Will You?

February 16, 2014

Last week I started service by saying that a new week is beginning tomorrow, and I asked if you were filled with enthusiasm.  I asked if you could sense the God-given potential that is in front of you to establish a “new you” and a “new life” where you perceive you need it?

Maybe you did something about that and maybe you didn’t, I don’t know. Today, instead of saying, “You can make a choice,” I am going to ask you to make a choice. Are you willing?

This week, I’m asking you, would you decide to be happy; to use your freedom of choice to choose to be happy and to share your happiness with others? After all, you are endowed with free-will. Your life can be whatever you choose it to be.

This week, I am asking you to choose to be happy!

I’m asking you to choose to have a happy, positive, joyous, enthusiastic state of mind. Will you do that?

Will you choose to smile often, to laugh more, to love, and be loving?

Will you choose to allow the love of God to flow through you and out to everyone and everything around you. Will you do that?

Choose to see the good of God in others, to love them as they are, not to judge nor try to change them. I ask you to choose to see the beauty all around
you; to feel your oneness with order, and harmony in the universe.

I ask you, this week, to choose to trust God, to align your will with God’s will, and to allow God to express through you as peace, and love. Will you do that this week?

Choose this week to walk in the path of joy.

As a spiritual person, you already know this, don’t you, that you do not need outer events to change in order to be happy, but, rather, that you choose the way you react the outer events.

In Psalms 121:1, it is written, “I lift mine eyes up unto the hills.”

Those hills are not outside of you, as in difficult outer events. Those hills are inside of you, as in, metaphysically speaking, your higher consciousness – your state of awareness of God. So when we come to outer challenges we lift up our eyes unto the power and presence of God, remembering that we are not alone, that we have a trusted and loving advisor to guide us every time we ask with open hearts and minds. We know this because we keep the inlet and the outlet open to the flow of God.

I know you’ve heard me say this before, and it’s worth repeating: God is with you right now, you are never alone. In fact, it’s impossible to be alone because where you are, God is. You can close off your awareness, you can close off your knowing, but you are still not alone anytime, anyplace, anywhere, because God is there.

Most people live from the outside in, allowing other events (the events of the day, the events of the past, anticipation of things to come) to determine how they feel inside of themselves; allowing the unawareness of the presence of God to suggest to them what to do.

As a spiritual person you know to live from the inside—out; you know that you set the conditions of how you feel about the day.

I suggest that you do this before you even leave your bedroom in the morning; set the conditions of your day. Will you do that this week?

Here’s a related story. It comes from a book titled HAPPINESS IS A CHOICE by Barry Kaufman.

Kaufman was giving classes on developing attitudes of self-trust. During the Q&A session following class one day and asked this question, “My question, is um, somewhat related to what we’ve discussed, but in a bit of a different direction, and, er, more personal. I am having so much trouble with my asthma. I’ve gone from doctor to doctor. I take all the medication they’ve prescribed, but nothing really helps. I just can’t stand it. I wonder if you could say something, well, anything, that might be useful.”

Kaufman writes that he hesitated, thinking about all the scientific studies he could share, but class was essentially over.

Here’s what he replied, “This may sound silly or crazy or both, but I’ll do my best to give you a useful response. Be happy with your asthma, embrace it like a friend. If you change your attitude about your condition you’ll change the chemistry of your body. Every though we have is a physical event… this is a marvelous and concrete opportunity for you, not just a pie in the sky game. Give your asthma a different message and see what happens. So, when you have tightness is your chest, the shortness of breath, the wheezing or coughing, you could first welcome it, talk to it, even play with it. Then, open yourself to loving it… really loving it!”

He seemed amused, intrigued and skeptical. "I thought you'd say something like that," he replied, chuckling. "Well, what do I have to lose? I'll try it.

The very next day, he came to the morning session of the program visibly refreshed and alert. "I had a special experience last night," he told the group. "I greeted my nightly wheezing with a smile instead of my usual annoyance or depression. I actually did say hello out loud and laughed. I talked to my asthma like a friend. Wow! I told my asthma, we sure have a lot of history together." he smiled shyly, then continued, "I even thanked my bronchial tubes each time I coughed. At first, I felt...well, absolutely ridiculous, but soon something magically freed up inside and I felt really loving and loved." His eyes filled with tears. "You know, in no time at all, I fell asleep. Right now I feel more comfortable and peaceful in my body than i have in months."

That man had eased himself into being happy and loving toward a condition he had previously vied as intolerable." 

I’m asking you this week to choose to keep your mind open to new ideas, a new experience, a new attitude toward what you thought was intolerable. I ask you to take happy and loving action toward whatever, whomever you resist. Will you do that?

As a positive spiritual person, you are not trapped by yesterday’s past; you are a new person created in the joy and happiness of God. You are!

I invite you to choose to use your unlimited potential, to enjoy the aspects of your life that you now love, and reinvent the aspects of your life that you presently do not love.

Would you choose to enjoy abundant life?

You can use your freedom of choice to choose to be happy in every thought inside of your mind, and to let your happiness light shine out to others. Will you do that this week?

I believe that God will show you what absolute happiness is, and that this feeling is one that will remain with you.

So, I invite you to make a commitment this week, because to be a source of joy and happiness for yourself, and others, requires more than just mere words; it takes action on your part.  Will you do that?

Will you put down your story? Embrace what is occurring in your experience and you will live your life in happy and joyful appreciation of God, because you will feel the Presence manifesting in your life.

Yes, life may still present many mysteries, but you are secure in God. Rather than becoming anxious about what you do not know, or understand, embrace every opportunity to learn with the joy of God’s Spirit working through you. Will you do that this week?

This week you will be a source of happiness because you know God’s joy in your life?

As it says in Galatians 5:25, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.”

Will you do that this week?