You Don't Need Fixing — Just Alignment

From Rev. David McArthur (edited by Mike McGuire, not reviewed by the speaker)

You hypocrite!  “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” But looking to fix others only brings you back to fixing yourself. Most of you are self help addicts. But “you will wake up and know you don't need fixin'.” An alignment is all that's needed. “It's a time shift into silk and a field environment of love.”

Appreciation.  A business woman confessed, “I am the queen of roadrage!” She went on to say that every morning when she pulled out onto the highway to go to work, she felt every car was out to get her. By the time she got to work she was already exhausted and out of sorts, and everyone knew it. But now she was telling of a discovery she had made. Appreciation. She had a whole new attitude from appreciating things. On the drive to work now, she appreciated the road and the scenery on the way. When she got to work, she appreciated she had work. She had committed to an experience of appreciation. It's alignment. Use appreciation for alignment day after day. “It's a time shift into silk and a field environment of love.” It comes from all the great teachers. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” It's not fix it, it's alignment.

Peace.  Love one another. Appreciation is a part of love. Peace is also a part of love, and finding that spiritual center is alignment. It is all that's needed. Lao-tzu, from the Tao Te Ching: “She who is centered in the Tao can go where she wishes, without danger. She perceives the universal harmony, even amid great pain.” It is not ignoring the great pain which we touch in life, but “...she has found peace in her heart, centered in the Tao.”

It cannot not be there.  Like the small child who takes you by the finger and brings you into her world, connect with someone who loves you. It's always there! You are a beloved child of God! And the One who loves you is within. Reach in and take a hold of it! It's always there. It cannot not be there.

Alignment.  You will wake up and know you don't need “fixin'”. Not now, not ever. The great thing is neither does anyone else! Phew! That makes it easier. There is an alignment—that's all that's needed! Bless you!

Scripture according to Pooh, 08.19.12

From Rev. David McArthur (edited by Mike McGuire, not reviewed by the speaker)

Eeyore in us.  On their way to see Eeyore, Pooh and Piglet stop at a warm place in the wood. “We'll call this Pooh Corner.” And using sticks piled up nearby, they build Eeyore a house, as they think he has none. At about the same time Eeyore knocks on Christopher Robin's door. Even though he lived in the coldest, gloomiest part of the wood, he wanted to go home—but his house was gone! (Christopher Robin represents the Christ Spirit; the Hundred Acre Wood is His and He takes care of everything in it.)

They meet Pooh and Piglet who want to show them the house they built for Eeyore. However, it soon becomes apparent to them that they had used the pile of sticks Eeyore had up until then called home. But look! See how nice this new home is! And Eeyore agrees that it is as warm and nice as they say. Is Eeyore in any of us? Do we build in an uncomfortable place just because we're convinced it “had to be that way”? It might be the health thing, the relationship thing, or that chewing-on-yourself-inside thing.

From fear to power.The doctor told Mandy Hastings that even if her two year old son lives, he'll be severely handicapped. “No,” she said, “he will be fine.” A gravestone had fallen over onto her boy's head, and while she and her husband were waiting for lifeflight, she prayed. She says a peace swept over her and she heard, “Everything's going to be fine. Matthew is in My hands.” Yes, she most likely began praying from fear, but she moved her attention off of the data pouring in (that her brain was using to figure out how bad things were).

She moved from fear to that place of love and connection with divine presence and power. Look for that level that brings forth health and vitality. You don't need to ask anymore for anything. It is there within you. You are that power, that force. The boy was home in two weeks, and is a happy, healthy teen today.

You are divine energy. Take a glance at what you're building. If it's “not quite enough” or “just enough to get by” or “that's just the way I am”—it is the Eeyore within you. Activate the greater potential within you through the experience of the love, the pure light of energy of the divine which you are. Build your house, and live, at “Pooh Corner”!

From Pet Peeves to Peace

There's a down-side to our spiritual growth, which is knowing we can and need to transform our feelings of frustration, irritation, even rage; our Pet Peeves.

We spend so much time in non-peace—hostility, anger, upset, Righteous Indignation!—but it's lying to ourselves.  It's not harmony; we don't feel our spiritual truth.  We need to shift, to get to the heart.  We know how.  And we now know we can extend that shift to those around us so that we are in harmony together.

But when we do shift, we ask ourselves, “Why did I wait all that time?”  It's because when we indulge in our pet peeves, it feels good!  But we stay out of our peace.  And by practicing our little peeves that don't matter we build up our non-peace pettiness to have when it does matter.  So ask yourself, “What am I here for?”

There is something within each of us that, the longer we are on our spiritual journey, the more loudly it calls to us.  Jesus taught that the Christ peace is from within, from the being that you really are.  Look at the little things.  When you move in peace you are that presence which moves through you.

When the Roman soldiers arrested Jesus, and one had an ear cut off, Jesus healed it, saying, “No more of this.”  No more hostility, it was time to heal.  Because of that beautiful peace in all of us, we  hear, “no more of this; time to heal.”  It is time we go about this.  Get out of your irritation and into peace.  Focus on your heart and go to that love and compassion there.  You can have compassion for someone who doesn't know any better.  Gandhi quickly forgave the ruffians who beat him up, realizing they did not know any better.  They did not know, either, the feeling of seeing the beauty in another.

Am I here to add to the tensions of this world or to add peace?  It's my choice.

For this week shift from irritation to peace at every opportunity because you are the peace.  It is not the peace which you are finding, but the real YOU.  “I am the presence of peace here and now.”  Because it is who you really are.  Yes you are, and you are magnificent!

From Mike McGuire, prayer team
Summary of Rev. David's sermon

A Place of Peace Within You

We live in a world where there is a lot of turmoil, but within you there is a place of peace.

In your workplace you may find people who are critical and unappreciative, but within you there is a place of peace.

You may find times in your family when people you care about are frustrated and not understanding, but within you there is a place of peace.

Daily the news reports war and violence, but within you there is a place of peace.

There are those in government and positions of authority that will make decisions that you recognize do not serve the greatest good, but within you there is a place of peace.

When you drive on the highway there are people who follow too close or cut in front of you, but within you there is a place of peace.

There are times when it seems like you have more to be done than you have time for, but within you there is a place of peace.

There are times when you are relaxing and phone solicitors call and disturb your rest, but within you there is a place of peace.

There are times when financial needs seem greater than the resources, but within you there is a place of peace.

There are invitations in your life to respond with righteous indignation at the callous or insensitive actions of others, but within you there is a place of peace.

What we contribute to the world depends not on the things that are in our lives, but on our responses to them.

Thank you for contributing your peace.

-- Rev. David McArthur

A New Level of Consciousness

This year at Unity let us bring our focus to the potential that love holds for us individually and collectively to bring forth a new level of consciousness. It is time to develop fully within ourselves and within our world a true consciousness of peace.

As you stop to linger at the peace wall, look at the hope that is there. Look at the ideals that are captured in the symbols. Experience the desire, common to all our hearts that is enshrined in those words that keep appearing again and again—“Peace” and “Love.” It is time for us to go to our next step of bringing forth that vision. Let us find within ourselves the heart of nonviolence. If not us, who? If not now, when?

—Reverend David McArthur

Let There Be Peace on Earth

Let There Be Peace on Earth... and Let it Begin with Me

It is often a startling discovery that peace is not the result of being peaceful. It’s not that being peaceful isn’t helpful—it certainly is. However, the dissolution of the discord that removes our peace requires an even more powerful state of consciousness than peace. It requires love. Charles Fillmore called love the unifying, harmonizing power. That is because when we actively engage conflict with love, we release that which has the power to dissolve discord. Love actually creates a higher state of consciousness in which harmony and unity can exist.

Love has the power to transform those parts of ourselves that have not yet been brought into wholeness. In one of the translations of the Tao Te Ching, it is spoken of as the tiger having no place to put his claws. I understand this to mean, that the parts of me that would have sustained conflict have been transformed as I became the expression of Divine Love to those around me, regardless of their position or peacefulness.

We become involved in the pursuit of peace because our love compels us. It asks us to journey into that experience of connectedness in which another’s well being is crucial to our own. Love flows through us, creating harmony around us. The change of consciousness is not because we avoided conflict to be peaceful. Rather it is brought about because in the midst of conflict we let love flow from our hearts so that we were transformed and others uplifted.
­—Reverend David McArthur

Choosing Love

What Is Our Center About?

Several years ago, I was walking down a narrow street in a city far away. I was a stranger there on business and there was a palpable tension. It was a city where recently there had been violence and everyone there knew from the frequent presence of soldiers and police that this was not a peaceful place. Even though I wanted to enjoy my time there, I couldn’t help glancing nervously around, keeping defensive vigilance and feeling concern as I walked.

I was passing two women talking, one an older woman looked beyond her friend and looked directly at me. She smiled at me. It wasn’t that polite “I’m a nice non-threatening person” smile. It was a smile of someone who sends out love—powerful, delighted, and personal. It was for me and meant for me. From twenty-five feet away I felt impacted and changed. I felt that love from an old woman I did not know, a person I have never spoken a word to.

I became aware that I was no longer afraid. I was walking in a world where love existed. I felt my heart open, grateful, full. I was at peace. I no longer looked at the people around me as possible threats, but rather as people. We were all just people there, with our concerns, our schedules and our destinations. The difference was, I suddenly was not absorbed in my fear, my safety, protecting my world from them. I was no longer contributing fear and separation to the world that existed around me as I walked down that street. I was contributing peace. My mind was at peace with the world I was in. I was aware of the presence of Divine Love around me. I found I cared about those around me and enjoyed the vibrancy of their presence.

This is true, and it was just that simple. An old woman made a choice to send love, and changed me at depth. I became a presence of peace because I chose to accept the love she reminded me of. Love freed me from fear. It is simple. In our world where fear seems so strong, we can choose to love and become the presence of peace. The choice is ours.

I believe this is what our Center is about. At this time of tension and fear in our community, our nation and our world, where separation and mistrust is the norm, we are here to choose love, choice after choice, moment after moment. We know how to find the power of love that creates peace and our world hungers both for that knowledge and even more so for people who will live that choice.

~ Choosing love, creating peace, one heart at a time ~

—Reverend David McArthur

Peace Is Here and Now

We embrace this year, and every year, as a year of peace. Peace does exist, because it exists in our hearts and minds. It exists in our relationships with our family, friends and those we work with. It exists because we make the choice, again and again and again, to speak peace and feel peace.

We joyfully join with many other churches, leaders, organizations and people all over the world in the “Season for Nonviolence.” In doing so we commit to our community and to the world to mature in our ability to choose love and create peace.

There is peace on earth, and it has begun with us.
—Reverend David McArthur

Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances. —Mohandas Gandhi

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain. —Mohandas Gandhi

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. —Martin Luther King Jr.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. —Martin Luther King Jr.

"A Season for Nonviolence", January 30 - April 4, is a national 64-day educational, media, and grassroots campaign dedicated to demonstrating that nonviolence is a powerful way to heal, transform, and empower our lives and our communities. Inspired by the 50th and 30th memorial anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this international event honors their vision for an empowered, nonviolent world.

Joint Statement for Peace, issued by Unity and Association of Unity Churches:

"Unity stands for peace in the presence of conflict; for love in the presence of hatred; for forgiveness in the presence of injury. Unity honors the many names for God, the many paths to God, the many ways to worship God; for there is only one power and presence of God and that God loves each one of us equally. It is therefore the position of The International Association of Unity Churches and Unity to urge all nations, their leaders, and their people to turn to God by whatever the name for guidance during these challenging times and pursue peace, not war, for this is what honors the God of all our faith traditions. Unity stands for peace in our lifetime."

Peace Within - Forgiveness

Must want inner peace MORE than righteousness and justice... in order to let go and forgive.
In this video I discuss how a consciousness of forgiveness is the key to inner peace. When you want inner peace MORE than you want to cling to righteousness and justice... then you can let go, forgive, and be free.

Inner Peace - Nonjudgment

Judgment is the biggest obstacle to inner peace, and to world peace.

In this video I discuss how our everyday life experiences give us daily opportunities to develop spiritual muscle, maturity, and wisdom, by remembering to choose peace and acceptance rather than harsh emotional judgments.