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.

One 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!

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.