Midweek Faith Lift
July 8, 2026
“Your Wonderful Body & Spiritual Control”
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Passages
June 30, 2026
The parable about the man at the pool at Bethesda in Jerusalem speaks perfectly about our wholeness and how we realize it. There were a lot of disabled people – blind, crippled, diseased – hanging around the pool because the belief was that once a year an angel would disturb the water – cause ripples – and the first one in the pool would be healed of their affliction. The story goes that there had been a guy there for 38 years. He was never the first one in the water.
One day, Jesus saw him there and asked, 'Do you want to be healed?' And the man said, 'I have no one to help me into the pool.' Jesus said, 'Wilt thou be made whole?' And the man said, 'Every time I try to get into the water, someone beats me to it.' Jesus said, 'Rise, take up thy bed and walk.' And the guy said, 'I can't." And Jesus said, 'Oh, just do it, for God's sake!' (I’m paraphrasing.)
And, with that, the man stood up and was healed. Jesus knew the man had formed his own set of beliefs, and he was telling him to rise up above his limiting consciousness and realize his wholeness. He said you gotta' move. There comes a time when we need to just rise up and, standing on the solid rock of belief, we take action, we move." - Scott Awbrey, Spiritual Passages
And for some humor about this, we read:
The story of the three baseball umpires talking about their craft. The first says, "There are balls and there are strikes, and I calls 'em as I sees 'em!" The second umpire disagrees: "There are balls and there are strikes, and I calls 'em as they are!" Then the third ump ends the conversation by declaring, "There are balls and there are strikes, but they ain't nothin' 'til I calls 'em!"
Scripture
"Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds, for the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." - James 1:2-4
And so here we are, with all our balls and strikes which “ain’t nothin’ ‘til we calls ‘em!” We are working through Chapter 18, “Your Wonderful Body” of How to Let God Help You” and when it comes to our human body and how we inhabit it and live in it, there are for sure a lot of balls and strikes. There’s how others see us and call it…we’re too short, too heavy, too thin, too this and to that! Then there is how we really are, which is at times very hard to discern given all the noise in our heads from how others tell us what they see and how we should be. And then there’s how we call it, what we see of ourselves as how we really are and what we believe that is not really true, kinda like the man by the pool in Bethesda. We can get stuck in old beliefs for lo these 38 years, sticking with the limitations of living by that pool because we believe there is something outside of us that will make it better.
Myrtle is much like Jesus in her messaging about the body. Her first line is that “Spirit is all.” Ok, then! Cut to the chase, Myrtle! Then she tells us very firmly that we are to bring the soul and the body into the “Christ consciousness—the right use of all that God gives us.” And then she asks a powerful question that made me stop and think, “Where would you draw the line between Spirit and the material when there is no evidence that God has placed such boundaries?” (p.100) Where would I draw the line between what is worthy of love and what is not since there is no evidence that that line exists in God mind? That is worth pausing to ponder for sure.
In the history of Christianity and western spirituality and philosophy, there has been a pattern of privileging mind and soul over body, seeing the body as less than, as unclean and unacceptable, something to be overcome and discounted. Myrtle addresses that head on and tells us that these notions are not true to the teachings of Jesus. These teachings “do more to tear down the soul and body that the so-called sins of this world.” Our acceptance of these limiting beliefs keeps us from fully allowing that Christ energy to flow in and through all parts of our body. This is not how it really works, according to Myrtle.
Instead, we are to embrace our wonderful body and bring it fully into the light of love and let it be fully in service to that which is greater than we are. She says it this way in How to Let God Help You on p. 102:
So just make up your mind that you are not going to worry about “overcoming.” You are just going to let the life and strength of God flow through you. God has bestowed gifts upon you with the idea of your using them freely, here and now. You can do whatever you really want to do—but you will have to want it enough actually to make the effort to do it.
We don’t have to overcome our body, we simply continue to remove the obstacles that contribute to our human inertia and see our energy as the God energy that it is, moving in the direction of our heart’s desires. When the heart, or love directs us, we are empowered by Spirit to get up and get going! It may feel like baby steps, but we need to remember that baby steps are not small to the baby. We take steps wherever we are in consciousness, allowing as much love as possible to flow in and through our entire being.
There is no separation in Spirit of mind and body. When we get that, our baby steps can become bigger and stronger steps. Myrtle says that the body is like a child that needs constant “prompting, training and discipline, praise and appreciation.” (p.100) Myrtle also acknowledges that when we enter this life, we come into a new body and she says,
…because your soul was obliged to make adjustments to accommodate itself to the conditions and persons around it, you may sometimes be unable to hold steadfastly to the light which your soul should receive from God-Mind and which it should use in its unfoldment.
Myrtle is acknowledging the reality that we have been conditioned by others and our early experiences to believe in our limitations and imperfections. This makes it difficult to hold to the light, but not impossible.
These “limitation” are temporary and a means for us to gain greater clarity about our soul’s purpose. These limitations don’t define us; they strengthen and inspire us to see past them to the real truth of who we are. Her message is to constantly look to God-Mind with faith and you will begin to see the light. When you look to the light, the shadows fall behind you. Don’t mistake shadows for the Truth, just maintain your focus on the Light of Love that is within you and allow it to find full expression in your body, mind and soul.
The discipline we hold is to remember what we have already learned: God’s will for us is good and only good, and we cannot have our good at someone else’s expense and the same is true for them. When we remember these spiritual truths, we are empowered to live more fully present in the body and in the present moment. That is where our true spiritual power is, not in the shadows or in the past.
Spiritual control is recognizing the truth of her first statement, “Spirit is all” and living into that truth in all aspects of life. When we live in alignment with that reality, then life unfolds with joy, ease and peace. We are not in control, we are awake and tuned in to what the energy of love is whispering to our soul. We strive to gain intellectually in order to be of service to the greater good of all, not our personal good. We are not trying to prove we are worthy; we humbly recognize and accept that we are worthy and we are loved.
Richard Rohr, in his June 29, 2026 blog, “The Grace is From God’s Side” writes:
God does not love you because you are good; God loves you because God is good, and then you can be good because you draw upon such an Infinite Source of Goodness. The older I get, the more I am sure that God does all the giving and we do all the receiving. God is always and forever the initiator in my life, and I am, on occasion, the half-hearted respondent. My mustard seed of a response seems to be more than enough for a humble God, even though the mustard seed is “the tiniest of all the seeds” (Matthew 13:32).
God makes use of everything that we offer and thus expands our freedom. Otherwise, it would not be a covenant love, but a mere coercion. God implants the desire within us to desire even more intimacy with God.
When we live from that perspective, that we are fully loved, mind, body and spirit, then we do pick up our matt and follow Jesus. We are always whole, no matter how it looks to others; we just really know it and live accordingly.
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb