My Soul Desire

Last month at the Unity People’s Convention, I attended a workshop entitled “Ask Me about Unity,” which was created and facilitated by Rev. Lori Boyd, Senior Minister at Unity of Columbia, Missouri. When I registered for the workshop, I thought that I would walk away with a succinct “elevator speech” that I could use anytime someone asked me about Unity. That is not what I got, but I walked away with something much more meaningful.

The workshop was so impactful for me that I could hardly wait to get home and facilitate it at Unity Spiritual Center Denver. This past Saturday, I did just that. I think some of the participants walked into the workshop thinking that they would leave with a 3 x 5 index card with a line-by-line description of what Unity is that they could use when and if someone were to ask them about Unity. I believe that what they received was much richer. I plan to facilitate it again in the near future. Stay tuned!

Rather than instructing on the history or the philosophy of Unity, the workshop invites participants to connect with our personal experience of Unity. The processes and exercises encourage us to answer the question “What is Unity?” from a deep personal connection. Accessing and sharing with another our own personal experience, rather than attempting to educate them, fosters a more meaningful connection. The workshop reminds us that every interaction is unique and that our opportunity in any situation is to be present with and for the other and ourselves.

The first question we are asked to contemplate in the workshop is “What brought you to Unity?” My initial response was the same as it has been for nearly 25 years, “Twelve Steps brought me to Unity.” However, we were then asked to go beyond our initial response to connect with something deeper. When I went deeper, my answer was “My search for a God to whom I was ‘willing to turn my will and my life over to’ brought me to Unity.” Again, we were asked to go even deeper. When I asked within, “What brought you to Unity?” It came to me. “My desire to know God brought me to Unity.”

The second in the series of workshop questions is, “What keeps you coming back.” Again, my answer was “My desire to know God keeps me coming back.” Even as I went deeper with the question, there was nothing more. It is my desire to know God that keeps me coming back over and over and over again.

It has taken me a while to discover that I cannot know God by reading the Bible, nor can I know God through any other book regardless of its author. God is not found in relationships, although they can be experiences that reflect God. God is not found in possessions, although God is not absent from them. God is not found in money, although money can be fun and useful. God is not found in drugs, alcohol, sex, shopping, or any other behavior we may use as an escape or as an empty substitute. God is not found in anything external. God can only be known within the depth of our own consciousness.

After all the reading, studying, praying, meditating, and seeking, I have finally come to realize that God is an experience that can only happen in the moment. We will never know God by seeking God. We will only know God by being present to God now. In every person. In every leaf. In every blade of grass. In every sunrise and sunset. In every exchange we have with another. In every breath. In every heartbeat. The presence of God is all around us when we open our eyes to see it, our hearts to feel it and our minds to embrace it.

My soul desire and my sole desire is to know God. I believe that is true for each of us, even if we are not conscious of it. I encourage us all to make it conscious and to keep that desire foremost in our hearts and minds. When we do, we will know in every moment whether we are allowing that desire to inspire us, or if we are allowing something else to direct our thoughts, words and actions. When we surrender to the desire to know God and allow that desire to unfold in us, as us, we will fulfill all that we are here to be and to do.