"But-Head"

The full text as prepared for the Sunday, November 18, 2012 message:

Please don’t take this the wrong way.  I have to ask, “How big is your “but?””

The “but” I’m talking about is your, “Yeah, I know, but…” followed by a reason why some good idea (aka application of spiritual principle) won’t work for them.  “But… thinking” is what keeps us stuck in our experience.

I hear, “yeah, but…” a lot as the reason why people aren’t willing to choose a different path of thinking that will lead them away from the experiences that come with their entrenched habits.

“But thinking” is a choice that keeps us stuck.  Is being a “but-head” working for you? :o)

Sometimes I hear from people that it’s too late for me to change… too late to attain any spiritual growth.

If you think it’s too late to attain any real spiritual growth, listen up, this talk today is for you.

Here is a quote attributed to Tolly Burkan, who popularized fire-walking in the 1970’s: “A stone may have been lying at the bottom of a riverbed for 10 million years, but if you pluck it out and set it in the sun, in five minutes it will is dry.”

“If you take a dry stone from the bank and swish it in the water for a few seconds and sit it down to dry again; in a few moments you will not be able to tell the difference between the two stones.  The one that was wet for millions of years is just as dry now as the stone that was only wet for seconds.”

The point?  Your future does not reflect your past because no matter how long you have been telling your story and living in the bondage of your status-quo, once you set an intention to make a shift into a new level of living… the quality of your life can change forever.

A life that has been newly found has exactly the same dynamic energy as someone who has been living that life for decades. You don’t have to catch up to someone that has been living that life longer than you because the moment you start expressing your new-found life, you bring new life to everyone and everything you encounter.

In what are familiar biblical terms, I am talking about letting your light shine!  When the light is on, the light is on!

We are here to find freedom.  Freedom is having a sense of complete well-being regardless of our circumstances or conditions and we find freedom by choosing to live by proven spiritual principles, (aka a God-centered life, Christ consciousness) in any given moment. 

Spiritual freedom is a choice.

(Read“The Gift,” pg. 122 of “a 2nd helping of chicken soup for the soul” by John Catenacci)

[The Gift can be read here: http://books.google.com/books?ei=h1-qUL25LIHlyAH56YHIAQ&sqi=2&id=LrljpJRjq10C&dq=the+gift+by+john+Catenacci&ots=oVmzroiEgK&q=the+gift#v=snippet&q=the%20gift&f=false ]

It was accepted that Grandpa wouldn’t come, that the past would become the very real present.  But… Love broke through. 

John says in the story that the family was intimidated by Grandpa’s icy stare.  What habits/fears are you intimidated by and afraid to face?  What’s your “but-thinking?”

We want to push away our feelings – I hear this all the time – “I don’t want this, I’m tired of this, I want to get rid of this feeling.”  Then I might suggest a spiritual approach and that’s when it comes out, “Yeah, I know, but…” Have you ever heard yourself say this?

I once heard a man say, “The healing is in the feeling.”

I believe we have to feel our feelings in order to heal them.

What we resist persists… looms larger.

Feel your feelings and act from spirit no matter how loudly your feelings invite you not to.

Freedom is a choice.  Make a commitment to choose spirit over fear.

A woman tells a story about the day her son came into her office to tell her he was going to make a parachute jump the next day, what he was going to do and how he was going to do it the next day when he made that jump.  She said she could also hear the fear in his voice.  “Yet,” she said, “it was about feeling the fear and doing it anyway.”

In Genesis it says that we are made in the image and after the likeness of God.

In 1John it says God is Love.

If these two statements are accurate, and I believe they are, than we are Love… Divine Love and we know that Divine Love heals and harmonizes… no buts about it.

The next time the pressure is on and you want a change, don’t fall back into old patterns of pushing away the pressure…don’t be a “but-head…” feel the pressure and choose to express Spirit. :o)

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