It would be so easy right now to go into a rant, even a rage. Or at least a severe depression. Yes, even ministers can lose it sometimes. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, just go back and check the news from the last few days. But then come back and finish reading this. Because the last thing I’m here to do today is depress you any further. Instead, I’m here to remind you of what your Spirit already knows. Each time we rage, we resonate…and we replicate that same energy. I get it. Sometimes scream therapy is the only way to release our helpless anger. But keep in mind, it’s anger and helplessness that is at the foundation of intolerance and mass shootings. And beneath that anger and helplessness lies self-loathing. That is the core of our woes, globally, locally, and personally. The same judgment we have been spewing out over one another, (mentally, emotionally, verbally, and with weapons), we have been spewing over ourselves long before, multiplied to infinity. “So Kitty, where is the good news?”
I woke up this morning thinking of something Jesus said: “If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people toward me.” (John 12:32) Though the writer was referring to the type of death Jesus would experience, metaphysically there is a much more personal application of the scripture. When I raise my earthly, human thoughts and direct them toward the Christ within, my thoughts have the power to lift those around me. We are really good at lifting up the things and people we despise. But we can see where that is getting us. We must give people something else to look at. Something higher they can resonate with, something higher that will catch fire and leap from heart to heart. Charles Fillmore, the cofounder of Unity, wrote, “Christ ideas are the most heavily charged with Spirit. Every expressed idea of the Christ Mind is powerful in raising consciousness. Ideas are catching—We are all heavily charged with ideas, and when these ideas are released they spring forth and pass from mind to mind, being ‘recorded’ as they fly; when they are expressed the whole human race is lifted up–if the idea is charged with the uplifting Spirit.”
Some of you will not rest until you have taken action of some kind to make a change in our laws and our government. But most of us won’t. We may think it’s too much work or we don’t know where to begin. So today I’m offering a place to start. Something that we all have the power to do. Turn away from the heart-wrenching news and turn toward your true power…the presence of Spirit. Meditate on the divine qualities needed in this moment, like love, wisdom, understanding, and peace. Choose words of Spirit and life. Speak the words that you want others to speak to you. Hang out in new places, meet new people, and be an encourager for everyone you meet. Become friends with friends of friends of friends on social media and speak only positive encouraging words. Uplift every child you come in contact with, using words of love and power. Instead of spewing destructive judgment, shower the world with random acts of kindness. And begin with kindness toward yourself. The human ego is not going away, but it can be retrained. And this is priority number one. Lift up, focus on, celebrate Divine Ideas until they influence your thoughts, feelings, words, and actions. This is within your power. From Deut. 30.19, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” Many of us know about the universal law that says ‘What we focus on expands.’ We can either continue giving power to the curses of our land or we can lift up the Good and draw all people to It.
With great love, Rev. Kitty
PS – I recently received an email with the following quote from St. Ignatius of Loyola in the signature. “Seek the presence of God in all things, in conversation with others, in walking, in looking, in tasting, in hearing, in understanding and in all that we do, since it is a fact that his divine majesty is everywhere by his presence, power, and essence.” Sounds like this idea is catching fire!
