have sacredness to them or a higher vibration than others.

She believes that we can help ourselves and our world evolve by using language in a way that expands us and transports us to a place of hearing beyond the literal interpretation of the word. What comes to mind for me is the Unity Trinity: Mind, Idea, and Expression.

Mind (according to co-founder, Charles Fillmore) is the common meeting ground of God and man. It is the starting point of every act, thought and feeling. Idea is the primary thought of Being. It is an idea in Mind first. Expression can be thought and thought can be expressed in action or words or both. So if we look at words as a sacred expression and choose them accordingly what we create will naturally be more expansive than words that are negative.

The words that Melanie spoke that have the power to transform and help us evolve are: Glorious, Sacred, Devotion, Generative, Communion, Benevolence, and Holy. During the service we choose our own word for the year, to set our intention and bring forth a quality or a Divine Idea to express.

If you missed the white stone ceremony, I highly encourage you to listen to the podcast and do your own ceremony using a stone or another meaningful object upon which you can write your word.

Intuitively discerning our intention or our name using these words or other sacred words sets us up for the year in a positive way. We are defining who we are, who we are willing to be and who we came here to be. We pick words that will heal us, motivate us and guide our actions; so that we can create a new consciousness and a new reality. Thank you Melanie, for guiding us through this process.

The Burning Bowl is one of Unity’s most honored rituals. It brings spiritual ideas of release and affirmation into physical manifestation. We physically write down what no longer serves us (ideas, ways of being) that we want to release. We then take the walk of faith, in community, and physically release that bit of paper carrying our wishes into a cleansing fire. How I need that ritual to solidify my highest good for the coming year.

2012 seems to represent, for a number of people, a desire for a deeper, more authentic and more conscious way of being. Rev. Karyn Bradley shared her desire to “release whatever holds her back from living authentically.” That is my desire as well. Being authentic is all we have; it comes from the deepest most sacred part of us. Taking off the masks of who we think we should be or what others think we should allows us to connect in a deeper way. The masks keep us separate. Trying to be something we are not is difficult at best. Being vulnerable enough to be truly seen seems like the harder road but in the end it turns out to be the easier, softer way.

It takes courage to be who we are and when others see it and feel it, they feel safer and more able to be vulnerable too. A common fear if that if others really knew us they wouldn’t like us. The opposite is true. When we are open, vulnerable, authentic we are coming from a different place-our sense of integrity, our hearts, our Spirit. That is inherently lovable. It is the masks that cause our problems. How can we connect if there is nothing real with which to connect?

This year for me is a call to action, to be authentic, open-hearted, vulnerable--seen. My wish for all of us is to come out of the shadows of fear and doubt and step into the sunlight of Spirit. My wish is that you know how amazing you truly are, how magnificent, how worthy.

Happy New Year!
Rev. Margaret Flick

Rev. Karyn Bradley continues the story of the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” as a powerful teaching tool. This movie is still so meaningful because of how it touches us and the layered message it holds for us of hope and love in its many forms.

Today Karyn spoke about what drove George to the edge, why he didn’t want to have been born. ($8,000 was missing at his bank and he was being audited.) The circumstances in his life were overwhelming and finally in his desperation he turns to God and prays, “Show me what to do, give me a sign.” His situation didn’t change immediately and in fact it got worse and he felt his prayer didn’t work. We sometimes think that prayer will be answered in a certain way and look a certain way and like George we get discouraged when that doesn’t happen.

But George’s true prayer comes later in the movie and it is “let me live again.” It is a prayer that asks to be changed at depth. His circumstances didn’t change but he was ready to face them. It is about prayer changing us within so that no matter what the circumstances we are able to cope. We know the truth of who we are and we are steadfast in our knowing that God is within us. We look for how God is expressing not only as us but how the answer to our prayers might be right in front of us. We let go of appearances and see, really see.

Prayer takes us to a different place so that we can see with different eyes and respond to every situation with an open mind and an open heart. Then, we can know that it truly is “a wonderful life.”

May we all be open to an abundance of God thoughts.

This Sunday, Rev. Karyn Bradley continued to use the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” as teaching tool. One of the most important plot points in the movie is when George Bailey is so disillusioned with life that he believes that the world would be better off without him, he wishes he would never have been born.

But as Karyn explains each of us has a divine purpose here on this earth. We are here to express the divine in our own unique way. And if we go within, if we develop the habit of centering our thoughts on God by thinking thoughts of appreciation, gratitude, love, joy, peace then pretty soon we will find within us, the knowledge and the ownership of our own value and worth as expressions of God. We will know why we are here and what we are here to do.

Sometimes we think that our purpose has to be something grand, but maybe it is in the living of our lives that our purpose evolves. One of my favorite authors, Parker Palmer wrote a book called, “Let Your Life Speak.” He posits that we don’t tell our life what we want our live tells us what we are about. And, we never know the effect we have on other people, just like George in the movie. He touched so many lives just by being who he is and in his case even saved a couple of lives.

I have had people who have been angels in my life by helping me when I needed it most, and without even knowing it, have changed the course of my life. We all have had those people and we have been those people. It is by developing the awareness that our goodness is inherent that we learn our value. It is an inside job with an outward manifestation. Just like George Bailey came to realize not only how many people’s lives he touched but also that despite his present difficulties, he had a wonderful life.

Rev. Karyn Bradley’s new talk series is based on the holiday movie favorite, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” This particular movie has captured our imaginations for 65 years and there is a good reason-it has so many wonderful messages.

Rev. Karyn Bradley starts the series by giving us the basic opening plot points (George Bailey giving up going to college to run his late father’s savings and loan; George marries his high-school sweetheart Mary; on the way to their honeymoon, there is a run on the bank.)

Life happens and how we deal with it and what thoughts we have to frame the situation we are in makes all the difference in the outcome. The scene Karyn spoke about was the “run on the bank.” People had heard that there wasn’t enough money in the bank and so they ran to George’s Savings and Loan demanding their money. They were panicked and the mob mentality set in. When we panic we forget our teachings; we aren’t present to something greater, a higher intelligence or guidance. We believe in the power of the situation rather than the power of the divine within us.

God within, and all around us, immanent and transcendent is our strength. As Karyn quoted from Emerson, “we need to stand guard at the portal of our minds and watch our thoughts.” Our thoughts are creative and we can choose to have a God thought and affirm the power of our Christ self in that moment. I loved Karyn’s

God thought for herself, “I am so excited to see how God is going to work this out.” I plan to use that when I have a “run on the bank in my life” a situation that seems bleak or hopeless. Reminding myself to have a God thought rather than a panic thought can help me to create a wonderful life.

Rev. Karyn Bradley spoke about abundant gratitude today. She spoke about gratitude as a way of being. When I am grateful my perspective on everything changes. Gratitude changes me from the inside out.

When I am grateful for all of it, the joy and the sorrow, the successes and the failures I become aware of the gifts each brings. The sorrow and the failures help me become more compassionate towards myself and others and I am grateful. The joys and the successes call forth gratitude for what I have been given. God is in all of it because I am in all of it and we are all expressions of God.

Myrtle Fillmore basically healed herself with affirmations and gratitude, blessing every cell in her body. Charles Fillmore said an attitude of gratitude announces the realization we are in heaven. Karyn spoke about the scientific studies that proved gratitude has a positive effect on the body. Gratitude is powerful!

We can be grateful not only for what we have in the material world but as Karyn expressed so beautifully, we can be grateful for the unseen spiritual laws and principles such as free will (we are always at choice), the law of abundance in the universe, forgiveness, prayer, the teachings of Jesus that showed us we all have the Christ within us and most of all to be grateful for the singular Presence of God.

Gratitude is an allowing of the awareness of God’s Presence in everything. Starting and ending each day with a gratitude list will bring a brighter day and a more peaceful night. Gratitude calls us to be fully present, heart-centered and genuinely mindful. Because gratitude is way of seeing; we see the light of God peeping out in everything and we are grateful.

What if we could love ourselves completely? What if we could look in the mirror warts and all and say this is good, this is me and I love me? Rev. Karyn Bradley invites us this week to look at ourselves as complete, authentic and whole human beings-and claim it all good.

Our most basic foundation statement in Unity is that God is everywhere Present, and that God is good and because we are expressions of God, we are good too.

But sometimes we judge ourselves as lacking because we see parts of ourselves that we deem less than perfect. Then we go about trying to hide those parts. When we expend energy hiding something, we become pale versions of ourselves and become inauthentic. Being inauthentic is a very difficult way to live because it takes so much effort to be something we are not.

Karyn likened it to carrying around a grapefruit all day and hiding it so no on would see it. That’s a hard way to live because the emphasis is on covering up the flaw and our energy is directed at hiding not living. We are not present for the moment at hand and all of its beauty.

The things we don’t like about ourselves have things to teach us. There are many gifts in the darkness. We can learn acceptance and a deeper compassion for ourselves and others.

When we reconcile our flaws with the parts we like and accept them as part of who we are, we feel lighter and more joyous. Karyn taught us to say, “It’s ok.” We don’t deny that these parts of us exist but we put them in their proper perspective-a small part of a bigger whole.

What freedom that acceptance brings, what joy to no longer live in hiding but to look into our inner mirror and know that all of it brings us closer to the Truth of who we are. We can be grateful for all of it for in the acceptance comes connection. We look with love upon ourselves and others knowing that we walk the path together.

Some of us spent this past weekend on retreat with our guest speaker Rev. Paulette Pipe. Her talk to me had a similar feel to the retreat. She showed us that there is more than one way to meditate. If we get stuck or off track, we acknowledge the feeling or thought and back on track. Paulette spoke today about how we handle things when our lives have the appearance of being off track.

Rev. Pipe set the intention for all of us to demonstrate an audacious, bold and courageous prayer life to get us through the detours of life. Paulette told us the story of a trip to San Francisco that didn’t turn out as planned but in a way turned out so much better. Detours can be like that. We have in our mind that things need to look a certain way. But when we trust in God, there are always blessings and things turn out better than we could have dreamed.

Paulette used stories from the Bible to illustrate that even King David, Joseph (and his coat of many colors) and Jesus all had events in their lives where they had a set-back, a detour or the appearance of a missed opportunity. They handled them in different ways but the outcome was the same-all things worked for good.

So whether we are experiencing what appears to be a setback whether it is in meditation, manifesting a dream, healing a relationship there are things that help us stay on the path wherever it may lead. We stay centered by giving thanks and praise to God, using our gifts and talents no matter where we are or what we are doing; feel our feelings then raise our consciousness through prayer above the level of the concern; believe that “with God all things are possible,” then speak the Word of Truth to manifest our good. If we feed our faith our doubts will turn to dust. Detours do not deter us; they often lead to a better way on our glorious spiritual path.

This statement is often said in a state of exasperation and feeling helpless. Well, only God knows what is in that person’s mind or we apply it to why something happened. Rev. Karyn Bradley gives us a different perspective this week.

When we apply Truth principles to our lives, when we stop grasping and clinging to how things should be and how they should look, something amazing happens. When we let go and let God guide us we are in the realm of Divine Wisdom and Intelligence.

We are never forsaken. When we surrender to the Allness of Spirit, when we let go of our small vision, we are filled with Spirit and a bigger vision for our lives. We can be healed and prospered.
It isn’t easy to let go. But “God knows surrender” is a state of grace. Grace is the “logical result, of the correct acceptance of life and the correct relationship to God. The Universe is always for us, always creating our greater good, if we get out of the way and let it.

Surrendering to the Presence within, we are raised above our human awareness and instead guided by Spirit. We have to trust and know that no matter how painful it is to let go of old ideas and limiting beliefs and visions for ourselves, something greater always awaits when we rely fully on Spirit. “Put first the kingdom of heaven” and we know that kingdom is within. Surrender to Spirit and trust that we will find what we are seeking

Rev. Karyn Bradley concluded the ACTS of God series with (S) Serving the Sacred. We learned being of service can mean many things. It can be ushering or doing hospitality at church, it can be volunteering at a soup kitchen or it can be a number of giving acts that make a difference in our lives and someone else’s.

When we give we always receive. That is fact. When we are heart-centered and coming from love and compassion we receive back in kind because the love and compassion are the Truth of us. We don’t give to receive; we give because we love and because we see our connection to each other. We are the Christ.

The examples that Karyn used that stand out in my mind are the one of the horsemen helping the old man who couldn’t cross the river in the snow. The man saw compassion in the eyes of the last horseman that was passing by him. He knew this man would help him and that man turned out to be Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson received the gift of having the old man remind him to not forget that being of service and being compassionate are what is truly important no matter what external trappings or position we hold in the world.

The other story was about the white man stopping to help the black woman who was having car trouble in the rainstorm. This was unheard of in the South in the 1960’s. He helped her get to where she was going, and it turned out she was Mrs. Nat King Cole on her way to be with her husband in the last moments of his life. Sometimes we must do what is right even if we have to buck convention.

The video we watched reminded us that we never know what is going on in someone’s life. They could be in terrible emotional or physical pain. When we remember that every encounter is an opportunity to meet the Christ. We learn not to judge but to do our best to be the love and compassion that we have in abundance within us. When we look for ways to give, we serve the sacred within us and that in turn serves the world.

Rev. Karyn Bradley continues her series on the ACTS of God. So far we have covered A (Amazing Grace), C (Compassion) and today is T, To Boldly Go Forth.

Boldness is not a word that is used very often in my experience. It might have referred to an unconventional color choice but being bold in my family was not encouraged. It was better to not be noticed, to not stand out. I was taught bold equaled pride. However, this is not true-depending on our intention.

To Boldly Go Forth is being who we have come here to be in fullness. It is not ego; it is not “Look at me because I need attention,” but instead “this is how Spirit is expressing through me as me.” It is courageous; it is brave.

It is fulfilling the desire of our hearts and going beyond what is comfortable. We like comfort and many people resist change at all costs. But as we know well, change is one of the things we can count on. Boldly going forth suggests change, and walking through the fear and doing it anyway. We heard examples of how baby eaglets are taught how to fly (pushed out of the nest), and saw the video of the young football player who was able to go beyond what he thought possible. Pushed beyond what they thought they could do, they achieved what appeared, at first, to be impossible.

Using the tools we are so blessed to have in Unity (denials, affirmations, prayer, meditation) we are open to the guidance of Spirit, pushing us to Boldly Go Forth and be the perfect expressions of God that we are called to be. We are called to fly, to soar with the knowledge that we are supported by the love and power of God in and through us. We boldly go forth heart-centered, Spirit guided and faith-filled.

Rev. Karyn Bradley continues her series on the ACTS of God, which stand for Amazing Grace (A), Compassion (C), To boldly go forth (T) and engage in meaningful Service (S). When we align and work in harmony with these acts, we have peace, harmony and joy.

Karyn spoke about how compassion gives our divinity room to breathe. It comes from a deeper place. When we are not aligned with compassion we don’t feel connected so it’s easier to judge and find fault and even become mean spirited. But when we come from compassion, those things are not even possible.

When we are aligned with Spirit and come from that place of compassion we have love, empathy, caring and Oneness. We are on the path to enlightenment because we are Spirit-led.

The hard part is having love and compassion for those with whom we find the most challenging. It is here that we are called to forgive. It is in forgiveness that we develop compassion.

Karyn spoke about three types of forgiveness.

1. Convenient forgiveness. This is forgiving someone we love and it’s no big deal (like being late for lunch).
2. Inconvenient forgiveness. “I love you and I don’t like what you did,” or “I never liked you and I don’t like anything you do.” We bless and release people in this situation. “I love you, I bless you and I release you.” We release them from our expectations of them.
3. Profound forgiveness. This is carrying forth the dictate by our way-shower, Jesus, “to love our enemies.” This is forgiving when it is so beyond our comprehension that forgiveness is even possible. We heard an example of a mother forgiving the man who shot and killed her son and how that her act of forgiveness profoundly changed both of them. 

Namaste.

View the video played during the service:

Rev. Karyn Bradley spoke today about ACTS of God. She wasn’t speaking about what we usually think about when referring to Acts of God, such as: hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, etc. Instead she referred to Amazing Grace (A), Compassion (C), To boldly go forth (T) and Service (S).

We start with grace. We are all familiar with the song Amazing Grace and the story of a slave trader who saw the light and changed his ways. He asked for grace and to be forgiven. He not only wrote the song but was an advocate for abolishing slavery. Grace was at work in his life, now he was aware of it. Rev. Karyn Bradley spoke about when we journey from our head to our heart we become open to a new feeling and a new way of being.

“Amazing Grace” is one of my favorite songs, because it speaks to the abiding Love of God for us and as us. There is a saying, “there is nothing lost in God’s world” and I believe that includes us. We can never be lost or cut-off from the love of God or God’s grace because we are beloved by God. God never sees anything wrong with us; we just have to open our hearts to accepting this love. When we do, we change and we see and feel things on a deeper level. There was an image in the talk about raising our sails and letting the winds of grace fill them. Grace is always there, we always reap more than we sow so strong is God’s desire to express through us. The more aware we are of grace, the more we can consciously create from that place of love and acceptance. We can forgive ourselves and extend that forgiveness and grace to others. Bring to mind examples of grace in your life. Allow yourself to feel how loved you really are.