Midweek Faith Lift
September 4, 2024
Unity Affirmative Prayer Then & NOW
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Passages
August 26, 2024
There once lived a king who announced a prize to the artist who would create the best painting depicting peace. Many great painters sent the king several of their best art pieces. One picture among all the masterpieces was of a calm lake perfectly mirroring peacefully towering snow-capped mountains and a clear blue sky with fluffy clouds. The picture was perfect. Most of the people who viewed all the various pictures of peace thought that it was the best among all. But when the king announced the winner, everyone was shocked. The prize-winning picture had mountains too but it was rugged and bare. The sky looked very angry, there was lightning. This did not look peaceful at all. It looked like the artist has mistakenly submitted his painting depicting storms rather than peace. But if you looked closely at the painting, you could see a tiny bush growing in the cracks in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. In the midst of the rush of angry weather, the bird sat on her nest with peace. True peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise or trouble. Peace means to be in the midst of all the chaos and still be calm in the heart. The real peace is the state of mind, not the state of the surroundings. The mother bird at her calm, despite her chaotic surrounding indeed was the best representation for peace.
Develop a mind that is vast like the water, where experiences both pleasant and unpleasant can appear and disappear without conflict, struggle, or harm. Rest in a mind like vast water." - the Buddha
The idea of two friends being together for years without ever having a dispute suggests a lack of spirit only to be admired in sheep.
Affirmative Prayer for today: Divine Energy of Spirit, what is it in my human expression that wants to realize more of the Divine energy that I am? How does that manifest through the activity of prayer? Amen.
Last week, as we contemplated how it is that we bring our true Divine nature more easily and readily into our human nature and experience, we ended with a question “What do I want to know about the nature of God related to this situation? This is a big question that tugs at my mind and my heart because it asks me to question the thoughts and feeling that I have already brought to these circumstances. When in a storm, would I be calm, like that mother bird or do I go into panic mode and flap about creating even more distress, confusion and chaos? Does my very human mind think of the best case scenario or the worst case scenario? Where do my energy and attention go, and more importantly, is this where I want them to go? Perhaps not! Get a grip, Deb, get a grip! But how!?!?
Breathe and remember the power of affirmative prayer, which changes you and impacts how you see things and how you show up in any given circumstance. As Revs. Linda and DeAnn see this process in Discover Your Divinity, it is like the frond of a fern plant unfurling, spiraling open to a much wider degree of perception and spiritual understanding. They put it this way: “Affirmative prayer is a progression of movements that flow toward a new awareness.” (p.83) We are not praying for a specific outcome or action but for a new level of consciousness, an opening of mind and heart to the “more” that is our God-self that will afford us that new vision, broader perspective and the ability to show up with our highest and best selves.
The first step in the historical Unity prayer process was called Relaxation, which was to relax the mind. I say, “Breathe!” because your body is also part of this process. As we go deeper into a prayer flow process we are invited to relax everything: the tension in the body, the story we have been carrying in our mind and heart, and tightness of feeling we may be holding. In the newer understanding of affirmative prayer flow, this is an experience of really opening body, mind and spirit to new possibilities. It is cultivating willingness to see everything anew and to create the space for a shift in consciousness.
Like the momma bird in the story who had to open to putting her nest in a tiny bush growing through a crack in the rocks, instead of a big tall tree, we too have to find the places where our heart has been broken open, where there are cracks, small cracks. That is where prayer begins, where we are open and receptive, usually when we feel a bit cracked!
The next step in the traditional Unity prayer process is called Concentration, which is where we bring our attention to and concentrate on the Divine. I always found that really abstract and difficult and not helpful, especially if I felt that the crack was about to give way and swallow me whole. What Rev. Linda and DeAnn call this next phase is the “I recognize God is” phase of this prayer flow. If I am gripped by fear, I pause, I breathe, and I recognize God is Strength, God is Power and God is Love, God is Will, God is Release. And I breathe again, and again to come to a place of stillness both within and without.
I find this part of the prayer process most helpful when I am particularly stressed, and it doesn’t matter why. I cannot find something and I am frantically searching for it with a fierce urgency. Usually I am sure Todd has taken it, or put it somewhere that it does not belong!! I pause, breathe and recognize God is Wisdom, and in that Wisdom I rest and stop blaming Todd! And lo, there is the new jar of mayo right on the cupboard shelf where I put it….good thing I prayed first! Peace, be still, Deb and know that I AM God.
And that is actually the next part of the Affirmative Prayer Flow. In the traditional 5-step Unity prayer process, this is called Meditation. I call it the Aha moment! When I finally get quiet enough, breathe and pause, and breathe some more, I can then connect with the I AM consciousness that recognizes that all that God is, I Am, even if not perfectly expressed. I connect with the Divinity of me, by first connecting with my observer self that can see how ridiculous I seem in my frantic search for the jar of mayo, to the point of blaming Todd for hiding it when he has NOTHING to do with it! There is surely a better choice, a broader perspective.
And then my higher self activates, the self that does not need to blame anyone or anything for my current experiences, it is just Present to what is right here and now with love and compassion. This is like the mother bird who sits on her nest with her eggs in perfect peace that all is well and all will be well no matter how it looks. We are integrating the energy of our “I AM” our Divine self into our human experience, which brings us incredible peace, even in the midst of great turmoil. This empowers us to show up how we really want to show up, with our highest and best human/divine self.
In the traditional Unity prayer process this is called Realization, whereby we make real the actual power and Presence of God. Revs. Linda and DeAnn have a more practical description and call this the “I realize I can, I have and I know….” prayer flow. They describe it like this on p.85 of Discover Your Divinity
The action of realization is how we live into our divinity more fully, what we can actually do and have because of our divine identity. It is in realization that we activate a divine principle in time and space.
We can have peace, we can have joy, we can know the highest and best path forward when we put our very human ego in service to our higher self. It is our choice and our spiritual empowerment that supports us in making that choice. There is in Proverbs a passage that describes what our choice is like and what it means
Proverbs 17:13-14
Evil will not depart from the house of one who returns evil for good. The beginning of strife is like letting out water. Stop before the quarrel breaks out.
And finally, when we are in this new, expanded consciousness we experience gratitude for the good that unfolds. Gratitude in advance of answered prayer is the traditional 5th step in the Affirmative prayer process. However, in this new understanding of the flow of affirmative prayer, we let go of attachment to outcome and embrace the joy, the exuberance of our new, expanded consciousness and deeper understanding. It is gratitude, but even more than gratitude, it is joy! As the prophet Isaiah describes it:
Isaiah 55:12
For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Keep building your nest in the broken places where there is the possibility of growth and new life, just like the momma bird on the mountain.
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb