It's Not My Business!

I’ll be honest. Sometimes preparing lessons to present on Sunday mornings can be challenging. Not because it involves a great deal of effort. It does require time, prayer, contemplation and intentional listening for the inner voice, but I’m not talking about that. I enjoy those things. I am referring to the process of understanding and integrating the messages in my own life.

I have often heard the adage, “We teach what we need to learn.” I can certainly attest to the truth of that statement. My current series, Conscious Co-creating, is profoundly proving that to me.

Today, it is kicking me in the butt. I can think of no better way to express what I am experiencing. I find myself struggling against the message that I am receiving and being lead to speak about, as well as to integrate in my life.

In my lesson this past Sunday (listen here), I briefly mentioned Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith’s “Life Visioning” process. It is a powerful process, and one I recommend highly. As I mentioned on Sunday, one of the questions he suggests we ask as we vision is, “What is Spirit’s highest vision for (fill in the blank)?” Asking opens us to receive a higher vision for our desire.

Two of the follow-up questions to bring this vision into manifestation are, “What must be released? and What must be accepted?”

Asking those questions is where the “butt kicking” comes in for me. I am sharing this story with you because I have a sense that I am not alone. This is my story, but it may be yours as well.

As I meditated on what must be released, I was reminded of the story from Luke 18, in which a rich young ruler asked Jesus what he must do to follow him. Jesus told him to go and sell everything and give the money to the poor. The man turned and walked away.

I am coming face-to-face with what that means for me. No, I don’t plan to sell my possessions, give the money to the poor, and go live in a cave in the mountains. I do not interpret the story literally. I also do not believe that it is what I am being called to. What I feel I am being called to do, perhaps at a deeper level than at any time in the past, is to explore what I must release to follow the leading of my indwelling Christ.

I am being asked by Spirit to release attachment to every idea I have or have ever had about who I am and question everything that I have associated with those concepts.

Most predominant in my awareness today is the need to release the concern of what other people think of me. I realize that I care too much about whether others agree with me, like me, or appreciate what Spirit is inviting me to share. The message that came to me today in my meditation is that it’s not my business whether anyone appreciates me or approves of me, or resonates with what Spirit is expressing through me. My attachment to the need to be liked, approved of or appreciated is painful and can block my complete and full expression of my unique Christ nature. If I am to live fully as the Christ of my being, I must release that attachment. My inner knower also assured me that many do resonate with the message Spirit is bringing to me and through me.

When I asked, “What must be accepted?” I heard, “You must accept that you are a wonderful, unique expression of the One, living in this time at this place so that you can be in service to something higher and greater than yourself.” This is true for all of us. In my determination not to be perceived as conceited, I fear that I have limited myself and limited the Christ Light that I am here to be in the world.

Again, I am guessing that I am not alone. I am sure that many who are reading this right now can relate. We were taught not to be “too big for your britches,” (a Southern phrase), or not to be “too full of ourselves.” The unspoken, and sometimes audible, underlying message is, “Who do you think you are?” While well intended, these messages can and often do limit our full expression of all that we are here to be and do. They narrow the portal that allows Spirit to freely flow in this realm. To live large and in Spirit’s highest vision elicits fear that others will think us conceited, arrogant or contemptous.

As spiritual author and teacher, Marianne Williamson said in her book, A Return to Love,

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ¹

If others are uncomfortable in our light, we can send them love and be compassionate, but we must not allow their discomfort to block us from shining our light brightly. Jesus told us that we were born to be the Light of the World. The world needs our Light.

It’s not my business what others think of me. It is my business to be all that Spirit is – as me, and to shine my Christ Light brightly. Likewise, it’s not your business what others think of you. It’s your business to be the best Christ you can be, in service to the light you are.

Join us on Sunday, at 10:00 for our service as we explore these concepts further. It is time for each of us to let our light shine as the indwelling Christ in Spirit’s highest vision. Do you have the courage? Do we dare?

¹ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/our-deepest-fear/