Midweek Faith Lift
“The Law of Supply”
August 12, 2026
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Passages
August 4, 2026
Fierce Clarity: When Fear Becomes a Compass'
"From a Science of Mind (New Thought) perspective, fear is not to be seen as an obstacle, but as a messenger guiding us toward fierce clarity about who we are and what deeply matters to us. Instead of shrinking from discomfort, we allow fear's intensity to bring our true priorities into sharp focus, illuminating where our next growth awaits.
By regarding fear as a threshold rather than a blockade, its presence becomes a catalyst: it sharpens our attention and marks the edges of our becoming. If we let fear awaken us - rather than close us down - it can ignite our highest aspirations. In this way, fear transforms from foe to fierce guide, catalyzing clarity and inviting us to discover the fullness of who we are meant to be." - Jackie Harris, associate minister of Mile Hi Church, Denver
A compass needle trembles before it settles. Its movement does not mean the compass is broken – it means the instrument is orienting itself. Fear can create that same trembling within us. We may feel unsettled because our life is attempting to find a truer direction. The trembling is not the destination, and fear should not make every decision. Yet it can reveal where the energy is concentrated. Sometimes fear points toward genuine danger and says, “Protect yourself.” Sometimes it points toward an old wound and says, “Heal this.” Sometimes it points toward an unlived possibility and says, “Your next life is in that direction.” Fierce clarity comes when we allow the needle to settle before choosing our course.
And for some humor
“According to most studies, people’s number-one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. That means that at a funeral, most people would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.” – Jerry Seinfeld
“A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me – I’m afraid of widths.” – Steven Wright, stand-up comedian, actor, and writer
“I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” – Woody Allen
Scripture
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
– 2 Timothy 1:7
This week our journey with Myrtle is an exploration of what she calls the “Law of Supply” which can take many of us right into the heart of our deepest fear and its constant companion, shame. We fear that we don’t have enough; we fear that we are not enough, not adequate, somehow lacking. Then there is the companion fear of looking incompetent, foolish or unable to meet the requirements of what others expect of us, or what we expect of ourselves. We fear that someone is out to undermine us or get the best of us or reject us. The list goes on because our human mind can conjure up all kinds of fear that can become limiting, constricting and ultimately crippling to our human selves. It can paralyze us. We see it as a barrier, not a threshold.
Once again, Myrtle is looking us boldly in the eye and addressing our human experience to shine a light on the path to a higher and more satisfying life. She immediately confronts the way we are so inclined to think, as right off the bat, in the very first lines of Chapter 27, she looks us straight in the eye on p.143 and says this:
You say your world is not bounded like mine with peace, friends, happiness, prosperity, plenty, and blessings of all kinds. How do you know what my world is? You are using your imagination in picturing my world to yourself. You are using the same imagination in bounding your own world—but see how differently you are using this wonderful formative faculty!
Putting boundaries around my own world and assuming there are none around yours! I must admit that she is spot on! I have looked at other people and imagined their world, their family, their lives as so much more satisfying and meaningful than mine. I did that a lot in my younger days when I walked in the neighborhood looking in the lighted windows of the houses and imagined scenarios much different and more enjoyable than what I was living at the time. Then time and life experiences, spiritual, emotional growth and maturity revealed that there is NO way to truly know what someone else’s world is, not really. Myrtle is right about that!
The ultimate truth is that we all have both an inner and an outer landscape to our world that is of our own making. We all have the hand we have been dealt and the results of how we have played it in our lives. We can’t change what we have been dealt, but we can for sure make choices about how we play that hand. In doing that, in making those choices, we come right up against our deepest fears…which are not obstacles, but messengers for the next direction we are to take in our unfolding. Fear keeps us from willingness to take an honest and deep look at our inner landscape; the stories we tell ourselves. The stories we keep telling ourselves prevent us from taking that look. And it is fear that treats our outer landscape like an insurmountable barrier rather than a threshold to a new consciousness and a new, more satisfying way of living.
Myrtle continues in this chapter to acknowledge that we have been “drilled” in the opinions of others as to how we should be and how we should live and behave. “Don’t get angry, don’t speak up, don’t rock the boat, this is just how it is.” Another fear inducer is, “Things could always get worse, so just settle for what you have and be happy with it!” Even when this is not the truest and highest expression of who we really are, that is what we stick with because of habit, fear, complacency or learned helplessness. We get stuck. We have lost sight of what our higher, Divine self is calling us to do and be.
Myrtle describes the mission of Jesus in a really interesting and different way. On p.145 of How to Let God Help You, she writes this:
Jesus’ work was mostly a drill in bringing the minds of His students to grasp the Christ idea of Oneness with God-Mind, that they might pray to the Father in secret and so mold their own blessings and be able to radiate peace-inspiring, health-building qualities to others.
The truth is we all have the power of imagination and the intuition to know and pursue our deeper capacity for a higher consciousness and more expanded and meaningful outer life. That is what Jesus kept trying to tell us and model for us, if we would just listen!
Instead, we get stuck in our fears, between the eulogy and the coffin, as Jerry Seinfeld noted, and that is no place and no way to live. Myrtle also confronts the stuck pattern that is evident when we lament, “I do not know what to do!” Her response: “Repeatedly affirm that you do know! That is the way to make your wisdom work for you….” Okay, Myrtle! In this moment, you may not know, but train your mind to hold the space that you do know and that you will come to see it clearly. You may also realize that while you do know what to do, the real truth is you don’t want to do it! You would just rather take a pass!
Following the instructions of Jesus, we “pray to our Father in secret” so that we will be rewarded in secret. I have always wrestled with this line about praying in secret so you will be rewarded in secret. What’s up with that? What’s the big need for being secret in this? Over time I have come to appreciate the truth that no one can truly know what is happening within my inner world; sometimes I don’t even know! How do I really feel about this issue? I don’t know. This secret business is a direction from Jesus to get comfortable with the not knowing. The added benefit is that I also do not need to answer questions or entertain comments and unsolicited advice from others when I have kept these things between me and God!
The most powerful and impactful part is the process of prayer which Myrtle strongly recommends. Prayer changes you in ways you cannot always see or realize. You sit in prayerful silence, letting your dilemma just be there in your heart. You are not resisting it or grasping for answers, you are just finally open and accepting. The next part of the process is to sit with it prayerfully and mindfully as long as you need to sit there. We finally notice our fear and we allow it to act as a “fierce compass.” We allow the needle to settle to show us our next direction before we choose the course of action to follow.
Last week, we noticed the jolt of anger within us and explored how to channel it like electricity to generate some higher good, to re-generate the situation into a higher outcome. This week, we notice the smoldering energy of fear, that when we lean into it, has the capacity to generate more light than heat and serve as a powerful catalyst for our spiritual growth. The very human responses of anger and fear are powerful agents for transformation when we allow our Divine self to be the means through which we express them.
As the scripture in 2-Timothy 1:7 says:
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Blessings on the Path
Rev. Deb