or illness, or fear to affect you. (There is no lack in my world. OR This perceived illness has no power over me.)

The denials we are talking about do not mean the same thing as the psychological term “in denial.” According to Webster, to deny means to declare to be not true; to declare as utterly false. Denials are our ability to put our error thoughts in their proper place. Denials are a way of talking back, refusing to give power to something ‘outside’ of us that seems controlling or restrictive.

Reprogram :

A denial without an affirmation is a very dangerous thing! So we must fill the vacuum created by denials with powerful affirmations what we know to be truth. In the Gospel of Luke 11:24-26, Jesus tells the parable of the man who was cleansed of an evil spirit. However, the spirit returned, finding the “house” swept clean, and so it moved back in, with seven of its buddies, more wicked than he. This reminds us of how important it is to reaffirm our beliefs and reprogram our thinking, by following up denials with powerful affirmations!

According to Emilie Cady, in Lessons in Truth, “to affirm anything is to assert positively that it is so, even in the face of all contrary evidence… Deny the appearance of evil; affirm good. Deny weakness; affirm strength. Deny any undesirable condition, and affirm the good you desire.”

The key is to affirm with power – with faith! When you use a Definitely Maybe approach, you are simply wishing. When you affirm from the strength of your Christ consciousness, you are speaking with a voice of faith and strength!

Our granddaughter graduated from Daisies – the pre-Brownies group. As a graduation gift, the leaders gave each girl a little book filled with pictures capturing the events they had participated in. We were struck by one of the pictures. The girls were lying on the ground, in front of a fire truck. The words above the photo were “Stop, Drop, Roll.” Our granddaughter explained that it was a phrase the firefighters used to tell us how to handle ourselves if we ever get caught in fire.

It really connected with us and so we applied it to the 3 R’s: STOP – Recognize the maybe’s that dilute your spiritual growth and happiness; DROP – Release error thinking and behaviors by denying their power; and ROLL – Reaffirm the transformative power of the beliefs, the Truths, of spiritual principles! Put the 3 R’s into practice so you take the Maybe out of Definitely.

Over the last six seasons hundreds of thousands of young people have tried to become the ‘next American Idol.’ They have come from all walks of life, from all 50 states, and from all levels of singing ability – or no singing ability – if you know what I mean.

But they all have the same dream – stardom! And the same nemesis – Simon Cowell. Regardless of what you think of the show, the contestants, or the judges, it is entertainment Hollywood style.

Randy Jackson prides himself in being the chief dog. Paula Abdul is both maternal and compassionate. And Simon Cowell invariably offends everyone, including his fellow judges, with his caustic feedback.

Each week the contestants are judged by Randy, Paula, and Simon, and millions of people who text or call in their votes. The contestants are pushed through a media gauntlet filled with sarcasm and praise, and occasionally helpful feedback from the judges.
American Idol is great entertainment, but it is also an apt metaphor for a great truth walk. Each week the contestants are judged on three key performance factors: they’ve got to pick the right song, use good vocals, and be themselves so they can demonstrate their uniqueness.

Those same three factors define our truth walk. The quality of our truth walk depends on how well we do all three. And how well we do all three determines whether our truth walk is on track or on idle – IDLE.

Walking the spiritual path on practical feet requires what could be termed spiritual orthopedics. If we want to step confidently and lively toward the kind of life we want to live, we must make sure our thoughts and actions are congruent with the truth principles we have learned.

It doesn’t matter if we’re stepping on bare feet or shod feet, big feet, small feet, white feet or brown feet or red feet or yellow feet, tired feet or energetic feet. Each step is a tithe toward our spiritual growth. Or toward our stagnation if we stand idlely by, because we neglect to put truth principles into action.

We strive every day to:

• pick the right song – seeing everything from our Christ perspective
• use good vocals – using powerful affirmations and positive words, and
• be ourselves so that each of our me’s is the best me we can be

Have you heard people say, “I’m trying to be more spiritual, but life keeps getting in the way?”

Dan Millman has an interesting perspective on that which is, as Simon Cowell would say, “Spot on!” Millman says in his book, No Ordinary Moments: “Someone once said to me, ‘I’d love to live like a peaceful warrior and do more spiritual practices, but with a family to support, and a fulltime job, I just don’t have the time.’”

He didn’t realize, says Millman, that his family and job – his relation-ship with his wife, the responsibilities of children, and the pressures of his profession – were his spiritual practice.”

The truth is, our truth walks are never on idle. We may think we’re going nowhere spiritually, but everything we do has spiritual implications.

In his delightful book, Buddha is as Buddha Does, Lama Surya Das, who has been called the American Lama, has this to say:

“The Dalai Lama taught me that the spiritual jewel that brings us all we need and seek is the unselfish heart and compassionate mind. These are what Buddhists call indispensable highest intentions, which come from the good heart, our best self, our innermost Buddha-being.” Sound familiar?

We can use those same terms to define our innermost Christ Self. And we can express our innermost Christ Self best when we:

• pick the right song using our Christ perspective
• use the right vocals by affirming our oneness with Spirit, and
• be our true selves, our divine selves, in this earthly performance we call human beingness

Going from idle – IDLE – to I do – DO – is a command performance.