Midweek Faith Lift
April 11, 2018
You Can’t Get Something for Nothing
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Good Morning! We are now back to our series on the 10 Commandments but with an Easter consciousness of living from the inside out, and holding an awareness of “both/and” as an invitation to hold space for the complexity that is our divine/human life. This week it is #8 You shall not steal (Ex.20:15). Or as it says in the title, “You can’t get something for nothing!” At the most basic level, this is true, because whether or not it is you, someone has to pay for it when you take from the Universe. The spiritual Law of Circulation or Compensation is about giving and receiving, not getting and taking. And when we try to take from the universe, we are most often trying to get something for nothing. This applies to everything, not just what comes with a dollar amount price tag. You cannot take or have what is not yours by right of consciousness.
It is interesting that in the time of Moses, when these commandments were given to the people, there were already a number of significant deterrents to stealing in place in the culture that were extremely effective. Specifically, if a man who stole an ox was caught, he had to repay the owner with five oxen. It was a system of restorative justice and it was pretty effective. The goal was to take the profit out of crime and it worked fairly well to deter people from stealing. It did not address the consciousness that is required to follow the 8th commandment without a deterrent of “what if I get caught?”
While stealing tears a hole in the social fabric, it breaks trust, the real issue is that if you keep trying to get something for nothing, you are only stealing from yourself. That can be a hard realization. The student who cheats on a test deprives himself of true learning and then lacks the skill or knowledge when he later needs it. The person who cheats her employer deprives herself of true integrity and wholeness and does not get her needs met on any kind of meaningful or long-term basis. Settling for the cheap fix rarely pays off in the long term.
Bottom line; when the fear of getting caught is all that is stopping you, then you are at the training wheels level of the Law of Compensation. You really can’t get something for nothing, no matter how hard you try! We are celebrating the Earth during the whole month of April, and it is clear that we cannot continue to deplete the earth without paying the price. The intention we want to move into is what Tennyson calls “self-reverence, self-knowledge and self-control.” Our intention is to live from a higher consciousness that makes the idea of getting something for nothing unthinkable, where it never enters our mind to try to do that. And it requires us to let go of the question, “what’s in it for me?”
It is so seductive to believe that is where we already live, that we do not take things that do not belong to us, or act only from self-interest, so we are already living in this higher consciousness. It is when we expand this into “you can’t get something for nothing,” that it gets a bit more dicey. What we want is to live in harmony with the Law of Integrity or the Law of Wholeness. That version of the 8th commandment comes with the realization that what you have is yours by right of consciousness, YOUR consciousness. And that means that when you create the right conditions in your consciousness, and you are willing to do the work that is required for those conditions to be firmly established, then your good will follow. No one can have their good at your expense, and you cannot have your good at their expense, at least not for long.
How do we do this consciousness thing that establishes our good? It requires self-knowledge, or I’ll call it self-awareness, self-control and self-reverence. It requires that we practice these on a regular, daily ongoing basis. It requires that when we notice that we are NOT practicing self-awareness, self-control or self-reverence, that we make a correction, a self-correction. When we hear that twinge of conscience, that still, small voice, that we may be deceiving ourselves, we have to pay attention. There are no short-cuts or magic affirmations to our good. Nothing that by-passes self-awareness, self-control or self-reverence. As Butterworth says in Breaking the 10 Commandments:
Ralph Waldo Emerson says that people take such great care that their neighbor shall not cheat them, but there will come a time when they will be more concerned that they do not cheat their neighbor. When one really understands the spiritual law of “You shall not steal,” he becomes meticulously careful not to take or accept anything that is not rightfully his….or fail to fulfill an obligation that is. (p.114)
What does this mean in real time? It means that if you are undercharged for something you correct it right away, just as quickly as if you are overcharged. It means that if your bank deposit statement reflects an error in your favor, you correct it right away, even if you could “get away with it” because the bank made a mistake. That actually happened to me. I was depositing my Unity of Ames paycheck at Bank of the West and the balance reflected $10,000. Now, I know I don’t get paid that, so I immediately blurted out, “that isn’t right!” The bank was very appreciative that I caught the error and brought it to their attention. I subsequently switched to First National Bank in Ames because I did not like the fact that they made that kind of error!
And this brings us to a corollary of the spiritual truth that “You can’t get something for nothing,” and that is God can do no more for you than God can do through you. God can do no more for you than God can do through you. God is not a force or agent outside of us that can make it (whatever “it” is) happen for us. If we are to realize our good, then we do so from the inside out, that’s the Easter story. Whatever life hands us in our divine/human existence, it is our responsibility to cultivate self-awareness, self-control and self-reverence to engage with life in that perfect pattern of our Christ Consciousness that will manifest our good.
So far we have looked at self-awareness to realize that we want to keep things clean and respond with integrity when things slip and slide, like they can so easily do in life. When we become aware that we are not in integrity with the spiritual laws of Compensation or Circulation, then we take immediate action to right the ship of our consciousness. No argument, no fudging, no what’s in it for me; just an honest program to correct our mistakes.
The faculty of self-control shows up when we finally “get it” that all our actions have consequences, no exception. I may want to take something that does not really belong to me: a job, a promotion, a church. Nevertheless, self-awareness and self-control empower me to act in accordance with the Divine Law of Circulation. If there is something my heart truly desires, then self-control directs me to find the way to receiving my heart’s desire by right of consciousness, my consciousness. I work to create the conditions for receiving my good. If I want to receive love, then I cultivate love by actively loving someone, a friend, a pet or even a stranger.
If I want to experience prosperity, then I find somewhere to give generously to teach my consciousness what the giving and receiving of prosperity really feels like. We hear people say it all the time, “When things get tight, something’s gotta give!“ Well, yes, you gotta give to prime the pump of the law of Circulation because that is how it works; it is the law of giving and receiving, not getting and taking.
The faculty of Self-control puts the focus of the action in me, in my court, so to speak. When I am acting directed by Spirit, I am no longer in victim consciousness. And then Spirit supports me in growing a loving consciousness, a prosperity consciousness no matter how the outer conditions look to me or anyone else. This connection to Spirit is what we are calling self-reverence. When I cultivate a consciousness of reverence or respect for myself, and respect for all of creation, then I become a powerful magnet, mighty to attract my good. My consciousness is no longer focused on “getting and having;” it shifts to giving and being. Jesus puts it quite succinctly in Matthew 6:33 (NRSV)
33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Our first priority is to seek, to strive for a God consciousness, the right use of this God-consciousness, and then all that we seek will be given to us as well. Our good will come to us as the manifestation of our God consciousness and we become stewards of the flow of God’s goodness as we shape and set it in motion. To really have anything, we have to be able to give it away, to let it go and set it free. When we can do that, we are free to really enjoy what comes to us. God does not abandon us, ever. Our spiritual power of faith tells us that all that we need will be provided always. We just continue to cultivate the consciousness that supports our good stewardship of the “Kingdom.”
When I was seeking a church calling back in 2012, I was “sure” that Unity Church of Ames was mine! And then I learned that I was one of two candidates and not the only game in town. Imagine my surprise at what the Universe was saying to me. Deb, if you are to be called to ministry by Unity Church of Ames, it will be by right of consciousness. Be still, honey, and know that your good will come to you by right of consciousness; theirs and yours! So in a moment of humbling self-awareness, I got hold of myself and just sat in prayer with reverence for all parties. And behold, my good unfolded and all else was added unto me!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb