‘I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11)
This Sunday we invoke joy to manifest in our Being. Joy is a quality of deep awareness that realizes the Oneness of Life. Joy bursts out and overshadows us when we allow Spirit to lead the way. Joy lifts us into a lightness of heart and mind that can see beneath all appearances and into the Reality that right where we are God is.
Recently I
‘ve been doing some “Light” reading. The Essential Charles Fillmore, A guide to practical mysticism and metaphysics. These amazing words point us to the Joy that resides within Life. The thing about Unity and its philosophy is that it is an experience. The Fillmores never wanted anyone to take their word alone but to discover the Truth for themselves and this is done by applying these Universal Life Principles.
Charles writes “The fact is Truth cannot be imparted – it must be individually experienced. The presence of Divine Mind in the soul cannot be told in words; it can only be hinted at and referred to in parable and likened to this or that, but it can never be described as it is.”
Every person, puppy and plant thrives on connection. From newborns to our elders we crave connection and joy breaks out all over us when we allow ourselves to commune.
Rev Alice Anderson says that there are four main connections we can work with to lead a more joyful and balanced life. Our connection with Source; our connection with our Higher Self, our connection with each other and our connection with Mother earth. It is up to us to give our attention to each of these relationships.
Our connection with Source is to be still and “go to headquarters” as Charles would say. Our connection with others cannot happen without the first connection.
I recently listened to a historian who I admire on television state that Jesus asked us to live a most difficult commandment, and that is “To love your neighbor as yourself.” He said that is really challenging for us but if we are to live in a civilized, empathetic society based on our founding principles, we must strive to live this commandment. I believe he has this backwards. We must first learn to love ourselves through connecting with our Source and only then can we love our neighbor. Many people don’t feel worthy of love and if they don’t feel the love within themselves they cannot give what they don’t have. The connection with Source allows our eyes to see beneath appearances and into the Spirit that lives all life.
The connection with our Mother Earth is vital to our health. To walk in nature, to walk the beach, to sit outside and listen to birdsong, to feel the breeze and feel the earth beneath our feet is healing. This connection grounds us in Being, grounds us into recognizing the joy and gratitude that flows from interacting with all of these relationships.
The world spins before us in a panorama of changing scenes. This can be dizzying and terrifying or it can be invigorating and inspiring. Einstein said: “There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle and the other is as though everything as a miracle.”
The miracle is the perception of Oneness, One Life, One Love, One Presence, One Power. As we devote ourselves to connecting with this Presence and Power that we call “God” a shift occurs naturally and our Soul can SEE our neighbor is another version of ourselves.
An Absolute Deeper Truth is: Realize there is Only One Relationship and Joy Busts out all over.
Live in Joy
