When we are confronted by the adversaries of life – be it the pain of healing, the worry of making ends meet, the maintenance of a roof over our heads, the struggle to forgive, the challenges faced by our loved ones, the demands of time commitments, or even the fear of our journey into the unknown – it is important to remember that the Kingdom of God is neither here nor there, it is within us (Luke 17:21).   Jesus taught us that a comforter called the Holy Spirit is within us, always providing the wisdom that we need, always directing our passage (John 14:15-17).  He reminded us that our own laws say that we are gods (John 10:34).  His beloved Paul also teaches that we live and move and have our being in the Spirit (Acts 17:28).  We are so connected to the Divine that if we put our doubt and fear aside just for a moment, if we listened to the silence, if we stopped trying and simply learned to “be,” we could hear God saying “I am here.”

“I am here” with you at your crossroad of crisis.  “I am here” with you in your deepest desire. 
“I am here” with you on your bed of affliction.  “I am here” with you in your acceptance of new love.  “I am here” with you in your career change.  “I am here” with you in your fundraising efforts.  “I am here” with you on your marketing campaign.  “I am here” with you on every blank page of your life and endless circle of light where you stand ready for redemption.  “I am here” opening infinite channels to your Absolute Good.

If you take a moment and listen, you will hear God saying, “There is no place where I am not.”

At Spiritmuv, each Sunday we anoint ourselves with the realization that God is everywhere.  We move beyond the cracks and crevices of limitation and find salvation in the ordinary and the sanctity of our ability to believe that we are more than good religion, we are the greatness of  God expressed as us.

When we listen to the God within, we climb outside of our boxes of convention and tradition and normalcy, and we step up to the plate of trusting the Divine Within.  I know that we say that we love God, trust God and are believers, but we don’t always exhibit our love.  We often stop short of our true selves and lose ourselves in someone else’s bad vibrations.  We often forget that we are heirs to the throne.  We often forget that we are temples of the living God.  We often stop listening to what the Psalmist calls “stillness” and turn a deaf ear to God always reminding us, “I am here.”  But not April 1-3, this past weekend, at the God is a Brown Girl Too Retreat.  This past weekend, we opened the door to honoring the goodness of God forever by fully exploring the Kingdom within for three days at the Mariandale Retreat Center, and we found Endless Possibility.

We were drawing and painting and stitching and sewing and evolving and being and dancing and singing and igniting and liberating and moving beyond limitations – when we suddenly realized our Endless Possibility.  And neither rustle nor stir, tree nor sky, bush nor bird, mountain nor molehill could dispute the rumblings of hallelujah in the air to welcome us.  Suddenly, we could hear the silence between thoughts; we could feel the impossibilities lifted beyond despair; we could sense the release of the stuff that we didn’t really need; we could rejuvenate ourselves with restored freedom to pursue old dreams and new revelations.

Endless Possibility anointed us as new sweetness in our fragrance, new movement in our forward; new dazzle in our genius; new sparkle in our eyes; new force in our energy; new boldness in our courage; new glory in our victory.  No one and nothing could contain us.

We moved from the confinement of our boxes to the present moment – always evolving and always breathing God as us.  We were able to laugh again, be free again and triumph over struggle.

We told a new story that now speaks us in the wind.

The prophecy of Quilt-ologist Pamela Jones, the healing hands of massage therapist Bianca Townsend, the visionary vibrations of prayer warrior Raquiba LaBrie, the artistry of actor Rahima Wachuku, and my own God is a Brown Girl Too guided us to wholeness.

We realized that the soul of the Motherland is in us – and speaks through us and sings as us; that we are all woven from the same cloth, the same secrets, the same love.

We each have beautiful patterns to create and colors to draw upon and lift up and share as the incredible, the miraculous and the strong.

We remembered that God does not merely braid our thick soft hair but puts a million tiny universes in a single strand, covers us with stars and bathes us with living waters.  We opened our eyes again so that we can see the eternal in everlasting locks and twists, rivers and streams, paths and purposes.

We discovered that we are sweetness and trust, gingersnaps and vanilla wafers, laughter and butterflies, answers and prayers, magic and miracles.

We began yet another chapter to the story of God is a Brown Girl Too® and heard with lasting clarity “I am here.”

Namaste,
Reverend Cecilia Loving

© 2011 Reverend Cecilia Loving

About SPIRITMUV:  Spiritmuv® is a trans-denominational church, which means that it transcends the confines of religion and teaches unconditional love for one another regardless of race, creed, culture, or religion.   At the heart of its teachings is what Jesus taught — that we love one another, as well as the community that Mahatma Gandhi inspired when he said, “I am a Christian and a Muslim and a Hindu and a Jew.”  Reverend Cecilia Loving is the founder and creator of Spiritmuv, which was formed in 2007.  Services are held for an hour every Sunday, from 2:30 P.M. to 3:30 P.M. at the Unity Center of NYC, located at 213 West 58th Street.