It's not that I've stopped blogging, it's that I've been doing it over at my UNITY FOR ALL ministry blog. Much has been happening lately. Be sure to read the post entitled "All Good Things" for a full update. Also, if you haven't yet, please sign up for our ministry e-newsletter which will be delivered directly to your inbox at least once a month.

I'll be back here soon enough. Until then, keep letting the questions take you deeper.

It's that time again. Right about many of us have begun the process of doing the same things we always do around this time of year: getting the tree, putting up the decorations, sending the cards, buying the gifts, wrapping the gifts, attending the parties, wearing the sweaters, singing the carols, baking the cookies, seeing the Santas, tolerating the extended family, did I leave anything out? And what's all the fuss about? To honor what would have been a fairly inconspicuous birth were it not for some really creative storytelling on the part of a couple gospel writers and some admittedly genius rebranding by the early Catholic church in a concerted effort to validate Christianity.

For so many of us, unfortunately, we go into automatic pilot when it comes to Christmas. I'm not excluding myself here. We just bought our tree and the decorations will be up before you can say "How can I get that sap off my jacket?" Year after year after year we engage in these festive exercises as though they were essential rituals. Yet to do them without deeper thought or intention goes again the very meaning of ritual. A ritual is an action of activity symbolic of whatever it's referring to. If we're not mindful of the reference, then the ritual loses meaning. Christmas has become the rare enigmatic occasion, blurring the boundaries between the sacred and the secular. A Christian event celebrated by both Christians and those who would shun religion. It points to a specific and defining historic [though questionably factual] moment, while at the same time evoking sentiment and practice not entirely related to that event [Santa kneeling at the manger always gives me the willies].

So what do the rituals of Christmas represent? An occasion? A religion? A feeling? An opportunity for selflessness? A vehicle for receiving? Perhaps all the above and then some. Perhaps it has come to represent varying meanings as diverse as the people who observe them. Like the very idea of God, we are not meant to narrow the meaning of Christmas, but to express it to its full potential... and beyond. The important thing is that we do it mindfully, with full awareness, remaining open to what it does in us, how it connects us, the ways it evolves us.

Yes, we do the same things every year, and like true spiritual rituals, we should use them to go deeper within ourselves. So decorate with greater intention, give with deeper purpose, spread Christmas cheer with and expanding sense of Divine Joy awakening within you.

Then do it even more next year.

I recently concluded a talk series called The Prosperity Intention. I hesitated to call it that since the word "Prosperity" has gotten a bad rap over the years in some circles. Given the state of the economy and employment today, it's particularly awkward as so many have lost jobs and homes over the last few years. The premise of The Prosperity Intention is to invite us into a shift of perspective, that true prosperity lies in living what I call A Life Fulfilled... a life of abundance in sufficiency; a life where we are purposefully engaged in our heart's passion; a life where our emotional, physical, and spiritual needs are met effortlessly without fear or resistance.

Sometimes the idea of prosperity has been too attached to money. Other times it gets watered down to a state of bland acceptance. By that I mean we get stuck in the idea of "this is the way things are so if we find things to be grateful about we might forget we aren't feeling fulfilled." I'm not against Gratitude...quite the contrary. Gratitude is one of the states of being of The Prosperity Intention. I'm so in favor of Gratitude I've even begun a video journal called Gratitude Moment to help keep me in the energy of it. But I don't subscribe to Gratitude as an ineffective panacea. If we use Gratitude [plus the other elements in The Prosperity Intention] intentionally we can be about the business of creating a fulfilling life experience rather than settling for less.

In addition to the talks I've also included a free booklet that shares more on how to live from a Prosperity Intention, plus a 21-Day workbook/journal to facilitate mindful consciousness-shifting practice.So please join me in living from an intention of  A Life Fulfilled. Let's be Prosperous.

On a recent Facebook post I mentioned how I got reamed out by a Buddhist monk for not paying enough attention to my physical health. I might have overstated his passion on the subject with my use of "reamed." And while, in my opinion, his intensity level was still way below the average person's enthusiasm of certainty, I assumed it was higher than usual for a full-fledged Buddhist monk. Everything is relative. Assumptions are also often wrong. Based on his personal experience, he was clear that spiritual evolution was dependent on physical health. 

A little back story. The monk is Bhante Wimala, without doubt one of the most amazing individuals I've ever met. Bhante means Venerable by the way, it's not his first name even though we call him "Bhante." We crossed paths earlier this year at Unity Institute's Lyceum and Jen invited him to visit our local Raleigh church. One of his requests was to bring "The Doctor." A practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, "The Doctor" barely spoke English, and diagnosed ailments with alarming accuracy simply by feeling her patient's pulse. 

So there we were...Jen, Bhante, and me...sitting on our front porch on a mild North Carolina fall evening. And let me tell you, it was just a little surreal to be sitting on our porch on a mild North Carolina fall evening with a fully robed Buddhist monk stuffing his face with baked kale chips. He sang "The Doctor's" praises as he recounted how she not only almost eradicated his lifelong allergies, but helped him avoid major surgery after an automobile accident. He admitted he was first a skeptic and didn't follow the treatments exactly as prescribed. This did not go over well with "The Doctor" who simply told him he could take her medicine or eat the things she told him not to, but not both; his choice. Jen said "The Doctor" told her no alcohol. I said maybe that's why I didn't go to see "The Doctor" because I didn't what to give up something I liked. It was at this point Bhante lit into me...sorry...got more animated and insistent. He said I cannot ignore my health any longer.  He said that now that he is having the best health of his life, his is also experiencing a deepening of his spiritual practice.

My train of thought usually coasts down the tracks of Balance. For example, I can eat that piece of fried chicken today as long as I eat about three salads to make up for it. Or it's okay to be a couch potato today; I worked out yesterday. It isn't quite the life-is-short-do-what-you-want approach; perhaps more like life-is-short-don't-be-anal-have-some-fun-but-don't-overdo-it. But Bhante's got me wondering. Perhaps there are some things that should be out of balance. Can I really ever do too many of the things that make me healthier, stronger, more compassionate, more conscious? It might do me a world of good to totally give up the fried chicken and the bacon [whoa...I actually just felt a pang of anxiety when I wrote 'give up the bacon']. Can I really go wrong with exercising my body, mind, and spirit every day? 

Sometimes, it would seem, too much of a good thing is a better thing. Plus... who would dare argue with a monk?

"Doubt is the beginning, not the end of wisdom."

This is one of my favorite quotes. It was penned by the semi-famous 19th Century author George Iles. I've often amended it to say "Doubt is the beginning, not the end of faith." For a quick example look to the New Testament and the disciple Thomas whose doubt led him to seek a more real experience with the resurrected Christ, and ultimately a deeper unshakable faith. Isn't this ultimately what lies at the heart of all religions beyond the trappings and politics and dogma? An opportunity to experience a deeper unshakable faith. Yet while I believe I have embraced and internalized the spiritual principles by which I live to the point they are no longer an intellectual exercise but the very essence of my being, there is still a measure of faith I have yet to obtain: Faith in myself. 

For as long as I can remember I've been plagued by what has been termed the 'Fraud Complex': one day 'they' will figure out that I don't really know what I'm doing then it'll be all over. Now being the good truth student that you are, you'd tell me to deny the power of such erroneous and irrational thinking and affirm otherwise. Which I have. And yet it still exists deep in me. I don't allow it to paralyze me as it did in years past, but it's still there, and in the process of accepting and letting go, I've made peace with it. Ever so often when a new and exciting opportunity manifests, it raises its hackles and I hesitate. I blame it on my Gemini nature, or my Type 9 nature (if you're into the Enneagram), and I wallow for a few minutes, or hours, or days; it varies. Then I snap out of it and move on. Ah...the bittersweet nuances of my humanness.

Having just emerged from such said experience, I realized for the first time that doubting myself has much deeper theological implications. Simply put, to doubt myself is to doubt God. Putting my faith in God is a concept I had apparently thrown out with my earlier understanding of God as an external and distant deity. But if I now embrace God as the very operating principles of the Universe, the connecting space between us, the fabric of existence, and that I am the physical embodiment of all that, then how could there be room for doubt in myself? And wouldn't doubt in myself mean I truly don't believe, with every fiber of my being, in the truth of what I am, thus in God?

I could really get sucked down the rabbit hole of despair on this. But my salvation lies in my opening premise: Doubt is the beginning of Faith. I am naturally imbued with, or have learned self-doubt, and as I mindfully explore and transcend it I gain a deeper faith in myself, and in God. I can use the awareness of my perceived deficiencies as the fuel for my transformation. 

Perhaps this is the hidden gift of my humanness. 

This post begins a lot like my blog buddy PreacherChick's post about a week ago. Like workout buddies, we're holding each other accountable to post weekly. I'm squeezing in just past our Friday deadline because I haven't really been inspired to write this week. I've actually been in a bit of a funk for no apparent reason the last few days, but my funks come and go so I'm just riding this one out. But as I sat waiting for inspiration a few minutes ago, I began to question the very idea of inspiration. What is it? And why doesn't it usually show up on demand?

From a spiritual perspective, I'd place Inspiration in the same ballpark as Ideas which land in the middle of the Divine Order sequence: Mind--Idea--Expression. The premise, metaphysically, is that everything begins in the One Mind aka the Universal Source aka God and as we are inspired with Divine Ideas we bring them into material expression. So would that mean that if we aren't inspired we're disconnected from Source? Not likely since we can never be disconnected; we can only think we are.

So why don't the ideas flow on demand? Perhaps the problem is the last two words in that question: "on demand." I think at this point in human evolution, or at least in First World humans, instant gratification is becoming hard-wired into our DNA. We expect everything now. Web pages dare not load in under 3 seconds. Who goes to the video store any more? Movies on-demand from the cable box or streaming online. Many of us still struggle in restaurants if the food hasn't arrived in under ten minutes.

Sometimes I forget there's no time in God. The timing of things is just what it needs to be, and I know I do myself a disservice when I try to force the issue, to rush to the end, to make everything On-Demand. So it is with inspiration. There's a verse in Isaiah [40:31] that says "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings of eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." It's a fairly dramatic way of saying be consciously patient, knowing that there connection to Source is never severed, and that all we really need will come in good time.

So I guess I found my inspiration after all.

In the history of religion perhaps nothing has caused as much confusion, oppression, and tyranny as the varied interpretations of two words: God's Will. "It is God's will that [fill in the blank]" is a phrase that has been brandished as the banner of authority by those who claim to speak for God. To be fair, some good has come from it as well, but if I were a betting man I wouldn't put my money on the good use of the phrase being in the majority. "God's Will" has also become a catch-all to explain what isn't understood in the moment, an attempt to bring solace with sudden loss, and a rationalization for victimization.

Ultimately one's understanding of God is at the core of the meaning of God's will. Years ago when my understanding of God shifted from the paradoxically-loving-yet-vengeful-so-better-fear-him puppet master in the sky to the underlying Principle of all there is, the term God's will lost meaning for me. People have wills and desires and needs, not principles. How could a principle have a will? Does gravity have a will? No, gravity just does what it does.

Yet even in Unity the phrase "God's will" persists [although it's sometimes replaced with "Divine Order" but don't get me started on that!]. So I lived in the question of what it means to me now, and here's what I came up with. Before I share, let me be clear that I am NOT claiming to speak for God...merely for myself. And who am I? Simply an expression of a Divine Principle, which is no small undertaking by any means; at last count there are almost seven billion expressions running around...and that's just people! While I don't believe in predestination or some master blue-print that is playing itself out, I do believe each of us have a peak optimization of our expression beyond any others. I mean that for each of us there is something that allows us to connect with and express as God in a way that is pure bliss, and others feel it when we're in it. For some it is dance, for others writing, or painting, or preaching, or teaching, or healing, or [fill in the blank]. When we discover and live it from a place of unabashed authenticity so that others are inspired and empowered, that, my friends, is God's Will.

To put it more succinctly, God's Will is the authentic actualization of my true nature. Hmm...I think I can do one better: God's Will is my Authentic Actualization. When I am on purpose and living my bliss, I am expressing God's Will, and it is of my choosing; I'm not fulfilling some pre-ordained mandate. From this understanding, the only way I'm not expressing God's Will is when I'm not living from my authentic self, and the only person that might be frustrated with that is me...remember, Principle doesn't care.

So if anyone is wondering what is "God's Will" for their life, just ask yourself this: What am I authentically passionate about? It's the only answer you need.

Two nights before I got married, Jen and I drove to the Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC to pick up her best friend from college and maid of honor. The flight was delayed and we were given the unexpected gift of two hours of peace during a time of hectic preparations. We decided to head over to the nearby National Mall and soon we found ourselves on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Even though it was close to midnight, we were not alone: other lovers were strolling around or cuddling nearby; tourists were snapping pictures of the almost-twenty-feet tall white marble statue of the nation's 16th President.

And while we sat hand in hand contemplating the events that would soon unfold and the future that lay before us, we were drawn away from our immediate world by a familiar voice reciting well known words. The easily recognizable intonations of Martin Luther King, Jr floated through the air, delivering what would become a defining moment in the American Civil Rights Movement: the I Have A Dream speech. We searched for the explanation of this surreal moment and saw a group of high school students sitting on the steps diagonally above us. In front of them was a man who looked like he was reenacting John Cusack's boombox scene from Say Anything. He slowly paced back and forth to the rapt attention of the teenagers, boombox held high over his head, the words of that enduring address streaming out full blast. We joined the outskirts of the group, moved by the historical significance of that moment not that long ago on the very steps we were sitting. We became all too aware it was not that long ago that it would have been illegal for us to marry because she was white and I was black. We shuddered with the realization that less than two generations ago, the very love we were expressing could have led to my violent murder. And being the Truth students that we were, we quickly moved to a place of gratitude. We were grateful for a civics teacher that would bring history alive for his students from California and remind them that their freedoms were hard fought and shouldn't be taken for granted. We were grateful that we were born and lived in the times that we did, that the law was now on our side, and we were free to stand before friends and family and be joined as man and wife two days later.

That night almost thirteen years ago was perhaps the most poignant of the wedding events. Much has changed for us since then. We now live in Raleigh, North Carolina. We were proud to move our daughter to a county with such an economically and racially diverse pubic school system. We boasted that while we were indeed in the South, the state was a beacon for forward-thinking transformation, and the legislature had enough sense to not even consider bringing the Defense Of Marriage Act [DOMA] up for a vote. Unfortunately those who motivated by resistance to change and a gross misrepresentation of theology are having their day in the sun. DOMA will be up for public vote next May. North Carolina will stand at a fork in the road. One path will lead to the continued discrimination against indviduals who seek nothing but the same rights afforded to others. It amazes me that many of the leaders down this path are African-Americans and women. Perhaps their short memories have allowed them to forget that once not long ago they too had even more rights denied them. I am stunned that some of them are ministers, who also have forgotten that not too long ago the same religious stance they now use as their justification, was used to supress their freedoms. Can they really be so arrogant as to proclaim what God wants or doesn't want based on the millenials-old writings of middle-eastern nomads? Are they in such denial that homosexuality and heterosexuality have both existed since the knucles of early humans scraped the ground?

The other path, however, is a path of transcendence. It is the opportunity for the people of this state to continue to demonstrate that the equality and equanimity of all people is paramount. It is the time for us to show that as a people we are evolving past the heinous idea that some forms of discrimination are tolerable. It is our chance to admit that while we are expressions of God, none of us can claim to be the voice for God. I invite you to join me on May 5th and May 8th to let the voices of love be heard. And in the meantime, continue to first demonstrate the love of ture equality, and spread the word that intolerance has had its time. In the words of Lenny Kravitz, it's time to LET LOVE RULE....

Last night I had an opportunity to look at an issue I was pretty clear I had healed. Bishop Carlton Pearson was giving the keynote at the Unity South East Region Retreat. If you've never heard of Bishop Pearson you need to. To give a snapshot, he was perhaps one the most well known ministers in the Evangelical Pentcostal Christian world; one of the heir apparents to Oral Roberts. He had an epiphany that the teachings of eternal damnation were not of God and that hell did not exist. His new "Gospel of Inclusion" taught that we were all loved by God...no exceptions. In other words, he embraced a New Thought theology. You can imagine the response.

Today, while there is no doubt about where he stands, he makes room for familiar forms of Praise & Worship [P&W]. Last night someone asked him where he was on the issue of speaking in tongues and how could a Unity minister explain it to a congregation. His reply was that we needed less explanation and more experience, then he led us in an impromptu Praise & Worship session, inviting us to stand with hands upstretched. He made sure to explain we weren't singing to God but raising the energy of consciousness in the room through singing. I admit I was uncomfortable. It felt all too familiar. My story was very similar to Pearson's having been a part of a Pentecostal-like tradition until my college years. And nothing returns me to the memories of my God-fearing days like a P&W experience. In my efforts to "transcend and include" I left P&W behind because it always, and still, feels like a fear-disguised-as-love outward directed experience. In New Thought the focus is on the inward experience of our Divinity, so there a sense of incompatibility when the lyrics of any song starts to substitute the word God with "you". 

But here's where I run into trouble with myself. Praise is the "act of expressing approval or admiration, the offering of grateful homage in words or song."[source] Do I approve of God as the underlying principle of all there was, is, and will be? Of course! Do I admire the endless varieties of expressions of that principle? You betcha! Do I express gratitude for it? On a daily basis. I even have no trouble saying that, since there is no place or time where the principle of God is not expressed, God is as much outside of me as God is inside of me as much as God expresses AS me. So there is a relative external existence of God. 

So why did I have a problem with last night? It could be simply that I have more forgiveness and healing work to do around my past expereinces. It could be that I have an irrational resistance to mass hysteria [ok...perhaps mass hysteria is a little strong]. Or maybe I believe that any expression of "approval or admiration" about the God of my understanding has to be expressed in my way and of my choosing, rather than a directed, emotion-infused experience. It becomes dangerously tempting at that point to label an experience the "right" way. And it makes little room for those who no longer seek such expressions. It might have been just me, but there was a pressure to conform, and that didn't feel inclusive. So I excluded myself, and felt angry because of it. Interestingly enough, earlier that day Bishop Pearson said that "anger is a signal for other emotions, commotions, even devotions we haven't dealt with." He might very well be right about that.

We will forver be hampered by the limits of communication.The great paradox of giving finite expression to the infinite will always remain. And I will continue to live in the question and be open to answers.

We talk a lot about being Whole. We use phrases like "Claim our Wholeness", "Return to Wholeness" and "Remember our Wholeness." I affirm that "I am Whole." As part of my ministry Unity For All I invite others to consider Spiritual Counseling as "A Step on the Path to Wholeness."

Yet as I meditated this morning I found myself asking "What does it even mean to be Whole?" Is it that place where we realize the fullness and perfection of who we truly are and we stop the search to be something different? On Sunday at Unity Church of the Triangle Rev Neusom Holmes shared the following zen-like aphorism: "You are perfect just the way you are...and you could use some improvement." It was the perfectly unsettling paradox. I am a spiritual seeker and at the same time I am the very thing I am seeking. Every day I engage in some form of spiritual practice, going deeper within myself to raise my consciousness. And as I've come to realize, there is no end to that path of going deeper.

So it would seem that "Wholeness" is like "Perfection"...an existing yet unrealized state of being. I don't know that it can ever be realized because we are always feeling, questioning, unfolding, becoming. Unless, of course, these are all aspects of the 'Whole.' In our Wholeness and Perfection, or maybe even because of it, we feel joy and sorrow, we bend and transform, we embrace and release, we experience the fullness of life.

Yes...perhaps to be "Whole" is simply the capacity to experience the fullness of life, knowing that every moment, from debilitation to transcendce, is perfection.

Yes...I am fully experiencing life.

Yes...I AM WHOLE.