Midweek Faith Lift
December 17, 2025
Life-Love-Advent
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Passages
December 8, 2025
Orca whales brushing against each other might look like simple grooming, but it reveals something deeply spiritual. They're likely shedding old skin and strengthening social bonds. And they're doing it with and for one another. Isn’t that what we all need? We, too, outgrow parts of ourselves - old stories, outdated fears - and often, it’s in community where that shedding happens best. A friend who listens, a sister doing your hair.… Healing is rarely a solo act. The orcas remind us that renewal is natural, connection is essential, and even in the deep, transformation is a team effort. Find your people. Find your kelp. Let yourself be softened and made new again. - Scott Awbrey, Spiritual Passages
Renewal made real:
"DC Comics announced that Superman’s motto changed from 'Truth, Justice, and the American Way,' to a new mission statement: 'Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow.' The company said the new motto signifies that the Man of Steel is a hero for everyone, and that his mission is to build a better world. The change is about evolving, shedding the old, and awakening to a new way of being."
And for a bit of humorous renewal:
A really good lotion does Biblical-level work. My skin went from ‘Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones’ to ‘Song of Solomon smooth’ in about 30 seconds.
Affirmative Prayer for today: Living, loving Presence of Spirit, soften my heart and strengthen my will to truly live into the fullness of my capacity for love and for Life so that your Presence is made real in this world. Amen.
Well, it’s all about lotion, isn’t it? That is a good metaphor for the energy of Love, when it permeates our Life and softens our hearts to open to all that is good, all that is true and all that is beautiful. It smooths the rough edges and makes the impossible possible. It is about practicing the Presence of God, of Love in all the mundane, everyday circumstances of our lives. That doesn’t sound like much, not too difficult, but in truth, it is quite challenging to do, especially when we are coming up against all our rough edges. Just what is Presence? What is it we are practicing?
Well, it may sound like what goes under the Christmas tree, you know, presents, and we open them on Christmas morning. And in a profound way, Presence is truly a gift, a present. We are talking about the spiritual Power of Life, which is the Presence of God. Rev. Linda writes about it this way in Divine Audacity, p. 195.
In principle, life is being, which is invisible. In form, life is existence, which is visible. The visible comes into expression from the invisible. The invisible is presence.
Ok, metaphysically and theologically, that is a lot to chew on because we, as humans usually don’t take time to reflect on that quality of being because we are so focused on doing, especially at this time of year. Rev. Linda continues:
Presence is vibrational evidence of life. Omnipresence is evidence of life everywhere and in everything. We say that GOD is omnipresent or everywhere present. In keeping with our Divine Identity, we too are essentially a presence.
Ok, we are a presence, but what kind of presence? I have heard it said, and I have said it myself, about someone else, “Oh my, she’s something else!” I’m not sure, but I don’t think that is the kind of presence we want to be. That is more in keeping with our human presence not our Divine Identity. Hmmm…..How do I navigate this Presence thing, because that is what Love and the spiritual Power of Life is calling me do?
Right now, it seems pretty daunting because all I have to do is listen to the news, watch the weather forecast on Saturday night, look at the length of my to do list and I am not in a very Divine place. What I realized in a big “aha moment” of self-awareness this past week is that when I am too stressed, too irritable, I look for ways to off-load that energy. What I realized is that what I do with it is to get very critical….even if I don’t say it out loud, I am saying it in my head….same difference, actually! And the more critical and impatient I get, the more spiritual lotion I need!
Did you know that when you are dealing with an AI generated “helper” for Zoom, Stripe or whatever, that “sweetsie” AI voice doesn’t really care when you lose your cool and start expressing yourself with expletives! She just said, very sweetly, “take as much time as you need, we will get this worked out!” And then she told me to do again what had just failed to work! At that point, my Divine Self was nowhere evident and I had the presence of mind (did you hear the word Presence?) to say, I need to speak to a real person. To which AI “Sweetsie” responded, ok, I can help you with that too, let me connect you!! At which point I said “&^%# you very much” to which she politely responded, You’re welcome!
At that point, I had to laugh at myself, really, which is the surest sign of love! When we get to the laughter, we are once again in our Divine Energy and our brains can start functioning again! Love and laughter are essential lubricants for Life. For the record, I also discovered that if you use the chat function on a website, do not just assume it is an AI generated chat! I actually asked the Chat if they were a real person, to which they responded indignantly, “Of course I am!!” Now it was my turn to apologize and once again laugh at myself. Bottom line for me is that I have enough challenges with human intelligence, I don’t need artificial intelligence to confuse and confound me even more!
We are each, in truth, in our human expression of life an individuality of the Divine. What does that mean? Well. On p.195 of Divine Audacity, Rev. Linda explains it this way:
Individuality means that each of us is a presence, a distinctive unrepeatable expression of GOD, the One Mind. Individuality also means that we cannot be divided out of the One Mind. We are one with the One and our presence displays a distinctive radiance of the One.
To me that means that each one of us, in our own unique way ,expresses this energy of Love and Life and it is the same and yet different for each one of us. Like the Orcas, we rub up against each other and smooth out the rough edges. We learn to laugh at our human foolishness which is the lotion of love that opens the way. When there is tension, whether it is within us or within a group, we pause and remember that this rubbing each other the wrong way offers us the opportunity for emotional and spiritual growth that is the spiritual lubricant of Love. When we get to the laughter, we are in the energy of love.
How does that work for you? For me, it begins with self-awareness of my own emotional and mental state. We can only work from the awareness of where we are at the present time. There is that word again…present! And that is the key, to stay truly present to what is here right now. And when you notice it, go ahead and acknowledge it and own it. I discovered that it was much more helpful to Todd if I actually said out loud how irritable I was feeling. It was far less confusing!
What I had been doing is noticing him and how he wasn’t “doing things right!” And when I realized that, I actually stopped and said a prayer: “Spirit please help me see this a different way.” By the grace of God, I did not give voice to all my critical thoughts; instead, I had one of those blessedly humbling self-aware moments where I realized I had just put the socks in the dishwasher! Or something like that, and I just had to sit down and laugh at myself and share the moment with him so we could both laugh. And then he said something really funny, as Todd often does, and we laughed even more. This was much better than fighting, which is the path I had pursued in the past by offering what I considered “Helpful remarks!”
My irritability had a gift of Presence, which had gone heretofore unrealized. Now, by the gift of prayer, which is just a way of connecting with Presence, more love and laughter was present in my day. The fun is that as the day progressed, I continued to laugh at all the “dumb” human things I had done and continued to do. It is much better to watch and laugh at your human self…it makes room for Love and it opens your life to a more spacious way of being.
I leave you this morning with a passage from the Hebrew Scripture:
Ezekiel 36:26
I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you; I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
And from the Wisdom Teaching of Taoism and Lao Tzu
"Embracing the Tao, you become embraced. Supple, breathing gently, you become reborn. Clearing your vision, you become clear. Nurturing your beloved, you become impartial. Opening your heart, you become accepted. Accepting the World, you embrace Tao. Bearing and nurturing, creating but not owning, giving without demanding, controlling without authority. This is love." –
May it be so…
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb