This Sunday our church is celebrating our 35th year here in Alpine and my 20th as the minister. We’re having a potluck after the 11 a.m. service in Fuller Hall and any and everyone is welcome. If you’ve enjoyed reading my column, which I’ve been writing for 19 years, you might want to come and attend a service and hear the message in person.
They say a minister talks about what they need to learn themselves. As I was taking my walk in Wright’s Field this morning, I was remembering it was exactly one year ago today that I received a call that our son was in the hospital with his first heart attack. Little did I know that two short months later he would leave this earth plane. I was feeling various feelings, none of which were positive or happy, when I heard the voice inside me say, “Remember what you sang in last Sunday’s talk and DO IT! It was a Rickie Byers song – “I release and I let go. I let the Spirit run my life. And my heart is open wide. Yes, I’m only here for God.” Remembering to leave my heart open is a lesson I need to learn time and again. Freedom is the banner under which we are moving through this month of July.
Freedom denotes an air of openness, of being unrestricted. It is well documented by David Hawkins in his book, Letting Go, that our lack of freedom comes from the feelings that we primarily suppress, repress, deny, or project. To quote Hawkins: “To be free of inner conflict and expectations is to give ourselves and others in our life the greatest freedom. It allows us to experience the basic nature of the universe, which, it will be discovered, is to manifest the greatest good possible in a situation. This may sound philosophical, but, when done, it is experientially true.”
Say with me: “I let go of inner conflict and expectations to set myself free, so I am available to experience the greatest good possible in any and all situations. Thank you, God.”
—Rev. Gay Beauregard, Alpine Church of Spiritual Living
