When I was in Unity School of Christianity, one of the first assignments was to delve down deep into one of the 12 powers and come back reporting with a deeper understanding and wisdom about that power. The Power centers, if you are new to Unity, are the centers within, along the lines of the chakras or meridians but with a slight variation. The beauty of Unity is Charles and Myrtle drew from other spiritual traditions and incorporated some of these spiritual ideas into Unity, The Power centers are one example of an idea.
Have you ever tried to communicate an idea to another. You can feel so enthused and excited about something and it seems to leave the other person “flat.” That experience can cause some frustration and so the human reaction to that is often to speak louder or faster saying the same thing again.
We can be full of zeal about something yet if there is no wisdom attached, it often falls flat.
According to Charles Fillmore, our co-founder and author of Keep a True Lent, he writes: “Zeal is the affirmative impulse of existence; its command is, “Go forward!”
Zeal is the zest for life and what we must temper it with is wisdom.
How do we do that?
In Luke 11, we discover the disciples asking Jesus how to face the trials of life, how to pray and he responds with the Lord’s Prayer, which we all know, or at least think we do.
What he is saying is to take time to be Holy, to be Still, to get yourselves out from the fire of zeal which is incredibly intoxicating and allow your zeal to be tempered with wisdom so as these transformative ideas may be transmitted.
Its like baking – you must add the yeast and and let the yeast rise. It’s like gardening, you must plant a seed and allow the seed to take root and rise.
When we share in Unity to slow down, to be mindful, it is how we persevere without becoming overzealous for as we read
“Thy zeal of thy house hath eaten me up” (Psalms 69:9)
Interesting the Power center of zeal is located at the back of the neck. Often if we take our hand and touch that area, we are soothing and calming ourselves down.
We all know what it is like to be around someone who we consider to be a pain in the neck.
Yep too much zeal..
Blessings,
Rev Janice
