Midweek Faith Lift
July 3, 2024
The Transformative Mind Action of Prayer-2
Rev. Deb Hill Davis
Spiritual Passages
June 10, 2024
A young executive was standing in front of a shredder when the CEO of the company approached and said, "Listen, this is a highly sensitive and important document, and my assistant isn't here. Can you make this thing work?" The young man, thinking this was his big chance to impress the boss, confidently said, "Certainly, sir, I've got this." He turned the machine on, inserted the paper, and pressed the start button. "Excellent, excellent!" said the CEO as his paper disappeared inside the shredder machine. "I just need one copy."
There is much evidence that there are at least two major tasks to human life. The first task is to build a strong "container" or identity; the second is to find the contents that the container is meant to hold." - Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
Affirmative Prayer for today: Living, Loving, Presence of God, in us, and all around us, we are filled with Divine Wisdom as we navigate all the circumstances of our life. We open to the Indwelling Spirit of God that is seeking full expression in this world as us and we are so grateful. Amen.
Once we stop laughing at the unfortunate circumstances that this scenario illustrates, one wonders just what kind of prayer the young executive might have said at the point that he realized his irreversible mistake! “Oh my God!” is often our shortest and most heartfelt prayer for sure, isn’t it? Then, the next silently whispered prayer is “God help me!” and then it is open season as to where it goes from there. What makes this scenario so compelling is that we have all been there in some form or other. Awhile back there were all these bumper stickers that had “WWJD?” on them; “What Would Jesus Do?”
Well, I think Jesus would laugh because this whole situation, in the fullness of time, is truly laughable for sure!
I love the Richard Rohr quotation because these two tasks are so powerfully true and also amenable to the power and energy of transformative prayer. We are, as humans, meant to build a strong container or identity. That container includes a healthy ego or sense of empowerment and self-efficacy, the ability to know one’s mind and heart and take action on one’s own behalf and on behalf of others. We also are meant to cultivate a strong sense of our divine nature, our divine or “higher self” that has the energy of Spirit active within each of us. And we cultivate our “observer self” that is able to pause and witness and see what is really there.
It is our capacity for transcendence that can see beyond our immediate circumstances and access a larger, greater energy that holds the power and process of prayer. Eric Butterworth, in The Universe is Calling refers to this as our “cosmic counterpart.” He says on p. 48
It is very much like a mystical shadow. There is a whole of you that is present in the energy field that you are, even in a partial expression of you. There is an allness even within illness, an all-sufficiency in any seeming insufficiency.
Butterworth goes on to say that prayer is always answered but the answer depends not on what you are hoping to achieve, but on the elements that you have put together in your prayer. This is part of what Richard Rohr describes as deciding what that container is meant to hold. You may be seeking prosperity but also holding a lack consciousness that is getting in the way.
All prayer is answered, but it is answered at the your level of consciousness. As Butterworth says, God can do no more for you than God can do through you. There is a “cosmic counterpart” in each one of us and within each of us is the unrealized possibility to release it.
What is the most creative way our young executive could release his “cosmic counterpart?” Good question! As we have been saying all along, we live at the intersection of our Divine/human selves, cultivating the observer self that forms our very own “holy trinity.” This observer self is aware of what is really before us and has the ability to access a deeper consciousness to inform and direct our responses. It is here that we pick up the prayer thread of mind action, the creative power from Revs. Linda and DeAnn. They begin with a powerful statement about Mind action by Charles Fillmore. In Jesus Christ Heals, Fillmore writes:
There is one underlying law and….through this law all things come into expression: also… there is one universal mind, the source, the sole origin of all real intelligence. First is mind, then mind expresses itself in ideas, then the ideas make themselves manifest.
The most direct route to understanding what ideas you have been holding is to allow the observer self to see with clarity what it is that fills that container that is your life which Richard Rohr speaks of so eloquently. What has been made manifest in your life and are you in alignment with it and aware of how it came about?
This is the creative process of “Mind, Idea, Expression,” that Unity defines as the holy trinity. Transformative Mind action comes about when we align with Divine mind, or the Prime principle. The creative process is tapping into that Universal Energy we call God, and Idea is the creative medium, or the “I AM” of us that recognizes and embraces Divine Energy within us, discovering our cosmic counterpart as Butterworth describes it. And finally there is the expression or actual manifestation in physical time and space, the outcome or results of the creative process, or the contents the container is meant to hold. This can all take place in a split second!
Well, here is our young executive whose container holds the unfortunate shreds of this important document along with his ego, sense of self-worth and all possible outcomes for his budding career! Now what does he do? Revs. Linda and DeAnn hold that the most authentic and true purpose of prayer is healing. Healing is “to claim and realize a spiritual principle by which we move to restore, resolve, or to improve our experience.” (Discover Your Divinity,p. 37) Healing happens when we realize, or make real a spiritual principle which is to awaken that Cosmic Counterpart” that is always present within and between us.
How in the world does this document shredding get healed? At the most basic human level of consciousness, the first response is horror, then fear, then embarrassment and then chagrin and on and on, self-deprecating statements we have all heard and said! “How could I be so stupid!” “I am so sorry!” and so on.
At another level of human consciousness, we get into blame….I am NOT responsible for this! You asked me how this machine works, you did not tell me you needed a copy, for God’s sake!” How’s that one working for you?
The way we choose to activate Divine Mind is what defines our uniqueness and which Spiritual Power we call upon is what helps us make those activation choices. As Butterworth said, we do this at the present level of consciousness for that is the only place we can truly be! There are infinite possible choices, and cultivating a prayer consciousness does not mean that we disappear into Divine Mind. Our creative process includes our human/divine/ observer self, engaging in Divine Order, which is always at work in this creative process. How is the healing, or transforming power of prayer at work in this situation?
Well, there are a number of unique options by which this shredded situation is reparable. The first is just the observation, “Oh you wanted a copy, and this is the shredder! Ooops!” Then, there is the pause, during which you realize that your ego took the lead, wanting to impress rather than pausing to ask, “Do you want to shred this document?” Ooops, again! Then there is the AHA, or realization that when the observer self is fully activated, you would have the presence of mind to ask that question! I can hardly count all the times when I have jumped in too soon before understanding what the real need was…..pause and pray for order and understanding, rather than just shredding.
Then there is the possibility of self-deprecating humor, which I have invoked numerous times, “Well, that was helpful, then, wasn’t it?” Followed by invoking the power of order with the question, “How do we bring order out of that bit of chaos?” That opens the door to actual possibilities of constructive problem solving, a bonding with laughter, personal insight and the opportunity for spiritual and emotional growth….not a bad outcome for a shredding experience.
Ernest Holmes says about healing in Science of Mind:
Healing is not a process but a revelation: for the revealing of the perfect human always heals. The process, if there is one, is the time and thought that it takes to arrive at the correct understanding of the human’s perfect state in Spirit.
In is in that openness to the power of Spirit, in that moment when we pause and pray, “God help me” that the power and presence of Spirit opens us to navigate each circumstance with greater awareness of our divine/human/observer self to respond with ease, wit and grace! Our container is strengthened and filled with creative energy and we are blessed and so very grateful!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb