This week we are celebrating freedom. We are doing so as the United States of America and I invite each of us to honor this important gift of freedom within ourselves, too.
We are “One nation under God indivisible.”
This great nation was founded on religious freedom – rather than freedom from religion. In Unity, we believe in one God and honor the many different and varied paths to God.
Every day each of us can make a declaration of independence inside of ourselves. We can declare our freedom and independence from former ways of thinking and living that no longer serve our highest, nor best.
A personal declaration of independence is a powerful spiritual activity that can cause a holy shift within – changing the very foundation of our belief system and therefore, how we show up in the world.
Our Unity message is one of believing that all people are created equal, that we all get to have a spirit-led life, including liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We get to choose to consent to be governed only by a higher mind, a greater consciousness than our own. We call this “God.”
It is our right and our ability to find God, as a free and independent person. We get to choose, as we will, to allow the nurturing of a relationship with the God of our understanding. Each time we consent to be governed by God and let go the ego thoughts, we can see peace, joy, love, trust and more, out-picturing in our lives.
Scripture tells us, “Know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” The truth of God is not found out in the world, it is found within. Freedom starts within each of us.
Freedom makes manifest within us each time we open our hearts, minds and ears and allow the Spirit of God to teach us the Truth that sets us free. It is here that we take hold of our God given light, and we begin to look and see ourselves as well as others in a new light – the light of consciousness that says, “You be you and I’ll be me.”
Together then, we get to be the Light in the world. I affirm for each of us, like the fireworks, we pop out of the old thought restrictions and decide, “Here I am and I claim the freedom to change my thoughts and to pursue my happiness and pursue my liberty with a God empowered attitude.” No mater our circumstances, today we claim our independence by calling forth Divine Wisdom and getting to the awareness of God in us. And so, we let it be.
Sparklers and blessings.
Rev. Therese Donlan Lee is the senior minister of Unity Spiritual Center on Hilton Head Island. revthereseunityhiltonhead@gmail.com
