As the UCOH community moves into the second quarter of our year-long journey together, under the banner of “The Courage To Imagine,” we begin to shift our thematic focus from the “courage to come from within” to the “courage to soar.” “The Courage To Imagine” master theme for the year encourages us to use the power of our imagination in new, innovative ways to overcome limitations in our thinking and realize our Christ potential.
As we enter the second quarter, the “courage to soar” theme comes into sharper relief, as a complement to the first quarter’s “courage to come from within” theme, not a replacement. By shifting our thematic focus to the “courage to soar,” we are not moving on and leaving the “courage to come from within” theme behind. Quite the contrary, we are bringing it with us. It is an essential, even indispensable, tool in the spiritual backpack we are packing on our year-long journey of transformation together.
The Courage To Come From Within
When I began turning my attention to the “courage to soar” theme, the immediate metaphor that came to mind was of a bird. Metaphysically speaking, birds represent divine ideas, or higher thinking. So, to soar, means to take flight, to lift ourselves above the mere physical experience, and to set our sights on reaching elevated heights in our thinking, and in the quality of our consciousness.
As we explored in some of the first quarter blog articles, to have the “courage to come from within” means to be willing to first go within to reach the deepest, most fundamental truth of our being, and then to courageously live our lives in conscious alignment with the truth we discover there. By connecting with our deepest truth first, we can more sharply train our focus into the higher realm of divine ideas, where we may allow our imagination to soar like a bird to new heights.
Interestingly, we cannot soar to new heights, unless we are first courageously willing to come from the truth within at the deepest part of our being. To allow our imagination to soar, we must cultivate an elevated quality of consciousness that dwells in the realm of higher thinking. This requires that we first be aligned with the deepest truth of our being, and then to express our truth in conscious awareness of our connection to this deepest truth. Both pursuits require great courage.
Courage Is No Mere Act of Will
If you review the modern dictionary definition of courage, you would be left with the impression that courage is merely a willful act of bravery. However, courage is no mere act of will that simply powers through adversity. Courage is an energy of the heart, an expression of the power of love, not a projection of the force of will. A will that is divorced from love is not true power, it is misguided force. It may get you what you want in the moment sometimes, but as a long term strategy it is deleterious to your spiritual growth.
To express true “courage” is to marry the powers of love and will together in a synergistic creative partnership, the kind of partnership necessary to express both the courage to come from within and the courage to soar to new heights in our experience. To think about the relationship between love and will in new ways requires an inspired imagination. An individual will infused with the harmonizing power of love always yields great rewards, way more so than an autonomous, independent will separated from love. Ultimately, what we recognize as courage is, in reality, an expression of the power of love.
The True Purpose of Imagination
As a creative, I feel the power of imagination getting a lot of reps in the artistic gym around here, so to speak. I love my imagination. It is like oxygen to me. I literally could not imagine my life without it. See what I did there? But seriously, the power of imagination is essential to our experience. We use it all the time, in conscious and unconscious ways. Imagination can be helpful and beneficial to our progress, and can also be used in ways that undermine or impede progress.
For example, if we are allowing a past event or trauma to paralyze us in the present moment, we are misusing the power of our imagination to do so. The past event is not happening in reality. It is only happening in consciousness through the power of imagination. To continue to play the part of a victim to past events or circumstances that are no longer present in our lives is to misuse imagination. Imagination is powerful. It can make it seem like things are happening that are not. Charles Fillmore deeply respected the imagination, which is why he included it among the twelve essential powers, or creative faculties of humankind.
To use our imagination in ways that helps us realize our divine potential is the true purpose of imagination. However, like all of the other twelve powers, imagination cannot be left to its own devices. It does require great courage to unerringly wield the power of imagination in ways that are positive and beneficial. If we are truly and courageously using our imagination to come from within, from the deepest truth of our being, then we will soar. We will achieve new heights in our experience, we will take flight, rise above the weight of our fears and realize our divine potential. We just have to get over it.
Get Over It (Whatever It Is)
Typically, when someone uses the phrase, “get over it,” they use it in the sense of be done with it, or let it go, or just plain old stop it, as in quit obsessing over it, and get on with your life. For a brilliant and hilarious take on using this strategy to help someone move forward again, I highly recommend spending a few minutes on YouTube watching this Bob Newhart skit, after you finish reading this article, that is.
To simply get over it, stuff it and move on, does not mean we have resolved or healed anything. It merely means that, through an act of will, we have temporarily come unstuck, and started moving again. This isn’t so bad in and of itself, but as the old saying goes: wherever we go, there we are. Our stuff goes with us, wherever we go. We can choose not to focus on it; or we can actively deny it even exists, or has any power over us. We can even actively resist thinking about it at all. Get over it! We can do that, right?
I have come to understand that to tell someone to just get over it is a form of spiritual malpractice. We cannot just simply get over it; we must move through it, transform it, even transcend it. We cannot just power through it by sheer will alone. We must bring love into the equation so that we can dissolve and neutralize the fears and resistances that keep us grounded. This is imperative if we are ever to take flight, and soar above it all.
Soar Above It (Whatever It Is)
We could say the same three simple words: get over it, and communicate an entirely different meaning, one that will inspire transformation, rather than invite resignation. Get over it, as in, get above it, even soar above it. Elevate your thinking about it, whatever it is that you may be dealing with at the time. Allow your imagination to take flight, to rise above the fray, to see the forest, rather than the trees, to inspire creative solutions for enlarging your territory, expanding your possibilities.
Ultimately, only love can lift us into flight, into the higher realms of consciousness. Fear can never take us into elevated thinking. The essential energy of fear is what keeps us grounded in physicality, materiality. Fear is like gravity, in that it keeps us bound to the earth, attached to the physical. Fear motivates us to defend, even to attack in the name of defending that to which we are attached. Defense and attack are forms of resistance, and all resistance is grounded in fear. Since we cannot achieve an elevated consciousness in the presence of fear, our resistance becomes an impediment to the realization of our divine potential.
By now, we all likely know how this kind of scenario goes. That which we resist, persists. We do not neutralize, transform, or even transcend fear by resisting it. Fear can only be neutralized by the harmonizing power of love. As we mature spiritually, we begin to understand at a deeper level that we must learn to love our fears, not resist or deny them. Learning to love our fears is how we demonstrate that we have the courage to soar.
