Archive | February 2012

Beware the Ides of March!

Feb28

This post marks the beginning of a series of posts directed toward the GLOBAL launch of the Agape’ Project – a weekly subscription based service that will be made available through Authentic Freedom Ministries.  This affordable weekly resource will provide tools for sound spiritual formation and for starting and cultivating a sound spiritual practice with the promised result of helping you to Remember the Love That You Are!

Beware the Ides of March

I can’t even think or speak the above phrase, “Beware the Ides of March” without either hearing or intoning a phantomesque Shakespearean accent reminiscent of the first time I heard this quote in high school British Lit.  These are the immortal words attributed to the soothsayer who prophesied the assassination of Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s play of the same name and which proved to be true as Caesar met his doom at the hands of Brutus and his fellow conspirators.  Since Caesar’s prophesied demise, these words have become a herald of impending doom. 

My own Ides of March

These words have proven to be no less tragic for me as I joked, but seriously observed that the day I moved out of my home of 13 years and embarked fully upon the journey of divorce was none other than…..MARCH 15th!  God has a seriously sick sense of humor.  But now, after nearly a year, I am happy to say that while yes, March 15, 2011 proved to be a death (or deaths) of sort……I HAVE found new life on the other side of divorce.  YAY!  So in celebration of many many many experiences of new life since that fateful Ides of March 2011, I am dubbing the Ides of March 2012 to be a majorly awesome day of new beginnings and new promises by making it the the official global launch date for the Agape’ Project.   March 15, 2012 will not be a day of doom but instead will be a day of celebration, outreach and joy.  YAY again!

What the Heck is the Agape’ Project?

Agape’ is the Greek word used in Christian scripture to describe the unconditional, unmerited, infinite, abundantly flowing Love of God.  Even more than that, Agape’ reminds us that God is LOVE and that we too are that Love in our connection with God, with one another and with all of Creation.  By embracing Agape’, we REMEMBER THE LOVE THAT WE ARE.   The Agape’ Project seeks to empower individuals as well as small groups to REMEMBER THE LOVE THAT THEY ARE by providing tools for sound spiritual formation rooted in the Western Contemplative tradition.  Each weekly resource will include scripture, historical and cultural background, exercises for meditation, contemplation, personal reflection and group discussion.  The Agape’ Project has been tested by a 12 member pilot group and after feedback on content, pricing, etc. and will be ready for global launch on March 15, 2012.  Another YAY!

What you can look forward to in the coming month

In preparation for the global launch of the Agape’ Project on March 15th,  Your Spiritual Truth will be focussing its blog posts on meditation, contemplation, spiritual formation and the like.  I will be setting the groundwork and building a platform for the Ides of March and why you might want to be a part of the Agape’ Project and why you might want to share it with friends.  So, instead of “Beware the Ides of March” I say, “Welcome the Ides of March!”

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

Shortcuts to Contentment and Joy

Feb27

Today’s blog explores the seven core spiritual fears that prevent us from living a life of contentment and joy and the tools that help us to find healing and release of those fears.

 

Identifying Fears

In my book, Authentic Freedom – Claiming a Life of Contentment and Joy, I identify the seven core spiritual fears that prevent us from living in the peace, joy and love that are our original nature.  The seven core fears are:

  • There is not enough (time, money, material possessions, power, fame, status, etc.0
  • I will be unable to bring forth life that will persist (physical and/or creative life)
  • I can’t (be and live as my most authentic self) 
  • I am not loved
  • I am not free to express my truth
  • I do not know
  • I am alone/I have to do it alone

In Authentic Freedom, the reader is introduced to the ways in which they can identify these fears as being active in their lives through physical, mental, emotional and spiritual signs and symptoms.  As anyone in the recovery world knows, the first step in healing our addictions, our fears, etc. is to identify these fears.  After identifying these fears, we then need a comprehensive process through which we can move through these fears and release them for healing.  Authentic Freedom provides that process.  Through the help of scripture, along with effective tools of meditation, contemplation and personal reflection, you are empowered to give over for healing and release, the fears that prevent you from being the person God made you to be – compassionate, joyful, contented and fulfilled.

Who is really doing the healing here?

So while Authentic Freedom provides a kind of self-help program for healing our deepest spiritual wounds, at the end of the day, every exercise revealed in this work, leads us to a common destination – turning our fears over to God for healing and release.  While working through the Authentic Freedom process, we discover that we are really taking the first three steps as illuminated in all recovery programs, We admit that we are powerless over these fears and we turn them over to the God of our understanding.  While we need to come forward and show up for the work, it is ultimately God who is doing the healing and it is especially helpful to realize this when we come face to face with the big fears that most often feel insurmountable.

Offering a Shortcut

So, while I want you to buy my book, I will offer you this short cut to claiming a life of contentment and joy….and that shortcut is God.  Name your fear.  Give it to God for healing and release.  Name your fear.  Give it to God for healing and release.  Name your fear.  Give it to God for healing and release.  And one final and critical step…..BELIEVE that God is doing it.  And if all else fails…..ASK GOD FOR HELP!

What is your relationship to the fears listed above?

How are you being invited to admit your powerlessness over these fears?

How can you turn these fears over to God for healing and release?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

Ash Wednesday – Returning

Feb22

Even now, says the Lord,

Return to me with your whole heart.

Joel 2:12-18

A Lenten Invitation

I love the scripture passage above from the prophet Joel.  This is the first line of the first reading proclaimed during the Ash Wednesday mass….ushering in the annual observance of Lent.  I’m not sure there are any better words to describe what Lent can be for us – returning to God with our whole hearts!

Our Forgetfulness

We are a forgetful people.  In our choice to experience the human condition, we temporarily forgot our original state in Oneness with God.  We forgot the peace, the love and the joy that define our Origin in God and as such, we live in a state of fear.  This fear which arises out of our false perception of separation from God is what creates the suffering that we experience in the human condition.  Out of this fear, we behave in ways that are unloving, unkind, covetous, jealous, wrathful and unjust…and we suffer the consequences of these actions (not because God is punishing us, but because that is just the way things are).  In this state of fear, we often believe, “Life sucks and then you die,” or we project these fears onto God falsely believing that we have to earn our way back to “heaven” and that there is some magical formula (certain prayers, rituals, sacraments, acts of service, pentitential acts) that will get us back home.  The good news is that there is really only one things we need to do…..and that is to REMEMBER!

Returning and Remembering

I know this is easier said than done, but in order to reclaim our original nature as loving, peaceful, joyful creatures, all we need to do is to REMEMBER.  And the quickest way I have found to remember the love, the joy and the peace that we are is to turn to God.  Now, I don’t mean the head bowed in penitence turning to God….I mean the heart wide-opened, arms spread wide, joyful acceptance of the loving magnificence of God.  And, there are many tools to help facilitate this turning…..prayer, devotion, worship, meditation, contemplation, love making, being in nature, mindfulness, acts of service, singing and chant, listening to music, participating in creative endeavors.  All of these activities, when directed toward our returning to God, help us to Remember.  When we REMEMBER God as love…..then we also REMEMBER ourselves as love and we have accomplished what Joel invites us to do - return to God with our whole heart.

What Are You Waiting For?

While we can get to this business of remembering and returning anytime we wish, Lent is a great excuse for giving extra attention to this endeavor.  So, if you are interested in experiencing deeper peace, greater love and more joy in your life…..what are you waiting for?  If you don’t already have a spiritual practice….start one (See the new Tab on this Website – “Meditation tips” for help on getting started.) and if you have one already….do it more.

What activities are you already doing that give you peace, help you experience love or joy?

How are you being invited to utilize these activities as a spiritual practice with the intention of remembering your original nature as love, peace and joy?

How are you being invited to begin or deepen your existing spiritual practice?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

Let’s Talk About Lent

Feb20

Ash Wednesday, the official beginning of the season of Lent in the Christian calendar is this week.  What is the purpose of Lent anyway and how might we be invited to put away the cat of nine tails in exchange for the healing balm of love.

Mea Culpa Mea Culpa 

Ash Wednesday is this week and for the first time in my life, I am not looking forward to Ash Wednesday or even to Lent in the anxious anticipation that for me used to color this season.  I take this to mean that my addiction to self-loathing has finally come to an end!  Seriously…..I used to BASK in the glow of self-judgment, the wagging finger of blame, guilt and shame and the penitential practices that said to me, “See how good of a Catholic I am….I’m fasting, I’m abstaining, I’m donating to the poor, I’m praying, I’m doing the Stations of the Cross, I’m attending Eucharistic Adoration, I’m going to confession and receiving absolution, I’m earning God’s approval and insuring my own ticket to paradise.”  Lent was the PERFECT church season for a Perfectionist who was not yet on the road to recovery (from perfectionism, that is).  Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely see the value in many of the Lenten practices …..even the sacrament of Reconciliation…but if all Lent is doing for us is telling us how depraved we are and how much we need to earn back God’s love and approval because of our horrible sinful natures and if all Lent is doing is making us feel like crap….or allowing us to wallow in our own addiction to self-loathing, then perhaps we need to rethink our relationship to this annual Christian observance.

Proposing a New Theology of Lent….or Lent for recovering Perfectionists and Martyrs

So,  if you are one of those who wallows in self-loathing, or likes to bask in the glow of self-imposed martyrdom….or if you are simply a Christian who wants a new lens through which to view Lent…..here is my proposal.  Let’s start with the foundations of Lent.  Lent, we have been told, is modeled after Jesus’ 40 days in the desert where he was tempted by “Satan” in preparation for his entrance into his ministerial life.  Let’s back up the story a bit……the part that is often neglected is that Jesus’ foray into the desert came IMMEDIATELY after his baptism in the Jordan by John.  It was at the moment of his baptism, that Jesus came to understand that he was God’s beloved son.  His time in the desert, provided the opportunity he needed to reflect on what that meant for him and how he was called to live that out.  At the same time, Jesus had to confront all the “inner obstacles” (the meaning of the Hebrew word “satan”), that might stand in the way of him freely and openly living out that call.  As such, Jesus had to come face to face with all of the ego-driven temptations (pride, sloth, greed, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony) that might stand in the way of him being the person he was called to be.  He took that time in the desert to face those inner obstacles and to allow God to release him from those temptations….thereby being healed and freed of his spiritual fears so that he could be the healer, prophet, teacher, savior he was called to be.  And…..he did it, successfully…..thanks to God’s help.

Lent as a Time for Healing – Exploring the What ifs

So, what  would happen if we applied Jesus’ 40 days in the desert to our own spiritual journeys?  What if we recognize, that like Jesus, our baptism is the moment when we are reminded that we are God’s beloved son or daughter and that with us God is very pleased?  What if we stuck our necks out there and actually BELIEVED in God’s unconditional, limitless, infinite love for us and that there is in fact nothing we can do…and nothing that we have ever done that could separate us from the Love of God (Paul says something to this effect).  What if, like Jesus, we struggle with the inner obstacles to remembering God’s love and that we struggle with the inner obstacles to being the person God has called us to be – peaceful, content, joyful, fulfilled, creative, loving, compassionate, working for justice, merciful?  What if instead of using Lent as a time for self-flagellation and self-punishment, we used it as a time to ASK GOD FOR HELP……inviting God to heal all those places within us where we have forgotten God’s love….forgotten our beloved nature and forgotten the work God has called us to do in the world.  What if?

A Terrific Lenten Resource

Now, a moment for a little shameless self-promotion.   If you are looking for a resource to help you move through Lent with a new set of eyes, my book, Authentic Freedom – Claiming a Life of Contentment and Joy is a fabulous resource.  The foundation of the book illuminates the false perception of separation from God that causes the spiritual fears that lead to our compulsive (sinful) behaviors.  The book then provides a systematic process through which you are invited to name your own spiritual fears and through sound spiritual practice, give those fears over to God for healing and release.  Consider it your own 40 days in the desert.  And if you buy it before midnight tonight, I’ll throw in your own set of  Cat of Nine Tails for free.  ;)

What has been your relationship with the annual observance of Lent?

How are you being called to embrace a new perspective on Lent?

What are some of the inner spiritual fears that you might want to offer up for healing?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

Effortless Generosity

Feb17

In today’s blog, we explore faith and good works and the effortless nature of giving when we know and trust in God.

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?

Can that faith save him?

If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them,

“Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?

So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James 2: 14-16

The Fear that Keeps us from Giving

In my book, Authentic Freedom – Claiming a Life of Contentment and Joy, I address the very topic explored in James’ epistle above.  I do not directly relate giving to faith, but in essence that is what we are talking about.  We begin by exploring the first of the seven spiritual fears, there is not enough and how this fear causes us to gather to ourselves more than what we need through the compulsion of gluttony and how we fail to share our resources with others because of this fear.  As we allow this fear to be healed within us, we find that we naturally and effortlessly share our resources with others through the virtue of generosity.  At the end of the day, it is FAITH that allows us to be healed of this wound so that we can freely and generously share what we have with those who have not.  Generosity is our faith in action – and demonstrates how much we really believe in the truth of an abundant God.  When we know that our needs are being abundantly met, then we are free to give to others.  But here is the really cool thing….when we have faith and trust in God, we give to others even when it doesn’t seem as if we have enough to give….in other words, we don’t just give from our surplus, we give from what we might need to survive.  This is true generosity.

Fake it til you Make it

Faith,  however, is not always an easy thing to accomplish.  Whether it is due to our upbringing, our education or religious indoctrinization or just our personal temperment, sometimes we just simply struggle to BELIEVE.  When we don’t believe, generous giving might be a challenge.  But, there is something really magical that happens when we are generous with our resources – regardless of our faith.  There is a universal law of nature that when we give, we get back 100 fold.  I know, it is a leap of faith to believe in this “law” but sometimes faking it (the belief part) and giving anyway has the miraculous effect of establishing within us the foundations of faith.  We might call this, “Fake it til you make it.”  In other words…..give to others when you see they are in need and see what happens in your own life.  Take that $10.00 bill out of your pocket and give it to the homeless guy…just because….and regardless of whether he really needs it or not and whether or not he might use it to buy alcohol or drugs.  Just give it…without condition, without expectation, without judgment……and see what happens.  See if you don’t find something you have needed suddenly showing up in an amazing, wonderful and unexpected way.  Give and see what comes back to you….and let this be the seeds of faith.

The Generosity Challenge

There are  two fabulous resources I have found to help us in this journey toward being an effortlessly generous human beings.  The first, of course, is my book, Authentic Freedom.  :)   The second is a project called The 29 Day Giving Challenge.   This project is based on the founder’s (Cami Walker) experience of giving and how it freed her from the symptoms of an MS flareup.   Check out her website for details on the project and to get involved if you feel so called.

How Authentic Freedom Ministries is meeting this challenge

In the spirit of faith and generosity, I am pleased to share with you that Authentic Freedom Ministries is putting its resources (not just money), where its mouth is.  What good is all the work we do at Authentic Freedom Ministries if we are not giving back?  Believing in the abundance of God and wanting to freely and generously share our resources, we have recently entered into a community partnership arrangement with one of the local high schools.  Thanks to this partnership, we will be one source of support for the needs of the student and teaching populations of Oshkosh North High School.  With 47% of the student population qualifying for free and reduced lunches and with the continually decreasing resources available to teachers, Oshkosh North High School is in a state of great need.  We will be providing financial, material, networking as well as volunteer support as needed and as we are able.  We hope that this partnership becomes a model and a source of inspiration for other local businesses to follow.

How are you being called to share your gifts and resources in service to humankind?

Where does the fear there is not enough prevent you from giving?

How are you being invited to fake it til you make it?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

Let’s Talk About Love

Feb14

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  Today is the day when our thoughts turn to love.  Let’s talk about love, shall we?

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places

As much as all the hopeless romantics out there (me included) want to believe it, there is no handsome prince or knight in shining armour “out there” who is going to make us happy, content, complete.  Jerry MacGuire is a lie and everytime I see the clip with Renee Zellweger chanting, “You complete me,” I want to reach out and slap her upside the head.  All these fairytale ideas of love do for us (men and women included), is impose pressure on our would-be suitors to be perfect, and to fill the bottomless pit of need that most of us carry around for most of our life’s journeys.  Because there is no person on the planet that is perfect or who can fill that emptiness inside, all we get is the on-going cycle of disappointment and resentment that eventually leads to the death of our relationships.  We are all the victims and the losers in this culture of co-dependency that we have so enthusiastically cultivated.

Understanding Love

Part of our culture’s problem with love is that we have somehow come to believe that love is a commodity.  We believe that love is something we can “give” to another and something we can “get” from another.  We have been taught that love is something we have to earn (because of our inherent unworthiness) and that there is a constant threat that love will be taken away.  And then we did something really unfortunate, and that was to project our conditional understanding of love onto God.  Now God’s love has to be earned and God’s love can be taken away….and it most likely will be because we are inherently bad because of that little party in the Garden with the serpent, the naked man and woman and that darn piece of fruit.

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?

As I see it, there is one cause and one remedy to our messed up understanding of love.  The cause is that place inside of us that says we aren’t worthy of love.  More directly, it is that place inside of us where we have forgotten that LOVE is our original nature…LOVE is who and what we are….is does not have to be earned, neither can it be taken away….it just is.  When we remember that LOVE is who we are, then we are happy, content, whole and complete within ourselves and we stop looking for that magic someone who will make us feel “all better.”  The question, however, is how do we remember that LOVE is who and what we are?  For those raised in the Judeo-Christian tradition, that journey sometimes begins by healing our images of God.  We have to undo the religious dogma that tells us that we have been banished from the Garden and that our life journey is now about earning back God’s fickle love.  We have to rediscover the God of Psalm 139 and the God of the story of the Prodigal Son – a God that loves us without condition….that welcomes us home with open arms, that accepts our unripeness and loves us for who we are.  As we come to know the love of God more fully, we can then begin the process of rediscovering the Love that we are that can only be found within.  And that Love, is found in sound spiritual practice – meditation, creative endeavors, body prayer, contemplation, reading and reflecting on scripture, mantra, chant, works of service and love.  As we cultivate a sound spiritual practice, we begin to connect with and rediscover the Love that we are ….the Love that lies deep within us in our hearts.  When we discover and cultivate this connection to the Love that dwells within…..then we KNOW the love that we are and we live that love freely and fully within the world.

How Love Transforms our Relationships

Now….here is where the magic really happens.  When we take the time to REMEMBER the LOVE that we Are….it changes how we approach our human call to partnership and intimacy.  Instead of looking outside of us for the person who will “complete” us, we draw to ourselves the person that ALSO remembers the love that they are.  Now we have two complete, content, happy individuals, who choose to come together to be the love that they are for one another and for the world.  We aren’t looking for that person to fill us.  Instead, we stand content side by side being the love that we are and being loving toward eachother because the love that we are flows naturally out of us.  No longer are we loving for the sake of manipulation….for approval or to get something back.  We love because it is who we are and all we can do.

Happy Valentine’s Day

So, this is my Valentine’s wish for all of us:

  • That we gift ourselves with the time and the tools to REMEMBER the LOVE that we are.
  • That we joyfully live that love in the world
  • And for those who are so-called, that they discover a healthy partnership rooted in the mutual love, honoring and respect that arises out of two individuals who have Remembered the Love that They Are…..

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

What Churches Refuse to Give us, Why and Where we Might Find it

Feb9

Today’s blog explores the topic of spiritual hunger and the tools that help to satisfy that hunger and why many, if not most, churches fail to give us what we really need.

Our Deepest Longing

In my nearly twenty years of ministry work, I have identified one desire that is common among every single person to whom I have ministered and I suspect is common among every single human being that walks this planet.  This desire is to KNOW they are LOVED.  No matter how confident we might seem to be, or successful, or popular or at peace…there is still a very deep longing to know that we are loved and that we are loved exactly for who and what we are….infinitely and without condition.  This longing to be loved is what drives us to seek fulfillment of this love in our life, our work, our relationships and our life experiences.  We begin by seeking for this love outside of us, but what I have discovered is that we can only find the fulfillment of that desire to be loved when we come to know the Love that we are within ourselves.

The Cause of the Longing for Love

While there are a bazillion books and self-help gurus who profess to know how to help us cultivate self-love, the truth is that the cause for this longing to know love is spiritual.  While books and counseling and inspirational seminars may help us heal some of the outside messages that told us we are not loved and may help us unlearn some of the negative self-talk we have developed as a result of these outside messages, the only place to realize the fulfillment of this longing for love is deep within ourselves in the connection with that which some might call “God.” Here’s where it gets messy.  “God” has become a dangerous word, polluted by religious institutions who out of their own unhealed wounds around love, have made God out to be this gastly beast who is judgmental, vengeful, fickle and whose love has to be earned and can be taken away.  What these institutions have forgotten is that God is the very nature of Love itself and that we are made out of that Love.  Because Love is our very nature and because we are the very expression of God as Love, love does not have to be earned, neither can it be taken away.  Love simply is…..and we are driven by a longing within to remember this truth.  Unfortunately there is no magic pill to remembering this love and there is no predictable timeframe.  The recollection of this love happens in a mysterious and magical way and is nothing short of Grace.   There are, however, things we can do to help facilitate this process and allow us to open to Grace….and that is called Spiritual Formation.

What the churches won’t give us

I am hopeful that there are churches out there who are exceptions to this rule.  But, by and large, Spiritual Formation – the tools for helping us remember the love that we are, is the thing that most churches refuse to give us.  Spiritual Formation is defined by tools that empower us to answer these three questions:

  • Who am I?
  • Whose am I?
  • What are my gifts and how am I being called to share them in the world

In a nutshell, sound spiritual formation empowers us to remember the love that we are and to find fulfilling ways to share that love in the world for the benefit of humankind.  You would think that churches would be enthusiastically sharing these tools with us, right?  Wrong.  And here is why:

  • Sound Spiritual Formation empowers us to remember that God is love.  Period.  If God is Love, then where is there room for dogma and doctrine that tells us what we need to do to earn our way into God’s love?  If God is Love, what happened in the Garden with the snake, the apple and the sinful couple?  If God is Love…then what is sin?  Got the picture?
  • Sound Spiritual Formation invites us to seek, explore, discover and challenge.  How many churches are open and supportive of their people seeking, exploring……challenging?
  • Sound Spiritual Formation invites us to KNOW the God within our heart…..and in coming to know God, we learn that there is only one Absolute truth and all other “truths” (especially religious truths) are up for discussion.

It’s getting pretty dangerous, wouldn’t you say?  So you can see why many churches are reluctant to share these tools with the uppity lay people in the pew.  Not to mention, MOST churches are not even aware of these tools because sometime during the Reformation (1500 something or other), these tools were gathered up and locked away in Catholic Monasteries where only monks and nuns had access to them.  Only recently have these tools become more readily available and accessible….but sadly, few of these resources have found their way into the hands of “the faithful.”

The Agape’ Project

Here is where I get involved.   In my ministry training, I had the great fortune of learning these tools and for the past almost twenty years, have made these tools part of my daily practice and shared them in my public ministry.  Now it is time for these tools to be available to EVERYONE!  These are the tools that I have already shared in both of my books, Authentic Freedom and Christouch.  And now, I share these tools through a little venture I call The Agape’ Project.  (agape’ is the Greek word that reflects our understanding of God as Love….infinite, unconditional and without regard to merit).  The Agape’ Project makes these tools available through a weekly newsletter that will include scripture readings as well as tools for sound spiritual formation.  This morning, I launched the pilot release of this product to a dozen brave souls who are willing to make a commitment to Remembering the Love that They Are through adherence to sound spiritual practice.  If you are interested in learning more about this project, click HERE.  The goal of the Agape’ Project is to empower people through tools of sound spiritual formation to Remember the Love that They Are and in doing so, to help make the world a better place!

Do you long to remember Love as your original nature?

Do you long to remember your connection to the deepest Source of that Love?

How are you being invited to seek, explore, discover, challenge?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

Magic, Miracles and the Truth of Abundance

Feb8

Today’s blog explores the truth of an abundant Universe and the magic and miracles that happen when we believe this to be true.

The First Spiritual Fear

In my book, Authentic Freedom – Claiming a Life of Contentment and Joy, I reveal the Seven Spiritual Fears that prevent us from living a life of contentment and joy.  The first fear that I reveal is the fear that there is not enough. This fear arises out of our survival needs for food, clothing and shelter, but becomes distorted and irrational, causing us to constantly live in a state of anxiety over money, food, clothing, time, material possessions, money, money, money.  The truth that is the remedy to this fear and also revealed in my book is that the Divine meets all of our needs in abundance.  For most of us, it is a significant leap of faith to even consider the possibility that there is a Divine Source, let alone one who cares enough about us to make sure our needs are being met.  Then when faced with the reality of unemployment, a declining economy, world hunger and poverty, we really doubt this truth.  What we learn, however, is at the highest and deepest levels, this truth ultimately has nothing to do with our material world and has everything to do with our inner terrain.  Our original nature is peaceful and content and that inner state of peacefulness is independent of our external life circumstances.  In other words, even if we are dying of starvation and exposure in a Nazi prison camp, we can still know peace.  A tough pill to swallow to be sure, but this is the peace that God invites us into, invites us to remember and cultivate.  And, it is this deep well of inner peace that will give us comfort no matter what life throws at us.

Practicing What I Preach

Two years ago when it became obvious that divorce was inevitable, one of my teachers prophetically stated, “Well, now you will have an opportunity to practice what you preach.  You will be living the words written in your book.”  As the past 24 months unfolded, I can tell you there were many times I wish I had never written this dang book as I found myself choking on my own words.  Every fear that I teach about in Authentic Freedom came to bite me in the butt and I had to return again and again and again to what I had written.  The fear there is not enough was most certainly the most frequent visitor….and I still struggle with that fear from time to time and sometimes on a daily basis.  I guess the adage is true that we teach what we need to learn!

Proof in the Pudding

I do have to say, however, that everything I wrote in my book proved to be true.  In the face of all of my fears, through adherence to the principles of Authentic Freedom and engagement of the spiritual practices outlined in my book, I have found abundance, my own unique giftedness, empowerment, love, the freedom to generously share my gifts, insight and direction and most importantly the peace of remembering my Oneness with God and with all the Universe.  Specific to the fear there is not enough, the past week has been a glorious reminder of how truly abundant our God is and how our needs are abundantly met when we have faith and believe.  I want to share with you a few examples:

  • When I began this journey 24 months ago, a vision of a house appeared in my prayers – the house that would meet all the needs of myself and my children and my fledgling business.  I found what I thought was “the house” and lost it in a bidding war.  Later, I had a dream of a friend “giving” me a house.  This served as a reminder that the house that was in our highest good would come in some magical and miraculous way.  A month or so later, this is exactly what happened.  My children and I now live in a magical, amazing home that also houses my business and I am head over heels in love with this house!
  • When struggling with the fear there is not enough  last week, I brought it to prayer and in my prayer, I saw a vision of two fish and five loaves of bread.  Duh…..loaves and fishes.  God was giving me a message.  I was smart enough to hear the message and believe it.  I then paid my bills and found I had more than enough money to cover the bills and may have even discovered a $300 error, in my favor, in my bank account.  (still waiting for verification of that error)
  • I have a suggested fee that is in the reach of many of my clients, but out of the reach for some.  My commitment to God has been to offer my gifts without regard to people’s ability (or lack thereof) to pay.  As a result, I have worked out discounts, trades and barters with several clients.  One of my standing “jokes” around my trade and bartering is “Now I just need to find a farmer who will give me food in exchange for Reiki.”  Yesterday it showed up in an even bigger package than what I had asked for.  One client brought produce from her own garden and venison that her husband had hunted.  Another client brought a bag of organic groceries from my favorite Co-op in Madison.  When it rains it pours!
  • In an effort to meet my client goal for the week, I posted a message on Facebook, inviting past and current clients and friends to send people my way.  That very day, I got three new clients….completely unrelated to the Facebook request.

So, I guess the moral of the story is that God really does meet our needs when we have faith and believe.  And in those moments when I find I am unable to believe or trust in an abundant God, this is the prayer that gives me comfort:

Lord, Help me in my unbelief.

Because I have also found that all the praying in the world sometimes doesn’t calm our fears….and in those moments I know that only God can help me to believe.

Where do you struggle with the fear “there is not enough?”

What tools do you have for moving through that fear into belief in abundance?

Where do you turn to God for help when you are afraid?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

What if God isn’t?

Feb6

Today’s post explores the unexplorable, the unanswerable, the unponderable….in the mind of some people – the unforgivable. What if God isn’t?

Facebook Dangers :)

The image above was found floating around Facebook this weekend.  I read it and LOVED it! I immediately shared it on my wall, thereby inviting a firestorm of comments.  None of the comments were negative, in fact, most were either a “like” or something like, “YAY.”  One comment, however, struck me right between the eyes.  The comment was, What if god isn’t?  HMMMMM   I had never even considered that possibility.  This comment made me think, it made me reflect and  it made me sad.

The Unanswerable Question

Of course, there is NO answer to that question, “What if god isn’t” because, there is also no answer to the question,  “What if God is?”  At the end of the day, we do not know, we have no proof, we have no evidence.  And, unfortunately, unless God steps out of “the sky” and plants his or her feet on this earth (and THAT is a topic for a whole other blog!), or is spotted playing Skeeball at Coney Island (let me know if you get that reference :) ), or unless we die and go to “heaven” and meet God face-to-face….we will never know.   So until any of those events transpire, we have nothing to go on but FAITH in a God that may or may not exist.  I for one, choose faith.

Being a Fool for God

So, to the enlightened, the educated, the scholarly, I may appear the fool because I CHOOSE to believe in a benevolent God.  I choose to believe that there is a Higher Power, a Creative Source that is beyond me, that made me, that can be a source of guidance, support, nourishment, mercy, healing, love, insight, understanding, wisdom and empowerment.  I choose this belief because I have found that when I believe in God, my life is better.  And when it is not, I know that there is a loving God carrying me through the struggles, the pain, the loneliness, the loss, the betrayal and the tragedies…and when I surrender to this God, believe in this God, the doors open where I before thought they were closed, a light shines in the darkness and I am able to find HOPE where perhaps there had only been despair.  Believing in God keeps me going through the ups and downs of the human condition and allows me to seek beauty in ugliness, peace in the face of fear, clarity in the midst of confusion and strength in times of struggle.  And when I think about this really hard, I guess it doesn’t really matter if there is a God or not because it might just be the belief that gets us through and it might just be belief that helps us find meaning in a life that would otherwise seem meaningless.  But even if God doesn’t exist, and this is all there is, I still choose to BELIEVE because after what I have experienced, why would I choose otherwise?  And if I chose to not believe in God, then it would clearly be a matter of “Life sucks and then you die,” and that would just be sad.  So instead of sadness or despair, I choose God, and if that makes me the fool…..then so be it!

And here are a few God songs ….just for fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USR3bX_PtU4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Qpp1QJpxc

How has belief in a benevolent God helped you in your life?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com

Uniquely Gifted

Feb3

Each and every one of us is uniquely gifted to reveal God in the world.  Today’s blog explores spiritual charisms (gifts) and how they not only assist us in God’s purpose for our lives, but also serve as a source of inspiration for others.

Friends and Mentors

Wednesday morning I had brunch with a dear friend and mentor.  She is a person with whom I worked when I was still under the employ of the Institution of the Roman Catholic Church.  She served as my teacher, guide and mentor as I stumbled unwittingly into the role of Liturgist for our grieving community in exile.  She took me under her wing as I faced a position for which I was completely untrained and ill-prepared and during a time that I was grieving myself.  For her teaching, patience, compassion and friendship, I will always be grateful.  We worked together until it became clear to me that God was calling me in another direction.  My departure from official Church ministry could have and probably should have driven a wedge in our relationship, but it did not.  As a result, I have been given the profound gift of being able to witness true hospitality, generosity and to sit in humble awe over the unique way that God has gifted my friend.

The Unnamed Charism

A charism, as defined by the Catholic Church is a unique spiritual gift and the way that God works through us in bringing healing, love, compassion and justice into the world.  The Catholic Church has named roughly 28 charisms which include: healing, discernment of spirits, service, preaching, teaching, administration, evangelization.  Because of my relationship with my friend/mentor, and seeing this same gift in my father, I have identified another charism that is yet to be named.  I don’t know what to call it, but I am truly in awe over this gift because there is no way on God’s green earth that this gift will EVER be accessible to me.  In a nutshell, this as yet unnamed charism, provides one with the ability to stay present to a work or life situation that is less than ideal and might even come in conflict with what you know to be 100% right and true.  This charism has something to do with tolerance, acceptance of imperfection, patience and forgiveness and it is the kind of gift that might allow someone to remain an employee of an Institution or work with or for an individual that is everything BUT perfect.  My father has this gift, as does my friend.  And to both of them I bow in humble awe because no matter how hard I try or have tried, this ability eludes me!

The Curse of the Reformer

No matter how much I try to deny it or bargain away this gift, I am called to be a reformer.  As such, I see the world through the lens of “How can this be better?”  In particular, I see religion, church, especially Catholicism through this lens.  To the chagrin of many, I have no choice but to be a voice and a force for change in what we have come to know religion, church, etc. to be.  I see myself as creating and holding space for those that are looking to step into a future vision of church that is less about God as defined by some outside perceived authority and more about the God that wants to reveal itself to them in an intimate and personal way within their own hearts.  I also see this as a move from the “do it because we told you” faith of a child and the searching and discovering phase of adolescence and the adult phase of personal empowerment and determined mission.  Not everyone in the Church is ready to take these steps, and it is because of and for these folks that my friend has been duly gifted.  I see her as holding space for an Institution and its people who are struggling with the pain of transition…..knowing that change is afoot, but not wanting to let go of what they have known for something that has not yet been revealed.  While I’m the one disturbing the sh..t, she is the one that says, “It’s ok.  You are still safe.”

On a Personal Note

So, on a personal note, I bow in humble awe to my friend, my father and to anyone else who has been gifted with this charism.  I have great respect and wonder for your ability to hold space in the tension, to breathe through conflict, to have patience, acceptance and understanding for what is.  I can only hope to learn from you as I’m sitting here disturbing the sh…  :)

How are you uniquely gifted to reveal God in the world?

How are you aware of the unique giftedness of others?

Where do you see the way in which our mutual gifts complement each other?

Lauri Lumby

Authentic Freedom Ministries

http://yourspiritualtruth.com