I sat quietly inquiring with my inner guidance for what would like to be offered for the lesson Sunday. Weeks ago, I had been clearly guided to turn to prolific writer and great inspirational Unity minister Rev. Eric Butterworth for a summer series. I call it “Bits of Butterworth”. I knew it would be a fun and invigorating series. You see, Rev. Eric calls me and many people to recognize and claim the truth of our existence. I try to imagine him speaking to a packed room at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City and inspiring the masses who gathered each week. I imagine the crowds going about their days with remnants of Rev. Eric’s words linger in their minds and drawing the to greater awareness of their Truth. That’s just how Eric Butterworth was. I remain in awe of his words today.
Words have great power to form and make manifest our world. There are words that draw feelings of safety and security and words that cause us to shudder with fear. There are words that move us to feeling small and insignificant and words that raise us to our highest glory. We often teach that our words, backed by our thoughts and beliefs, are formative and creative. We hear in Genesis that with the creative power of the word “God said” … and all that came into existence.” Likewise, John chapter one says that “The Word became flesh and lived among them.” By understanding the power of our words, we carefully choose the words we use for ourselves. We also cultivate great care in how we use them toward others. We often call upon our powers of discernment, wisdom, and love to choose words that are uplifting and honoring of others as well as ourselves.
There are words that bring comfort to our hearts and there are words that touch all of our most tender spaces. I have learned through my years in Unity that I can learn expanded meanings of words that soften or completely change their impact and my reaction to them. I can create new images of words in my mind that allow me to have peace and ease in using words. One word that has taken on a new meaning for me is the word love. Perhaps because it is a word that is so often used, its impact had diminished for me that I was delighted to have this word “love” invigorated with new meaning. As I learned in Unity, love is more that a romantic or parental or kinship emotion between people. Love is a power, an ability that we are born with. Through the power of love we are attracted to that which we most enthusiastically think about. Not only are we attracted to what we think about, what we think about is also attracted to us. Some call this synergy and recognize it as lovely serendipitous moments in life when everything lines up in seeming perfection.
I know you have heard me share these thoughts many times, and it is worth saying again. Unity co-founder Charles Fillmore says this about love:
Love is one of the most beautiful attributes of God.
Love is the power that joins and binds in divine harmony the universe
and everything in it. Divine love is impersonal. It loves for the sake of
loving. It is not concerned with what or who it loves nor with a return
of love. Like the sun, its joy is in the shining forth of its nature.
This idea of love as a quality that we use to bring forth our lives was an idea I could easily get behind. The word “love” grew to have a vibrant new meaning for me. There are many words that take on new meaning when we explore them more deeply.
Know that I am here with you. Know that I am here for you.
Rev. Karen