The Advent Season Begins with Faith

Advent: Everything Starts with Faith

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Greetings!,

Throughout the Christian world, there is something called a "liturgical year", which ends with Thanksgiving, and begins a new cycle the following week, with the start of Advent. In Unity, we dedicate these first four weeks to Faith, Peace, Love, and Joy. There is a nice flow to that-it seems right to begin our spiritual year in preparation for the birth of the awareness of the Christ within us, and to ease out of the year's journey with gratitude.

Faith is a good place to begin: without faith that this birth would occur, we would have no reason to focus on the spiritual journey at all. You may have thought of faith as something that some people have and others do not. Or something that must be strived for and sought after. "Lessons in Truth" author, Emilie Cady has this to say about the typical ideas of faith:

"The word faith is one that has generally been thought to denote a simple form of belief based mostly on ignorance and superstition. It is a word that has drawn forth something akin to scorn from so-called "thinking people"..."Blind faith" they have disdainfully chosen to call it-fit only for ministers, women, and children, but not a practical thing on which to establish the everyday business affairs of life."

As long as we think of faith in these terms, we have very little reason to wish to cultivate it. However, once we come into the understanding type of faith, we realize that there is nothing superstitious about it. Unity writer Winifred Wilkinson Hausmann explains:

"Faith has been defined in many ways. The writer of Hebrews referred to it as "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1). Understood in this light, faith is that quality in us which enables us to look past appearances of lack, limitation or difficulty, to take hold of the divine idea and believe in it, even though we do not see any evidence of it except in our minds. Through faith we know with an inner knowing the Truth that has not yet expressed itself in our manifest world"   Your God-Given Potential: Unfolding the Twelve Spiritual Powers

Put even more simply, faith is our ability to believe. It is not something mysterious that we have to strive for, or something that only a select few achieve. As one of our twelve powers, faith is already part of what we are. And... faith is something we use every day, whether we realize it or not!

Every time you put the key into the ignition of your car, you are expressing your faith that the engine will do everything it needs to do to allow you to drive where you need to go. Every time you place an envelope into the mail you are expressing your faith that the US Postal Service will deliver it where it needs to go. Every time that you walk into a grocery store with a shopping list, you are expressing your faith that everything you need to overcome the appearance of lack in your pantry will be provided.

Faith, like all of our twelve powers, is also neutral. It has no knowledge of "good and evil". We can use our faith in helpful ways, such as those above, or we can use it in less-than-helpful ways. Whenever we worry, we are expressing our faith that something undesirable will come to pass. Every time we find ourselves repeating a phrase such as "I knew this was going to be a bad day!" or "I ALWAYS get a cold in the fall" or "I NEVER get what I want" we are demonstrating our faith.

This Advent season, I invite you to be thankful for your power of Faith, and use it wisely! Listen to your thoughts and your words. If you experience thoughts of lack or limitation, remember that your birthright at a spiritual Being is to enjoy the full abundance of Life. Become quiet, go within, and use your power of faith to look beyond the apparent lack and express what it is that you really believe; that there is only One Presence, One Power. Whether you call that Power by the name of God, Oneness, Holy Spirit, Love, Truth, or any other name, align your behavior with your belief and know that by doing so, you are expressing your understanding Faith.

Thanks for reading! I am enjoying a bit of time away at the end of what has been a very busy year- Thanks to Rev. Jim Marshall, Gino Walker, and our LUT Candidates, Susan Sellers and Barb McLawhorn, as well as our SEE students for coordinating these three Sundays. I'll still be showing up in your in-box each week with an Advent lesson, and on Dec. 16th, I'll see you "live and in person" again. Please know that I wish all the very best blessings of the season!

Namaskar,

(which means... The Divine within me blesses and honors the Divine within you)

Rev. Nita

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UPCOMING LESSONS and EVENTS

12/02: Prayers of Peace: A Special Service, presented by our Licensed Teacher candidates and SEE students

12/09: Gino! Wisdom and Music by Gino Walker

12/16: (Nita returns) Advent: Love

12/23: Advent: Joy

12/24: (Monday) Christmas Eve Candlelighting Service: 5:00pm

12/25: (Tuesday) Christmas Morning Service & Potluck: 10:30am

12/30: Another Trip Around the Sun... (End-of-the-month POTLUCK)

12/31: New Year's Eve Cleansing Release Service: 6:00pm

DID YOU KNOW...

Audio of our Sunday lessons is available online at our website?You may click here to listen. There's also always a button along the left side of these emails that will take you right to our "Listen" page. You may also listen and subscribe to our channel at Sermon.net And- if you have a mobile device, you can download the Sermon.net app from your App Store and subscribe to our podcasts. When you do, you'll be notified when new audio is available.New lessons are usually posted every couple of weeks.

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Sunday School and Child Care is always available on Sundays

Our Sunday School teachers look forward to sharing Unity principles with your children aged 4-12. If you've got questions, please speak to our YOU teachers: Cindy Cawthorne, LUT, Barbara Richman, LUT, Judyth Willis, and Sunni Adams. Our nursery is available for the very young ones, as well.