Showing posts with label New Thought positive thinking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Thought positive thinking. Show all posts
Thursday, February 13, 2025
Is New Thought on Life Support?
Is New Thought on Life Support?
Ideas are forever...Swedenborg's allegorical approach to scripture, Emerson's oversoul and awareness of being part of god, Spinoza's monism, Bishop Berkeley's subjective idealism, Fox's Inward Light, Yogananda's belief that the soul is the individualized consciousness of god...they were around before the new thought movement and are well ensconced in the movement. I don't worry about ideas and principles...they've been with us always and will be available to us always. And properly understood and faithfully applied they will improve lives.
Where I get concerned about New Thought is when we become arrogant ('what I understand and have found to work must be the only real way'), or when we lack compassion ('if you had the consciousness for health or prosperity your dreams would come true'), when we seem selfish ('I tithe so the universe will give me more money but I don't want to give you too much help because it might make you dependent and would stunt your spiritual growth'), or when we turn away from difficulties and heartaches in the name of "not wanting to give them energy" or "not wanting to make them seem real."
I don't suggest that these attitudes come from animus or that they are never appropriate at least in some measure. But sometimes we make New Thought into an excuse to deny our humanity. I have honestly known people who deny grieving because they know the "truth" that their loved one is fine and god is all and pain is an illusion, etc. I hope I never become so enlightened that I can't admit when I'm sad. My fave Zen story is about a disciple who finds his master crying. The student asked why his master was crying and the great old teacher said, "because my wife died this morning." The disciple said, "but master, you've taught us that everything is an illusion." and the zen master replied, "Yes, but my wife was my favorite illusion."
I am very inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh's engaged buddhism. Jesus' was an engaged spirituality...involved in justice, health care, family dynamics, community activism, food relief, counseling (exorcisms). we can learn the principles and apply them to healing injustice, systemic oppressions, inequities, etc.
And thoughts and attitudes make a difference and Treatment can work wonders and the one Power is everywhere evenly present...AND, poison killed buddha and socrates, Jesus and Paul were executed, Moses (though possibly mythical) did not enter the promised land, Bahaullah spent years in prison.
Enlightened folks, Truth students suffer too and there shouldn't be shame in that. We can all manifest abundance, but I might do so more easily if I don't also have to deal with racism, sexism, homophobia, struggling economies, natural disasters, etc. Prosperity Consciousness can work for everyone, and, some have to face more obstacles than others which makes the manifestation all the greater but also might delay it a bit.
The "isms" (and the challenges in life) are very much in the realm of experience and they are deleterious.
I can "know" nutrition for you, but I can know it while making you a sandwich. It's usually wise to tether one's camel even while trusting Allah.
That's my concern...that if NT seems myopic or uncaring or doctrinaire, then it will repel more people than it attracts and the principles won't do much good if people aren't willing to hear them because the presentation seems unkind or detached from the complexities of life.
The organizations, like most religious organizations right now, may decline or stagnate or need to reinvent themselves to serve new cultural and social patterns, but if the Teaching helps people feel loved and empowered and worthy and gives them tools to improve their lives without feeling judged for needing to improve their lives...then the teaching will live on forever. Will we always call it new thought, will we always have boards and schools and retreat centers?...maybe. I'm not as attached to that as I am to the message that has enriched (and a time or two even saved) my life. That message is going to be fine. And people will find it one way or another. Whether it looks like Unity-DivineScience-SOM et al remains to be seen. I think it will be fine either way...as long as the message reaches hearts and uplifts the human spirit. THIS is a particular moment in history where just such a miracle is needed. Once it occurs, few will care what we called the "magic" that brought it about.
Wednesday, August 07, 2024
What Kind of Church is Sunshine Cathedral?
What Kind of Church is Sunshine Cathedral? (by Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins)
Sunshine Cathedral’s theology can be boiled down to “God is the power and presence of love, and that presence is omnipresent, everywhere, fully present.”
Every single message you hear at Sunshine Cathedral will feature that simple but powerful and life-changing idea: God is omnipresent Love.
Just as our worship is a blend of many ideas, experiences, and traditions, so also is our theology the product of blending. We are historically affiliated with Metropolitan Community Churches, a movement started by a gay, defrocked Pentecostal minister (Troy Perry) with a primary outreach to LGBTQ+ people and an enthusiastic affirmation of LGBTQ+ people as children of God designed to be exactly who they are.
We are also affiliated with the International Council of Community Churches, the Divine Science Federation, and the International New Thought Alliance. For decades, we have embraced the principles of Progressive Christianity, the principles of New Thought, and the openness of spiritual humanism.
Progressive Christianity simply says questions are more important than the answers we come up with, that everyone is loved by God, that other religions also have wisdom and holiness, that science is important and not at odds with spirituality, and that scripture can be understood in a variety of ways and the best ways are those that promote justice, tolerance, goodwill, and peace.
New Thought began as an American healing movement in the 19th century. Their guiding
principles were the omnipresence and goodness of God, the power of thoughts, feelings, and
attitudes to help shape our experiences in life, and the use of affirmations and visualization to make prayer more effective.
Finally, spiritual humanism is also part of the air we breathe at Sunshine Cathedral. Spiritual humanism affirms the innate goodness and the potential of human-beings, allows for spiritual community, spiritual experiences, and a variety of opinions about the existence and nature of divinity.
Examples of spiritual humanists (who might have also been Christian or Jewish or Muslim, etc.) include Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius, or the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism Mordecai Kaplan.
Spiritual humanists, while not being limited by dogma or creeds, value the individual spiritual experience and the insights that come from it and also value evidence-based science.
Sunshine Cathedral is a diverse, joyful, and non-dogmatic community of spiritual seekers where questions are sacred and absolutes are few. What we will declare without waiver or apology is: You are God’s miracle and not God’s mistake.
SunshineCathedral.org
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Peace Beyond Pain, Hope Beyond Horror
Peace Beyond Pain, Hope Beyond Horror
Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins, Sunshine Cathedral
Aug. 14th, 2011
Genesis 43.1-11, 13, 15; Matthew 15.22-28
Beyond our progressive, positive, and practical spiritual community I have friends who don’t understand our relentlessly optimistic approach to life. I think they hear and read our positive affirmations and then remember that old Saturday Night Live character, Stuart Smalley, who was a little nerdy, a little awkward, and a little smug with his lispy affirmations for self-esteem.
Of course, Al Franken was making a caricature of a self-help spiritual seeker and he based the character on people he knew who were involved in Twelve Step programs.
But the truth is, many people in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous and Adult Children of Alcoholics , Codependents Anonymous, Al-Anon and other Twelve Step programs have greatly benefited from the optimism, the support, the accountability, and the positive self-talk that they discovered in the program.
Other helping disciplines have adopted these same practices, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and positive psychology for example.
As a child I heard over and over the story of the Little Engine Who Could. When faced with a daunting task, the little engine encouraged himself with self-talk…I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…and he learned that he could and he did.
The movie “The Help” (based on the book by the same name) has domestic workers in segregated Mississippi tell their stories of what it is like to live under such oppressive conditions. The main character is a housekeeper and nanny who repeatedly tells the little girl she cares for positive things. She tells her throughout the film, “You is kind. You is smart. And you is important.” And she has the child repeat those words after her each time.
The practice of using self-talk to develop positive attitudes has long been embraced and promoted among athletes and sales people. After all, St. Paul said, “faith comes by hearing” and the one sure way to make certain we hear positive messages is to say them to ourselves.
We see this practice in the bible.
“God is my shepherd, my provider; I want for nothing. God makes me to lie down in beautiful green pastures and God leads me beside the calm waters of tranquility. God restores my peace of mind and leads me in the paths of right thinking and right action…Even if mortal danger approaches, I will fear no evil for God is with me. God’s tools are present to comfort me. God has abundance for me that my so-called enemies cannot take away. I am anointed and satisfied. Surely, goodness and mercy will be with me throughout my life and I will dwell in God’s presence forever.” The 23rd Psalm may be the most famous positive affirmation in the world!
This kind of positive self-talk isn’t limited to the Psalter. The anonymous writer whom we have named John affirmed, “Greater is the power within me than the power people believe is in the world.” 1 John 4.4
The Apostle Paul was a believer in affirmations.
“I can do all things through the Christ which strengthens me” (Philippians 4.13). He also said, “We are more than conquerors” (Romans 8.37). Paul went on to affirm, “I am convinced that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God.”
In the first half of the 20th century there was a Divine Science minister named Emmet Fox who was a popular speaker in New York City, drawing enormous crowds every week. He also wrote books and his teachings were popular in the early days of the AA movement. Emmet Fox also influenced a Methodist minister who transferred his credentials to the Reformed Church in America so that he could answer a call to pastor the Marble Collegiate Church in New York…that famous Protestant minister who was influenced by Emmet Fox was of course Norman Vincent Peale who introduced The Power of Positive Thinking into the mainstream of Christianity and into the vocabulary of people all along the spiritual spectrum.
Dr. Peale said, “Plant seeds of expectation in your mind; cultivate thoughts that anticipate achievement. Believe in yourself as being capable of overcoming all obstacles and weaknesses.”
That’s good advice, but how do we do it? We encourage ourselves, we affirm what is true of us even when circumstances don’t seem to verify that truth. We affirm what is spiritually true of us as children of God. “I am kind. I am smart. I am important.” We affirm that good things are possible for us and that we even deserve them. We even affirm that God wants us to be blessed! New Thought teacher Emma Curtis Hopkins had two powerful prayer statements that I use in my own prayer life. She said, “There is good for me and I ought to have it!” And she would also say, “There is no mixture of evil with my good.” Plant positive seeds in your mind; cultivate those positive thoughts. That’s Peale’s advice, and it’s modeled for us in scripture.
Dr. Peale also said, “You become a worrier by practicing worry. You become free of worry by practicing the opposite…” Positive affirmations, optimistic self-talk is the practice of moving beyond fear and worry, it is the bold attempt to develop the habit of going to peace instead of to pieces, of summoning hope rather than fear, of imagining what good is possible rather than what disaster is probable.
No, our affirmations aren’t a silly game, nor are they a diversion from the harsh realities of the world. They are the way we instill hope in our hearts and that we remain focused on the possibilities of life. And that method of positive prayer often yields remarkable results.
That same kind of progressive, positive, and practical spirituality is present in both of our scripture lessons today.
In the book of Genesis, Joseph was his father’s favorite child. Joseph was not only daddy’s little baby, but he was given a special gift…a coat of many colors. And his brothers were annoyed by this. Now, traditionally we have been taught that what frosted their cupcakes about that coat is that only Joseph got one and they felt left out. But bible scholar Mona West tells us that such vibrant, multi-colored cloaks were often worn by young women. If this is true, then Joseph’s brothers aren’t mad that he got a gift and they didn’t; they’re mad that he’s cross-dressing in public! And their father encourages it, he even gave him the darn dress, er, coat of many colors. There’s quite a bit of drag in the bible, but that’s another sermon.
In an unimaginably reprehensible act, Joseph’s brothers abduct him, sell him into slavery, and tell their parents that Joseph was killed. Joseph grows up a slave in a foreign nation, and later he winds up in prison on a false charge. But somehow through all of this, Joseph finds reasons to celebrate life. He shares the gifts he has with others. He’s very good at analyzing dreams, and so he does so freely for whoever asks. His optimistic and generous attitude serves him well and he eventually not only is freed from prison but is elevated to a high government position. He has gone from slave to prisoner to national leader! Even when things look bleak, he is able to see God at work in his life and he trusts that good can come from apparent chaos. When his family comes to his adopted country looking for aid, Joseph is in a position to help them and again, he gladly gives what he can even to people who hurt him. He will tell his brothers down the line, “What you meant for evil, God used for good.” That is the positive faith that we are trying to develop with positive affirmations.
We see positive spirituality at work in the Gospel story as well. Jesus at first doesn’t want to be bothered by this Canaanite woman who is asking him for help. And, a literalist reading of scripture would not condemn him. Deuteronomy 20.17 says, “You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, & Jubusites…” If we are meant to take the bible literally, Jesus should have stabbed this woman on the spot! But instead, he simply ignores and insults her; but she won’t take that. Thank God we take the bible seriously rather than literally, and Matthew would say, “well done!”
The Canaanite woman affirms her sacred value, her human dignity. No matter what any scripture says, no matter what any religious person says, in spite of cultural prejudices, she insists that she and her daughter deserve to have the healing opportunities in their lives. She says, “Could you be bothered to show us the kindness or compassion that you would show to a little dog?” And because she affirmed her own sacred value, not only did she get the miracle she was seeking, but she helped Jesus grow and heal too.
Homiletics professor Barbara Lunblad says of this passage, “Jesus was converted that day to a larger vision of the Commonwealth of God.” Isn’t that what we all want?
By affirming God’s presence, by affirming God’s love, by affirming our sacred value, by affirming that possibilities exist beyond what we’ve experienced so far, we can develop the attitude that lets us see miracles riding on the waves of disappointment, healing following heartache, and blessings rising from the ashes of despair. One bad moment may lead to a new possibility and the painful moment then becomes part of a larger narrative that tells of our ultimate healing, success, and joy. But to get there, we have to practice relentless optimism, and we do that with our positive affirmations.
I can’t promise that every problem will be easily solved and I can’t promise that every heartache will be instantly healed, but I can promise that the possibility of peace beyond pain and hope beyond horror is very real, especially as we train ourselves to be more and more optimistic. And we build optimism just the way we established all of our attitudes, by consistent practice. What we think habitually we’ll experience eventually. And we can choose to think optimistically by developing the habit of affirming divine possibilities. And this is the good news! Amen.
© Durrell Watkins 2011
I am kind.
I am smart.
I am important.
I am a magnet for miracles.
There is good for me and I ought to have it!
And there is no evil mixed with my good.
Thank you God!
And so it is.
“Affirm your divine selfhood; look the world in the face and fear nothing.” Emmet Fox
To watch the streaming video of this sermon, go to http://sermons.sunshinecathedral.org
www.sunshinecathedral.org
Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins, Sunshine Cathedral
Aug. 14th, 2011
Genesis 43.1-11, 13, 15; Matthew 15.22-28
Beyond our progressive, positive, and practical spiritual community I have friends who don’t understand our relentlessly optimistic approach to life. I think they hear and read our positive affirmations and then remember that old Saturday Night Live character, Stuart Smalley, who was a little nerdy, a little awkward, and a little smug with his lispy affirmations for self-esteem.
Of course, Al Franken was making a caricature of a self-help spiritual seeker and he based the character on people he knew who were involved in Twelve Step programs.
But the truth is, many people in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous and Adult Children of Alcoholics , Codependents Anonymous, Al-Anon and other Twelve Step programs have greatly benefited from the optimism, the support, the accountability, and the positive self-talk that they discovered in the program.
Other helping disciplines have adopted these same practices, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and positive psychology for example.
As a child I heard over and over the story of the Little Engine Who Could. When faced with a daunting task, the little engine encouraged himself with self-talk…I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…and he learned that he could and he did.
The movie “The Help” (based on the book by the same name) has domestic workers in segregated Mississippi tell their stories of what it is like to live under such oppressive conditions. The main character is a housekeeper and nanny who repeatedly tells the little girl she cares for positive things. She tells her throughout the film, “You is kind. You is smart. And you is important.” And she has the child repeat those words after her each time.
The practice of using self-talk to develop positive attitudes has long been embraced and promoted among athletes and sales people. After all, St. Paul said, “faith comes by hearing” and the one sure way to make certain we hear positive messages is to say them to ourselves.
We see this practice in the bible.
“God is my shepherd, my provider; I want for nothing. God makes me to lie down in beautiful green pastures and God leads me beside the calm waters of tranquility. God restores my peace of mind and leads me in the paths of right thinking and right action…Even if mortal danger approaches, I will fear no evil for God is with me. God’s tools are present to comfort me. God has abundance for me that my so-called enemies cannot take away. I am anointed and satisfied. Surely, goodness and mercy will be with me throughout my life and I will dwell in God’s presence forever.” The 23rd Psalm may be the most famous positive affirmation in the world!
This kind of positive self-talk isn’t limited to the Psalter. The anonymous writer whom we have named John affirmed, “Greater is the power within me than the power people believe is in the world.” 1 John 4.4
The Apostle Paul was a believer in affirmations.
“I can do all things through the Christ which strengthens me” (Philippians 4.13). He also said, “We are more than conquerors” (Romans 8.37). Paul went on to affirm, “I am convinced that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God.”
In the first half of the 20th century there was a Divine Science minister named Emmet Fox who was a popular speaker in New York City, drawing enormous crowds every week. He also wrote books and his teachings were popular in the early days of the AA movement. Emmet Fox also influenced a Methodist minister who transferred his credentials to the Reformed Church in America so that he could answer a call to pastor the Marble Collegiate Church in New York…that famous Protestant minister who was influenced by Emmet Fox was of course Norman Vincent Peale who introduced The Power of Positive Thinking into the mainstream of Christianity and into the vocabulary of people all along the spiritual spectrum.
Dr. Peale said, “Plant seeds of expectation in your mind; cultivate thoughts that anticipate achievement. Believe in yourself as being capable of overcoming all obstacles and weaknesses.”
That’s good advice, but how do we do it? We encourage ourselves, we affirm what is true of us even when circumstances don’t seem to verify that truth. We affirm what is spiritually true of us as children of God. “I am kind. I am smart. I am important.” We affirm that good things are possible for us and that we even deserve them. We even affirm that God wants us to be blessed! New Thought teacher Emma Curtis Hopkins had two powerful prayer statements that I use in my own prayer life. She said, “There is good for me and I ought to have it!” And she would also say, “There is no mixture of evil with my good.” Plant positive seeds in your mind; cultivate those positive thoughts. That’s Peale’s advice, and it’s modeled for us in scripture.
Dr. Peale also said, “You become a worrier by practicing worry. You become free of worry by practicing the opposite…” Positive affirmations, optimistic self-talk is the practice of moving beyond fear and worry, it is the bold attempt to develop the habit of going to peace instead of to pieces, of summoning hope rather than fear, of imagining what good is possible rather than what disaster is probable.
No, our affirmations aren’t a silly game, nor are they a diversion from the harsh realities of the world. They are the way we instill hope in our hearts and that we remain focused on the possibilities of life. And that method of positive prayer often yields remarkable results.
That same kind of progressive, positive, and practical spirituality is present in both of our scripture lessons today.
In the book of Genesis, Joseph was his father’s favorite child. Joseph was not only daddy’s little baby, but he was given a special gift…a coat of many colors. And his brothers were annoyed by this. Now, traditionally we have been taught that what frosted their cupcakes about that coat is that only Joseph got one and they felt left out. But bible scholar Mona West tells us that such vibrant, multi-colored cloaks were often worn by young women. If this is true, then Joseph’s brothers aren’t mad that he got a gift and they didn’t; they’re mad that he’s cross-dressing in public! And their father encourages it, he even gave him the darn dress, er, coat of many colors. There’s quite a bit of drag in the bible, but that’s another sermon.
In an unimaginably reprehensible act, Joseph’s brothers abduct him, sell him into slavery, and tell their parents that Joseph was killed. Joseph grows up a slave in a foreign nation, and later he winds up in prison on a false charge. But somehow through all of this, Joseph finds reasons to celebrate life. He shares the gifts he has with others. He’s very good at analyzing dreams, and so he does so freely for whoever asks. His optimistic and generous attitude serves him well and he eventually not only is freed from prison but is elevated to a high government position. He has gone from slave to prisoner to national leader! Even when things look bleak, he is able to see God at work in his life and he trusts that good can come from apparent chaos. When his family comes to his adopted country looking for aid, Joseph is in a position to help them and again, he gladly gives what he can even to people who hurt him. He will tell his brothers down the line, “What you meant for evil, God used for good.” That is the positive faith that we are trying to develop with positive affirmations.
We see positive spirituality at work in the Gospel story as well. Jesus at first doesn’t want to be bothered by this Canaanite woman who is asking him for help. And, a literalist reading of scripture would not condemn him. Deuteronomy 20.17 says, “You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, & Jubusites…” If we are meant to take the bible literally, Jesus should have stabbed this woman on the spot! But instead, he simply ignores and insults her; but she won’t take that. Thank God we take the bible seriously rather than literally, and Matthew would say, “well done!”
The Canaanite woman affirms her sacred value, her human dignity. No matter what any scripture says, no matter what any religious person says, in spite of cultural prejudices, she insists that she and her daughter deserve to have the healing opportunities in their lives. She says, “Could you be bothered to show us the kindness or compassion that you would show to a little dog?” And because she affirmed her own sacred value, not only did she get the miracle she was seeking, but she helped Jesus grow and heal too.
Homiletics professor Barbara Lunblad says of this passage, “Jesus was converted that day to a larger vision of the Commonwealth of God.” Isn’t that what we all want?
By affirming God’s presence, by affirming God’s love, by affirming our sacred value, by affirming that possibilities exist beyond what we’ve experienced so far, we can develop the attitude that lets us see miracles riding on the waves of disappointment, healing following heartache, and blessings rising from the ashes of despair. One bad moment may lead to a new possibility and the painful moment then becomes part of a larger narrative that tells of our ultimate healing, success, and joy. But to get there, we have to practice relentless optimism, and we do that with our positive affirmations.
I can’t promise that every problem will be easily solved and I can’t promise that every heartache will be instantly healed, but I can promise that the possibility of peace beyond pain and hope beyond horror is very real, especially as we train ourselves to be more and more optimistic. And we build optimism just the way we established all of our attitudes, by consistent practice. What we think habitually we’ll experience eventually. And we can choose to think optimistically by developing the habit of affirming divine possibilities. And this is the good news! Amen.
© Durrell Watkins 2011
I am kind.
I am smart.
I am important.
I am a magnet for miracles.
There is good for me and I ought to have it!
And there is no evil mixed with my good.
Thank you God!
And so it is.
“Affirm your divine selfhood; look the world in the face and fear nothing.” Emmet Fox
To watch the streaming video of this sermon, go to http://sermons.sunshinecathedral.org
www.sunshinecathedral.org
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Keep Praying
Everything is energy. This isn't a startling revelation. We are energy fields within a larger energy field. Because we are part of the One energetic Source, our prayers (and thoughts and wishes and feelings and attitudes) make a difference. To hope, to imagine, to care, to plan...it can all be very powerful.
If the energy of life were a pond, then our every move would cause ripples in the pond. Some movements would be larger or more focused than others and would therefore cause bigger ripples (sometimes even waves), but every movement would cause movement within the pond.
Well, life is like a pond in which we "live and move and have our being," but instead of being filled with water this pond is filled with eternal, indestructible energy that has always existed, always will, and is constantly moving into and out of form. So, our thoughts, aspirations, intentions, and choices all cause ripples (and sometimes waves) within this energy pond. When we pray for gay and lesbian Jamaicans to be safe in their country, our prayers are rippling throughout the Universe and will create some kind of change. When we pray for peace in the middle east, the ripples go out. When we pray for a cure for AIDS or Alzheimer's or MS, the ripples go out. When we pray for anything, we know currents of life-energy are flowing to that situation, directed by our intentional prayers. So keep praying. Everything is energy and prayer is a way of directing energy toward accomplishment. Imagine the best, believe in possibilities, and know the energy of life is moving as directed by our prayers.
If the energy of life were a pond, then our every move would cause ripples in the pond. Some movements would be larger or more focused than others and would therefore cause bigger ripples (sometimes even waves), but every movement would cause movement within the pond.
Well, life is like a pond in which we "live and move and have our being," but instead of being filled with water this pond is filled with eternal, indestructible energy that has always existed, always will, and is constantly moving into and out of form. So, our thoughts, aspirations, intentions, and choices all cause ripples (and sometimes waves) within this energy pond. When we pray for gay and lesbian Jamaicans to be safe in their country, our prayers are rippling throughout the Universe and will create some kind of change. When we pray for peace in the middle east, the ripples go out. When we pray for a cure for AIDS or Alzheimer's or MS, the ripples go out. When we pray for anything, we know currents of life-energy are flowing to that situation, directed by our intentional prayers. So keep praying. Everything is energy and prayer is a way of directing energy toward accomplishment. Imagine the best, believe in possibilities, and know the energy of life is moving as directed by our prayers.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
God Can, I Can
"Decide what you want. Believe you can have it. Believe you deserve it and believe it's possible for you." - Jack Canfield
A friend of mine in the 12 Step movement told me years ago about her "God Can." It was just a coffee can around which she had wrapped brown paper. On the paper in magic marker she had written the words "God Can." It was a reminder to her that when she felt limited she could turn her issues over to her Higher Power and that Power was able to "restore her to sanity" or otherwise bring healing to the situations of her life. Her God Can was a way of saying, whatever the issue, God can help. So, when difficulties would arise, she would simply write the issue down on a small index card or piece of paper and drop the issue in the God Can, thus releasing the problem to her Higher Power. Once she let go of the problem and reminded herself that "God can" help bring healing to the situation, almost every time she would experience improvement, sometimes immediately.
Of course, for people who don't resonate with God language, I suppose an "I Can" would work as well. It may seem that some issue is overwhelming or insurmountable, but the Truth is is that "I can" cope with the situation and once I focus more on the possibilities than on the problem, or once I spend more time considering the solutions than the difficulty, I will find a way to resolve the problem or find a way to improve my situation. I can choose how I respond to any predicament. I can choose to raise my personal energy level by finding hope or joy or consolation regardless of what has happened. And my choices can help me feel better, and when I feel better I tend to attract better conditions in my life. So, if I ever wonder if I can deal successfully with a situation, the answer is, "of course I can!"
Maybe a God Can or an I Can would serve us well - just a can where we can go through the motions of releasing our problems and perceived limitations to the Universe and thus remind ourselves that amazing blessings, even miracles, are possible. Or, rather than a God Can, we could simply remember to write or affirm aloud, "God can" heal this issue, or "I can" experience hope and healing in this situation. One way or another, it is important to remember that God, in and as me, can. And so it is!
“Focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. Where your attention goes, energy flows..." – Marie Turano
A friend of mine in the 12 Step movement told me years ago about her "God Can." It was just a coffee can around which she had wrapped brown paper. On the paper in magic marker she had written the words "God Can." It was a reminder to her that when she felt limited she could turn her issues over to her Higher Power and that Power was able to "restore her to sanity" or otherwise bring healing to the situations of her life. Her God Can was a way of saying, whatever the issue, God can help. So, when difficulties would arise, she would simply write the issue down on a small index card or piece of paper and drop the issue in the God Can, thus releasing the problem to her Higher Power. Once she let go of the problem and reminded herself that "God can" help bring healing to the situation, almost every time she would experience improvement, sometimes immediately.
Of course, for people who don't resonate with God language, I suppose an "I Can" would work as well. It may seem that some issue is overwhelming or insurmountable, but the Truth is is that "I can" cope with the situation and once I focus more on the possibilities than on the problem, or once I spend more time considering the solutions than the difficulty, I will find a way to resolve the problem or find a way to improve my situation. I can choose how I respond to any predicament. I can choose to raise my personal energy level by finding hope or joy or consolation regardless of what has happened. And my choices can help me feel better, and when I feel better I tend to attract better conditions in my life. So, if I ever wonder if I can deal successfully with a situation, the answer is, "of course I can!"
Maybe a God Can or an I Can would serve us well - just a can where we can go through the motions of releasing our problems and perceived limitations to the Universe and thus remind ourselves that amazing blessings, even miracles, are possible. Or, rather than a God Can, we could simply remember to write or affirm aloud, "God can" heal this issue, or "I can" experience hope and healing in this situation. One way or another, it is important to remember that God, in and as me, can. And so it is!
“Focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. Where your attention goes, energy flows..." – Marie Turano
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