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God-consciousness has always
been the central object of life
to me since I began to think the
Unity way, to embrace the
glorious concept of Unity! At 86
I believe I may be about ready to
get it right - to understand the
concept.
It is dawning on me that,
instead of trying to "get"
God-consciousness, that is, to
think about myself expressing
God-consciousness and being a
good example of what it is to
dedicate one's life to this end,
the right way is to center on
being conscious of God!
In other words, put God first,
not self trying to become
God-like. As I think about it
now, it seems to me that life is
presented to us this way: be
good, not naughty; do well in
school and make something of your
self; be as attractive as
possible so that you will get
married and have children and
then make sure they do well too!
That's for starters, but all the
rest follows in the same
vein.
The emphasis is upon I, not
upon God, and that is the
mistake.
My reason for writing this is
that it may be helpful to you or
to someone. All my life I have
been thinking that I have been
putting God first, last, and
always. Some retrospection,
however, has made it clear that I
have really been putting I first
and trying to effect my union
with God, that is, to express God
and be good and do good and be
perfect and do no wrong. But the
mistake has been to start with I,
and not really with God.
Maybe this will start you to
thinking. Maybe you have been
doing this too because, as I
wrote above, I think this is the
way life has been presented to
us.
When Emmet Fox told us to take
our mind off our problem and
place it on God instead and keep
it there, he was making my point.
And the problem arose because we
hadn't kept our mind on God! This
can be illustrated in countless
ways: keep your eye on the ball;
think about success, not on
trying not to fail; see the good
in others, and they will see the
good in you, etc. etc. Ball,
success, good in each case is God
or Principle. I am learning this
better these days when my wife
and I play our little par-3 golf
game: I'm learning to keep my
mind focused in a relaxed way on
a simple concept of preparation
and swing instead of thinking too
much. Recognizable? It will be to
a lot of folks.
So, you may be wanting to
know, what am I doing now to
change things around? All through
the day I adjust my focus from I
to God. I experience this in
different ways. Sometimes I just
like to concentrate on the word
God because of all the rich
connotations in humankind's
collective consciousness. I like
to think about God's
omnipresence. This leads me to
reveling in seeing God
everywhere, in nature, in people.
I practice identifying God in the
driver behind me and beside me on
daily drives. Thinking about God
keeps me from worrying about how
I'm doing, from thinking about
me.
You and I can help a lot as we
focus on God as the one and only
presence and power and reality,
and trust God in all things and
at all times and in all persons
(including but not placing the
emphasis upon ourself). This
is Unity's glorious concept!
Don
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