November/December 2002
Feature Articles
Holistic Health Q & A
by Dr. Carol Anne Bates
The role of the liver in Oriental Medicine.
The connection between the liver and depression. How acupuncture can help.
What is... the Organic Movement?
by Robert Roman
Final part of a three-part article
detailing the author's personal experiences and the growth of the organic
movement.
UnCommon Sense!
by David Findlay
Iraq?
Articles on the theme "Miracles"
A State of Consciousness
by Rev. Susan R. Griffin
The real "reality" in which
miracles are part of everyday experience.
A Personal Course in Miracles
by Lisa Raphael
Miracles and the Big Picture. Co-creating
with the Creation.
Are Miracles Miraculous?
by Charles Larsen
A psychotherapist's attempt to define
the word "miracle."
An Everyday Experience
by Rev. LeRoy Zemke
The realm of miracles and how to get
there.
A Miracle?
by Dave Hunt
The "miraculous" effect of
changes in perception.
What Happened?
by Dr. Audrey Craft Davis
A first-hand account of two miraculous
events.
The Miracle of Life
by AnneMarie Dyer
Letting go of a personal perspective
and opening one's eyes to the miraculous possibilities of life.
Sharing the Miracle
by Rev. Pat Cross
Some personal miracles and some reflections
on the nature of miracles.
An Everyday Experience
by Rev. LeRoy Zemke
Within the deepest, most impelling yearnings of most of humanity, there is the soul-searching hunger to discover our individually unique relationships to the powerful forces of the Universe. This hunger calls us, beckons, pulls and draws us to whatever approaches (studies, disciplines) by which our individual, special relationship with God might be uncovered. This extremely personal journey eventually brings us into the realm of miracles, the place where we can consciously connect with the love, the wisdom, the peace, and the power of God in our lives on a daily basis!
Some of the steps we can take that help bring us to discover this connection are:
Surrender our control of our outer life into God's keeping.
No, we don't abandon our job, family, or our financial responsibilities. We don't ask another person to do our work, to pay our bills, or to take responsibility for our affairs. To surrender control means to give up trying to make, or force things to happen. Rather than finding fault or trying to manipulate others, we need to stick with a job that appears to be unpleasant or difficult until we have stopped resisting it or the person(s) in it that is troublesome. By yielding personal, willful efforts of control, we actually turn over to a Higher Power the affairs that are difficult. In so doing, we no longer energize the problem area. We gradually learn that we can become free agents, to choose new and more fulfilling work and associates, personal relationships and circumstances, and thus learn how to be more aware of God's Presence in all areas of our everyday life.
Be gentle with yourself.
Because we are each a child of God, we are indeed already "connected." But this connection or sense of oneness is often lost, distorted, or pushed aside because so many individuals get caught up in their particular different appearances, ways and beliefs, and thus deny their deeper spiritual connection.
To be gentle with ourselves in the midst of chaotic energies, frustrations, disappointments and/or a host of other problems requires a shift of mindset or attitude to permit something bigger, greater or more spiritual to enter our lives. When we permit an opening, even a tiny crack, healing can come through.
Some time ago a woman confided in the course of a professional consultation that her bitterness over her intensely painful divorce had poisoned her whole mental/emotional atmosphere and (in her view) her personal life. She had struggled with accepting the divorce and "getting on" with her life. She felt bitter and resentful about having been forced out of her relationship with her ex-husband, who essentially abandoned her for another woman.
A change of heart came about when she survived a terrible auto craash with only very minor cuts and bruises. The car was a total wreck, totally demolished. As a result she had an insight that God had another plan for her, that if she had survived such an accident, she could move on to a new life a miracle of an uncommon kind.
Be accepting of miracles.
Miracles, like angels, come in many forms: big, small, visible and invisible. Rather than as a spectacular Moses-parting-the Red-Sea version of a miracle, miracles occur in such simplistic terms as when we begin to look at our life in a new way, or from a fresh or unsullied point of view.
For example, a friend recently revealed to me that following his recovery from prostate cancer, he has come to cherish his body quite differently than he had before. Instead of eating unconsciously, and instead of constantly finding an unending flow of excuses or reasons why he could not or would not exercise, he now eagerly finds the time to exercise and endeavors to eat wisely. He respects and cares for his physical form with ardor. His survival and change of habits are all miracles.
Every minute of every day, all kinds of prayers, of all degrees of magnitude, are answered. Whatever energetic patterns bring us to trust in the process of prayer, we come to know that it is a major avenue through which we become open to God's Grace and miracles.
The miraculous is not only a spontaneous healing or a remission of health circumstances. It can be a job held, or won. It can be vision of the future that encourages us to hang on when all else seems to suggest doom, gloom, and possible failure. It can be the discovery that through the death of one person, another lives such as in a heart transplant. It might be the emerging sense of purpose in our lives, when none seemed to be there previously, Or when we actually receive guidance or revelation from Guardians, Angels, or our own Higher Self through prayer, meditation, a quiet walk, or in a powerful night-time dream.
The larger scope of the miracles of our everyday existence posits our increasing capacity to love and thus to be able to accept love. To express and accept love in great and mighty awakenings and initiations, yes, but more often as witnessed in the lives of those who unexpectedly enable us to see past their human form alone and reveal, for one shining moment, their courageous heart the profound yet gentle listener, the child who shares a broken cookie, the old woman who offers a cup of tea. Miracles are all around us, like the air we breathe. And we need to remind ourselves daily that the air we breathe is the gift of A Greater Love that allows us to live our lives on planet Earth.
Let us, therefore, remember that it is God that directs our course and we are ever held in the palm of His Hand.
Rev. LeRoy Zemke has been the spiritual leader of the Temple of the Living God in St. Petersburg FL since 1961. He counsels clients locally and nationally. (727) 822-8628 or (727) 894-4726
Copyright (c) 2002 Altnewtimes,
Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this web site my be reproduced without written permission of Altnewtimes, Inc.
E-mail info@altnewtimes.com