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Our Victoria Unity minister,
the Reverend Doris Trinh Lewis,
is talking about change in all
her sermons this month (June
2005) because we have moved into
Wood Hall of the Conservatory of
Music that formerly was the small
chapel of Metropolitan United
Church before the Conservatory
acquired the building. We meet
there on Sundays and have nice
quarters at 838 Pandora for our
office and weekday activities.
She is helping herself - she says
- and us - deal with the changes
involved in this move. Admittedly
there is some trauma in it!
But her sermon on June 12
dealt with the wonder-working
miracle of our human ability to
change our consciousness - our
attitude - as we meet the
changing circumstances of life.
The wonderful thing about Doris's
sermons is that every one of them
includes at least one example of
how Unity has helped her to do
this.
This time she recounted what
certainly looks like a miracle
when she recovered from shock and
dismay to decide she would say "I
choose peace" instead of
lamenting what appeared to be a
situation over which she had
absolutely no control, no way
out. This, of course, is the
greatest lesson we have to learn
in life: we do not (humanly) have
control over our lives.
Psychological literature, and
self-help books and seminars make
this point over and over. In
Unity we say it this way, LET GO
AND LET GOD!
When she went in to renew her
driving license in Palo Alto,
California, she was informed of a
warrant for her arrest because of
a parking ticket that turned out
to have been mistakenly charged
to her. But that is not the end
of the story! .
Facing the word that nothing
could be done about it, that she
would have to pay a heavy fine
and go to court before a judge,
she went through all the
"natural" feelings of outrage and
despair, but eventually decided
to use Unity - she had begun
attending the Palo Alto Unity
church.
Telling us her story, she said
she decided to join AA - ATTITUDE
ADJUSTMENT - and to say I CHOOSE
PEACE instead of I'M A VICTIM AND
THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT
IT!
She actually didn't need to do
anything more about it than to
stay with her changed attitude -
I CHOOSE PEACE!
What happened was that the
policewoman who had issued the
ticket discovered her mistake and
came to Doris to lead her through
the process of getting the
mistake rectified. Doris didn't
even have to go to court!
The cliche': The most constant
thing in life is change - is true
and not true at the same
time!
If we mean by it that we are
victims of constant change and
that there is nothing we can do
about it, it is not true.
But if we are making the
observation that life is dynamic,
evolving, not fixed and
unchangeable, I believe it!
Humanly it appears that change
is the one constancy. There are
indeed many changing events in
life that seem unfair and very
difficult to meet. But God is the
one constancy - the constancy
that enables us to change our
attitude and to work positively
with all the changes and
circumstances of life! And this
is how we grow, how our
consciousness and the collective
consciousness of humankind
evolve.
When Doris decided to change
her attitude, and things worked
out the way they did, there is no
doubt that she was a changed
person. This one experience may
have been the catalyst that
changed her life forever,
bringing her into the Unity
ministry!
Let's think about it. Are we
playing victim or have we
discovered that no circumstance
is fixed and beyond GOD'S
CONTROL?
Don
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