Thy Will Be Done
By Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
March 22, 2019
A common question asked of me by my students is how do I know if it’s my will or God’s will?
When you make choices based on your past experiences from the small self, it leads to bondage, and you are operating from the conditioned or unpolished will. Often unbeknownst to you, yet you find yourself wondering why you behaved the way you did or wished you could rewind your life and try the scenario again in complete alignment with your highest self.
When you make choices based on the present moment, in the now, and from the essence of your highest self or God Self, you are in alignment with, and operating from God’s will. There is a calm and cheerful knowing within you, rather than a mischievous or flippant uncertainty with its roots in shame or guilt.
God’s will and God’s nature are identical, and God's will and my truest will are the same. Therefore there is only one will. Getting stuck in the idea of one will vs. the other will keeps you in bondage with a belief in duality. This concept of duality goes way back to the beginning of time. We are all born into it and continue to learn more about it as our identities are formed. Separating and isolating ourselves from others anchors it further in consciousness. You separate yourself from others by building walls or barriers in your heart where the light of Truth cannot enter.
Thinking that the ego must be annihilated also locks you into separation because the ego is your personality and a healthy sense of self is essential. This dream of ego annihilation is created by the ego which strengthens its walls of separation from the Truth of who you are.
Fear not though, as the ego can be tamed through a greater revelation of Truth or Spirit. This Truth must become more interesting to you than the drama of the day. Step away from the drama buffet. You must be more interested in Spirit than the conditions and circumstances that you find less than pleasing. Why wouldn’t you be? The Truth is as eternal and vast as the space that spans beyond the myriad universes. It is infinite potentiality and pure possibility. The drama is the same ole, same ole. Isn’t it time to release the mundane and welcome your spiritual magnificence?
God’s will is always for the freer, fuller, more expressed, expanded, higher version of self. It leads us to a happy, whole, prosperous, joyful, loving, compassionate, and free life. Its ideas and vision are for the greater good of you and the world around you. God’s will does not harm anyone in any way and wants to shine through and as you. Will you let it?
Thy will be done. May the deepest, most authentic will, which rests in the heart of me, and is the very nature of God, be done.
And so it is.
Moments of My High Resolve
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
March 15, 2019
Do you ever get caught up in the minutiae of day to day tasks, getting wrapped up and concerned with unimportant issues or distractions, forgetting the truth of who you are and whom you came here to be?
African-American author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader Howard Thurman wrote, “Keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve.”
I believe Howard Thurman was speaking of the mystical moments we experience in life: any moment where you felt the presence of Spirit so wholly, so entirely that you knew It was real. Those moments when you were reminded of, remembered and recognized the Truth of your life when you understood on the deepest level, your inherent power, wisdom, and unconditional love.
In the moments of your high resolve, you experience a fullness of Spirit and life as you catch a glimpse of your mighty purpose on the planet. You realize that there is something greater happening. You cannot unknow what you know, and there’s no turning back. Maybe you were lost once, but your moments of high resolve pull you back to the Truth as you are found again. It’s like an alarm clock which you have set to wake yourself up from a dream of mediocrity. Your moments of high resolve snap you back into the present moment, obliterating disbelief, doubt or fear.
These moments expand out and seem to defy time and space, appearing fuller than other moments in your life. At the time of these moments, your entire being is lit up by the radiance of Truth. You think you’ll never lose sight of a moment like this.
Then the moment slowly fades and retreats to the recesses of your mind as the repetitive tasks of your daily routine consume you. We are called to remember these moments and keep them at the forefront of our minds. The moments of your high resolve are like beacons of light guiding you back home to the Truth when the dark days come.
What are some of your moments of high resolve? Maybe there was a time when you were on a retreat, and something opened or clicked into place causing you to remember. Perhaps it was when your first prayer was answered, and you thought with great and firm recognition, that yes, there is a God. It may have been the first sight of your newborn baby, or that time you traveled to a distant land and the beauty overcame you. Perhaps it was the first time you visited a spiritual center, a yoga or meditation class, a drum circle, or a health and fitness center.
Whatever it was for you, it was a moment of high resolve when you saw the light, and you knew the Truth, with unshakable faith and firmness.
Next time you find yourself caught up in the mundane, return to the moments of your high resolve. Remember who you are.
And so it is.
Intuition
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
March 8, 2019
There is a voice that does not use words – are you listening?
There is that within us that always knows the answer. We know this from our own experience. We can test it out. If you have some problem or decision for which you are seeking an answer, you can go out and ask people what they think. When they give you their response, you’ll know internally whether that’s the right answer or not.
You might ask, what’s the answer, oh please tell me the answer? One person may answer one way, and you think to yourself, no, that isn’t the answer. Another person will respond another way, and no, that’s not it either. The feedback doesn’t resonate with what you already know within you to be true. Then you ask a third person who gives you an answer, and you feel it with every fiber of your being and say, aha that’s it!
There is a Divine Intelligence within you that holds the answer to your every question. You have direct access to this Divine Intelligence as you commune with your innermost self which is your highest Self.
Intuition is not an ability you need to create, develop or build. Your task is to pay attention, to listen to your internal guidance, and then to act upon it.
Three years ago before I moved to the Central Coast, I visited my parents in Pismo Beach. I discovered a hiking trail along the freeway after driving past it several times. I wanted to do this hike for a long time, and this was the trip I would do it. I embarked out on the Ontario Ridge Trail from the Shell Beach Road trailhead which takes you directly up a very steep hill which I’ve named the quad buster. It’s a tough one.
After a ninety-minute hike with stunning ocean views and beautiful weather, I started back down the trail. Having never hiked this path before, when I came to a fork, it wasn’t clear which way to go. I stood there for a moment contemplating, looking around, thinking maybe there’s someone around who knows the way. The path directly in front of me seemed to be the most obvious choice. The other options were obscure with overgrowth of vegetation. I looked around a little more, then I looked down in contemplation, asking Spirit to guide me.
Suddenly I knew which way to go. About two feet in front of me someone had created an arrow on the ground with rocks pointing to the correct path. I would not have noticed the arrow had I not looked down. I giggled in gratitude at the way the Divine showed up for me, as it always does.
Something compelled me to look down. It was my intuition – my direct connection to the Divine Intelligence with me, which is Spirit.
There is a voice that does not use words – are you listening?
And so it is.
Integrity Matters
By Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
March 1, 2019
I heard it said once that without integrity nothing works.
The dictionary defines integrity in a couple of ways. The first is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. The second is the state of being whole or undivided. The definition most relevant to this article is the latter.
Shaping your life into one of integrity develops your character. When what you say and what you do are in perfect alignment, you have congruence. The rewards of living a life of integrity, to name but a few, include increased confidence, trust, clarity, and affinity for yourself, those around you, and the world.
When you tell the truth about something, you form your words to match your experience. When you have integrity, you create your experience to match your words. You do what you said you would do when you said you would do it, and when you don’t, you clean it up and make new promises.
A person can’t be a little out of integrity. You’re either in integrity or out of integrity. Consider a boat with a hole in it in the ocean. The boat is filling up with water and slowly sinking. Whether that hole is small or large doesn’t matter. It is out of integrity.
Imagine a bicycle wheel with a missing spoke. The missing spoke creates a wobble which could lead to loss of balance and cause an accident. The bicycle wheel is out of true or out of integrity.
You can repair the hole in the boat, and correct the bicycle wheel, bringing them back into a state of wholeness or integrity. In the same manner, you can restore integrity to your life, returning to your natural state of wholeness.
If you’re someone who tends always to be late to your appointments, lunch dates, and meetings and then pretend as if nothing happened, there’s a hole in your boat.
To clean it up is to acknowledge your tardiness and create a new promise. No excuses are necessary. You can acknowledge your lateness and apologize for undervaluing the other person’s time. Let them know it won’t happen again. Then come up with a plan for yourself to stay in integrity in the future. Stick with that plan. Integrity restored.
If you pay your bills late, owe the IRS money with no plan to pay them back, or your bank account is overdrawn, you’ve got a broken spoke and are wobbling your way through life. Clean it up by acknowledging your tardiness in payments and make a new promise that works for both parties. Plan to fulfill on that promise and stick with your plan. Integrity restored.
Make a list of all areas that you are out of integrity and begin to restore it today by working your way down the list.
This is taking back the power of your word which allows you to create a life that you truly love.
And so it is.
Shift Your Gaze
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
February 22, 2019
You can change your life by shifting your gaze. Perspective is everything.
When I was a young girl, the bedroom set in my room had a vanity set with three mirrors, and a large dresser with a mirror set facing each other, from across the room. One day I was standing in front of one of the mirrors combing my hair when I shifted my gaze to what was beyond my image looking back at me. I was amazed at what I saw. I saw the reflection of me looking into the mirror and then the reflection of the reflection of me, on and on forever to infinity.
For the next few days, I loved returning here to look beyond, to see if I could find the end, but it was unending. The reflections became smaller and smaller, of course, yet they seemed to go on forever and ever. I never found the end. That was one of my first experiences of the Infinite.
We are infinite beings of love and light. There is that within us which goes on and on forever, to infinity.
How often do we get caught up in the trials and tribulations that this human experience brings to us all? Fretting and suffering about this or that? Too short, too tall, overqualified, under-qualified, not enough, too much, why that person said what they did when they did, and so forth.
If you were to shift your gaze to the Infinite Presence which goes on and on for eternity, a whole new world would open up to you. Your awareness will expand to all that is possible for yourself and your life, your heart will open, and inspiration will come. Doesn’t that seem much more compelling and fascinating than focusing on the thoughts of yesterday?
You can start where you are right now. It doesn’t matter what happened yesterday, this morning or even five minutes ago. Every moment you are given an opportunity to begin again. Why not start right now by shifting your gaze from whatever your focus is currently on? Shift your gaze from whatever is immediately in front of you, to the Infinite Presence of light and love. Dwell in that space.
Consider this Infinite Presence that is here right now, and in and through all of creation. It has breathed Itself into existence as you, for such a time as this. It wants to live through you, love through you, and do mighty and magnificent work through and as you. Are you available? Knowing that this Infinite Presence is a powerful force for good that is greater than you are and you have access to it, will you use it?
Today I shift my gaze to the Infinite Presence of Spirit. I take rest in the comfort of knowing that It does go on and on forever to infinity, and It resides here now, at the very center of my being.
And so it is.