Spring has sprung! A lot of rain has fallen and this time of year a rainy day which flows right into another reminds me of the dark day surrounding Jesus’ resurrection.
In her song about the resurrection, LeAnn Rimes sings, “It must have looked like rain when a thousand angels cried.” Absolutely!
The Lent season begins long before that dark day and Easter Sunday is the big climax. Every year, during this season, Unity Worldwide publishes a booklet – this year is 40 Days of Letting Go. The booklet provides daily readings to Renew Your Mind. Since we are all spiritual students on our path to a greater awareness about life and its purpose, the booklet is great to awaken our thoughts.
This week is Holy week which gives us an opportunity to think on what we want, or don’t want, in our lives. Spend some time on this and sort out your thoughts. As you know, our mind creates our reality. What we choose to believe, do, think or add to our life becomes our experience. Also try seeing things from different angles. In doing this exercise you can find how one thought flows right into another and creates problems for you. Once you see something that causes you trouble, you can choose if you want to keep it or let go and rise above it.
Rising above is what Easter is about! On that day Jesus rose up! And, Jesus said, what he did we can do and more, proving we can rise up too! How? By renewing our mind!
In my mind, I hold a story of Jesus as a man who was humble, caring, compassionate and empathetic. One whose brutal story we know well, yet, we pray something better is in store for us.
We have hope and hope for us is that we make the choice to change the way we think to be in line with what Jesus taught. Then we too can rise up from any discord or lack of harmony in our lives.
The Easter story tells how Jesus died on the cross, was buried in a tomb and on the third day, rose. It’s a big story for all of us in the Christian faith but there was so much more to his life that isn’t often said.
So many buildings, pictures and jewelry pieces depict Jesus on the cross, yet that time frame marked only the end of his physical life.
Look through the eyes of a child at the continuous picture displayed over and over.
Viewing Jesus so often at the time of his resurrection can be disturbing for a child. It can bring to mind that it’s quite normal to treat others in this way. Plus, it overshadows the good person Jesus was and the teachings he actually brought to the world that we are to mirror.
Never before has my mind been so focused on this thought until put there Sunday during a conversation with a four-year-old. The child is quite taken by a view of Jesus on a cross which is outside a church that the child passes frequently.
The child asked where Jesus was in our church and when would he be on the cross with stones at his feet for the people? (Stones for the people?)
Showing the four-year-old our picture of Jesus, I explained the story I choose to keep in my memory. It’s the one I teach and hope others will share of Jesus as a kind and caring person who helped people.
When we learn what Jesus taught, we can be better people. We can improve our life situations, be happier and learn how to connect with God so we live our lives in the flow with that energy. Allowing God’s energy to work in and through our lives will even make our world a better place.
As adults, we have lived the Easter renewal process many times. Our adult mind can sort through the discord in the reenactments and the yearly retelling of the Easter story.
A four-year-old has made us all aware that that is not so for a child.
Children can learn about Jesus’ life and how to incorporate the teachings into their own lives by being a part of a spiritual centers’ children or teen groups. Seeing and learning a better way to be will help them rise up into a greater awareness about life and its purpose.
Wouldn’t that be great for our future?
Our freewill allows us to choose what we want to participate in, hold in our mind and how we want to show up in the world.
In the words of Eric Butterworth, in Discover the Power Within You – “Easter is a time to take a new look at ourselves and contemplate the Divinity in us, the depths of our own innate God-potential. It is a time to reappraise the principle that makes all overcoming possible.”
Awareness is the first key to renewal of your mind and I hold in prayer that it is an easy process for you!
Happy Easter,
Linda La Croix
Unity Director at Unity of Lake Orion. Follow Linda on Facebook at A Spiritual Walk, or on her website, www.aspiritualwalk.com, for more uplifting posts.