Surrender to Truth

Earlier this week I recognized that I had spent the previous few days going through the motions of my life as if sleep walking.  I was showing up and doing what I needed to do to take care of tasks, but I was not really present.  I realized this only after a friend asked me about it, and pointed out that I seemed preoccupied and withdrawn.  Once I was willing to admit to myself that I had been unavailable and detached, I became aware that I had fallen back into old patterns of thinking and behaviors that are based in fear.  It amazes me how quickly and easily I can sometimes revert from being connected to the powerful being I know I am, back to acting as if I am the limited ego-identified human being that my family and society conditioned me to be, and that I accepted in order to fit in and feel safe.  And, I feel dismayed at times that I don’t yet immediately recognize when I am doing it.  My greatest desire is to know the truth of me and live from that truth every moment of every day.   When I don’t fulfill that desire, I feel the negative emotional impact. 

We are conditioned from birth to accept a limited concept of ourselves, and we often suffer because we are in bondage to it, whether or not we are conscious of it.  Through realization of truth we enjoy freedom from the limiting myths, messages and beliefs that our families, society and churches often thrust upon us, and to which we can become enslaved.  As Jesus said,

“You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.”

-- John 8:32

And, knowing the truth is not enough; as Unity’s fifth principle tells us, we must also live the truth we know.

When we do not live from our truth we withhold, not only from ourselves, but also from the world; the unique aspect of the only begotten of God that each of us is.  I am reminded of the words of Jesus, 

"For this I was born and for this I came into the world; to bear witness to the truth.”

-- John 18:37

The truth is that each of us is the Christ in expression and we bear witness to that truth as we realize it and commit to living it in the world. 

This is yet another reminder of the reason I chose my current Sunday morning series, “Wake up with Jesus” and why I believe it is so valuable to our understanding.  The purpose of this series is to help us connect with the transcendent reality of being.  Our freedom, both individual and collective, lies in the realization of our true nature.  As we review the Jesus story as presented in the Canonical Gospels in the Bible, we can see a man who realized his truth, stated his mission and lived it.  His story, as a metaphor for our own awakening, reveals how we can relate the events in Jesus’ life to our own similar experiences, and we can choose to know our truth and set ourselves free as we bear witness to the truth of our divine being.

This past Sunday, we explored Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist as a metaphor for our willingness to stand against the societal mores and religious dogma and lay down the limiting concept of ourselves, to surrender it, and to welcome the cleansing and clearing of Spirit represented by water.  And, once cleansed, to allow ourselves to accept and embrace the transcendent life of Spirit that is our truth.  Jesus’ baptism was not simply a baptism by water, but also a baptism of the Holy Spirit.  Just as Jesus was “anointed” with the Holy Spirit as he came up out of waters of the Jordan River, we too are “anointed,” not by an external power or force, but by the innate presence and power of the Holy Spirit within our own consciousness.  The Holy Spirit is eternally present and awaiting our acceptance and recognition of it.  It is the guiding principle for our lives in Spirit.  Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, said in describing the Holy Spirit,

“It is the movement of Spirit…it is through the help of the Holy Spirit that humankind overcomes.”

As we accept that we are anointed with the Holy Spirit, we can choose, moment by moment to surrender to it and to overcome our limited beliefs about ourselves.

Receiving our baptism and anointing does not mean that we will never again be faced with life’s challenges.  On the contrary, we will continue to be in the world and we will be met every day with opportunities to choose how we will respond.  We bear witness to the truth when we are willing to stand in the power and strength of who we are, and respond by speaking and acting from that place.

Please join us this Sunday as we continue to “Wake up with Jesus”.  We will explore his forty days in the desert facing the temptations of Satan, and we will see how Jesus’ experience mirrors our own.