My Story

This week, I will complete my series, The Twelve Steps of Transformation, which I have based on The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. As I have said repeatedly during this series, I believe that these steps offer all of us practical tools for spiritual awakening and personal transformation.

As I began pondering the twelfth step, which says, “Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry our message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs,” I questioned, “What really is a “spiritual awakening” and how do we live into and from that?”

I meditated on these questions and began to capture some ideas in writing, and while I was inspired by some of the ideas, they did not appear to be congealing into a coherent post. So, I decided to let it go and move on to something else. That “something else” was to review my application and supporting credo papers for Unity ordination in preparation for my licensing and ordination interview which took place on Tuesday afternoon, July 26, 2016.

As I reviewed one paper in particular, I realized that, in many ways, it captured a personal process of spiritual awakening for me. So, I wanted to share it with you to let you know more about me and my awakening process. I want to be clear that I believe spiritual awakening, making the truth of our divine spiritual nature conscious, is a continual life-long process, and that periods of awakening as well as instantaneous awakenings occur for each of us when we are open and ready. As the Buddha said, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

My Story

I was born deep in the Bible belt in the small town of Washington, Georgia. I lived the first twenty-one years of my life in a culture steeped in traditional Christianity. While my parents were not particularly religious and did not attend church regularly, they too were pretty well indoctrinated in the fundamentals of the Baptist and Presbyterian creeds. Although she did not attend every Sunday, my mother believed that my sister and I needed to have a strong foundation in the church, so she would often take us to church and come pick us up after. I suppose it worked to some extent because the first time I accepted Jesus as my personal savior I was ten years old. I don’t recall fully understanding what it meant that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. In fact, I wasn’t really sure what my sins were. However, it seemed to be the thing to do at the time, so I did. It occurred during a visit from the preacher to our house. I accepted Jesus, the minister prayed over me, and I ran back outside to play. It was not a life transforming experience; at least not from my perspective. I guess the first time didn’t take because I was “saved” again at age fourteen.

Of course, I was taught in Sunday school, church services and classes that Jesus was the one and only son of God who was sent to Earth to be sacrificed as atonement for the sins of humanity. Further, that if I accepted him as my personal savior that I would be saved from spending eternity in hell after death. I was taught that believing that Jesus died on the cross and that he rose from the dead was my only hope of salvation. The church had me convinced that I was sinful just because I was a human being born of “original sin” and that Jesus was my only hope of going to heaven when I died. If nothing else, I was scared into being “born again.”

When I realized that I am homosexual, I thought I was doomed. It was, according to the church, one of the greatest sins of all. I believed that I could not be gay and still be loved by God. Not only was that well established by their interpretation of the Bible and emphatically expressed from the pulpit, there were also church members who made that abundantly clear. At nineteen I walked away from the church and from any conscious spiritual path.

In my late 20’s a friend introduced me to A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson and Out on a Limb by Shirley MacLaine. I was a bit reluctant to even read the books at first. Based on my past belief system, I thought that maybe they were works of the devil and they were his attempts to get me in his grip. However, I persisted. Both of these books began to change my life. They opened up new vistas for my mind to explore. I had never before thought of spirituality as something that might not require religious belief. I began reading A Course in Miracles, and while I am not an avid student I appreciate the teaching and most especially some of the lessons. I often refer to it when in need of some practical tools. About the same time, I friend introduced me to a “light work” and meditation program called Aquarian Practitioners of Light Energy. The lessons were channeled messages from Archangels and included working with the physical body and soul body chakras. Through this work, I became aware of the work of Alice Bailey. In addition, I read The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ by Levi which also opened my eyes to alternative ways of understanding the life of Jesus. It was a fascinating three-year journey. Along the way, I became aware of the teaching of Abraham and the Law of Attraction. I attended one of their weekend programs in Dallas in the mid-1990’s and followed them for years by receiving recordings of sessions which I would listen to constantly.

Upon entering a 12 Step recovery program at age 34, I began my earnest search for a God of my understanding to whom I was willing to turn over my will and my life. It was that search that led me to walk into a Unity church for the first time. There, I found a God of acceptance, forgiveness and openness. As I began to attend church regularly and take classes, I learned more about this God, and was soon willing and ready to surrender. God was no longer a man somewhere up in the sky who was constantly looking down, keeping a record of all the things I did wrong and planning his punishment. This God was not about judgment and retribution. Rather, this God was Love.

I have struggled at times with the use of the word ‘God’ because of all of the energy around the word, not only mine, but also the energy that has amassed over millennia. When I say ‘God’ I am not referring to a being or beings. I am, instead, to the best of my ability, giving voice to that which is ineffable. I believe H. Emilie Cady stated it clearly in her book, Lessons in Truth, “God is the name we give to that unchangeable, inexorable principle at the source of all existence.” God is. God is “no thing,” yet is All. God is the Essence of all that is real. As Unity cofounder, Charles Fillmore stated, “God is the eternal verity of the universe and humankind.”

It took me some time to become comfortable talking about Jesus as well. I wanted nothing to do with the concepts of him that I was taught in the Baptist church. I felt such relief when I began to study Unity teaching and learned that Jesus was a man, similar in many ways to me. Yes, he was one who fully realized his Christ nature, thus as Charles Fillmore stated not exactly like me. He was known as Jesus Christ because he attained that level of consciousness, much in the same way as one in the Hindu tradition who is revered as holy is referred to as “Shri” or “Shri Shri” depending upon their level of enlightenment. When I learned that ‘Christ’ is not a designation reserved only for Jesus and that it is a potential and possibility for all of us, I was not only shocked but delighted and inspired. As Unity cofounder Charles Fillmore stated, “Christ is the only begotten Son of God or the one complete idea of perfect man in Divine Mind.”¹ ‘Christ’ is an Ideal in the Mind of God that expresses as each of us and that we may align with in our consciousness, as Jesus did. In that way, we too can and will be Christ embodied. I now believe that our greatest desire, whether conscious nor not, is to know ourselves in our divinity as the ‘Christ’ expressing, and to live it to the best our ability.

I know now that it is not through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that I am “saved” from my sin. I am “saved” and “born again” in each moment that I “repent” or turn away from my negative thinking and choose to align my thinking with a higher understanding of truth. Yes, we all “sin and fall short of the glory of God,”² as Paul said, but our “sin” is “missing the mark or falling short of our divine perfection”¹ which most of us do daily. It is by the power of my freewill choice that I can focus my mind, thus change my consciousness, so that I save myself from the “hell” of my own making and restore myself to “heaven” as I fill and expand my mind with thoughts that are in alignment with my true nature – Christ. So, in the light of new understanding, I can joyously proclaim that I am saved from “hell” through Christ and my reward is the state of “heaven” in my own awareness. I can choose heaven today.

I believe that the teachings of Jesus as we are given them in the Bible form the true foundation for empowered and abundant living. Primary to his teaching is the well-known and often quoted, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”³ First, the Kingdom of God exists in consciousness. Jesus was not saying that we should seek to find an Earthly kingdom, but instead to look within and see that the Kingdom of God is “within you” or “at hand.”⁴ He was not referring only to the demonstration of material good, as that was never his primary focus. Jesus was, most often, teaching from Christ consciousness and encouraging his disciples and followers, including us today, to make attaining Christ consciousness their primary goal. As he said, our needs are already known and will be provided. There is no need to struggle and strain, just open and allow.

As we teach in Unity, prayer and meditation are spiritual practices that help us to align our minds in the Kingdom of God consciousness. Jesus said don’t worry about the material things. We teach the same in our practice of Affirmative Prayer. We remove our focus from the condition or circumstance and instead focus on the Truth of God expressing in and through the apparent condition. As Unity minister and author Eric Butterworth said, “The purpose of prayer is not to set things right, but so see things rightly.”⁵

We follow Jesus’ teaching and “seek the kingdom” through prayer. However, this is just the first step. He also said to seek “his righteousness.” This means that we are to think, speak and act in ways that are in alignment with the Kingdom of God consciousness we have attained in prayer. Jesus instructs us that in order to live an abundant life, we must not only know the Truth in consciousness, but we must keep our thinking in line with Truth, we must speak words of Truth and discontinue speaking about or complaining about the situation, and we do things that support us in demonstrating the Truth. This Jesus teaching is one of the foundational Scriptures that supports the spiritual practices of denials and affirmations. From Christ consciousness, Jesus said, “I come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” The ‘I’ is the Christ. When the Christ comes into fullness in our consciousness and we embrace the righteousness of thinking, speaking and acting, we will demonstrate that abundance. Charles Fillmore said,

“Think prosperity, talk prosperity, not in general but in specific terms, not as something for the other fellow but as your very own right. Deny every appearance of failure. Stand by your guns and affirm supply, support, and success in the very face of question and doubt, then give thanks for plenty in all your affairs, knowing for a certainty that your good is now being fulfilled in Spirit, in mind, and in manifestation.”⁶

If someone had told me even ten years ago that I would be reading the Bible and quoting verses in my lessons and in my blog post, I would have laughed in his face. In my early church experience, the Bible was used as a weapon. Scriptures were interpreted and used to condemn me and to teach me about a God who would punish me just for being me. For many years, I would not open a Bible. I am extremely grateful to the classes I have had through Unity Institute where I learned about metaphysical and maieutic ways of interpreting Scripture. The Bible has come alive for me in ways that I would never have imagined possible. I refer to Scripture nearly every Sunday, and in nearly every blog post.

With all that I have learned by studying Unity’s Truth principles, exploring the work of spiritual teachers such as Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, Mark Nepo and others, I realize that Truth is a personal experience. I believe that we all must discern for ourselves what is ultimately true for us and allow that to be our guidepost. I am committed to not being convinced that I, or we in Unity have the Truth, or that I know what is absolutely true. My intention is to stay open to the question and allow Truth to be revealed. I am also committed to living with the mystery of life. No matter how much I learn or think I know, there is always more. I know that my human intellect cannot comprehend all of the great mysteries of the universe. I do my best to be content with not having to know, and being secure in admitting that I don’t know.

The best I can do is establish a place within my own consciousness that provides me with a foundation upon which I choose to live my life. For me, it my connection with the God of my understanding. It is my personal spirituality which I get to define, as do we all. The basic tenets of my spirituality are:

(1)  Even though I cannot fully comprehend it, there is a Power and Presence that imbues all creation and in which we are all connected as one.

(2)  This Power and Presence is impersonal and benign, yet within it the principles of order, harmony, beauty, and unity are at work.

(3)  Love is the highest emanation of that Power and Presence. I, in my human form, am here to experience and express that Love.

It is my sincere desire to allow this to be the credo that guides my life. My aspiration is to live into and from it.

So, that is my story as submitted to the Licensing & Ordination team. I am pleased to report that at the end of my interview on Tuesday, they told me that they are recommending me for ordination. It will have to be approved by the Unity Worldwide Ministries credentialing team, but they assure me that the approval is a formality at this point. I am grateful to all who have supported me and continue to do so as I traverse the path of ministry.

Please join me this Sunday, July 31, as I complete my series, The Twelve Steps to Transformation, which can give us practical tools for your own spiritual awakening and personal transformation.

¹ The Revealing Word

² Romans 3:23

³ Matthew 6:33

⁴ Luke 17:21

⁵ The Universe is Calling by Eric Butterworth

⁶ Prosperity by Charles Fillmore

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. 

Making A Mend

Father Richard Rohr is quickly becoming one of my favorite spiritual teachers and authors. I am extremely grateful to have discovered him, I only regret that it did not happen sooner. His teaching on The Twelve Steps is one of my inspirations for my current lesson series, The Twelve Steps of Transformation. Fr. Rohr’s book, Breathing Under Water, explores the spirituality of The Twelve Step program from a Christian perspective. I find that many, albeit not all, of his perspectives resonate with much of Unity’s metaphysical approach to interpretation of Scripture.

In this book, Fr. Rohr encourages us to remember that while Jesus is our example of one who fully realized his Divinity, that he was also an example of how we can demonstrate the Christ in our lives. He reminds us that Jesus most often referred to himself as a “son of man” thereby claiming to be one of us, the archetypal human, an everyman. Fr. Rohr says,

“We have kept Jesus out of the range of actual imitation, when the very goal was to imitate him in his combined humanity and divinity. Remember, Jesus said ‘follow me’ and never once said “worship me.” The sad result is that we have many “spiritual” beings when the much more needed task is to learn how to be true human beings. Full humanness leads to spirituality by the truckload…”

This speaks to what I shared in my lesson on July 3, which you may listen to here or watch here. I recognize that I have made spiritual awakening my primary focus and the topic of most of my lessons recently. I have been giving a great deal of time and attention to growing in the conscious awareness of my Soul, my True Self. While I still believe that spiritual awakening is a vital intention, I also recognize that living our spiritual awareness in our daily lives is of equal importance. We must learn and grow in ways to live our spirituality through our human interactions. The Twelve Steps are tools that can assist us in doing that.

I reiterate that I am not suggesting that we all have issues with alcohol, drugs or any behavior that might be considered an addiction. My intention is to explore how living the practical tools of The Twelve Steps can assist us all in living more spiritually aware and conscious lives as we connect with the God of our understanding, as well as ourselves and others.

In my most recent three posts, I have talked about the first seven steps. You can read my posts and follow me here. Except for the seventh step which requires that we share our moral inventory with at least one other person, these first steps are primarily internal processes. Even step eight is mostly internal. However, step nine gives us a powerful opportunity to truly practice our spirituality.

Step eight says, “We made a list of all the people we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.”

As with the fourth step, which I talked about in my June 30 post, step eight is best undertaken from a centered space. It is important for us to center ourselves in the awareness of God’s love and to the best of our ability hold ourselves in the light of love as we begin step eight. Making a list of all the people we have harmed can, and most often does, bring up a great deal of resistance. Who among us wants to admit that we have harmed others, let alone make a list of all of them? Most of us would prefer just to stop at step seven. After all, once we have made it through the seventh step, we have received God’s love and forgiveness and we have told at least one other person about what we did. Shouldn’t that be enough? Why drag all those other people into the process?

In fact, many people who enter recovery programs, if they make it past step three, do not make it through step eight. Some of those who do, take years to “become willing” to make amends to others. It can be, and most often is, a daunting proposition. In follow up to what I shared in last week’s post, step eight allows for our humanity. It acknowledges that it may take time for us to “become willing” to make amends to all those we have harmed. It is, after all, a process.

It is imperative to remember not to use step eight as an opportunity for self-flagellation. It is a chance for us to engage in deep self-connection and honesty. It is important to our spiritual and emotional healing and maturity for us to hold ourselves accountable for the ways our actions stimulated pain for others. It is equally important for us to mourn the pain we feel when considering the effect we have had on others’ lives.

I like to think of making amends as “making a mend.” Amends are our efforts to repair something that has conceivably been damaged or broken. Love is the energy that binds all things together. Love is the bond we share with others. When we say or do things that are not expressions of love, our connection with another is often damaged.

Our willingness to “make a mend” in our relationship opens the way for love to be remembered and expressed. A mend can take many forms. The most vital element of making a mend in a relationship is openness, vulnerability and availability to the other. This is the reason we must do a great deal of inner work prior to extending an amends to someone. We must be clear in our intention to only come from love, lest we risk stimulating more pain in the other. This is very clear in step nine.

Step nine says, “Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.”

We must enter into the process of “making a mend,” not to relieve ourselves of guilt, but to repair the break in the flow of love, the break our actions created. We must be open to hearing from the other person how our actions stimulated pain for them, and also be willing to take action that will help repair the bond.

By making amends to another, we are actually giving them the opportunity to process their pain so that they can release it and experience healing. The gift is that we also get to experience healing in the process.

It is essential to be clear about our intention and the potential pain we could stimulate for another by making amends. For this reason, it is advised that one not dive into making amends before discussing the situation at depth with a trusted confidante. In a Twelve Step program, this is usually one’s sponsor. If you are not active in a formal Twelve Step program, I strongly recommend talking with a trusted friend, minister or counselor who can help you assess the possibility of additional injury before engaging in an amends process.

While making direct amends is preferred, it is not always possible or advisable. If is determined that by making direct amends, you could further injure the other an indirect amends is recommended. Additionally, if the injured person is deceased, only an indirect amends is possible.

As a process to mend a break in the flow of love, amends can help restore us to our wholeness, thereby transforming us at depth.

The Twelves Steps are a path to personal transformation through a process of spiritual recovery. They provide us with clearly defined practical tools to assist us in living our spiritual values. When approached as a way of life, The Twelve Steps of Personal Transformation can be a way to realize our Unity in God and with each other.

Please join me on Sunday morning at 10:00 as we explore in greater depth how making amends helps to free us and bring us into the remembered state of conscious wholeness.

Twelve Steps to Personal Transformation: Lesson 3

This week I am continuing with my series, The Twelve Steps of Transformation, based on The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

I appreciate that The Twelve Steps recognize and allow for our human nature. The founders of The Twelve Steps understood that spiritual recovery is a process, which does not happen instantaneously, or even quickly. They understood, from their personal experience, that one who is so deeply entrenched in their own way of thinking and being, as most addicts are, does not let go hastily or without effort.

This is why step two begins with “Came to believe…” and step six begins with “Were entirely ready…” and step eight includes the phrase, “Became willing to.” They acknowledge that it is not human nature to surrender control. Believing we are in control gives us a sense of power. In Truth, personal control is simply an illusion. It is an illusion that many of us hold tightly. It is not easy for us to give in to God and stand with our brother and way shower Jesus and say with conviction, “Of myself I can do nothing. It is the Father within that does the work.” (John 5:30)

From our Unity perspective, the “I” that is powerless, as the first step of The Twelve Steps acknowledges, is the False Self or the Ego. The False Self does not have the power to change itself. As Albert Einstein said, “You cannot solve the problem with the same consciousness that created it.” The True Self, the I Am, the Christ, all names for “the Father within” is the power that can renew our minds and transform our lives. We have to “become willing” and come to a place where we are “entirely ready” to let go and let God do Its work in and through us. For most of us that is a process that takes time.

The sixth steps states, “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character,” meaning the defects of character inventoried in step four, and admitted to in step five.

I still have some resistance to the idea that any of us have “defects of character.” Thinking that I have “defects of character” only serves to exacerbate my shame and a sense of being innately flawed. I prefer to think of them as malicious software or viruses that have infected my subconscious and disrupted the natural operation of my mind. As with a computer, there are programs in our minds which are running behind the scene that affect the optimal operation of the system as a whole. These programs get installed into our subconscious without our permission or knowledge. They originate with our families, culture, and religions. They inform what I have previously written and talked about as the “False Self” or “Ego.” They are constantly feeding information from our subconscious to our conscious minds. Our minds receive and process all of the data, not knowing that much of it is garbage, and create output that includes it all.

When the operating system of our conscious mind is corrupted, the output - our thoughts, words and actions - is also corrupted.  As I said in my lesson this past Sunday, as a result we say and do things that are not reflective of our original operating system which is built on the foundation of Divine Love. You may listen to that lesson here or watch it here.

When I view “defects of character” from this perspective, I feel more open and receptive to be willing to have God remove these defects. God becomes, for me, a way to restore the integrity of my operating system – my mind. Again, it may take some time to become “entirely ready,” but once we are ready to have our minds renewed, we can then approach the seventh step.

The seventh step requires us to “humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.”

Asking opens us up to receive. God, as I understand God, is the Life Energy in which we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28) We are created as the image-likeness of God, yet we are not always conscious of that truth. While we always abide within the Life and Love of God, It does not assert itself into our awareness. It does not come uninvited. Therefore, we must humble ourselves to invite the help we need. We take decisive action to invite the conscious awareness of God when we ask. The answering is immediate. As Jesus taught, “Ask and you shall receive.” (Matthew 7:7)

When we open to receive, the Light of God floods in and begins immediately to reveal the faulty programming and cleanse our subconscious so that our minds may be restored to their original settings. For most of us, this restoration takes time. It doesn’t happen in a flash, but through a process of illumination.

 “One day at a time” is an often-repeated mantra of The Twelve Step Program. It is an important reminder for all of us. We make this life journey one day at a time. God exists in every moment, and we can only find God in this now moment. It requires our willingness and commitment to be present right where we are, just as we are. Only in the moment are we available to connect with God, ourselves and another.

We must begin each day with prayer, meditation and contemplation with the intention to invite the conscious awareness of God to fill our minds and hearts so that we can meet the opportunities presented to us each and every day to live in integrity with our Divine Nature. I offered a suggested practice in an earlier post. You may read it here. Prayer is a form of “asking” as it connects our minds with the One Mind and allows us to receive guidance and inspiration. I will discuss this practice further when we get to step eleven.

While they are presented as linear, The Twelves Steps are a progressive program of spiritual recovery. They invite us into a way of living that requires our commitment and practice, one day at a time. They offer us tools that assist us in our spiritual awakening, and also help us to put our awakened spiritual awareness into practice.

I hope you will join me for the rest of this series. If you have not listened to the first two lessons, you may do so on iTunes. If you would like to view the lesson, please visit our YouTube channel here and subscribe so that you do not miss future lessons. We are here to support and love each other as we grow in spiritual awakening and personal transformation. Join us Sundays at 10:00 a.m. at Unity Spiritual Center Denver.