Inlet-Outlet

February 9, 2014

From time to time I hear this comment from people after their first visit to Unity, “It feels like home.”

We are all on a path heading toward a spiritual coming home. Some have already experienced “home.” The job now, is to stay there.

We are all interested in a personal experience of Heaven.

Whether you are new to Unity or an old hand at it, I pray it is your spiritual home. Just like a highway sign points to a destination, I hope that Unity is a spiritual signpost for you pointing your way to an experience of God.

Reverend Billy Graham told of a time early in his ministry when he arrived in a small town to preach a sermon. Wanting to mail a letter, he asked a
young boy where the post office was. When the young boy told him, Dr. Graham thanked him and said, “Son if you will come tonight to the Baptist
Church, you will hear me telling everyone how to get to heaven.” The boy stood there for a minute, scratched his head, and said, “Well, sir, I don’t think I will be there because you can’t even find the post office.”

As I mentioned last week, in order for a pond to stay sweet, fresh, and renewed, there must be an inlet and an outlet. This is a metaphor for our lives. We must keep our awareness open to the Presence of God and we our expression must be delivered from that awareness.

Our job is to keep the inlet and outlet open. It is God’s job to keep the flow going. As we keep the inlet and outlet open, the experience of our life is sweet and fresh, a spiritual homecoming, and our experience of God is constantly renewed.

Through God there is available to us a daily spiritual homecoming. Keeping that inlet and outlet open we move from knowing about God to actually knowing God.  There is a huge difference between knowing ABOUT God and knowing God. Many people know about God. God is on our money. God’s name is used in our sacred documents. God’s name is used by the devout, and sometimes, sadly, only as a curse. Everyone knows about God. A 2011 Gallup poll indicates that nine out of ten people in America say they believe in God.

Nine out of ten people believe in God, although they may not know really how God works in their own individual lives. Knowing God is something else entirely.

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the professor who was given a choice of two doors to go through. One of the doors was marked “love” and the other was marked “knowledge about love.” This professor, loving knowledge, chose the latter. Just as there is a difference in knowing about love and experiencing love, so there is a difference in knowing about God and knowing God.

I know a lot about playing the piano. I know that a full sized keyboard is 88 keys and that there are black ones and white one. I know that if I press certain combinations of keys according to a certain rhythm, according to the instructions illustrated on sheet music, that I will play for you a lovely tune.

But I can’t actually do it because I’ve not practiced, and having no practice I have no successful experience of playing anything recognizable.

There is a story of another professor at a Seminary. He would often come back to hear his students give a talk on Sunday morning. This man, in
his style, would say to them, “You gave a good talk today, but I am never going to come back and hear you again. I only come once. I just came to see if you are a ‘little god person’ or a ‘big god person.”’ He said, “If you are a ‘big god person,’ I know your ministry will be successful, and that you are going to do great work in moving the hearts of people because you believe in a God who has great power. You believe in a God who can perform miracles. You believe in a God who can do the impossible if you are a ‘big god person.’  But if you are a ‘little god person,’ you will have trouble with God because God can’t do any miracles; God can’t take care of any of the inspiration and the transmission of Scripture or guidance to us. A little god cannot assist God’s people. If you are a ‘little god person,’ you really have trouble.”

That is what I want you to be this morning. I want you to be a ‘big god person.’ I want you to have a big God, a bigger God that is bigger than any of your problems inside of yourself or outside. I want your concept of God to be so large, so great that you know wherever you go, at any moment of the day or night, God is with you and you are home. You are walking with God, talking with God, and moving with God’s power. When a problem arrives and looks you right in the eye, you are not standing there by yourself. You are standing there with the biggest God in the world around you and working through you. You can do anything, face anything, because you are a ‘big god person.’

There is a saying, “Don’t tell God about your big problems, tell your problems about your big God!”

Here is a positive spiritual affirmation for you to repeat often as you need it: God is bigger than my problem!

 Isaiah 65:24, “Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.”

When we keep the inlet and outlet open to the flow of God we feel, we can hear, the presence of God and God will direct us.

I was supposed to be at Unity Village this past week, but I didn’t go. Two weeks before my trip I started feeling like I didn’t want to go. Now this was a strange thought to me because I love going to the Village to interview and assess seminary students. This is a way in which I gave back to the Unity movement.  It was a strange thought, so I ignored it.

Now it’s a week before I leave and I felt this internal guidance to “take the truck.” I always drive the Jeep because I can’t fit everything I want to take in the front seat of the pickup, plus it’s not that comfortable on a 500 mile drive… it was a strange thought so I ignored it.

I left last Tuesday morning at 4:15am; temperature minus 6 degrees. An hour and a half away from home a light comes on on the dashboard, a light I had never seen before. I pulled off at the next exit to consult the owner’s manual. In essence, here’s what it said, “Your electronic throttle controller (ETC) is in need of attention. Your vehicle is probably drivable. Take it to a dealership as soon as you can.” Then the manual went on to say, “If your light is blinking (mine wasn’t), you vehicle engine may run at high RPM’s or run rough; you may even lose power and have to be towed.”

Internally I knew I should not push forward and run the risk of failure of the ETC and be stranded in this weather in an unknown location, so I turned around and headed home.

I believe that because I make it a priority to keep my awareness of God open as much as possible, guidance was able to flow in: “Don’t go to the Village… ok, as long as you insist, take the truck… now, turn around.”

Finally, I listened and turned around and went home. What was the guidance to not go all about? I have no Idea. I’m just glad I finally followed that guidance.

We are here in this place to have a spiritual homecoming. That means to have an open inlet and outlet. To have a receptive mind that is open and
receptive to the flow of communication of God. The answers you get, the solutions to your problems are going to be higher than your own human mind.  Therefore they may seem foreign (as did mine in regards to going to the Village). Therefore they may tell you to walk down a different path than you are walking down right now. It takes courage to turn around. It takes courage to go God’s way. But I really don’t know why, because as you walk God’s way, you are not alone. All you are doing is walking home. Can you come home? You had better believe it. God is always present and saying, “Come on home.

If you need a healing, come on home.

If you need prosperity, come on home.

If you need a solution to the biggest problem you have ever had in your life, come on home.

I am here for you and I am as close as your breathing, right where you are sitting. Come on home.

Open the inlet and the outlet. Come on home.”