Midweek Faith Lift
The Power of Love & Unity
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
July 30, 2025
Spiritual Passages
July 22, 2025
International Day of Friendship - July 30
The United Nations declared July 30 as International Day of Friendship in 2011, inspired by the efforts in Paraguay, where a World Friendship Crusade has been promoting the concept since 1958. The UN encourages governments, organizations, and individuals to hold events and activities that foster dialogue, mutual understanding, and reconciliation. Friendship goes beyond personal bonds; it can be a tool for cultivating trust, breaking down barriers, and strengthening our shared humanity. It acknowledges that kindness and empathy have real power in shaping a better, more peaceful world.
Friendship is a divine echo of Oneness, reminding us that we are not meant to journey alone. As Ernest Holmes wrote, “Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.” Friendship reflects the best of what we think into the world: trust, laughter, acceptance, and love. In spiritual community, friendship is an invisible thread that weaves hearts together. In honoring this day, we affirm that every encounter is an opportunity to create connection.
Affirmative Prayer for today: "Infinite Presence, I’m so glad - so thankful - to be with companions in all kinds of settings. Like the divine promise, ‘I am with you always,’ I get to be in beautiful relationships through thick and thin. How good it is to love completely, to vividly know that we are never alone. Thank you, God, forever. Amen." - Scott Awbrey, Spiritual Passages
As I contemplated the Power of Love and Unity, it landed with me that friendship is a powerful first step on a human level to understand this notion of Unity. And then, it hit me how important it is to first make friends with ourselves, because Unity begins within us. Every part of a meaningful friendship begins with being at peace within our own mind and heart. The basis of true friendship and the love that holds the friendship is a shared energy, a bond that comes from the heart, one person to another. Over time, that bond deepens and grows stronger, especially when it is tested and survives the test and grows as a result.
We can so easily mistake friendship or love for a shared disdain or dislike of another, of a third party, of a “perceived enemy.” However, as noted in the opening story, when we are seeking true connection with another, it is from the perspective of understanding and reconciliation, which is often quite challenging but carries a much different energy. Our deep shared human need is to know that we belong and that we matter. When we are talking about the Power of Love, belonging and knowing that we matter are at the core of our human experience. And the statement: “accept no substitutes” is surely relevant here!
What I have learned over the years is that friendship that is energized by a shared disdain or dislike of another, or “others” does not have the staying power to withstand turbulence or conflict. When conflict arises, then either those involved work to understand and resolve it, or the whole friendship falls apart. I was part of that kind of group for a number of years, as we all had common experiences and shared feelings particularly related to growing up in an alcoholic family. Each member of a friendship group needs the capacity to grow, admit to shortcomings and make amends for the group to thrive. When that does not happen, it results in fractures especially as people cling to the role of victim.
We see that happen repeatedly in churches, social groups, political groups and on and on. It is due to our human expectations of what love and unity really mean. In our human experience, we talk about and express the desire for “oneness” with God and with each other as the deepest desire of our being. We can engage in a lot of “pseudo spiritual” or even psycho babble talk about Oneness. However, when we are asked to give up or surrender our beliefs, fears, ideas or victim consciousness, then we tend to back away, not truly willing to let go of our attachments that form our identity and our personality. We are challenged to even look at them much less release them even when they get in the way of our growth and our joy.
Letting go is a prerequisite for Love to have love’s perfect way with us. And the realization of this often comes in a lot of brief “a ha!” experiences or moments. It is so hard to feel unity or “oneness” with someone who really yanks your chain, but that is actually the source of the true experience of oneness. I remember being at a weeklong Unity Village retreat back in the day when everyone was put into a “prayer circle” which was your friendship group for the week. Yikes! I remember seeing one woman at the registration check in and watching her and thinking “I hope I don’t end up with her!” Guess where I ended up???
Well it was exactly where I needed to be as she offered me that perfect mirror to see in myself what I did NOT want to see! I was truly spiritual (in my humble opinion) and she, with all her make-up, jewelry and opinions about how women should look and dress, WAS NOT!! I remember sitting in the Peace Chapel and crying, whiny victim tears that this was SO DISAPPOINTING to have as a retreat experience and I wanted my money back, God! I wanted to just leave and go home, where I felt safe and could hide. Then I picked up the phone in Peace Chapel, a direct line to Silent Unity and poured out my woes. The prayer worker paused and quietly asked me to consider that Spirit had brought me to this place for a reason, a purpose, perhaps to see something I needed to see.
I politely thanked her for the prayer and hung up. I then went to dinner with the image of peanut butter pie for a comfort food consolation prize. I sat with a woman who was my friend from previous retreats, purposely seeking her out because she was someone who “understood” and accepted me. Under the guise of being “spiritual” I asked her to pray for our group because of this difficult woman. In describing my woes to my friend, I heard myself say, “Oh my God, she is just so judgmental and it just never quits!” And in that moment, I knew what this woman was mirroring for me, and what I was “thinking into my world” as Ernest Holmes said in the opening statement.
It was a humbling moment for sure, right there at the table at Unity Inn. I will never forget it because I finally looked and listened and saw and heard ALL of myself. It was not pretty and really uncomfortable. My friend, Robyn, who also is now a Unity minister, sat with me through this experience. This was true kindness and friendship, to hold the space for learning and growth to happen without judgment, just love and compassion. From that point, I learned to have compassion for myself and for the woman in our group who been such a teacher for me. It deepened my self-awareness and acceptance and self-love. I wouldn’t say that we became good friends as a result of this aha. What did shift was my energy toward her, and myself, and it was a huge relief to make that shift. I could feel genuine “oneness” with her, and true love and compassion toward her and all of myself.
I want to share with you from Richard Rohr’s July 22, 2025 blog, “The Wisdom In An Age of Outrage” an excerpt from “Healing Outrage” by Valerie Kaur:
The true nature of reality is that we are one, but that oneness is both inward and outward. My invitation to see no stranger also begins within. Oh, my pain! Oh, my shame! Oh, my rage! You are a part of me I do not yet know. Instead of banishing you or exiling you or suppressing you, can I be curious about you? Can I love you like a mother would?
Even the hardest, potentially most shameful parts of ourselves have the potential to give us insight for healing, growth, and transformation. The more we are able to build our capacity to love all parts of ourselves, the deeper our capacity to love all parts of the world around us, the beloved within and without. That is the shift in consciousness and culture that I believe we desperately need in order to birth a new world, a way of seeing, a way of being that leaves no one outside of our circle of care. What we need is a revolution of the heart. This is why I believe revolutionary love is the call of our times.
Valerie Kaur is of the Sikh faith and her insights come from Sikh writings about the nature of rage and how it both heals and harms us. When we can love all parts of ourselves, we can love all parts of the world around us. This is why Charles Fillmore said that “God does not love us, God is the love in everybody and every thing.” This unifying power of love is described in all religions because it is at the core of that human need for belonging and to know that we matter. We can embrace our uniqueness, our individuality as well as our Unity with each other and understand how we truly matter and belong. It is a both/and journey in which we come into balance with our human/divine selves.
Our culture over-emphasizes the individuality and that we matter because of our personality and human achievements, but that is not the whole story, not by a long shot. It is more like the words of Sri Anandamayi Ma: “The individual suffers because he perceives duality. Find the One everywhere and in everything and there will be an end to pain and suffering.”
May it be so.
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb