ed young man saw a breath-takingly gorgeous woman walk past Chicos in the mall. He was so smitten that he followed her as she made her way toward the center of the mall.

The lady observed his reflection in the store windows as she passed them and finally turned and demanded: “Why are you following me?”

He responded innocently, “Because you are the most gorgeous woman I have ever observed, and I’ve fallen madly in love with you at first sight.”

The woman smiled and answered,” I believe you need to look behind you at my younger sister who is ten times more attractive than I.”

The excited suitor turned around quickly and noticed what he considered to be an average looking girl walking toward him.

“She’s no where near as attractive as you,” he lamented. “You tricked me!”

“No, you tricked me,” she countered. “If you were so madly in love with me, why did you turn around?”

“I…Ah…Well…Ah…”

His answer was a case of a ‘Definitely Maybe’! He claimed he definitely thought the young woman was the greatest thing since sliced bread — but next he thought maybe there’s better sliced bread.

What is amazing is, people do that all of the time. ‘Definitely Maybe’ people live their lives through a chronic ‘yes — no’ perspective. They short-change themselves because they ‘under mind’ who they are. They are decisively indecisive.

• Sure I can. Maybe not!
• I absolutely want that. Okay, maybe I don’t.
• I will never do that again. Or maybe….

“We are unable to serve two masters,” Jesus shares in Matt. 6:24, “for either we will despise the one, and love the other; or else follow one and hate the other. We cannot serve God and physical substance.”

What Jesus is saying is: ‘definitely maybe’ doesn’t work. You cannot steal second base with your foot on first. You cannot squeeze orange juice out of a peach. You cannot put the toothpaste you have squeezed out back into the tube. And you cannot walk the spiritual path on materialistic feet.

A ‘definitely maybe’ mind set typically ends up sending mixed messages. The following story is an example. A televangelist stopped a couple of girl scouts at the street corner and asked for directions to the post office.

“Down this street three blocks. You’ll pass girl scouts selling cookies, so buy some, then turn to your right,” the oldest youngster replied.

“You appear to be a smart young lady,” said the televangelist. “Have you ever watched my nationally televised show?”

“Nope”

“Well, if you will watch Channel 22 tomorrow morning with your folks, I’ll tell you how to get to Heaven.”

“Aw, I doubt it mister. You don’t even know how to get to the post office.”

What sort of mixed messages would we send if we affirm, on the one hand, that there is only One Presence, One Power, and One Intelligence in the Universe and then at the first sign of trouble give power to outer situations?

What if we say we are one with the Inexhaustible Source of our abundant supply — and then worry constantly about money?

We have the power to be persistent about our truth walks. We also possess the power to give away that power. Some folks like sliced bread. Others like an uncut loaf of bread. Some individuals choose slices of Truth. Others want the whole Truth — unbiased, uninterpreted, and non-dogmatic — so they can render their own interpretations. The important thing is to be able to stand for something instead of falling for anything.

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.