Showing posts with label Today's lesson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Today's lesson. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Today's lesson, number 109, "I rest in God."


Today's lesson is number 109 in A Course In Miracles which is, "I rest in God."

We tell each other to "Stop and smell the roses." Simon and Garfunkle sang, "Slow down. You move to fast. You've got to make the morning last."

Today, we are asked to take five minutes every hour, if we can and are so inclined, to just stop what we're doing, take three deep breaths, and relax for five minutes. Think of nothing but the peace of God which radiates from God's unconditional love for us and rest in the Oneness of Cosmic Consciousness.

Unitarian Universalists experience this peace of God when they rest in their covenantal relationships based on their seven principles. Jesus said that where two or more are gathered in His name, there He would be. What Jesus is talking about is, of course, Spirit. Jesus' love and peace abides in loving relationships that are covenantal. Jesus is encouraging us to rest in God.

 

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Today's lesson, number 108, is "To give and receive are one in truth."


Today's lesson is number 108 in A Course In Miracles which is "To give and to receive are one in truth."

When you extend peace to others, "peace be with you," you experience an uptip in peace within yourself.

When you tell a joke and laugh with others, the humor and laughter are mutliplied.

When you sing with others, the musical enjoyment is enriched.

Unitarian Univeralism is a covenantal religion meaning that the spiritual journey is enhanced by sharing it with others.

"To give and to receive are one in truth" is very Taoistic. It recognizes the ying and yang, the systemic wholeness of life. We learn by teaching. We complete by sharing. We receive what we give. This is the insight of way of the Tao.


Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Today's lesson, number 104, "I seek but what belongs to me in truth."

Today's lesson, number 104 in A Course In Miracles, is "I seek but what belongs to me in truth."

The fourth principle of Unitarian Universalism is the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. And where is truth and meaning to be found? Where should I search?

Lesson 104 tells us that truth does not lie on the path of the ego. In fact, the things on the path of the ego block our awareness of Truth. The things of the ego based on conditional love created by our guilt over our separation from God cover over our awareness of our holiness.

These ideas are deep thoughts based on the metaphysical philosophy of ACIM and foreign to our customary way of thinking.

In the lesson, it is written, "Today we would remove all meaningless and self-made gifts which we have placed upon the holy altar where God's gifts belong. His are the gifts that are our own in truth. His are the gifts that we inherited before time was, and that will still be ours when time has passed into eternity. His are the gifts that are within us now, for they are timeless."

The "holy altar" referred to in the above passage is our decision making mind. It is what is referred to in the UU fourth principle as the "free and responsible" part of us that searches for truth and meaning.

At UU A Way Of Life ministries we strive to help people become aware of their own holiness which means that first we must become aware of holiness within us so that it can be shared with others.

Today, we remind ourselves, that Truth comes from recognition and awareness that we have emerged from the nondualistic Oneness which we call "God" and in this recognition and awareness lies our holiness and what the first principle of UU calls our "inherent worth and dignity." It is to this nondualistic Oneness that we seek to return. As the Buddhist monk said to the hot dog vendor, "Make me one with everything." In this desire to become one with everything we come to recognize that we are unique just like everyone else. :-)

For a video commentary click here.

Monday, April 29, 2019

Today's lesson, number 103, "God, being Love, is also happiness."


Today's lesson, number 103 in A Course In Miracles, is "God, being Love, is also happiness."

The Universalists teach that God is Unconditional Love and yet we are afraid of Love because we would have to give up our egos. We would have to shed our small self to merge into our big Self, which Unitarian Universalists call the "interdependent web of existence of which we are a part."

It is this idea of the "interdependent web of existence of which we are a part" which terrifies us. Giving up our egos feels like a punishment, a tremendous loss, a horrifying occurance. And yet, it is the very thing that will make us deliriously happy and give us bliss. To become one with the All, the Interdependent web of existence, to join with our Source is the ultimate happiness.

Salvation comes when everybody loves everybody all the time and this requires that we give up our individual egos. When we enhance our egos and cling to them, we sin. In the great prayer of Christianity, the Our Father, we say, "...and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil."

The Love we are attempting to define and describe which is undefinable and indescribable has no opposite because it is all encompassing. This love is our Natural Inheritance. The opposite of this Love is fear.

Today, we will remind ourselves that we should not cling to our egos, protect them, enhance them, but rest in the peace of God's Love within us which is the true source of our happiness. What is there, really, in the last analysis, to be afraid of?

Sunday, April 28, 2019

Today's lesson, number 102, "I share God's Will for happiness for me."


Today's lesson, number 102 in A Course In Miracles, is "I share God's Will for happiness for me."

Today's lesson reminds me of Bobby McFerrin's great song, "Don't worry. Be happy."

Jesus tells people, "Listen, you've made a lot of mistakes, and yet you try to treat your children well. So, if even you, treat your children well, how much more well does your heavenly father treat you?"

Jesus reminds us that we are loved Unconditionally and this knowledge bestows happiness and peace.

The sixth principle of Unitarian Universalism affirms and promotes the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. It is the creation of this world community which is God's will for us.

As we write repeatedly on this blog, "salvation" is when everybody loves everybody all the time. This is God's Will. We know this deep in our hearts which we will search today regularly and remind ourselves that God's Will is happiness and peace for me and everybody in the world.

 

For a video commentary click here.

Saturday, April 27, 2019

Today's lesson, number 101, "God's will for me is perfect happiness."

Today's lesson, number 101 from A Course In Miracles, is "God's will for me is perfect happiness."

If salvation is when everybody loves everybody all the time, why are people afraid of salvation?

People are afraid of salvation because they have been taught that it requires pain and suffering as penance for sins committed. "Revenge is mine," says the Lord comes from the Old Testment in Deuteronomy and rationalizes a belief in punishment and vengeance. This idea is based on the Hammurabi code of "Eye for eye and tooth for tooth."

Christians are told that Jesus was crucified and died on the cross to attone for humankind's sins. Jesus tells us in A Course In Miracles that his idea of blood atonement is a misinterpretation of the lesson He was trying to teach with his crucifixion. The real lesson is that torture of His body had no impact on His Spirit. He forgave his torturers saying with a laugh, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

In our fear we fixate on the torture, suffering, pain as death and are told that Jesus gave His life for our sins. If this is what salvation consists of, who would want it?

Today, in lesson 101, from A Course In Miracles, we are told something quite different about salvation. We are told that God's will for us is perfect happiness not suffering. How can this be? A Course In Miracles tells us that sin is not real. It is merely a mistake. And our biggest mistake is to take our mistakes seriously. Why is taking our mistakes seriously our biggest mistake? Because we have forgotten who we are and think that the drama on the path of the ego is real. We come to realize that reality is the Unconditional Love of the Universe, what some people call "God."

We are encouraged to wake up from this bad dream full of special relationships based on conditional love which give us such pain and suffering.

Today, it is suggested that we recognize and acknowledge that this life is but a dream and that God's will for us has nothing to do with suffering, pain, vengeance, and sacrifice, but rather a growing awareness of our natural inheritance which is Unconditional Love. This is something the Universalists have been telling us for a couple of centuries now, and something which is very hard to believe without support and encouragement. Consider this brief article, part of the support and encouragement you have been searching for.

 

For a video commentary click here.

Friday, April 26, 2019

Today's lesson, number 100, "My part is essential to God's plan for salvation."


Today's lesson, #100 in A Course In Miracles, is "My part is essential to God's plan for salvation."

What is God's plan? God's plan for salvation is happiness and happiness comes from Unconditional Love.

The Universalists have come to understand what God's plan for salvation is as they have taught that God loves everybody unconditionally all the time. As extensions of God's creation it is our purpose, doing God's will, to do the same thing. Could we do any less and still fulfill our purpose?

Today, we can remind ourselves that our purpose is to extend God's unconditional love to ourselves and to everyone wherever we go.

Remember, here at UU A Way Of Life, we define salvation as when everybody loves everybody all the time.

Amen!

Blessed be!

May it be so!

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Today's lesson, number 99, "Salvation is my only function here."


Today's lesson, number 99 from A Course In Miracles, is "Salvation is my only function here."

The opening sentence of this lesson is "Salvation and forgiveness are the same."

What the Course means by forgiveness is to forgive the fact that we separated ourselves from the Love of God. It says at the end of the lesson, "Forgive what you have made and you are saved."

The compelling idea is that we just make stuff up. We create our illusions and idols and believe they are real. We form special relationships based on conditional love and expect that they will make us happy. How is that practice working for us?

This lesson tells us to forgetaboutit.

We should forgive ourselves for stupidly thinking that conditional love in special relationships is the path to happiness.

The Buddha told us that it was attachments that create suffering.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6, vs 28-30 "And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"

Jesus tells us to have faith in the path of the Spirit and withdraw our faith in the path of the ego. It is the giving up of the things on the path of the ego and forgiving our previous stupidity which is our salvation.

Today, we need to remind ourselves several times what it is we want, unconditional love or conditional love? Universalists have chosen unconditional love and in this choice have forgiven themselves and others their mistake in ever thinking that the path of the ego was the way to go.



Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Today's lesson, number 98, "I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation."


Today's lesson, number 98 in A Course In Miracles, is "I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation."

What is God's plan for salvation? It is that we return to the Oneness when we are ready. The way to that return is to manifest unconditional love for ourselves and all of humanity. Salvation is when everybody loves everybody all the time.

Very few of us love everybody all the time because we are full of fear based on the law of scarcity. There isn't enough to go around and so there are winners and losers. The world of the ego is based on the law of one or the other, dog eat dog, get them before they get you, or if they have already gotten you, you get them back.

We are so sure we are right that we want the last word, and with the last word we dominate and subjugate our adversary and we think, in our deluded way, that these forms of attack will make us happy. This dynamic of get them before they get you, and I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine, are all forms of conditional love.

In the last analysis, life is very simple. Would we have conditional love or unconditional love?

God's plan for salvation is unconditional love and today we are reminded that we have a choice to make: continue on the path of the ego or the path of the spirit.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote seven principles and these seven principles are based on manifesting Unconditional love in seven different forms. Today, five minutes of every hour, let us consider our covenant and in this consideration accept the suggestion that these seven principles can be a possible path to realize our salvation.

For a commentary on today's lesson, click here.

Monday, April 22, 2019

Today's lesson, number 97, "I am spirit."


Today's lesson, number 97 in A Course In Miracles, is "I am spirit."

Am I a body with a spirit or a spirit in a body. Today's lesson is very clear, I am a spirit who, at this moment of time, is in a body. The body is simply a means of communication of ideas and it is ideas that make one holy.

Holy ideas sanctify the world because they share and spread Love.

At our church we say this affirmation every Sunday, "Love is the doctrine of this church, the quest for truth is its sacrament, and service is it's prayer."

The Universalists have preached that God is Unconditional Love meaning that God loves everybody and everything.

Today, April 22, 2019 is Earth Day which celebrates our UU seventh principle, a respect for the interdependent web of which we are a part. The Earth is our celestial body and yet the solar rock on which we reside is nothing without the consciousness which it is home to. It is this consciousness which distinguishes planet Earth from other planets, and once again we realize that we are not of the Earth but of the Divine Spirit from which we have separated ourselves and to which we will return.

Today, remind yourself, 5 minutes of every hour if you are able, that you are spirit and it is your job to spread the Unconditional Love of God around the world.

For a video commentary click here.

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Today's lesson, number 96, "Salvation comes from my one Self."


Today's lesson, number 96 in A Course In Miracles, is, "Salvation comes from my one Self."

My "Self" with a capital S is my Oneness with God. We, each, are part of the nondualistic Oneness and not separate selves at all. "We, each,..." do not really exist. Our belief in our separateness is an illusion which gives rise to nothing but drama.

Shakespeare tells us in his play, As You Life It,  "All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,"

There is a part of us which knows that the separate egos we have created are not real, and yet a part of us that believes in our egos desperately and to which we cling.

Are we separate selves or are we, as we affirm and promote in our Unitarian Univeralist seventh principle, a part of the interdependent web?

Today, take five minutes every hour and remind yourself that the many parts we play are just drama and that our real essence is the One Self, the interdependent web of which we are just a part. In this awareness, we experience the Unconditional Love of the Universe and in this awareness we extend the Unconditional Love to the rest of creation.

For a video commentary click here.

Saturday, April 20, 2019

Today's lesson, number 95, "I am one Self, united with my Creator."

Today's lesson, number 95 in A Course In Miracles, is "I am one Self, united with my Creator."

This is a tough lesson because it is so counter-cultural. This lesson undoes everything we think we know about ourselves and life. The metaphysical philosophy of the Course is based on the idea of the nondualistic Oneness of God. This most basic idea, upon which the whole thought system of the Course is based is fundamental to the perennial psychology of all religions which have a mystical tradition.

The idea of the nondualistic nature of God of which we all are a part scares the ego. More than scares, it terrifies the ego, because if we are essentially a part of the nondualistic Oneness of God then the separation from God cannot be true and our egos are illusions and not real. We have become very attached to our egos and the thought of giving them up fills us with fear.

If God is love, and Univeralists have taught that God is Unconditional Love, and we say in church every Sunday, "Love is the doctrine of this church," then surrendering our egos is a necessary part of our religious practice, and this practice is something which most people are not willing to engage in and one of the reasons the membership in Unitarian Universalism is so low.

Unitarian Universalism, taken seriously, is a very demanding religion the implications of which scares most people. It can be said that most people are afraid of Love and resist Love because of what its acceptance means. The acceptance of Univeralism's faith that God is Unconditional Love of which we are all a part, means the acceptance of the idea that I am One Self, united with my Creator.

In short we are all One.

Bob Marley celebrates this idea in his great song, "One Love."




For a video commentary on today's lesson, click here.

Friday, April 19, 2019

Today's lesson, number 94, "I am as God created me."


Today's lesson, number 94 in A Course In Miracles, is "I am as God created me."

How could we be anything else?

We have forgotten, though, who we are because of the socialization and conditioning we have been subjected to by society.

In this socialization and conditioning we have been taught that we are many other things, all superficial, and illusional. We have created many false selves.

Unitarian Universalism reminds us as we convenant together to affirm and promote our seven principles that every person has inherent worth and dignity regardless of his/her socialization and conditioning. In other words, deep down, at our core, we are as God has created us.

This inherent worth and dignity is our natural inheritance as much as we told otherwise, and led to believe, by the social dynamics and self judgments we are caught up in and subjected to.

Today, forget all the drama, and see past all the pseudo selves which society imposes on us and encougages us to adopt and remind ourselves that we, in our essence, are as God created us, the beautiful beings of creation who are extensions of God's unconditional love.

For a video commentary click here.

Thursday, April 18, 2019

Today's lesson, number 93, "Light and joy and peace abide in me."


Today's lesson, number 93 in A Course In Miracles, is "Light and joy and peace abide in me."

I often want to ask people "What makes you tick?" Perhaps a better way of phrasing the question would be "What do you think makes you tick? And what has contributed to your thinking that?"

The person might say, "It's the way I was raised."

"It's the way I have been treated."

"So many life experiences has led to my thinking this about myself."

And I ask, "Is what you think about yourself true?" And, "Is what you think about yourself based on fear or on love?"

Most of us, most of the time, would say that what we think about ourself is based on fear and we find it hard to accept that we have been mistaken. "Are you saying that I am mistaken in what I think I am?"

I say, "Yes, your thoughts about what you think you are are mistaken. You are the beautiful, innocent, precious child of God no matter what you have been told, and led to believe, and think of yourself."

The person says in reply, "Really???? Why don't I think and feel that way about myself?"

And I say, "Because of your conditioning, and not knowing any better. Now that you know, you experience disabelief that it cannot be true because it is the opposite of what you have already been told, repeatedly, over and over until it has come to seem real to you. You sense that it may be wrong  and yet, you are afraid that it is true."

The person asks, "Is it?"

I say, "No, you are the uncondtionally loved child of God. This is our Univeralists faith which affirms and promotes the first principle of seven which is the intherent worth and dignity of every person."

Ther person asks, "Do you really believe that?"

I say, "Yes, and not only me, but also my fellow believers who covenant together and who call themselves Unitarian Universalists. We know that love and joy and peace abide in us because we experience it as we practice our faith and remind ourselves of this fact as well as each other."

Today, remind yourself every hour of the day, "Light and joy and peace abide in me," especially when I am annoyed, angry, anxious, saddened. The repetition will help you finally come to believe it about yourself and eventually everyone else.

For a video commentary on today's lesson click here.

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Today's lesson, number 92, "Miracles are seen in light, and the light and strength are one."


Today's lesson, number 92 in A Course In Miracles, is "Miracles are seen in light, and the light and strength are one."

There is a difference between sight and vision. Sight is experienced through the body's eyes as we project our expectations upon what we think of as external objects. Vision is an inner experience of meaning and intention that gives an awareness of purpose.

Comidian, Flip Wilson, when he did his Geraldine routine, would say, "What you see, honey, is what you get." People would laugh. It was funny. But, it is more than that, because it's not just what the eyes see, but what the eyes think they see, is what they get. "Seeing" is in the mind not in the eyes.

Today's lesson is reminding us of this idea that what we see is in our mind, not in our bodily eyes. What we think is out there, which the Course tells us are illusions, is nothing but a dream. Seeing with bodily eyes is just a form of dreaming.

Today's lesson is suggesting that we stop dreaming, stop seeing with bodily eyes, and wake up to the miracles which come from a decision we make in our minds to see the holiness in a sanctified world and from this vision comes our strength. This vision of holiness and our strength are one.

Unitarian Univeralists have a vision of Unconditional Love which includes every person because every person has inherent worth and dignity and is part of the interdependent web of existence. UUs have a vision of salvation where everybody loves everybody all the time. It is this vision which UUs covenant together to affirm and promote which encompasses miracles which are seen in the light, and it is this light - filled vision that the strength of Unitarian Universalism is experienced.

Today, remind yourself that it is Unconditional Love which is the vision of ourselves and the world with which we see and from which we derrive our strength.

For a video commentary click here.

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Today's lesson, number 91, "Miracles are seen in light."


Today's lesson, number 91 from A Course In Miracles, is "Miracles are seen in light."

When we are walking on the path of the ego we are walking in darkness. When we turn onto the path of the Spirit, we experience miracles and walk in light.

What is the path of the ego? The path of the ego is based on conditional love. I'll love you only if you do or don't do certain things. The dynamics of the ego are "give to get" and "one or the other."

The path of the ego is based on the prinicple that there are winners and losers and one of us is better than the other. It is this mind set of conditional love that the Course calls darkness.

When we shift to the path of the spirit our mind set changes to Unconditional love. You don't have to do anything to be loved by me. I love you just because I want to love you because I recognize your inherent worth and dignity.

The awareness of inherent worth and dignity at a deep, deep level is what the Course calls a miralce. It is a miracle because it is so different from the experience of conditional love. Would we choose the experience of resentment, grievance, guilt, and fear of the path of the ego with its darkness if we knew we had another choice? That other choice is the path of the Spirit which is the experience of the peace and bliss of Unconditional love.

The path of the ego is based on the belief that the body is what and who we are. Some of us know that the body is not who we are, but we are rather the spirit or what the Course calls our Mind. It is in our Mind that our inherent worth and dignity lie not in the body. The body withers and dies while the Mind gains in strength and beauty as it becomes more and more aware of its part in the Oneness in which its strenth and power lie.

Today, I will remind myself several times that I am not a body, but rather I am part of the Mind of God. My inherent worth and dignity reside not in my body but in my Mind which I share with God and all of God's creation. In is in the light of this awareness that miracles are experienced in the light.

For a brief video commentary on today's lesson click here.

Monday, April 15, 2019

Today's lesson, number 90 : "Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved," and "Let me recognize my problems have been solved."


Today's lesson, number 90 in A Course In Miracles, is a review of lessons 79 and 80 which are: "Let me recognize the  problem so it can be solved," and "Let me recognize my problems have been solved."

The problem is the choice of the ego over the spirit or conditional love over unconditional love. Choosing conditional love always comes with a sense of grievance. Conditional love is based on the dynamics of "give to get" and "one or the other," and always leads to a sense of victimization, of being on the "short end of the stick" even if not now, then next time. This is born of fear of loss of some sort which conditional love sets us up to expect sooner or later by virtue of its premise that the world is made up of winners and losers.

Universalists do not believe that there are losers. Universalists believe that all are winners, innately, as our natural inheritance.

This Universalist belief recognizes that there is no problem at all when we shift from the path of the ego to the path of the Spirit. The path of the Spirit is a path of Unconditional Love where every person has innate worth and dignity. The realization of what occurs with that shift from conditional love to Unconditional Love is what the Course calls a "miracle."

The awareness of the miracle is always available to us even when we are unaware of it and what we ask today is the recognition that my problems have been solved. With Unconditional Love victimization evaporates and we are saved and born again from the path of the ego onto the path of the Spirit.

Today, let me not only recognize that all my problems can be solved, but that my problems are illusions and idols I have created thinking that I, and not God, is in charge. In giving up my attempts to control, and create a false sense of self, I have forgotten that, becoming aware of the miracle, not that all my problems have been solved, but that on the path of the Spirit there are no problems only the Uncondtional Love of God which makes all things holy.

For a video commentary click here.

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Today's lesson, number 89, "I am entitled to miracles," and "Let miracles replace all grievances."



Today's lesson is number 89 in A Course In Miracles and is a review of lessons 77 and 78 which are: "I am entitled to miracles," and "Let miracles replace all grievnances."

The "miracle" in A Course In Miracles is unconditional love. It is what is called in Social Work a "nonjudgmental attitude." This Unconditional love, nonjudgmental attitude, is based on the awareness that we all are part of the Oneness which some call "God" and others call "Tao" or Luke Skywalker called the "Force."

The first lesson, I am entitled to miracles" means that I am an extension of God's unconditional love. It is what I am. It is what Unitarian Univeralists call the "inherent worth and dignity of every person." We are entitled to this awareness, which is forgotten, when we walk the path of the ego instead of the path of the spirit.

The second lesson, "Let miralces replace all grievances" simply means let unconditional love replace conditional love or let a nonjudgmental attitude replace a judgmental attitude. Our third principle in Unitarian Universalism is the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth.

You can't give what you don't have. You can't share what you are not aware of.

Today, remind yourself that you are entitled to the awareness of unconditional love and this reminder leads to our desire to give up grievances, resentments, anger, guilt, and fear. We are provided with tens of forgiveness opportunities every day. A forgiveness opportunity is the opportunity to give up grievances and experience the miracle.

For a video commentary click here.

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Today's lesson, number 88, "The light has come," and "I am under no laws but God's."


Today's lesson, number 88 in A Course In Miracles, is a review lesson of lessons 75 and 76 which are: "The light has come," and "I am under no laws but God's."

Once we see the light, the path of the Spirit, God's Unconditional Love, we no longer can believe in the darnness, the path of the ego, our made up belief in a god of conditional love based on revenge, grievance, and attack.

Once we understand the true laws of God, and not the laws of the ego, we recognize that we can be free from pain, suffering, and fear.

Unitarian Univeralists know this because of their covenant based on their seven principles. We know that every person has inherent worth and dignity, and that we are a part of an awesome interdependent web of existence which deserves respect and when comprehended, transcending love.

Today, I will remind myself to choose the light instead of darkness because this is the underlying law of God whether I choose to be consciously aware of it or not.

For a video commentary of this lesson click here.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Today's lesson, number 87, "I will there be light," and "There is no will but God's."


Today's lesson in A Course In Miracles is number 87 which is a review lesson of lessons 73 and 74 which are: "I will there be light," and "There is no will but God's."

We can walk the path of the ego or the path of the Spirit. The choice is ours. The Course says that we can choose to be in our right mind or our wrong mind. The choice is up to us and today we choose the light.

The fourth principle of Unitarian Univeralism says that we covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This fourth principle of Unitarian Univeralism encourages us to will that there be light. We UUs seek light in darkness, goodness in evil, holiness in guilt and shame.

If we will that there be light, we also recognize, acknowledge, and accept that there is no will but God's. Jesus tells us to pray, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." This most familiar of Christian prayers is rarely acted upon. People who call themselves "Christians" can be very willful people as all human beings and forget to turn their will over to their Higher Power.

In Unitarian Univeralism we understand the idea of the "Higher Power" in many different ways and yet, as Francis David said, "We need not think alike to love alike," and that loving is what God's will for us is that we experience it and, in the experiencing of it, we extend it throughout the world.

The affirmation we say in our church every Sunday begins with the phrase, "Love is the doctrine of this church..." It is this recognition and affirmation that involves the understanding that there is no will but God's and ultimately it is to this Love that we belong.

Today, I will remind myself several times throughout the day that I choose the light of Unconditional Love and not grievances and resentments and judgments, and that this is my understanding of God's will for me and for all human kind.

For a video commentary on this lesson, click here.
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