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The Spiritual Implications of a Cosmic 2×4

Have you ever said, “Wow! I’ve been hit by a Cosmic 2×4!”? This phrase is traditional theology dressed in New Thought clothes. The phrase “cosmic two-by-four” implies there is something or someone outside of us trying to get our attention to teach us an important lesson. The implication is that God, the universe, something “out there” intends to control us for our own good, even if it means harming us or causing us pain. The idea that something wants to get our attention to force us to do what is “right” so it can teach us something is a perspective that abdicates personal choice and responsibility. Further, if we do not “get it” the first time, the whack becomes progressively worse until we finally pay attention.

We would like to say, “Get Over It!”  There is no Cosmic Two-By-Four. Please read that sentence again! One more time. Thank you. There is no Cosmic Two-By-Four—pine, oak, treated lumber, galactic laser beam, or otherwise. Since there is truly only One Power and One Presence in the universe, God the Good, this “wooden” phrase goes against the grain of the oldest and most revered Truth Principles. We do not believe God, the Good, punishes us with two-by-fours, wooden paddles, willow sticks, baseball bats, or any other “wooden explanations.”

The purely human, not cosmic, two-by-four is in our own hands! It is our poor decisions and errant actions that punish us and hurt us, not God. As long as we keep making bad decisions we will keep getting bad results.

A 2×4 moment is an opportunity to experience an “aha;” however, we can keep creating 2×4 moments if we neglect to learn from our experiences. “Aha’s” are the result of a change in perspective, an insight which comes from an intuitive leap in consciousness. Two-by-four moments occur when we suddenly realize that our own stale thought patterns and belief systems are no longer valid. If we keep beating ourselves up with the metaphorical 2×4, perhaps it’s time to pause and reflect on the thoughts, choices, and actions we’ve taken which lead to our self-flagellation. This awareness is an inside-out realization.

One of the self-denigrating assumptions we invite you to compost is the belief in a cosmic 2×4 – that there is something or someone ‘out there’ trying to get your attention to teach you an important lesson. No one has ever been hit by a cosmic 2×4. It doesn’t come from that direction.

Here’s a replacement phrase for you to try: “I’ve created a 2×4 moment!”

About the author:

Article based on an excerpt from the amazing little book, Get Over It!  The Truth About What You Know That Just Ain’t So! by Paul Hasselbeck and Bil Holton. Used with permission.

Anyone who travels is familiar with all the travel alerts that come out. Some warn us of places to avoid; others give us information to keep us safe; other alerts actually offer special deals so we can travel more economically! There are also alerts to help us on this spiritual journey we are sharing together. This Sunday, discover the power of our Spiritual Traveler Alerts, and how paying attention can bring us inner peace, abundance, health, and joy!

Have you heard the warnings? The sharks are everywhere — even in shallow water. Can you hear the music of Jaws playing in the background? Wouldn’t it be nice to have that same kind of warning music in life, when the sharks of consciousness attack? This Sunday, Rev. Bil will help you discover what the sharks look like, and how you can handle the attacks with spiritual grace and wisdom, and experience a life of joy, abundance, and spiritual enrichment!

We have had the delightful privilege of officiating at several beautiful weddings this summer, and each one is unique and special. One of the biggest issues the couple deals with in the wedding planning seems to have nothing to do with the ceremony. It involves who to invite! Have you ever turned down an invitation to attend someone’s wedding? It seems like a simple decision … but it can have an incredible spiritual impact!

In Matthew 22:2-14, that’s exactly what happened.  First, let us share an “updated” version! It all begins begins with, “The kingdom of heaven is like …:

A CEO Facebooked, Tweeted, and e-mailed wedding invitations for his son, then sent his staff to re-invite those he had already contacted online. That seems a little redundant, but that’s what he did. Despite the personally delivered second invitation, the guests refused to come.

So the CEO invited the guests a third time. He instructed the staff to tell the prospective guests that Emeril Agassi was preparing the meal and that it would be wonderful.

He reminded the guests that he had two big screen TVs, Wii games they could play, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, three saunas, four hot tubs, plenty of hor d overs, and enough drinks for everyone.

But the prospective guests still ignored the invitation.

Some of the guests said they were too busy. They had other things to do. Others were so irritated at the invitation that they went postal and killed the CEO’s staff. So the CEO hired the Russian mafia and had all of the guests assassinated who were responsible for killing his staff.

The CEO told his remaining staff to e-mail, Tweet, Skype, and Facebook as many people as they could and invite them to his son’s wedding. It didn’t matter who the people were. He just wanted people in seats at the wedding.

But when the CEO came in to see the guests, he noticed one of the guests was not wearing the proper black tie attire. So he approached the man and asked why he wasn’t properly dressed. The man was both surprised and speechless. Without further ado the CEO had the man handcuffed and thrown out of the banquet hall.

For many are invited, but few are chosen.

 Wow! That would be a wedding to remember! The thing is, this story, like many Bible stories, is not meant to be taken literally. Whenever a Biblical account seems bizarre or convoluted, you can bet your lottery ticket it is a signal to look for its deeper spiritual truth.

Look at how this story begins: “The kingdom of heaven is like…” and then the next 13 verses are filled with rudeness, violence, and murder. That’s not the kind of heaven we envision. How ‘bout you? Look, we’ve all been brought up in conventional religious traditions. We are all refugees from embedded theology. That’s why we’re drawn to this search for deeper Truth. We know there’s more to the Bible than the Bible we grew up with.

Killing your guests because they refused to come to your wedding. Please! And that’s what the kingdom of heaven is like? We don’t think so! In its literal version, this story is selling fear, self-righteous murder, and violence. In its literal version it reads like a breaking news segment on CNN.

Here’s another, more sane view, from a Spiritual perspective. This metaphysical snapshot should clear this story up very nicely :

• The kingdom of heaven represents the process of becoming one with the Christ Presence within us.
• The CEO or king, as the scripture reads, is God, the Eternal One, Divine Mind, the First Cause, or whatever name you use to describe the One Reality that is All That Is.
• The wedding invitation is the call to marry our human self with our Christ Self (the two shall be one – human self and divine self).
• The wedding banquet is the Unlimited, Omnipresent Substance which is readily available to us each-consecutive-moment-of-now.
• The servants(staff) are spiritual thoughts, ideas, and divine inclinations.
• The killing and murder represent our neglect, refusal, disinterest in, and failure to apply truth principles.
• Inviting anyone and everyone symbolizes our willingness and openness to change old habits and belief systems.
• The man improperly dressed represents our attempt to understand spiritual truths with a material consciousness.
• Binding the man’s hands and feet and tossing him into the darkness means that we are unable to do the work we have come here to do as long as we remain in the dark about our true nature.

In a nutshell, this story has this to say to us:

Becoming aware of our innate divinity is like this: The first thing we’ve got to understand is that the allness of God is in the eachness of us. We must realize that we have total and complete access to incredible abundance, unless we choose to deny our innate divinity and neglect to apply truth principles.

When we fail to apply Truth principles, we handcuff our spiritual growth and remain unaware of our incredible Christ potential. We remain in the dark.

But if we accept the divine invitation to be the best Christ we can be, we will be able to have anything we want on the banquet table — things like health, inner strength,        happiness, compassion,  inner peace, unconditional love,  self-confidence,  wisdom, joy, unlimited prosperity.

Every one of these “delicious dishes” can be yours. But you’ve got to show up at the wedding. You’ve got to accept the divine  invitation. You’ve got to enter the banquet hall prepared to accept your good.

In her book Dare to Believe, May Rowland, Director of Silent Unity for over 55 years said: “I remembered from the teachings of Charles Fillmore that Jesus Christ made a rent in the materialistic consciousness and showed us the way back to God, thus shortening the evolutionary period of our spiritual development by millions of years.”

You, too, can rent the veil of materialism and take your place at the banquet table of peace, abundance, and prosperity.

Imagine what a world we could create, imagine what your life could be, if each of us married our human self with our Christ Self, our True Self!

We could live happily ever after. Why not start right now ?

Revs. Bil & Cher continue their series for June, entitled “How to Become a Spiritual Techie!” ~ focusing on some of today’s most popular technology as a metaphor for the incredible spiritual growth tools we have at our disposal, for instant connections and high speed access!

This week, our title is “The Power of Spiritual Tweets!” Twitter has become quite a phenomenon, with people varying in their assessment of its usefulness. But the concept of Twitter, and the tweets we send, has a powerful message for our spiritual growth and development. Come this week to discover what Spiritual Tweets are, and how they can catapult us to new levels of awareness of our Oneness!

This Sunday, as we continue exploring ways to “Start the Year On Fire!” we explore the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. You’ll discover what the “Twin Sin Cities” really were, where they are now, and what most churches do not want to talk about concerning the two angels who visited Lot’s house in Sodom. Most importantly, you’ll leave with insights to help you build a strong prosperity consciousness and transform negativity into powerful spiritual growth.

One of the most difficult words to handle is NO, especially when we desperately want something, or feel it is critical for our success and happiness. According to sales research, NO is the leading cause of ‘fear of rejection’ complex that causes so many people to get out of business!

As we looked back over our years as consultants, we remember that NO was a tough word for us to hear when we generated amazing proposals, only to find someone else was selected to do the job. But we discovered a fascinating way to hear the YES in NO.

We started saying “Thanks for saying no!” When we received the news that we weren’t selected to give a keynote presentation, for example, we would immediately follow up with a little note, thanking the potential client for giving us the opportunity to be considered ~ and our affirmations for them having a great conference.

We followed this up with offering our services for future events, and also indicated that, should something occur at the last minute where they found they needed a speaker, to feel free to contact us. Then we topped it off by including a copy of one of our books as our “Thanks for saying no” gift.

Incredibly, we discovered that more times than not we were contacted immediately to confirm dates next year’s conference! And we can identify three specific instances where unforeseen events occurred with the selected speaker, and we got the call to replace them! We learned how to find the YES in NO by looking at a more long-term response.

How often do you experience obstacles that seem to wave a big red “NO” in front of you? Giving in may feel like the easiest plan, and say, “Forget it!” But in Mark 10:27, Jesus makes an incredible statement: “With God, all things are possible.”

What is HE talking about? It tends to conjure up all kinds of debates, like “Yeah, possible, but how probable?” Or “This sounds good, but it won’t work in the real world!”

So let’s look at the Unity perspective of what this verse is really talking about, we get a whole different view. It says that as we make that connection with the Christ of us, our God center, we are receptive to the Divine Flow of every thing we ever need. But until we spend that time in Headquarters, in meditation and prayer, our human self sees the appearance of obstacles, of “NOs.”

Here are three keys to discovering the YES in every NO you seem to encounter:

• Spend dedicated time in the Silence, strengthening your connection with Spirit.
• Counter every appearance of NO with a big “Thank You for saying no!” Then identify ways to send positive energy to the situation or people.
• Recognize that there is no being out there in the sky saying NO. We have the power to Divinely order our experience, and create the life we choose. Refuse to let the appearance of NO have power in your life!

What do an old silk hat, corn cob pipe, button nose, and boots have in common?? They all belong to a lump of snow called Frosty, the Snowman.

To the general public, Frosty the Snowman stands for joy. The joy of living. The joy of laughter. The joy of hearing children play. The joy of spontaneity. The joy of meaningful work. The joy of being with the people you love. Frosty, the Snowman symbolizes all of that. He is joy personified.

Most people, when they hear the words, Frosty, the Snowman, break into a smile. A gleam appears in their eyes. Children ages 3 to 93 identify with Frosty’s playfulness and zest for life. But Frosty represents much, much more.

When the traditional Christmas story is read, it’s either the Gospel of Matthew or Luke that are used. In each of these Gospels you find beautifully-told pieces relating the miraculous birth involving both the Divine and the human. The authors of Matthew and Luke also seek to place the birth of Jesus in a particular historical and cultural setting. Jesus is the son of poor Jewish parents, but is also described as a descendant of Israel’s greatest king, King David. His birth is given a definite time and place.

But, there is something totally different in Jon. There’s no nativity, no shepherds, no Magi, no star in the sky, no heavenly hosts, not even so much as a Mary and Joseph.

John’s gospel instead is some rather esoteric sounding language about something called “The Word:” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” Several verses later you read, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us” Then, not too many more verses after that, Jesus is suddenly baptized and begins his ministry. If John’s account were all we had to go on, we might be celebrating Christmas a little differently.

What John’s Gospel tells us is the Word became real, became flesh, became incarnated and became a living, breathing part of us.

Christmas is an incarnation story. It is the saga of the Incarnating Christ in each of us. It is the chronicle of our unfolding Christhood.

So what does this have to do with Frosty the Snowman? Think about it: Frosty came to life one day, dwelt among us and told us It would be back again one day. The metaphor is obvious.

Joyfulness, not struggle, is the message. Laughing and playing, dancing around in a silk hat, ball cap, boots, sandals or barefooted is the message. We are here to enjoy this Earth experience to spend this incarnation, happily, healthily and prosperously to dance and play and create and achieve until we melt away.

From Frosty, we can learn a new set of “Three R’s”:

I. Release any worries about the future, and put your attention on now.

II. Recognize the Source: It’s not in your hat – it’s in your heart!

III. Reaffirm Joy, no matter what!

And KNOW that you cannot be separated from your good, from God, because you and God are one! And that is cause for JOY!

No is one of the most difficult words to deal with, especially when we desperately desire something, or feel it is critical for our success and happiness. In sales, NO is the leading cause of ‘fear of rejection complex’ that causes so many people to get out of business!

‘No’ was a difficult word for Bil and me to hear when we created amazing proposals, only to discover someone else was selected to do the job. But here’s how we began to hear the YES in NO. We started saying “Thanks for saying no!”

For example, when we received news that we weren’t chosen to give a keynote presentation we immediately followed up with a note, thanking the prospective client for giving us the opportunity to be chosen ~ and included positive affirmations for them to have a terrific conference.

Then we offered our services for up-coming events. We also indicated that, should something happen at the last minute where they found they needed a speaker, to feel free to call us. We usually

Incredibly, we found that we were often contacted immediately to discuss next year’s conference! We had learned how to find the YES in NO by looking at a more long-term response.

How often do you run into obstacles which seem to wave a big red ” NO” in front of you? It seems so easy to just cave in, and say, “Forget it!” But in Mark 10:27, Jesus makes a remarkable statement: “With God, all things are possible.” What exactly does that mean? It creates all kinds of debates, like “Yeah, possible, but how probable?” Or “This sounds good, but it won’t work in the real world!”

Suppose someone asked you to cut a hole in a 5×7 card big enough for a person to step through it. Because you’re a good Truth practitioner, you’d want to act like a believer. So you’d say, “All things are possible” and you might even take action – but in the end you might throw up your hands and say, “This stuff doesn’t work!”

As we make that connection with the Christ of us, our God center, we are open to the Divine Flow of everything we ever need. However, until we make that connection, our human self sees the appearance of obstacles, of “NOs.” So, how do we move through that process, so we can always find the YES in No?

THE ‘YES in NO’ PROCESS:

1) Expect the Yes in No

This relates completely to an attitude of expectancy. So often, we get exactly what we expect. Not necessarily what we want, or what we hope for – but what we expect! Shakespeare said it long ago: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Sometimes we create huge NO’s simply due to our expectations, which translate into our behaviors. For example, from a survey of top personnel executives of 100 major American businesses, here are some of the accounts of bizarre behavior by job applicants:

• “… said she was so perfect that if he didn’t get the job, it would prove that the company’s management was incompetent.”
• “… announced he hadn’t eaten lunch and proceeded to eat a hamburger and french fries in the interviewer’s office.”
• “Balding candidate suddenly excused himself. Returned to office a few minutes later, wearing a hairpiece.”
• “…she vomited on my desk, and immediately began asking questions about the job, like nothing had happened.”
• “When asked the reason for leaving last job: They insisted all employees arrive at work by 8:45 am every morning. I couldn’t work under those conditions.”

We do it to ourselves! So what do we expect?

Lowell Fillmore shares how Adam named the animals in the creation story, and says that in like manner, we can name our conditions as either bad or good, yes or no. Since we have this creative power, why not name things good?

Look at how fickle the concept of Good versus Bad is. Just one example: Is coffee good or bad for you? Depends on what research you find. A recent Harvard research article outlined in WebMD that coffee lowers your risk of diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and colon cancer-lifts your mood and treats headaches-improves athleticism, and can even lower your risk of cavities!

So begin now to Expect the Yes in No!

2) Embrace the YES in NO.

This means creating an attitude of joy, knowing that at the level of spirit, it already is. It is important to realize that what you think of or experience is more important than the thing or experience itself. Whenever you become aware of a blockage that seems to be saying “NO!” immediately affirm YES!

We create what we call the “Apostrophe Effect” ~ which we’ve shared before, but believe it is so important we want to share it again. When you face the NO’s of life, remember this. Imagine the word IMPOSSIBLE. Put an apostrophe between the ‘I’ and the ‘M.’ what does it spell now? I’M POSSIBLE! Practice creating the ‘Intention of Embracing the YES in NO.’

3) Expand the Yes in No.

Here we’re indicating the need to it on projecting the attitude of hope and encouragement to others. You can begin educating others so that instead of asking “Why did this happen to me?” they learn how to ask the question, “How can I use this for good?” Here’s a little tip for you: It’s all in how it’s spelled!

You run smack into a difficult situation, and immediately you see N-O, NO! But suppose you changed the spelling to K-N-O-W, KNOW? This becomes a trigger to remind you that you KNOW there is a YES in that No, and you KNOW that you are one with Divine Substance, where all things work together for good – where all things are possible!

And just in case you run into a really tough situation that challenges your belief to the fullest, contact us to show you how you can step through a 5×7 index card.

We K-N-O-W, KNOW, that all things are possible when we we connect with our Christ Center! And as you practice the art of ‘Expecting the Yes in NO,’ ‘Embracing the Yes in No,’ and ‘Expanding the Yes in No,’ you will reap the benefits in terms of walking the spiritual path on practical feet!

WE absolutely love the TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ~ because it personifies the human spirit, and the deep inner desire we have to reach out and help others. A hallmark emotion of this show is “Delight”

• the incredible delight of the family, when they view their new home;
• the obvious delight of Ty and the design team, in sharing the home;
• the heart-warming delight of the builders and volunteers, who always claim they receive so much more than they give!

Delight is an intense emotion, and one that truly opens the Consciousness to allow a free-flow of abundance and prosperity to come to you, in ways you would never begin to imagine!

As part of our Sunday service, we share a Prosperity Blessing during our offering time, in which we repeat together, “Divine Love, through me, blesses and multiplies all the I have, all that I give, and all that I receive.”

These words are actually a perfect outline for understanding an Extreme Level of Delight. Most people tend to think about money when they hear this blessing, but let’s “amp it up” into a description of our consciousness, and see a deeper message!

Delight in all you have:

Of course, this tells us to be grateful for the things we have without begrudging what others have, or always longing for what you wish you had.

But there’s a deeper level to consider: don’t we all have things we don’t particularly feel grateful for? For example, things like illness, money problems, work issues, etc.? The real secret here is to live from a state of delight, even in the midst of these kinds of issues. Regardless of what we “have,” we are grateful! Not for but from! Living from that sense of delight in knowing we are one with God and all is well, we can recognize that every experience is simply “curriculum,” from which we can learn and grow.

Delight in all that you give:

This section of the blessing reminds us to delight in the things we give to others, but it goes so much farther than that. Become aware of other ways you give and pay attention to whether you are giving gratefully. We give by way of words; expressions; help; comfort; time. For example, we recently hosted some out of state friends. Ten of us met to share time together for a dinner, ranging from age 17 months to 89 years old! It was an incredible evening, because everyone gave their time, joyfully, to come together as family and friends. What a joyful gathering we all had!

Give joyfully! We write “Gladly” on all our checks (right above the words “Pay to the order of”), and it helps us experience a sense of joy as we send our money out into the world. By allowing a sense of delight to flow through us, we can send that joy out to others through our words and actions. Giving with delight enriches your prosperity, and the prosperity of all those whose lives you touch!

Delight in all that you receive:

Think about a gift you gave to someone recently. Recall your excitement in choosing it (or making it), and how you felt as you wrapped it up and delivered it. Now, imagine that you get no acknowledgment at all. Nothing is more disappointing than giving something, and not feeling a sense of appreciation on the part of the one you gave it to. It breaks the flow of the giving and receiving cycle.

Consider a compliment you received, that you negated and threw back at the giver! Think about offers for help, that you have glibly refused. When you do not receive with delight, you cut off the cycle of giving and receiving, and you put a kink in the prosperity flow into your life.

Experience shows that receiving with delight is the toughest challenge of all – particularly when we find ourselves in a place of need, where we must take help from others. But if we can just remember that in receiving with delight, we are actually helping those who are giving – and we are maintaining that Giving/Receiving Cycle, keeping it flowing in our lives!

Charles Fillmore is quoted as saying, “It has been found by experience that a person increases his blessings by being grateful for what he has. Gratitude even on the mental plane is a great magnet. When gratitude is expressed from the spiritual standpoint, it is powerfully augmented.”

When we live life from a Spiritual Consciousness of Delight – delighting in all that we have, all that we give, and all that we receive – we will discover that everything we ever need flows to us as we align ourselves with Divine Abundance.

Drs. Bil & Cher Holton are Spiritual Leaders at Unity Spiritual Life Center in Durham, NC, where they practice positive, practical, progressive Christianity. Visit their website at Unity Spiritual Life Center and sign up to receive a complimentary 4-week e-course.