Midweek Faith Lift
May 20,2026
“Are You Tuned In?”
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Daily Good
May 12, 2026
When the Embodied Teacher Is the Curriculum
Tools shaped education from ancestor stories around a tended fire, to farming, to an industrial age “grade-based conveyor belt designed to produce workers that would serve economies.” All the while, new tools emerge. Measurable performance like enrollment, test scores, and college degrees create incentive structures perceived as “worth.” Yet when asked, people respond and research confirms that what is worth the most is a teacher’s inner state, a quality of presence that embodies wisdom, kindness, and care -- not very measurable. “What resists measurement is often what shapes a life most deeply,” ponders Navin Amarasuriya. In a system of tools and measurements, “How do we serve conditions that make it probable for one person’s quality of being to enter a room and inspire the future of another?”
Navin said, “Somewhere, a teacher is walking into a room not knowing that a child in it will spend their whole life giving away what they are about to receive.” Reflect, appreciate, and express gratitude for what you are giving away today that you received from a teacher who inspired you.
"The most sacred work in education has always been one person, fully present, lighting a flame that others will carry forward long after they are gone." — Navin Amarasuriya
Affirmative Prayer for today: Infinite Wisdom of Spirit, awaken us to listen to all that is the greater Reality available to guide, inspire and direct us in all its ways. We are open and receptive to all of our good, all that is good. Amen.
We spent all last weekend celebrating the measurable effects of higher education as we attended our daughter Bridget’s doctoral hooding and graduation ceremony. There were speeches and words of congratulations to the faculty and the graduates as this was the ceremony specifically for graduate degrees. After each speech, however short, the speaker would end it by saying “Go Big Red!” as if it were a prayer! To me it became kind of comical and somewhat ridiculous as that is usually a chant at a football game….not a graduation! But it was a mantra, a statement of affirmation. Go Big Red they chanted, as if education were a game to be won, even as they spoke of change and intellectual growth. Hmmm…
Well, the best line I heard all weekend, the one that really stayed with me came from Christine’s mom, Shirley, who said about Christine’s former apartment in Omaha, “It was so cramped, you had to go outside to change your mind!” Go Shirley! I told her that line would find its way into a Sunday talk, and now it has! It is a great line, funny, and oh so true about so many things, situations and circumstances. That is what education is supposed to do for you, make you go outside the cramped confinement of your current ideas, assumptions and biases and change your mind! That is what Myrtle’s chapters on Denial, the Embodiment of Thought and the Receiving Mind are really all about, growing beyond what is cramped and uncomfortable and changing your mind.
What Myrtle is constantly trying to make clear is that in order to change your life, you have to change your mind. You have to change how you think about things, about life, about yourself. Now that sounds simple and direct, but it is clearly not easy. It means that you have to change how you think, how you look at things, how you look at yourself. It would be easy if we didn’t have a whole lot of thinking habits/ feeling habits that just reach out and grab us before we even have a chance to notice. To really begin to change how you think/feel about things, you first have to become aware of how you think, what you think and how you look at yourself and your own behaviors and responses. That is called “self-awareness” and it is quite a journey into your human self.
That journey, deep into your human self can be scary because it can involve trauma, fear and deeply buried memories of past events that are impactful on your present life. It can bring up all that needs to be healed by the light of Love, Understanding, Wisdom and Acceptance. I take comfort in the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:10-20 (NRSV- UE)
15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.
Paul calls it sin, I call it unhealed trauma, unfinished business, neurotic patterns of behavior which I keep doing even though they don’t really yield the results I desire. The human reality is that we have all been hurt in life in some way. And as Oprah Winfrey said, “Hurt people hurt people.” So how do you let God help you to heal the hurt?
What Myrtle teaches is Truth, spiritual Truth, and when it is embodied in the teacher, as noted in the opening story, it makes a great impact. I believe it was embodied in the person/Presence of Jesus which is why we are still talking about him, his teachings and his healing words and actions. Myrtle, in her healing, also tapped into that healing energy of spiritual Truth that Jesus carried within him. That is why Myrtle’s power and presence continue to have influence.
We need to remember that neither Myrtle nor Charles had any notion of the discipline of psychology and what it has taught us about the nature of our humanity, of our behavioral patterns and the intersection of our humanity and our Divinity. We live at the intersection of these two, and much of Myrtle’s focus is on how to transcend the human and allow the Spiritual to take the lead in our thinking and our unfolding. It takes a huge dose of the spiritual of Faith to travel that path that is Spiritual Healing, but that is what she offers us.
One powerful Truth, spiritual Truth, is that we are so much more than what sense consciousness tells us we are. When we wake up to that key awareness, that Reality, it begins to open a whole new world of possibilities. She assures us that this greater Reality is not limited by the past, nor is it constrained by the future or by conditions around us. She says this:
“God is no respecter of persons. (Acts 10:34) The light of heaven shines alike upon the just and the unjust. Truth’s ever-shining Light is for all alike and sends its message of divine splendor to all. Keep your soul open to the shining Light of Truth by denial of past or future claims upon you, for you live in the now. Affirm the now as your only active eternity. So shall Truth descend in full power upon you-not divided by past memories or future desires, but bursting with present fulfillment. (How to Let God Help You, p. 50)
Pause and realize how powerful this statement of Truth really is. It means true emotional, spiritual, mental and psychological freedom is a reality for everyone, no matter what, and it is available in each now moment!
How does that look and sound in real time? One very simple way I first experienced this empowering Truth is to realize that if/when someone asked me a loaded question, you know the kind, right? Have you stopped beating your children yet? Or the equivalent! I had a flash of insight that I did not have to answer that question! It’s the kind of question where someone is trying to pick a fight, to get my goat, and I don’t have to answer them. Silence is an answer; I can answer with silence. When I learned the power of the silent response, I had stepped into my spiritual power and established a healthy internal boundary. The first time I did that, the silent response, my heart was beating hard, my mouth was dry and my body was tense. But lo and behold, the other person dropped it and we moved on!
And then, as I practiced more and more, people stopped asking me loaded questions because I wouldn’t play! I had changed the very simple thought that I had to answer every time someone asked me a question. And I learned to also say, “That’s a really good question and I want to take some time to think about it and get back to you.” Most of the time, the person who was trying to bait me never followed up! That was another valuable Aha moment of spiritual Truth! Myrtle says later on that same page that “The student (of Spiritual Truth) should never comment on error. He should, instead go back of it all into the inner, clean light of reason and see all persons free from false judgements.”
How I show up, how I embody Spiritual Truth is how I am a Presence, a teacher, a spiritual leader. We are all meant to be spiritual leaders and teachers. As we noted at the beginning:
"The most sacred work in education has always been one person, fully present, lighting a flame that others will carry forward long after they are gone." — Navin Amarasuriya
This is the work of Myrtle, of Unity and Unity Church of Ames, of spiritual growth.
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb