Healing Ourselves and Our World

Each Wednesday, my prayer partner, Rev. Karen Romestan, and I connect by phone to pray with each other about what is on our hearts. This week, as we were both preparing to watch the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, we chose to pray for the healing of our nation.

Two weeks ago, we all watched in shock and disbelief as the Capitol Building was under siege by men and women who were expressing their pain and fear in destructive ways. While I felt horrified by the violence, I was not surprised by it. And while I believe that violence is never the answer, I can understand and have empathy for their desperation.

If we have been paying attention, we know that there are many people in this country who are afraid that their “way of life” is being threatened. They are fearful that they are being robbed of their safety, security, and power over their own lives. They fear that their financial well-being is in jeopardy. They believe that their personal freedoms are being infringed. Many worry that they will soon be the racial and ethnic minority. They are scared, and they are fighting back. They want to be heard.

This past summer, we witnessed protests and violence in the streets of our country in response to the murder of George Floyd, Briana Taylor, Ahmad Arbury, and innumerable other Black people, not just in 2020, but in the decades and centuries past. Black, Indigenous, and other Persons of Color (BIPOC) have been dismissed, disenfranchised, and disinherited by persons of European dissent since the founding of this country. While I hold the violence is never the answer, I can understand and have empathy for their desperation.

If we have been paying attention and educating ourselves, we know about the genocide of the Indigenous people by our ancestors of European dissent. We know about the capture of African people who were brought to this country on ships where they were treated as less than animals, sold into slavery, beaten, raped, maimed, branded, ripped from their children, and killed.

After the Emancipation Proclamation was signed into law, they were freed, but given nothing on which to survive, many became indentured servants to landowners, and others died or were killed. They suffered even further atrocities under Jim Crow laws, which I recently learned were the basis for the Nazi Race Laws. They are angry. They are weary. They are not asking for superiority, simply equality. They want to be heard.

There are certainly other groups, including Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Mormons, and others who have been persecuted for their religious beliefs and practices. LGBTQ+ persons have been disowned, beaten, and killed because of who they are. Women have been and often continue to be treated as second class citizen and sex objects. Children suffer abuse at the hands of their parents and other caregivers. Human trafficking is rampant. And the list continues.

We need healing, not only in America, but around the world. How do we heal?

How do we heal?

In Unity metaphysics, we understand that true ‘healing’ takes place on the inner plane before it is manifest on the outer. We cannot expect to heal the conditions of the world until we heal our hearts and minds. It is easy for us to point the finger at others and say, “They need to do something. They need to do their healing work.” It is much more challenging for most of us to look at ourselves and admit where we need to do our own healing.

Healing occurs within when we honestly and completely accept that we are the Christ of God, the only begotten of God in conscious human expression endowed with all the qualities we often assign to God, including love, beauty, order, harmony, and peace. As Unity minister and author, Eric Butterworth, says in Discover the Power within You, “The Christ in you is you at the point of God.”

We will heal within when we know who we are and fully realize what that means. Healing happens on the outer when we commit ourselves to living as the Christ of God in the world.

As the Christ of God, we know no fear.

As the Christ of God, we know our wholeness.

As the Christ of God, we know that our safety, security, and well-being rest in the calm assurance of who we are, not in the conditions of the world.

As the Christ of God, we know our unity with all humankind and all creation.

As the Christ of God, we know that we are the chosen of God and so is everyone else.

As the Christ of God, we know that we are special, but no more special than another.

As the Christ of God, we know that we are worthy of all the good we can receive, and we know that for everyone else as well.

As the Christ of God, we see the Christ in ourselves and in all others.

As the Christ of God, we use the power of our thoughts, words, and actions to help others remember this truth for themselves.

As the Christ of God, we use our thoughts, words, and actions to uplift those who are oppressed and hurting.

As the Christ of God, we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, and give our time, love, and presence to those who are imprisoned in their fear, anger, and pain.

As the Christ of God, we live empathy, understanding, and compassion for ourselves and all others.

As the Christ of God, we know that the Kingdom is within us and among us, and we work to manifest the Kingdom upon the Earth.

Knowing that we are the Christ of God is the first step in healing ourselves. Living as the Christ of God is the first step in healing the world. It is a moment-by-moment decision. In addition to the above quote, Eric Butterworth in Discover the Power within You tells us that our way shower and elder brother, Jesus, “made a decision for Christ.” He made the decision to know himself as the Christ and taught us that we are that as well. He made the decision to live as the Christ as he ministered to those in need, uplifted the disenfranchised, and called us up to a higher standard. We are called to follow him in this way as we heal ourselves and our world.  

Healing begins with you and with me and extends to all others through the power of our choice to use our thoughts, words, and actions in service to the Christ of God that each of us is.