New UUAWOL Patreon content available - Discerning God's will

 Discerning God's will  

When we pray the Our Father we say, "..thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

The third step of twelve step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous is "made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him."

This idea of turning our will over to what we believe is God's will for us is easier said than done. How can this be done? Is there a process?

Here is one way that it might work.  Take a look and see what you think.

Better yet find a group of people to discuss this with and see how this process of surrender works in their lives.

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"Kindness is the measure of a person" essay and discussion guide is now available to UUAWOL Tier 2 and Tier 3 Patrons.

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Lenten Reflections, Day Sixteen, Third Thursday of Lent, Engaging in the search for Love.

Day Sixteen, Third Thursday of Lent

Engaging in the search for Love.

Luke 16: 19 - 31

19“ There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 

The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ 

But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ 

He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house— for I have five brothers— that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ 

Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ 

He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 

31He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

What does it take for people to listen and learn to the Spirit? Do they have to hit bottom? Do things have to get worse before they get better?

When things in the ego world hit bottom, it dawns on people that there might be a better way to live their lives. They denied, minimized, avoided, told themselves one thing while they did another. They pretended things were okay, even great, but deep down in their hearts they knew that the things of the world of the ego can never truly satisfy and fulfill.

Society tricked them with status, pleasures, power, money and things, and other people envied them and called them “successful,” and yet there was something missing, something they couldn’t recognize and identify. They couldn’t grasp what that “something” is.

During the season of Lent we are reminded that there is something more than the things of the ego. We are encouraged to search beyond the world of the ego in the world of the spirit. In today’s story the rich man was sitting pretty and felt and saw no need to attend to his sick and impoverished neighbor. Why bother?  Why disturb his comfort?

But there came a time when the rich man recognized that he had a lot in common in the world of the Spirit with his poor and sick neighbor, and by ignoring him the rich man had failed to attain compassion and Love.

We are told that what he do for another we do for our Self. If we are all members of humanity, the so called “Body of Christ,” what we do for others makes the children of God whole, holy.

The rich man didn’t get his. He didn’t understand it. The rich man, apparently, had no spiritual life. Once he realized what he had missed, he asks Abraham to tell his brothers what they are missing, but Abraham tells him that sending someone from the dead won’t help them recognize the spiritual life they are missing because they already have Moses and the prophets and don’t listen to them so why would they listen to anyone else?

People only listen when they are ready and some people aren’t ready until they hit bottom. When they hit bottom it dawns on them that there must be a better way, and with this dawning they begin the search which is the true spiritual journey.

Lent reminds us to turn from the path of the ego to the path of the Spirit. The Lenten season is about giving up the things of the ego so we can engage in a search for Love of one another..

Lenten Reflections, Day Fifteen, Third Wednesday of Lent, Unite or divide?

Day Fifteen, Third Wednesday of Lent

Unite or divide; dominate or serve?

Matthew 20: 17 - 28 

17While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, “ See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.” 

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. 

And he said to her, “What do you want?” 

She said to him, “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” 

But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” 

 They said to him, “We are able.” 

He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” 

When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Jesus didn’t believe in social status or in political power in the world of the ego. Jesus must have felt disappointed that these disciples and their mother didn’t understand the world of Spirit where things of the ego don’t exist.

Even the other ten disciples are upset that the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee came to ask Jesus for special treatment for her sons. Jesus sets everyone straight and tells them that social status and political power are not things in the world of the Spirit. These things of the ego don’t exist in the world of the Spirit and if one is to attain the peace and joy of the world of the Spirit one has to give these things of the ego up.

Jesus tells his disciples that in the world of Spirit joining and uniting with others is what is required not separation and division.

During the season at Lent more than at other times of the year we are asked to give things up. Will you give up the things of ego? Will you give up social status and political power and see the inherent worth and dignity of every person and promote justice, equity and compassion in human relations?

Climate justice, Who are you going to blame?

 

Chapter Twenty One

Who are you going to blame?

Complicity does not make for good drama. Modern morality plays need antagonists, and the desire gets stronger when apportioning blame becomes a political necessity, which it surely will. This is a problem for stories both fictional and non-, each kind drawing logic and energy from the other. The natural villains are the oil companies—and in fact a recent survey of movies depicting climate apocalypse found the plurality were actually about corporate greed.

Wallace-Wells, David. The Uninhabitable Earth (p. 149). Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition.

Our sense of guilt, both personal and collective, triggers a desire to get defensive and find someone to blame, someone to project the guilt onto.

It is very easy, even habitual, in our polarized American society to blame either the Republicans or the Democrats, the 1% or the poor, the “fake news” or the pundits that affirm our views, the Devil or God.

How do you think the blame game will work for mitigating the negative consequences for carbon emissions and global warming?

Unitarian Univeralisits covenant together to affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion in our human relations. UUs are not into the blame game, but working together for the common good.

The first step in applying this second principle is in increasing our understanding of the system: its dynamics, its norms, the roles various components play in maintaining the status quo and resisting change. The second step in applying the principle is considering how the system can be changed to achieve a higher degree of justice, equity, and compassion. The third step is in choosing a strategy to achieve the desired goals. The fourth step is gathering the resources necessary for the change activity. The fifth step is implementing the change strategy, and the sixth step is evaluating the progress towards goal achievement.

In this model, assigning blame is not helpful. What is helpful is designing and implementing and evaluating a change strategy. So instead of asking, “Who are you going to blame?” the better question would be, “What are you going to do?”

Do UUs know what to do?

Of course: educate, organize, vote, boycott and demonstrate, implement ameliorative strategies.

Virtue development, Humility, part four, the yin and yang of humility

Humility, part four, The yin and yang of humility

Humility allows us to learn. Humility is knowing what we don’t know. Socrates said that the main characteristic of a wise person is to realize how little they know.

A person who is skillful in the virtue of humility shares with others what (s)he does know, and looks for people who can teach them what they don’t know.

A humble person both knows what they know and knows what they don’t know. This is the yin and yang of humility.

Unitarian Univeralists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning and it is in this searching that they demonstrate their humility.