Midweek Faith Lift
June 10, 2026
What Do I Hear? What Do I Say?
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Passages
June 2, 2026
"When I was 11, my parents enrolled me in a new school on the outskirts of town. I was the only girl of color there and the only one wearing a hijab. It was hard. Not a day passed where I wouldn’t hear negative comments about my appearance. I broke down about it all the time. People would scream 'terrorist' at me as I walked by. I had people spit and throw food at me and on one occasion someone even tried to pull my hijab off my head and tighten it across my neck. Not only did I feel hideous, I felt scared. I contemplated taking it off. It could have been so easy, but it just didn’t feel right.
For me, wearing a hijab is empowering. It’s truly liberating. I feel proud when I wear it. It’s part of me, part of my identity, culture and heritage. It’s not just a mark of my religion, it’s also a symbol of my strength, my self-love, and my willingness to deal with whatever life throws at me. It made me stronger. It gave me the drive to brush away the negativity and go on so I could get a degree in theatre and do some acting. It helped me reach my passion. It pushed me to do all the things that make me proud to be the woman I am today. Plus, with it, I never have a bad hair day." - Fatemah Dhanji, UK actor
And from a familiar adult we read:
When Stephen Colbert was asked about a plane crash that killed his father and two of his brothers when he was 10 years old, Colbert said, "Of course I don't want it to have happened, but it is a gift to exist, and with existence comes suffering. If you are grateful for your life, then you have to be grateful for all of it. You can't pick and choose what you're grateful for. I had to learn to love the thing that I most wish had not happened."
And for some humor about all this….
Winnie the Pooh wore a crop top with no pants, only ate his favorite food, and loved himself. So you can too.
Affirmative Prayer for Today: Divine Sweet Spirit, I am grateful for all that calls me up higher and shows me ways in which I can grow in consciousness. I am grateful for the ability to learn to love the thing that I most wished had not happened. Amen.
Myrtle Fillmore has an entire chapter called “Meeting the Cloven Hoof” in How to Let God Help You. Did you ever feel like something was written especially for you? Every word, every sentence, every idea? Well, when I re-read this chapter after a weeklong “family vacation” I truly felt like every word was for me. I also felt like Winnie the Pooh with a crop top, no pants, because none fit and jars full of honey, needing to love myself anyway. It was wonderful and awful in each now moment, both because of “them” and because of me. And for sure that is a humbling admission, but only because of all that was unexpected in how we all showed up and it really threw me off balance and pushed buttons I did not know I had. More about that later, now back to Myrtle….
The cloven hoof is a literary/mythological/Biblical reference that symbolically represents the devil or an evil, deceitful nature. This whole chapter is about meeting our own human shortcomings and those of others with a new, spiritual consciousness that allows us to learn and grow as a result of the human experiences. It is a whole, whole lot of letting go of thinking “how things should be” and “how people should behave” and “how I expect things to happen.” A WHOLE LOTTA of letting go, in almost every turn of the page.
What is true, spiritually true, is that if we do decide to let God help us, then we are signing up for a course in how to let God “rework us”, redo us if you will. We do have to let go of being right, even if we are deeply invested in what we believe to be right. That is not easy, and when our core beliefs about those things are challenged by the behavior or words of another person, it is really hard to concede the line, even if you want to do so. Frequently you just cannot concede the line without the sense that you are losing….losing yourself, your sense of worth and on and on. But that is what is essential if you are to get to the other side of the challenge with a deeper and more intact sense of self, a spiritual Self.
Richard Rohr had some thoughts about this in his June 2, 2026 blog: “The Spirit Reworks Us”:
The late [lay theologian] Verna Dozier … was a real mentor, teacher, and soul friend to me. In her book The Dream of God, she offered this wisdom: “We always see through a glass darkly, and that is what faith is about. I will live by the best I can discern today. Tomorrow I may find out I was wrong. Since I do not live by being right, I am not destroyed by being wrong.”
Not living by being right, that is the ultimate key to our freedom, our ability to find true and lasting contentment and joy. I am not destroyed by being wrong, even though it may feel that way at times.
It is not unlike the process of cleaning out a really chock-full closet and letting go of what is no longer needed, even if there are memories attached. It is usually a real mess in the process and there are some cherished things that really need to move on for more space in your life. I am better when I pray, have help from a friend and let go of attachments and memories, both good and bad.
Myrtle is relentless in her descriptions of the process of how God reworks us. She says that if you find yourself in hell more than once, it might be good to “look yourself over and see what it is that makes it necessary for you to go through “hell” so often and why each trip seems worse than the last!” P. 67 How to Let God Help You. Ouch! The challenge to look yourself over puts the process squarely in your hands and it usually isn’t pretty. Take a breath!
Remember, God is doing a perfect work in you even as you don’t especially like it. If we are to let God help us, that means we let God rework us. Myrtle says a new side of you will have to be shown. She describes it like this:
A new disregard for consequences, in the awareness that God is working in all ways to bring about a better state of affairs and to establish in you God’s order, wisdom and joy, will need to be expressed…a new faith in your own inner spiritual resources, and your ability to bring them to the surface, will have to take the place of negative submissiveness. P. 69
So what do I do if I feel deeply offended? Do I tolerate abuse, mistreatment?
Should one always be sweet and forgiving? Yes, she says, but “not without backbone and individual conviction.” Be sweet because it is the expression of Christ ideas in your consciousness. Be forgiving because it is the only way that the energy of the situation has the possibility to shift. She also says to forgive because it forgives you and “because it does work mightily to change the individual who falls short.” P. 69. She continues to say:
Forgiveness is not silent consent, the negative appearance of making the best of a situation while underneath there is resentment. Forgiveness is the art of putting something else in place of the thing forgiven.
Wow! All this asks me, personally, to pause, take a step back and try to see the bigger picture. If there is resentment there, I need to see that and own it and find a skillful way to put something else in its place. I need to have that difficult conversation that clears the air an allows space for understanding and wisdom to emerge, or not. It doesn’t mean I don’t have the conversation. I am called to see through the glass darkly and have faith that God is doing God’s perfect work in me and in the situation. I have to trust that Love is working in all ways, even when I can’t see it.
Myrtle clearly states that it does not matter that there is no immediate transformation. She says, “You have to make use of your God power to erase the appearance and establish Truth. Such an attitude invites only the best from other souls.” That sounds a lot like letting go of attachment to outcomes!
I have to remember that when I forgive, I am initially doing it for myself because resentment is a heavy burden to bear. Roger Teel says it this way in his book This Life is Joy, p. 193
"Forgiveness is one of the highest expressions of self-love. It is loving yourself enough to move out of that stuck place, to get out of that quicksand. It is taking all of the energy devoted to fear and resentment, and channeling it into something that is constructive, life giving, and uplifting. Forgiveness is freeing yourself to get back to the higher agenda of your life -- no longer tethered to the past."
At the end of the day, we really do have to learn to love the thing we truly wished had not happened if we want to sit with our honey pot and really love ourselves like Winnie the Pooh!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb