Living from the Overflow

In every sense of the word, this has been a full week for me. The fact that it's Saturday afternoon and I'm just now getting around to writing this article that I usually complete on Friday, owes to an unusually busy week for me.  Denese was in Portland visiting her family most of the week, and I was privileged to teach a 10 hour Spiritual Enrichment Class at Christ Unity Church this week.  But I'm not here to share how full the hours of my day were as a consequence of this teaching assignment, rather to share how spiritually full and enriched I was by the experience.

There are activities in which we spend time and end up depleted by them and others where our time is invested and the return is a true increase in us. I am definitely better for having invested the time to facilitate this class.  I feel profoundly deepened and inspired by the reading, contemplating, preparing and sharing with this wonderful group of 15 truth students who shared our journey through a Lessons in Truth Class based upon the diminutive yet mighty Unity classic text by Emily Cady.

The teachings of Dr. Cady are pithy and direct with little fluff that might dilute their powerful intended effect of leading the reader beyond a mere understanding of the teachings to a  real knowing of the Truth. Most of us do not practice spirituality with such fervor or directness. Our class reveled in Dr. Cady passionate invitation to suspend tentativeness, and make the leap of faith into Kingdom of God consciousness. She does not mince words in her zeal to get right with God now! The first words of the book, a quote from Apostle Paul, urges "Finally be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his power" (Eph. 6:10) There is no backing away from this intense singlular focus all the way through the book, even to her culminating closing words, "God is a present help in time of need: but there must be a recognition of His presence, a turning away from human efforts, and an acknowledgment of God only (a single eye) before He becomes manifest."

This discipline of such a singular focus on God realization as the only true spiritual practice that bears fruit in one's life became disturbingly clear to me this week. I have studied and dabbled in many paths and practices in my effort to reach a sense of interior well being.  Many of these practices skirt the end zone and leave me short of my true goal.  The clarity and purity of this week's spiritual focus felt like a splash of holy water that cleared my spiritual vision and put me back on a truer path. The sense of the Presence and the sacred insights have been profound. I am indeed full for having invested the time in these clear, unfettered teachings.  As I reflect on the time spent, and count the interior gains, I realize I may have actually saved time in the long run of my spiritual journey.

This Sunday we look at our last core value, Abundance.  As I reflect on this topic, while still steeped in the pure teachings of Jesus, I see how Jesus clearly measured abundance from the content of his heart and his awareness of the full cup that overflowed with the presence, power and love of God.