Spiritual Alka Seltzer
Monday, February 11th, 2008One of the toughest jobs we've ever done as corporate teambuilding consultants was to help a very large health care organization "come clean." The person who hired us was the senior executive Vice-President of Customer Care. We had worked with her before when she was an exec with another Fortune 100 company. When she left there she took us with her.
In her new role she was mandated to resurrect a customer care department that was hemorrhaging. After conducting the usual internal audits and interviews, systems assessments, 360 feedback, and customer surveys, we identified key pathologies, conducted aggressive team development sessions, stirred up the proverbial hornets nest; and, when all was said and done, made several recommendations, including what amounted to a 25% reduction in force. Our client acted on our recommendations and cleaned house.
You can imagine the upheaval, the surprise and disbelief that ran through her division. But it was necessary, because of the old beliefs and ideologies that ran head-on into the new vision. Not everyone embraced it! It was tough, but six months later, her Customer Care Division won a national award for service excellence.
We witnessed a similar housecleaning at Unity Village Spiritual Education and Enrichment Center. Students attended from all over the world and from all walks of life. Most were from a combination of Christian and New Thought backgrounds and many were in some kind of life transition.
The 'coming clean' we're referring to usually came during days 4 or 5. After almost a week of mind boggling class discussions, homework, team projects, and peer discussions about Truth principles, the Bible, and metaphysics, a few of the students (probably 30%) suffered meltdowns.
The Unity term for this meltdown is chemicalization. When we receive life-changing information that blows our mind, our old programming resists the new information and we experience an internal upheaval.
Our definition for this chemicalization experience is 'spiritual Alka Seltzer.' Alka Seltzer is a great metaphor for that stirring up of things to burn off the old ideas and create that relief of a higher spiritual awareness: chemicalization.
That's what we believe is happening in Matt. 21:12-14. Jesus has just made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Read Matt.21:12-14 to see what happens.
Here is the metaphysical meaning. You may want to fasten your seatbelts:
We believe this event describes a chemicalization experience! A spiritual Alka Seltzer moment. It happens inside our heads. It is a consciousness shift, a spiritual deepening. When we are in that state of receptivity we are ready for spiritual growth, ready for the Indwelling Christ to speak to us.
Growth usually comes when our Christ potential (our Jesus quality) creates dissonance in our old belief system (represented by the money changers) and turns our old beliefs upside down (the tables). When this happens, we experience chemicalization - Spiritual Alka Seltzer.
As we grow on our spiritual journeys, we are bound to run into moments when our old beliefs run head-on into our new-found understanding … and we may experience some form of chemicalization.
Go back in your memory bank to some difficult experience you have moved through in your life. Not something you are struggling with now, but something from your past. Pick something specific. Recall (without the emotional baggage) the struggle and difficulty of living through the situation. Consider how you grew - personally, professionally, and spiritually from the experience.
Once we drop in a few Spiritual Alka Seltzers we feel the sizzle of enthusiasm, the plop, plop of expectancy, and the fizz of the faith-lift we receive as our lives are transformed forever!
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