Manufactured Drama or Hungry Soul: What’s Stirring In You?

This week Lola Wright kicked off our new series for the month of June, Divine Discontent, with the message, “Manufactured Drama or Hungry Soul: What’s Stirring In You?”

Transcript

Notes

Opening:

Mollie & Nichole (SLIDE: PIC) – for years Mollie received letters from her family filled with Bible verses asking her to reconsider her partnership with Nichole. Her family prayed that she see their way and return to the Christian roots her parents espoused. Year after year Mollie and Nichole returned to family holidays with a steadfast commitment to their love and for the love Mollie so desired of her family. (Grannie, Aunt’s letter, Mollie & Nichole’s unwillingness to accept what was and pursue what could be) Mollie and Nichole were motivated by a stirring of the soul that sought FREEDOM. Their ability to orient themselves around the truth of life versus the facts of life allowed them to turn a challenging set of circumstances into an experience of Divine Discontent.

• SLIDE: There is a place within you that has never been hurt, damaged, or endangered. It is your job to find that place. – Ernest Holmes

  • Because from THAT place you can create anything despite the circumstances you confront

  • You know the source of your being and you are unshakeable

Divine – Sacred, Holy, like God

Discontent – dissatisfaction with one’s circumstances

Objectives:

• Feelings of unrest, agitation, impatience, or fatigue may be invitations into new ways of being

• Recognize the nudge and the urge to move from the status quo, to wake up from our sleepy states, to make a new choice

Keywords/Stories/Points:

• Our history of repression and oppression can lead to us ignoring the stir within us. We swirl in doubt and we struggle to hear the stir of spirit nudging us into our greatest yet to be.

  • SLIDE: People have been beaten and otherwise abused for simply noticing what was going on in their families and speaking the truth about it. So, we have inherited a tendency to pretend not to see and to swallow the truth. – Conscious Loving by Gay & Katie Hendricks

• When we seek for approval with greater priority than listening to the still small voice we’ve lost our way. To strengthen the ear for Spirit we must practice one minute at a time. There is something in you that KNOWS.

  • SLIDE: Stop centering your life on seeking approval or avoiding disapproval. Notice how you are controlling and jockeying for approval and drop these patterns first for a minute. Then go without them for a day, then one day at a time thereafter. There is a completely lovable essence at the center of you that is beyond all your strivings. – Conscious Loving

• As we turn within our spiritual essence is more able to shine through.

  • SLIDE: When you can break through your approval and control programming, there is a natural, organic spiritual essence within you that can be consciously experienced. As long as we try to control ourselves and others, and as long as we strive to get others to like us, that spiritual essence is obscured. When we wake up and start loving ourselves, we claim our divine right. – Conscious Loving

• When feeling we are at the effect of circumstances it can feel as if we are in a random universe. And yet, the more we are willing to get curious and take responsibility the greater capacity we have for aliveness.

  • SLIDE: When man assumes that in matters touching his life and the life of man there is no order, only chaos or accident, then he may escape the responsibility for his own actions. We do not like responsibility. It is much simpler to live as if there were no responsibility for our conscious deeds, as if our unconscious deeds are without moral significance. But deep within us we know we cannot escape responsibility. – Life is Alive by Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart

• The dreary place you maintain enables you to avoid feeling the unknown of the dream – divine discontent

  • SLIDE: Where there is no dream, the life becomes a swamp, a dreary dear place and, deep within, a man’s heart begins to rot. – Keep Alive the Dream in the Heart by Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart

• Pay attention to the stirring of your soul, listen to its guidance

  • SLIDE: With a strong commitment to inquiring into yourself, the universe does not have to use catastrophes to wake you up. – Conscious Loving

• When you are living outside of your purpose discontent will be chronic

  • SLIDE: Knowing your purpose satisfies a deep need that lives in everyone: the need for meaning, to have a positive impact, to have your presence and life felt by others. – True Purpose by Tim Kelley

Summary:

None of us desire difficult life events, whether it is an unfulfilling job, loveless relationship, physical disease, or financial constraints. When we find ourselves confronted with such circumstances, we have three primary choices:

1. We can begin circling the drain of frustration, resentment, doubt, and despair leading us into drama.

2. We can spiritually bypass our way through the discomfort and pretend like all is well.

3. We can get highly creative and imagine how we’ve been rightly prepared for this moment.

Closing:

Prayer & Meditation