The Divine Urge

This week I conclude my series of Sunday lessons based on our five core values with the lesson entitled “The Divine Urge” based on our core value of ‘inspiring.’

One definition for ‘inspire’ is to fill with the urge to feel or do something.

My hope is that we inspire the urge to feel peace, joy and love as we encourage personal connections in heart, mind and spirit with the conscious awareness of God’s presence. And, that we are all inspired to do something as we take actions that reflect our conscious awareness of Oneness in God and with all creation.

This past weekend, I had an amazing personal experience that epitomized the meaning of the word ‘inspire.’

I had the honor and privilege of attending a Unity South Central Region Youth of Unity (YOU) Winter Rally. I joined two of our YOU sponsors, Jason Garvin and Kristi Stucz, and seven of our YOUers.

I must admit that prior to leaving at 6:00 AM last Friday (an early start for me as I awakened at 4:30), I had some trepidation. I don’t particularly enjoy long road trips. This one was 10 hours including stops. Additionally, I had no idea what to expect from the accommodations at the camp. I was imagining the worst. I have had few experiences with sharing sleeping accommodations with others whom I don’t know, and the ones I have had have not been especially pleasant. I was certainly not looking forward to attempting sleep while in a room with a bunch of snoring men and teens. 

I say this simply to share the state of mind I carried with me into the weekend.

It did not take long for me to realize that my concerns were ill-founded, and my imagination way off base. The weekend was AWE-mazing.

And in the end, my trepidation did not matter anyway because I was treated to private sleeping quarters, for which I was grateful. And, the drives, both to and from the rally were wonderful opportunities to connect with the sponsors and our amazing teens.

Most importantly, my experiences at the YOU rally gave me an entirely new frame of reference for what it means to be “inspired.”

YOU rallies, while adult sponsored, are entirely teen lead. I was amazed, thrilled and delighted to witness the maturity and depth of understanding exhibited by the teens who lead the workshops, family groups, and activities. I felt encouraged, awed, and many times deeply moved by the love, support and compassion they embodied and extended to each other.

Prior to this weekend, I had spent very little time with teenagers. I had the idea that I did not know how to be with them and communicate with them. For some reason, I thought that I had to be different, more together, more mature, and more “fatherly” when interacting with teens. I discovered very quickly that they do not want me or anyone else to be different than we are. They want authenticity. They can see straight through the pretense and do not trust it. They want, as we all do, to connect with others who are available and willing to be vulnerable and real with them.

The teens inspired me to go deeper and share with them from my heart. They were supportive of me as I did my best to support them. I was amazed at how they were open and willing to include me in their circles of love and trust.

This weekend also inspired me to do something. For a while now I have been living with the question, “What is mine to do to serve God?” By that I mean what is mine to do so that I may serve the Divine in me, in others, and in all creation.

This rally experience gave me some clarity. I plan to make teen and young adult ministry a higher priority in my personal ministry and encourage us at Unity Spiritual Center Denver to also make it a priority. That does not mean that I plan to do so at the expense of our more “mature” congregants. My vision is that we can and will work more closely together to honor and respect the needs and desires of our multigenerational community.

I am convinced that the love and acceptance shared and felt by the teens at these events and in their other YOU experiences can and often does have life-changing effects on them. My guess is that, for some of them, YOU is the only place that they experience unconditional love. They are centered, loving, caring, respectful, open and generous human beings. We could all learn from them. And, I want to help provide opportunities for us to do so.

They are our hope for the future, and I am more hopeful today after spending time with them this weekend, of that future than I have been in a long time. We owe it to our children and young adults to give them a place where they can be encouraged and supported, to know who they truly are and to embrace their unique and wondrous expressions of God in all their diversity.

I was and continue to be inspired.

I invite you to hold the question with me, “What is ours, as Unity Spiritual Center Denver, to do to create and maintain a thriving ministry that fully embraces and supports all generations in knowing their Divinity and in being inspired to experience it and do something with it?”

We all have a great deal to share with the younger generations as they make their way in this journey called life, and they have a great deal to share with us. We need each other, and I am committed to exploring how we can come together in community to create and maintain a thriving intergenerational ministry. I look forward to visioning and co-creating with you.

Join me on Sunday at 10:00 as we explore this and other questions relating to how we be more fully aware of The Divine Urge inspiring us to feel or do something.