Dear Spiritual Family,
In today’s video message, the last one preceding the July Fourth holiday, we focus on freedom:
- The passion for freedom that drove our Founding Fathers and Mothers to create the new Republic of the United States of America in 1776.
- The passion for freedom that led to Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1862.
- The passion for freedom that launched Mohandas Ghandi’s Non-Violent Movement in 1920 which later inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and provided the blueprint for the Civil Rights movement in the U.S.
- The unshakeable character of baseball greats like Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays that left an indelible imprint in their pursuit of authentic freedom.
- And finally, the “Everlasting Freedom” that is at the center of each of us, placed there by our Creator – the spiritual freedom that in the language of the Daily Word for July 4, 2024: “loosens the tight grip of my (our) worldly situations. In God, I am free. At the level of Spirit, nothing binds me. I am in the world but not of it.”
When we allow the passion like those who have gone before us to be “united” with our spiritual understanding of our God-given freedom, then we are lifted to clearer and more life-giving perspectives. And we experience more of the kind of peace that Jesus spoke of and modeled for us.
I, Rev. Steve, share this prayer from A Course in Miracles:
I did not understand what made me free, nor what my freedom is, nor where to look to find it. Father, I have searched in vain until I heard Your Voice directing me. Now I would guide myself no more. For I have neither made nor understood the way to find my freedom. But I trust in You. You who endowed me with my freedom as Your holy Son will not be lost to me. Your Voice directs me, and the way to You is opening and clear to me at last. Father, my freedom is in You alone. Father, it is my will that I return.
The “Voice” in the prayer, of course, is That of the Holy Spirit, our personal Guide to help us incorporate this true freedom into our consciousness. From that heightened place, that awareness will be reflected in our lives, blessing us and blessing the world.
Happy Fourth and “Happy Freedom,” dear ones.
We Love You,
Rev. Steve and Mary