Living a Connected and Empowered Life

I am continuing with my series, The Twelve Steps of Transformation based on The Twelves Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. This week, I am pondering step eleven which states…

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood [God], praying only for the knowledge of [God’s] will for us and the power to carry that out.

This step is so rich with meaning, intentionality and depth that I hardly know where to begin my exploration and contemplation of it. I am certain I could write several posts on this step alone; therefore, I am choosing to share only a few thoughts on some of the elements.

Sought through prayer…

While often greatly misunderstood, the purpose of true prayer is to quiet our minds, remove our focus from our external wants and desires and allow a conscious connection with the creative life that is God moving in and as our lives. We do not engage in prayer to stir God into action. We do not enter into true prayer to change the external conditions at all. True prayer is conscious connection.

And meditation to improve our conscious contact with God…

There are many perspectives on what meditation is and what it is not. I have heard some say that prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening to God. I do not agree with that statement as evidenced by my thoughts on prayer above. In Unity, there is distinction between ‘meditation’ and ‘the Silence.’ Meditation is focused awareness. It is a way of practicing the presence of God. In this way, it is more in keeping with what some traditions call ‘contemplation’ which involves contemplating God and our relationship with God. The ‘Silence’ on the other hand is a state of consciousness in which there is no conscious awareness of God, but is God consciousness itself. It is the state of Oneness or non-dual consciousness. Meditation, as used in the eleventh step, I believe refers to the conscious activity of contemplating God and realizing our Unity in God Mind.

Praying only for the knowledge of God’s will for us…

When we consider ‘will’ from our human perspective, we most often think of our desire, thoughts and actions that stem from our personality/ego perspective. When we consider God having ‘will’ we think of it similarly. As Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said, “God created man in his own image. And, man, being a gentleman, returned the favor.” We often assign to God our human attributes.

God is Life itself expressing in perfect divine order as all. God does not want or desire in the way that we humans do. God has need for nothing including our devotion or prayers. God does not will for one to have more than another, for one to be ill and another well, or for one to live and another die.  God, as we understand God in Unity, is Love.

Further, each of us is an expression of God’s Love. There is no separation. God’s will can only be the extension of Itself as Love. Therefore, God’s will for us is the manifestation of Love through our thoughts, words and actions. When we connect consciously with God’s Love through the activities of prayer and meditation, we make contact with Love. In the consciousness of Love, we are inspired in ways to serve Love in its greatest expression through us, as us.

 And the power to carry that out…

The presence of God within us is our power to live from Love. At times it may seem as though we are being guided to do things that require a great deal of courage, strength or vulnerability. Love may inspire us to do things that are completely out of our comfort zone. We must again rely on our conscious connection with the power and presence of God within to be our source of all we need so that we may do what must be done by us in service to Love. As Unity cofounder Charles Fillmore so famously stated, “I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm and spring forth with a mighty faith to do the things that ought to be done by me.”

I am enjoying this series as it highlights that The Twelve Steps are a way of life that can assist us all in our path of spiritual awakening and personal transformation. The eleventh step, in itself, could be the only life instruction we need. If we earnestly live this step, praying and meditating only so that we may connect with and embody Love; commit ourselves to living from Love and carrying that out in all we do; and know that the indwelling Spirit is our power to do just that, we will all live empowered lives and co-create a world that reflects God’s Love. Are we up to the task? I believe we are. 

Please join us on Sunday at 10:00 as we explore in greater depth the essential truths expressed in this step. I will complete this series on Sunday, July 31, as we delve into how we can live our spiritual awakening and take it out into the world.