August 27, 2006
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Martin Luther King, Jr., in being asked to publish some of his sermons, wrote in the preface to his book, ““. . . a sermon is directed toward the listening ear rather than the reading eye. . . I offer these discourses in the hope that a message may come to life for readers of the printed words.”” This is my hope for you, dear reader.
——Rev. Linda
August 27, 2006
SET YOUR SAILS:
DEEP CURRENTS
This morning we’re setting our sails and heading into the deep currents of the sea of life as we complete this series of talks for August.
Deep currents. When I think of deep currents, I think of deep renewal. Isn’t that what we need? But to receive that renewal, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, first we have to be the captain of our ship; we have to have a course and stay that course, and not let the currents take us where they will.
So what does that mean exactly? A man kept praying, “God fill me, fill me, fill me.” And a voice boomed out and said, “I am filling you. You just keep leaking.”
As captain, we have to be sure we have a water-tight vessel—that we’re stopping all the leaks. And how do we leak? It’s fear that springs the leaks, that sabotages the course, the journey.
A baby comes into the world with only 2 fears — loud noises and falling. Then they accumulate. Fears are blocks to our Good. Fears are our mutinies. What are some of those fear?
One is the fear that my needs may not be met, and fear rushes to the helm.
But our founder Dr. Ernest Holmes said, “There’s a power for good in the Universe greater than we are and we can use it.” We think we’re alone and meager in our power. Or maybe we’re afraid of the powerful being we know we are. Either way fear can act or feel like a stop sign for us.
Fear can show up as a belief that says, “Think small and play not to lose.” That belief stifles our lifestyle. So we hide in deep caution. Don’t dream too much. That way if you fall, it won’t be too far down.
A farmer was sitting on his porch and stranger came along and asked him, “Hey, how’s your cotton coming?”
The farmer said, “Ain’t got none, didn’t plant none. Afraid of the boll weevil.”
The stranger asked, “Well how’s your corn?”
The farmer answered, “Didn’t plant none. Afraid of the drought.”
So the stranger says, “Well how ‘bout your potatoes?”
The farmer says, “Ain’t got none. Scared of tater bug.”
So the stranger finally says, “Well, what did you plant?”
The farmer says, “Nothin’. I just played it safe.”
And that’s life for a whole lot of folks. Avoid risking to avoid losing. But then what about the harvest? It’s how we impoverish our lives.
The fear is that our needs are not always met, that our problems are bigger than we are. Fear is a stop sign. Think small and play not to lose. That’s how our subconscious fear beliefs keep us stuck, keep us stymied in our lives. It’s time to raise our sails and sail out of the fear-based life, the current of deep-seeded false beliefs.
Is fear at the helm? Then we have to step to the helm as the captain of our ship. And to navigate, we need skills. Dr. Roger Teel says we need to link up, look up, and leap up.
To heal we have to link up in consciousness with Spirit, with Essence. In mutiny, fear has become the captain, and we lose track of who we are, and fail to assert our spiritual leadership. We are blessed, divine expressions. Creative, powerful. But we have to step up to the helm and link up with the Divine and let It sooth us into realizing that fear is a natural accompaniment on any journey, but it doesn’t have to run the show. There’s something beautiful within us we can rely on. We just have to link up with It.
When we link up, it doesn’t matter where we’ve been or what we’ve done. We link up with That Within Us that is sacred and holy and move out of the fear.
We link up, connect with Spirit as it says in the 91st Psalm, and “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. . . He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust. . . He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all they ways.”
We put fear in its place when we link up. When we remember to “Fear not little flock. For it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” And “Which of you when your children asks for bread would you give them a stone? How much more does the Father give to them that ask.” And “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
We have to reeducate and link up and step forth as the Captain.
And then we have to look up. And good mariner doesn’t just look right out in front of the bow of the ship, or on each side at the water and the waves as they’re slapping against the vessel. A good mariner will look up, will look and see the rest of the seas, will see the horizon, will study the sky, will look up into the night sky and let the stars be guidance. A good mariner looks up. So must we.
Sometimes we’re not only downcast, but our vision is actually downward, our hearts are closed, our feet begin to stumble, because we don’t take in the wider perspective and the bigger expanse. We get bogged down in our circumstances and conditions. We have to look up.
When I was recovering from a divorce many years ago, I used to go over to Mt. Abbot every day after school and climb the mountain to sit and look out over the situation for a higher view, a new perspective. And that was very freeing for me.
When you’re walking on the beam, don’t look down. Look up. We can actually see our fears as opportunities for elation. Many years ago, I went on a survival retreat at Chewonki Foundation which included a barn climb. We were taken to a huge barn where one of the things we were to do was a cormorant walk across the beams up in the rafters. As you all know, cormorants are ocean birds whose wings tend to get water-logged. So they stretch them out to dry. So we were to walk across the beam, about 30 feet high, holding our arms out like a cormorant.
I stood on the barn floor looking up to that beam way up in the rafters, watching one lady in the group face her fear as she stood at the beginning of the beam, her safety ropes adjusted, absolute terror on her face, tears streaming as she forced herself to take that first step. I was sobbing from fright just watching her, in some kind of unity with her as she did this unthinkable act of courage, as she walked through her fear. Which she did.
My face red from sobbing, my heart pounding so hard I thought it would break through my chest, I climbed to the dreadful beam, and my ropes attached, I stepped out onto the narrow 6" timber hanging onto my rope for dear life. But I was up there, I was doing it. Step by step, I inched my way across the expanse. And I made it across to the end of the beam.
But then of course, I had to turn myself around and go back. But the longer I was up there, the easier it got. My fear started to subside and my heart wasn’t pounding as hard. When I got half-way back across the beam–three-fourths of the way done, something in me said, “You can do this. You can let go of the ropes and walk like a cormorant the rest of the way.” Very slowly, I let go of the rope with one hand and lowered my arm to hold it straight out. I picked up my foot and took a step. I took a couple more steps. Then I cautiously let go of the rope with my other hand, and very, very slowly lowered my arm to the horizontal position so that both arms were “hanging out to dry.” In slow-motion-like progression, I took a step, and then another, and then another, until each step felt easier and easier, as I successfully finished the cormorant walk.
I can’t even begin to describe the elation I felt to have overcome that fear. And what I learned was that what I felt when I was in the height of the fear, and what I felt when I walked through it to the other side–to the elation, were very, very similar. But when I was in the fear, it was as if what I was doing was to take all that excitement, passion, elation and scrunch it all up into a ball and hold it as tight as I could. It was restricted, dense, imprisoned. But once I faced the fear as an opportunity, the elation was freed, incredible, light and radiant. So it’s really about our own perception. We can see it as fear or we can see it as elation.
When we look up we see options we didn’t see before. We don’t see options when we’re looking down at the problem. When we look up, we see a purpose. Purpose breeds passion, and passion can overwhelm fear. “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.”
And then we have to leap up—link up, look up and leap up. What if we decided to become a person of action, not a person of reticence? What if we decided that we were going to become an unstoppable person? And that certainly fear would not be what stops us. What if we made that decision? How would life be different? Especially linked up and with a higher vision as we look up. Imagine leaping up and moving forward in this life.
Moses got the children of Israel out of Egypt, and they were headed to the Promised Land, but they wandered for 40 years. He gets them right to the doorstep of the Promised Land, and he sends out the scouts. And the scouts come back and say, “Oh, it’s the land of milk and honey and we brought some grapes and stuff back. But the people there are huge and they’re strong.”
And the children of Israel got afraid. They didn’t want to go in. They said, “Let’s wander some more. That wasn’t so bad.” And they would have done that, but about that time Moses died and Joshua took the leadership. He went to them and he said, “Here’s the deal. In 3 days we’re going in the Promised Land. Get yourself ready.” And they did. Joshua stepped to the helm as the captain of their ship. And when we do that in that I Am consciousness, that spiritual identity, that spiritual awareness, then having linked up and looked up we will sail forward. We will leap forward and go forth on our chosen path.
So today I simply want to ask us to be aware, to pay attention to the fears that are running the show and guiding the ship, and to be re-minded by linking up and looking up, so that we can then leap up.
And instead of letting our fears stop us, we can just love the fear. Admit that we’re afraid, but in that moment link up. Call in the very presence and power of God or Consciousness of God into our awareness, lift up our vision and see life a whole lot different. Know we have balance, we have stability, strength, and passion and then go forward. And we will come to know of a certainty that we are bigger than our fears. And that there’s no good reason why fear ought to block our good.
We can treat the fear as if it’s God calling us. When the waters of our voyage are choppy and rough, we can choose the buoyancy of Oneness to lift us to see the sun’s rays touching the sea of life. We can know that Spirit is in the water, in the deep currents, and that we are submerged in the Spirit of truth that God and I are one. I am forever one.
And then we can say with certainty “Fear knocked at the door. Faith opened it. And lo, there was no one there.”
