Scripture

Psalm 23:1-4

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
    He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
    he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

Remember the Lord to Release Fear & Egotism

by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts

Read the message below. Video premieres today at 8 pm EDT, click here to watch on YouTube with live text chat

Let’s take a moment to open our full awareness – our affections and our thoughts – to our understanding of God, Christ, or whatever you call our shared Higher Power. Opening our beings to the medicine of deeper peace and compassion in meditation is a technique encouraged by the Lord through many traditions, encouraging us to chant, sing, contemplate, and pray. 

I tend to forget this practice in my day-to-day living, especially when I’m not taking dedicated time for it. And in my past, when I didn’t believe in God, I literally had no motive or care to think much about God, unless it was to ask from time to time, “Are you really there?”

But thinking about Divinity more regularly has a myriad of benefits that aren’t comprehended until we do it, and yet we can gain some understanding through reflecting on ideas about God that make sense to us (which sometimes contrast with ideas about God handed down to us!). For me, that’s an awareness that Divinity transcends any one religion, but tries to speak to different people differently in every culture, throughout time and space. 

Despite this diversity, I believe God always uplifts His/Her own core attributes in these cultures and in each person as much as our personal choice allows: humanity, humaneness, love, compassion, peace, mercy, justice, openness, non-attachment, empathy, and a wisdom that fits these qualities. Further, we can gain a glimmer of God’s all-pervasiveness uplifting all things through the calmness and connectedness we gain from the details of nature, and the joy reaching toward transcendence we find when we start to accept our natural compassion, humility, and groundedness.

The benefits of reflecting on a healthy conception of God are numberless in scripture: fearlessness from meditating on the Fearless God, peace from reflecting on the Prince of Peace, dispelling anxious ego by accepting that our consciousness and gifts are from the Divine One and do not belong to us, and on, and wonderfully on. Moreover, remembering God is fundamentally a process of remembering and coming to know ourselves in the whole, true, and soothing light of reality. 

So, take a moment and contemplate God(dess). Let’s take a breath and remember the Christ (“Savior”) that can pull us out of the web of our bad habits, attachments, despair, and selfishness, if we but chant, sing, love, meditate, and act on his Divine Name throughout our being.

Yes, this takes effort and practice! If you’re like me, even when I get myself to contemplate God, half the time I don’t know what to do or think about. Listening to or reading the Judeo/Christian Psalms or the Sikh holy book (the Sri Guru Granth Sahib) or any text that embodies healthy Divine reflection for you can truly help enable this peace-giving practice, but sometimes just listening to music or chanting your preferred names for God (Father, Jesus, Lord, Allah, Sophia and on) is what the doctor ordered.

Also, if you’re like me, this may seem like a drag at first contemplation, “What, give up all the other important things I habitually reflect on?” I know, bummer, but you might find that looking for the Divinity at root in the things around you (being aware of God in the goodness of self, nature, and family - as well as present in the face of destruction and pain) truly empowers a sense of calmness, fearlessness, and kindness only dreamt of in the past.

There are seemingly two sides of the external universe: creation and destruction, goodness and evil. And it can be hard living in a world that deals in both, as well as grapple with our own tendencies to be lustful and deeply attached to things in both directions, with little control over when we lose them and sometimes very little regard for spiritual richness and eternal life. These types of lusts drive people to destroy others for various types of gain, and we can see how they can drive us to oppress others, to demean marginalized groups, manufacture an economy of disparity and unfair support, and destroy the very foundation of our earth. It’s not always intentional that we destroy the things around us, but that is frequently the natural consequence of having a mode of being centered on selfish, shallow loves, instead of the Wellspring of Life itself.

Instead, we’re asked to seek a remembrance of Divinity and to find our true selves in the healing that such a reflection brings. Even as we rightfully mourn our losses and continue to struggle with pain, remembering that no one is forever lost to us or God and that the Spirit maintains and supports us in every moment. This can go a long way to help dispel the more treacherous and needlessly hurtful portions of our mental states. And a centeredness on Divinity helps us to start to put all things in their rightful place in our minds, pulling us out of the pits of our own destructiveness and anxiety and into an active engagement of the light and warmth (the awareness and love) of the Divine Sun. 

The Sikh holy text goes as far as to say repeatedly that when we are not blessed with a remembrance of God we are hollow versions of who we are ultimately meant to be, and we all can relate to the hallowing fear we typically feel when we’re in the shadow of death, as our Psalm reading puts it. It’s our remembrance and acceptance of God the Good Shepherd’s rod and staff, it’s our awareness of God’s presence and guidance, that comforts us, that truly fills us up and leads us to that dreamed-of place of finally “fearing no evil.” 

Today I use the word “remembrance” because at our core we know Divinity. Our souls are crafted with the Spirit of consciousness and love at their hearts, and I believe that we each have a deep echo of God’s peaceful voice speaking to our hearts in every moment, even when we ignore and hide away from it and use that deep sense of rightness to excuse our tendency to hurt, distract, judge, and fear. But God’s message is one of healing if we decide to hear it, not just one of rebuke. As we seek to remember God (perhaps haltingly at first) we will start to find that the Savior was always there, ready to console and to save, pulling us away from fearful egotism and shallow habits, into a courageous, peaceful humility and joy everlasting. 

To end we pray for those suffering from grief, loss, and trauma. We pray for Deb Smith's cousin's husband Ray, in the hospital and recently diagnosed with acute leukemia. We uplift him and his family into your care and healing during these tough and trying times.

Now, let's turn to a personal prayer of praise – perhaps by reciting the Lord’s Prayer, or by adding a bit of chanting, reflecting or meditating if we so choose. May we find a transformative remembrance that we can continue to carry as we go about the rest of our day, finding our natural peace remembering the One who’s always there for us and helps us be there for each other, our Creator. 

Amen.

Blessings,

Rev. Cory