Unity Connections

  Hi Friends! I am currently in the airport preparing to fly home from Kansas City after spending the week at my first Unity World Wide Ministries conference! "Back to the Future" is this year's theme, offering a nod to the confusion we feel in knowing which way to go in our rapidly changing world. The future is always before us and yet; we often find ourselves looking backward.  Our human nature seeks to find comfort in the seeming stability of what has been. Of course, there is always good to be found in what has been- in all that we have learned and experienced and celebrated along the way- in our personal lives, our Unity Ministries, and in our shared, collective human experience. Accompanying that good are also the limitations, misunderstandings and seeming failures along the way. We often label these as 'bad' but they are only really ''bad' if we don't learn and grow from them. We don't know what we don't know, until we do!  In my und...

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged…” Our lesson this week will consider the practical implications of that infamous saying offered in Matthew 7:1-2. Like most of us, I came to understand this to mean that as I judged others harshly, GOD would judge me harshly in return. This stems from the teaching of a literal ‘judgement day’ whereby our eternal future will be decided, for better or worse.. What many of us love about Unity is that it offers us access to be able to apply spiritual understanding in the here and now. Consider the metaphysical interpretation of the 'Last Judgement" as described in The Metaphysical Bible Dictionary by Unity Co-Founder, Charles Fillmore: “The description of the Last Judgment, as given in the Gospels, has been used to terrify men and women and thus compel them to unite with the church; but in this day of enlightenment people are not so easily led or driven by fear. They ask for understanding. Wh...

  Hi Friends,   I am getting back in the swing of things here after a wonderful time of vacation.  There is often a swift re-entry period upon returning to the build- up of work while you were away, but our wonderful staff really kept everything moving so I am really thankful to all of them. Nonetheless, I find myself behind here this week, so in lieu of a lesson overview, I am sharing a bit of my vacation experience.   It was a unique vacation that afforded me time for connection and reflection. The biggest takeaway for me was the reminder to slow down and be present in order to be able to savor life and the people I experience along the way. I had not quite realized how busy my mind had become—always on to the next thing to do – and not all that present to what was happening in the moment.   When I break out of my familiar routines, there is a natural slowing down in order to attune to the new surroundings.   It doesn’t always happen right away though....

   In recognition of Memorial Day, we will hold our annual candle lighting ritual this Sunday. This will offer us an opportunity to honor those who have given their lives in service of our country, and to remember our loved ones who have passed. We will draw on the following two beatitudes given by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.  (Matthew 5: 4) Mourning is the outward expression of the inner process of grief. As we share the experience of our loss with others, we are supported in moving through our grief in a healthy way. We come together to hold the space for that process in community. This is the value expressed in memorial services. This is how we show up to comfort each other in the shared experience of loss and grief. Grief has a way of breaking us open.  When we lean into that process we feel the depth of our capacity to love, and of our emotional response to the loss of those that we love. Depen...

The power of our thoughts is a central component of Unity’s foundational teaching. We believe that the quality of our thoughts directly impacts our experience.  Ultimately, our goal is to grow in our ability to think empowering God (good) thoughts over the more commonly limited, negative or fear-based thoughts. If we truly believe that the nature of God is good- and that we are expressions of that good (God) then it follows that our thoughts should reflect that belief. This Sunday, we will resume our series looking at the teachings of Jesus as a means for transforming minds, using  Discover the Power Within You  by Eric Butterworth as our guide.  If effect, Jesus was asking his followers to actually live as if they believed their sacred texts and laws rather than simply reciting them. While many thought that Jesus had come to overthrow the Roman government, he clearly stated that he had come to fulfill the law, not to break it. He was speaking of the universal spiri...

This Sunday we will celebrate Mother’s Day by honoring our mother figures- those in our lives that who have loved us and nurtured our growth. Few of us had ‘perfect mother’ relationships. For those who have become Mothers, the reality of the experience often sheds light on the impossibility of perfection.  We do our best, and often run head first into our own limits and weaknesses. We do well to learn from our mistakes. Fortunately, we can always access the nurturing, loving feminine energy within us; offering  her healing balm to our own heart and enabling compassion for our own Mother. Regardless of our gender identity or parental status, we all innately possess aspects of both feminine and masculine energies. While most of us were socialized to express one over the other, we are healthiest when these energies are balanced within us. Our modern world has long bent toward the expression of the masculine energies. Yet, we can all benefit from developing a stronger connection w...

I thought that might get your attention! 😀 We continue our exploration of the teachings of Jesus by way of His Great Discovery : the Divinity within Humanity. No doubt this great discovery forever changed the concept of God among those that were present to hear the teachings of Jesus. For those who believed his message, God was brought out of the sky into the world as a Spiritual Presence, imbuing all of creation . Yet, this great discovery does not mean all that much if it is tied to the personhood of Jesus of Nazareth. The relevance of this discovery is that it remains accessible for all of us,as the path by which we can discover and claim this powerful connection within ourselves! Of course, a commitment is required; it is not the only path. Making the decision for Christ requires us to claim the faith of Jesus; to know, and to claim, for ourselves this Kingdom of God within. Let’s simplify this bejeweled term, the Kingdom of God to mean the place within our own awareness where ...