THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS

So, I begin to type these words on the twenty-fifth annual Unity World Day of Prayer. Some of you who receive these blog posts are connected to Unity and some of you are not. It isn’t particularly germane to what I feel called to say.

Most people familiar with Unity think of it as an international group of churches and centers. That is accurate at the level of form. Our headquarters is a beautiful campus just outside of Lee’s Summit, Missouri. The campus highlight is the several story high Unity Prayer Tower. It is the home of Silent Unity, which is for me the heart of what Unity is all about.

And that brings me to what I feel called to say.

Prayer has been getting a bad rap as of late. In a world of mass shootings, climate-related devastation, record levels of divisiveness and political spin I do not disagree with the aspersions. Even clergy are taking to social media to scream “thoughts and prayers are not enough!”

True enough.

And I highly suspect that most people that are claiming to send thoughts and prayers have stopped at the first of those activities.

As I shared recently with my own particular Unity congregation, if something troubling is occurring in my life I would ask that you keep your thoughts, and indeed include me in your prayer.

I say this from a deep knowing that prayer is not thought. Prayer is the heart-centered activity of Source-Spirit moving in and through the central nervous system. It is a profound and uncontrollable movement of God in me. It is subtler than thought. It is non-dualistic, which the mind is incapable of. It is vibrational Essence moving as energy. It is largely non-directed.

Most of the time when people reactively say that you or this are “in my thoughts and prayers” it is because there is truly nothing to be said or thought at the human level. There are no actions to be taken. There is no way to fix what has already occurred.

At least not yet.

Even Einstein said that a problem can never be fixed at the level at which it was created. That level is the level of thought activity or mind content. Our best thinking got us to where we are. A Higher Intelligence needs to be accessed. A greater Force needs to be engaged. This needs to happen before action is taken. As the Buddha taught “there is nothing more futile than action without prayer.”

And so, for me, the inefficacy of prayer is being exposed. Our collective disconnection from the Power that is within us is bearing fruit in perhaps epic proportions. Anemic “head prayer” cannot sustain us. Our minds and subsequent actions have made a mess we are incapable of correcting.

Enter prayer.

Unity was founded as and remains a movement in and of prayer. That movement is a collective evolution in consciousness as we actualize and embody deep realizations of prayer and spirituality. It is not limited to thought. In fact, it is beyond thought. We first engage our hearts and then let inspiration fill our minds. We take only inspired actions. We call the forth the sacredness of all life as we go about our living. We are first responders. Source is our go- to and our come-from. We know prayer as a Force for Good that we utilize in all situations.

Prayer is a Force whose time has come. I have visited the Unity Tower, and now I am committed to BEING a Unity Tower. An inspired tower of prayer in my heart, work, and relationships. I am here to shine forth. It matters not what others choose to do. It matters not that others are shouting to “keep your thoughts and prayers!” What matters is that I know my prayer matters.

I will indeed be a Unity tower of prayer not only this day but everyday. I will watch my thoughts, and I will activate my prayers. I will take actions that I am called to take. On this Unity World Day of Prayer, I am a prayer.

Each and every day, I am a prayer.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT

Please remember that the scarecrow was the smartest of them all.

Please remember that the tinman felt and cried the most.

Please remember that when push came to shove it was the lion who exhibited the most courage.

Please remember that Dorothy never left her bed.

Please remember that the entire odyssey was a dream that was meant to awaken personal empowerment.

The scarecrow already had a brain.

The tinman already had a heart.

The lion already had courage.

Dorothy was already at home. She already had the power within herself to recognize that fact. The power wasn’t in the shoes. The power was in her heart. In her wisdom. In her courage to embody it. She went through that entire dream just to realize that there was nothing else she needed. From hurling apples to flying monkey’s. From poppy narcolepsy to wicked witches. The power was always, already within.

While we have mostly made God a man behind a curtain pulling levers God is the Presence, the Power inside of each of us. We don’t have to go to Oz to get it. It is already here. It is the incessant searching for something beyond us that keeps us from knowing.

Please remember that.

In a moment of awakened awareness and startling revelation we may ask ourselves why we didn’t know that this power already existed as the truth of our being?

And the Cosmic Glenda giggles sweetly before chiding us: “my dears, you wouldn’t have believed me.”

You already are filled with wisdom, love, courage. Stop searching. Stop struggling. You’re already home.

Please remember that.