Beautiful ideas from my friend Ginger on unconditional love.
Unconditional Love and prayers for Iran
The other day I was praying about the idea of “unconditional love.” After a lot of restlessness and distraction, I was finally still. Gently I felt God respond, “Unconditional love is not waiting to love, but approaching each situation with love.” Read more
I can’t resist reposting this blog post by my husband that appeared on CSMonitor.com today.
I love these opportunities we each have to step out of our comfort zone and really delve deeper. Truly inspiring growth always comes from such opportunities!
by John Biggs
While power washing my back porch the other day, I accidentally aimed the nozzle too aggressively at the deck. The dull gray color suddenly vanished, replaced by a vibrant red cedar tone. At first, I was upset with myself for scarring the deck. Then I realized that this was the actual deck. I was very pleased with the color and cleanliness, but I hesitated to pursue the in-depth cleaning because halfway was probably good enough, and company was expected soon.
Isn’t this story symbolically familiar? The comfort zone threatened. Something that disturbs the norm. The aha moment telling you that what lies beneath the surface is so much better. Then hesitancy about reaching for that depth and substance. Right here is where so much of life is decided. Do we stay comfortable or dive deeper? The good … or the best?
I’ve been reading a great article that I find so apropos to the things going on in the world today. It’s entitled “Truth Handles Crime“.
I have learned from this article is that no person, neighbor or nation is our enemy. Mankind, as the spiritual image and likeness of God, is wholly spiritual, good, trustworthy, and honest. The only enemy we have is what the King James Version of the Bible terms the “carnal mind” (Romans 8:7).
The carnal mind tells us lies about ourself and our neighbor. It tells you that you are jealous, evil, stupid, worthless, incapable, etc. It often comes in the pronouns “I am” (sick, fearful, tired, sensual, angry, unsatisfied) or “they are”(mean, spiteful, trying to take away what is mine/out to get me).
These lies are the enemy. They are trying to defile the Christlike image of God. And these lies have no power because they are not true. When one of these evil “suggestions” comes to our consciousness, we need to recognize what it is, where it is coming from, see that it is a lie and has no power (and not let it in to our thought).
The Bible tells us that “I am” is the name of God. This means “I am” can only be associated with God and His likeness – that which is good, loving, kind, compassionate, strong, trustworthy, eternal, honest, productive, and healthy. This is true of each of us; we naturally express and embody these qualities and inherently want to know/do good.
The article states:
“As we understand these things clearly, we cease to regard each other as enemies. We no longer think that we must get rid of individuals or groups who seem to menace harmony. We refrain from fearing our neighbors and do not appear dangerous to them. It will become increasingly plain to all men that the only agressor there is, is mortal mind, and that it is an illusion. Then its suppositional acts of trespass, invasion, deceit, and destruction will no more have power to harm us, and will cease to seem to occur.”
I believe that holding to the true image of men and women in God’s image and likeness, detecting and uncovering mortal mind/the carnal mind, is what will aid us in overcoming political unrest, a desire to terrorize, feeling impoverished and anything else that would suggest the hate, division and unworthiness of groups or individuals.
Spirituality & Healing 