Wake Up!

This past Sunday at Unity Spiritual Center Denver, I shared a lesson entitled “Grace and Gratitude.” You may listen to it here. Since this lesson came to me as what I call a “download” from Spirit, I chose to share it here in this forum as well.

Meet my friend. My friend’s name is Grace. Grace doesn’t really have a gender, but I think of Grace as a feminine energy, so I call Grace ‘her.’ Grace is my constant friend and companion. She is with me wherever I go. 

People might get the wrong idea. Of course, this is a physical representation of Grace. I don’t carry her around like this everywhere I go. But, Grace is a part of my beingness. I carry her around in my heart and my mind. She is also a part of your beingness. You may not be consistently aware of it, but you too carry her around with you, always.

Grace has only one message, and it is a short one. Her message is “WAKE UP.”

Sometimes she says it in a quiet voice. Other times, she yells it quite loudly.

Sometimes I pay attention.

Sometimes I don’t.

But, she never ceases to keep calling to me to “wake up” from the dream.

What is the dream?

The dream is that we are separate and alone. The dream is the dream of duality. It is a dream in which we are somehow separate from God and from each other.

The beginning of the dream is beautifully represented metaphorically in the creation story in Genesis.

We are created in the image-likeness of God. We are pre-wired and programmed for peace, love, joy, happiness and wholeness. That is who we are. We are created to be in constant communion, conscious awareness of our Unity – our Oneness with God.

This is depicted in the story of Adam and Eve walking with God in the Garden of Eden, where everything was provided. That is, until they ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Metaphorically this represents humanity appropriating an idea of separation. In our minds, we created an image of ourselves unlike who we truly are. We began to think of ourselves as separate, and feel shame and fear. We even began to fear God. As a result of the shame and fear, we separated ourselves from the Garden, the consciousness of Unity, wholeness and perfection.

We continue to dream a dream of a self that is separate from God, a dream of a self who is alone in the world and often scared. But, because we are created in the image-likeness of God in Essence, there is an abiding presence within us that is constantly calling us home, calling us to “Wake Up” from the dream and return to the Garden.

That presence is Grace.

Grace is the voice of Truth calling from the core of our being, not just at the core of some of us, but of all of us.

And, each of is always free to listen and follow, or not. You and I are always at the point of choice to stay in the dream of separation and experience the fear which can manifest in many ways that are commonly called fight, flight or freeze. Or, we can call upon Grace to remind us to wake up from the dream and remember that she ever abides within us just as we ever abide in the Garden.

It is our opportunity in every moment to bring our awareness to the activity of Grace calling us into the remembrance of who and what we are. If we are listening to Grace and connected to Grace, no matter what happens in the world of form, we can return to the Garden and know our Truth.

Again, sometimes Grace speaks in a soft whisper.

When I am out in nature, walking on the beach, hugging a tree or a boulder, she softly whispers “Wake Up,” and I experience my unity with God expressing through the trees, rock, birds, and ocean. In those moments, I am filled with the awareness of the presence of God in all, and I experience Great-Fullness. In those moments, gratitude and thanksgiving come naturally.

I can easily feel gratitude and appreciation for God as nature.

At other times, however, it’s not so easy. When I witness or hear about painful or violent things happening in the world, it’s tempting to feel fear. In fact, I often do feel fear, initially.

At those times, Grace speaks a little more firmly, “Wake Up.” She reminds me not to react from fear, but to come home to the Garden, to commune with God in my mind and heart, to remember my Truth, and to respond from my center.

Then there are those times when it is often even more difficult for me to hear Grace because something painful happens in my direct experience or in the life of someone close to me. I can feel fear, anger, and sadness, leading me to think that I am alone. I want to run, hide, fight back or just go to bed, pull up the covers, and stay there.

That’s when Grace gets even louder – “WAKE UP”!

Even then, it often takes a while before I am willing or able to hear. Fear can block our ability to hear clearly. That’s why it is so important to continually condition my mind with prayer, meditation and affirmations of the Amazing Grace that is constantly active in me, as me.

Once I am able and willing to listen, I can stop, breathe, and know that no matter what happens in my world or in the world around me, that I - the Essence of who and what I Am - abides eternally in the Garden. I can choose to look for and find the blessing, the action of Good in it. I can eventually come to a place of Great-Fullness, and experience gratitude and appreciation.

I may not understand it all in the moment, or ever, but I can always choose to wake up from my dream of separation and connection with my Essential Nature which is of God.

I am sure that most, if not all of us, have had life experiences that at the time they happened were devastating. We felt the pain, fear, or sadness. And, once we moved through the feelings and came to a clearing, we were able to look back and see that Grace was present through it all. We were able to look for and find the blessing, even in some of life’s most challenging experiences.

In one of his letters to the church as Thessalonica, the apostle Paul said, “In everything give thanks.” He did not say, for everything give thanks, but in everything.

It may take some time to walk through the process, but knowing that Grace is always active and abiding, constantly leading us back home to the Garden and to a place of communion with God, and then choosing to hear Grace, helps me find gratitude in all things.

Everything can be an opportunity for me to “WAKE UP.”

In his letter to the church as Ephesus, Paul said,

“For by grace you have been saved – through Faith – this not of yourselves, but it is a gift from God.”

Grace calling us home to the Garden, when we listen, saves us, sets us free, wakes us up from the dream of separation, and thus frees us from our fear and isolation.

Faith is our power to believe and have conviction in the unseen power of Grace.

Grace is the gift of God, the voice within that beckons us home and calls us to “WAKE UP.”

In our awakened state of Oneness, we are filled with the awareness of God. We experience Great-Fullness. From that Great-Fullness, we live gratitude and thanksgiving.

Wake Up! Wake Up! Wake Up!