Tag Archives: Love

SELF-EMPOWERMENT SESSION ONE: REDISCOVER YOUR TRUE SELF

July 11, 2014 #lovingfactor Leave a comment

Next Saturday, July 19, God is a Brown Girl Too will enjoy a virtual retreat via the phone, at 8:00 to 9:00 A.M. Just dial 567-314-3648; use pass code 48201.

Here is the excerpt from the God is a Brown Girl Too book that we will be discussing, which can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and wherever books are sold.

Re-Discover Your True Self

When you know that I am you,
and you are me –
you will begin to realize who God is.

***

Do you remember who I am? I am the Absolute Good that breathed you into being. I am the Divine Mind that gave you consciousness. I am the Endless Source that formed your soul. I am the Inexhaustible Supply that continues to feed you out of the eternal cosmos of the universe. Nothing came before me. I AM that I AM. I am the Creator here to remind you that my image and likeness is reflected as you. Creation is not something that happened and then stopped. Creation is something I did, and am still doing. Wherever there is creativity, there I am.

In order to know me in the Spirit, you will have to transcend the box of tradition in which you are locked. You will have to remove those strait-laced handcuffs of dependence, fear and shame. You will have to be bold enough to leave doctrine and diplomacy to embrace your own power. If you want to reclaim your life, acknowledging me – the Divine within – is not an option; it is a necessity. Men have so dominated your religion that most of you believe that I am an old white man.

Perhaps if you close your eyes and center your thoughts in a past that transcends the world as you know it, you can remember a creation that is older than European biblical tradition. Try to remember a beginning where ancient Africa was the Motherland of creation. Meditate on what Moses told the Israelites. He said “you forgot the God who gave you birth” (Deut. 32:18 NIV), or recall that Isaiah said God carried you since your birth (Isaiah 46:3). Imagine me from Hosea’s perspective, who said that I taught you to walk, that I healed you, that I lifted you like a child to my cheek and bent down to feed you (Hosea 11:3-4).

I cannot be limited to words, but you may prefer to call me Spirit. Like “Love,” Spirit is a term that you can use interchangeably with “God.” The elusive sound of Spirit will help you stop picturing a person with a long white beard. Picture me as you growing in all directions at once instead of a person with a long white beard. I am greater than you can imagine, comprised of everything that is. I am that point at which you find yourself. I am far greater than any pre-conceived notion of human sexuality or gender. If this is confusing, call me whatever you like. Call me “science” or “chance” or “coincidence” or “miracle.” I am everything that is.

Throughout time, the bodies of women have carried and delivered my souls, those fragments of me from now to eternity. I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. These are my mountains and my valleys and my trees. This is my thunder and my rain and my river. You are all that I am. You cannot be limited, or minimized, or marginalized or demonized. You are my seed of life. Come and reclaim your rightful place as equal heirs to my throne.

True liberation of the oppressed, the imprisoned, the disenfranchised, the denigrated and the despised will only evolve as each individual evolves. It is up to each one of you to realize that you are more than your flesh, and to re-discover yourself as God. I am your liberation, your freedom through Spirit, and your connection to unconditional love. It is up to you to allow my light to glow in all of its magnificence as you. My beloved Jesus said “Í am the Light of the world” – but also that you are the light of the world. Let your light shine.

Through you, I teach, nurse, build, draw, sell, purchase, divine, uplift, heal, nanny, negotiate, arbitrate, lawyer, doctor, sweep, mop, clean, cook, pray, baptize, massage, water, write, dance, model, sing, invent, farm, design, birth, pastor and encourage – not only the hearts of the privileged few but of the entire world. I fight for freedom. I abolish apartheid, genocide, lynch mobs, gas ovens, prostitution, slavery. I lead protests, I die for justice and equality. I go to jail in order stand up for what I believe is right. I refuse to give up my seat. But I have not stopped killing and maiming and abusing and destroying because you have not. You have forgotten your true self worth. You have given up your power. You have yet to realize that you are my co-creator. You choose. You decide. You deliver. I can only do for you what I can do through you.

I send manna constantly, but you refuse to pick it up, or you still attempt to store it for yourselves. No matter how much you horde, you cannot be nurtured by it until you stop being afraid and be in my moment. You don’t need to be greedy, or jealous, or spiteful – especially of one another. Imagine how foolish that looks to me, knowing that you have all that you need. I am your way out of no way, your Jesus on the main line, your calm in the storm, your gangster, your hook-up, your constant supply. Stop judging by mere appearances. Remember that you really are God.

Step Into Your Greatness

When you stand on the edge of pure possibility,
you can use your prayer as the impetus to fly.

***

It is important for everyone to study and know the truth – especially you. Disregard those who believe that you have no right to God – for they want you to believe that you have no right to yourself. No woman or girl should be oppressed because of those who misinterpret the truth to mean that God is male and therefore, only men are God. I am inextricably part of each one of you in the same way that a breath is part of the wind. You, too, are the energy of life. There is no separation between all that I am and all that you are. Paul was right when he said that you live, move and have your being in God. You are my offspring (Acts 17:28).

All of you who see me in Jesus should be aware that Jesus acknowledged me in you when he said “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20). Jesus said that the “kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Jesus not only said I and the Father are One, he also said, “you are gods” (John 10:34). This is called oneness. This means that there is no separation between you and Spirit. This means that your greatness is you waiting for you to express the Absolute Good that you are.

Feel me at the bottom of your feet. I am stepping through divine vibrations that I am sending from the tip of your toes up your muscles and bones –through your veins and glands – to the top of your head. I am always in your midst as your teacher, your companion and your guide. I always direct you, move you, lead you, speak to you, create through you, act through you, dance through you, and sing through you. I am always there, always here, always now.

I sing“Jesus loves me this I know” because it is Jesus whose teachings have taught many to step into their greatness. Jesus is the perfect manifestation of Spirit in creation. Jesus is the divine idea of God fully expressed as humanity. There is nothing like the blood of Jesus. But focus less on his crucifixion and more on his resurrection. Jesus has never stopped reminding Brown Girls everywhere that you will do “even greater things” than him (John 14:12). Eat those words with as much joy as you would a trip to Red Lobster, and let them slither off your tongue like those hot cheese biscuits.

Christ is not a person. Christ is the salvation, the stature that Jesus attained to show you that God dwells in all humanity. Paul said “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27), teaching you that Spirit is your birthright.

I sing, “Jesus on the main line, tell ’em what you want.” But Jesus does not merely teach you to ask for what you want. He commands that you do so – commands that you be in the right consciousness to receive it. Jesus is teaching you to step into the kingdom of God that is within you, and know that all else – every single detail of my good will be added to you (Matt. 6:31-33).

Center in Power

EIGHT LESSONS FROM THE SILENCE

June 13, 2014 #lovingfactor 1 Comment

In Sedona, so much was revealed that it will take several blogs to process it all. Even after several more blogs, the process of understanding the blessings of Sedona will be ongoing.

For example, one of the most important parts of the retreat is being silent. We were silent every night from 10 PM to 6 AM, but on the fourth day, we went into more focused silence from 5 PM to 5 AM. In the silence, it is easier to practice the presence because you can more easily leave the world around you.

The first lesson that I learned in the silence was compassion. I realized that the loudest noise I hear – the noise that I needed to silence – was my inner voice. Take a moment and listen to your inner voice. What are you telling yourself?

My inner voice was filled with criticism and condemnation. I had to silence my inner voice as well as my outer voice – to hear God.

The second lesson I learned in the silence was to look deeply into my own eyes and smile. In the mirror, my whole face smiled with me. Have you taken the time to see you and bless yourself with a smile? I never would have taken the time to smile at myself if I were not silent. Looking deeply into my eyes and smiling was like staring deeply into an opening in my soul.

The third lesson that I learned in the silence was to be moderate in all things. Spirit made me promise not to deprive myself. I can eat the blanched kale and oatmeal and fruit that we had for breakfast – with ground flaxseed. But for me, I can also eat flesh in moderation, sugar in moderation, salt in moderation. Moderation also requires that I in-take the colors of the universe: beets and oranges, strawberries and radishes; sweet potatoes and tangerines; cucumbers and mangoes, and sweet potatoes and egg plant. Whole foods shined through us fresh as a new aura of wholeness.

The fourth lesson that I learned in the silence was to stop judging. Instead, I allow peace to fill my heart: a peace that washes away fear, a peace that washes away sadness, a peace that nourishes my soul. In peace, I rest and am renewed – rising like an eagle, strong enough this time to fly higher.

The fifth lesson that I learned in the silence is how to see my husband more clearly. I really saw him as who he was for the first time. He was there in the silence too as he accompanies me on every retreat and for every service, presentation or workshop. We have been in the silence several times before so we know to avoid each other’s eyes. Our eyes would be conversation in and of themselves. Instead I feel his anticipation of my needs, his desire to give, his patient attention to detail, his strength to my weakness, his husband to my wife, his light in my darkness.

The sixth lesson I learned in the silence is that I already hear the prayers of others – not loudly, but instinctively. I already am part of the impetus to receive answers. I already ride on the wings of grace with blessings and favor. Miracles are already taking shape.

The seventh lesson I learned in the silence is how to see you. I know you by your magnificence. Your radiance transcends the mago womb of love. You are as brilliant as dawn, dressed in new moons, wearing the victory of new seasons. Each one of your ten toes and fingers wiggle in the rainbows of lasting promises. Each one of your amazing stars curls through your hair and colors your skin endless shades and hues of brown. I learn the importance of being present for you as much as I am present for me.

The eighth lesson that I learned in the silence is that my dreams are already one with nature. My dreams awaken in the desert even more eloquently than they do in the city. In Sedona, my dreams ride the winds of gentle kisses and leap from the limbs of juniper trees, saying “you have arrived, you have entered a new realm, you are here.”

In the silence, deep within the silence, I know that we are born of the same mother, fed by the same father, guided by the same holy spirit, led by the same Christ of many different names. I know that our song will last forever because I can hear it. It is a song bestowed on us by the ancients, a song of grace given to us by God, a song of power exuding from every cell of our being, a song of wholeness connecting us as one, a song of Genesis constantly creating, a song of vision beyond the world dimension.

In the silence, I hear a song of joy that never ever stops singing.

NAMASTE,

The love in me embraces the love in you.

Rev. Cecilia B. Loving

Believe in Yourself

STEP INTO YOUR GREATNESS

April 16, 2014 #lovingfactor Leave a comment

When you stand on the edge of pure possibility,
you can use your prayer as the impetus to fly.

***

an excerpt from the book God is a Brown Girl Too, where God speaks as us to us, from the kingdom within . . .

“I sing“Jesus loves me this I know” because it is Jesus whose teachings have taught many to step into their greatness. Jesus is the perfect manifestation of Spirit in creation. Jesus is the divine idea of God fully expressed as humanity. There is nothing like the blood of Jesus.

But focus less on his crucifixion and more on his resurrection.

Jesus has never stopped reminding Brown Girls everywhere that you will do “even greater things” than him (John 14:12).

Eat those words with as much joy as you would a trip to Red Lobster, and let them slither off your tongue like those hot cheese biscuits.”

Christ is not a person.

Christ is the salvation, the stature that Jesus attained to show you that God dwells in all humanity.

Paul said “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27), teaching you that Spirit is your birthright.

I sing, “Jesus on the main line, tell ’em what you want.”

But Jesus does not merely teach you to ask for what you want. He commands that you do so — commands that you be in the right consciousness to receive it. Jesus is teaching you to step into the kingdom of God that is within you, and know that all else — every single detail of my good will be added to you (Matt. 6:31-33).

I sing “Yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me” because Jesus taught you that if you don’t have the good sense to ask in your own name, ask in his. He said that he will serve as your proxy and your healer and your friend.

But he taught you these things so that eventually you would become wise enough to touch the hem of your own garment.

There is fish and bread for you to multiply. There are oceans for you to walk.

There are dead among you who need to be raised. There are stones that need to be redeemed from accusers.

There are wellsprings of living water to drink. But I need you to stand up my daughter — in a consciousness that realizes you have whatever it takes. You will never be successful if you do not grasp the unlimited power that I am as you. I don’t care about your weave, your Gucci, your rock or the glitter of your rims — even your millions don’t matter.

Only when you awaken to your true self do you step into your greatness.

It is important for everyone to study and know the truth — especially you. Disregard those who believe that you have no right to God — for they want you to believe that you have no right to yourself.

No woman or girl should be oppressed because of those who misinterpret the truth to mean that God is male and therefore, only men are God. I am inextricably part of each one of you in the same way that a breath is part of the wind.

You, too, are the energy of life. There is no separation between all that I am and all that you are. Paul was right when he said that you live, move and have your being in God. You are my offspring (Acts 17:28).

Jesus not only said I and the Father are One, he also said, “you are gods” (John 10:34).

This is called oneness.

This means that there is no separation between you and Spirit.

This means that your greatness is you waiting for you to express the Absolute Good that you are.

Feel me at the bottom of your feet.

I am stepping through divine vibrations that I am sending from the tip of your toes up your muscles and bones — through your veins and glands — to the top of your head.

I am always in your midst as your teacher, your companion and your guide.

I always direct you, move you, lead you, speak to you, create through you, act through you, dance through you, and sing through you.

I am always there, always here, always now.

Spirit

WHAT IS “GOD IS A BROWN GIRL TOO”?

September 29, 2013 #lovingfactor Leave a comment

For our 100^th blog, I decided to re-visit the genesis of God is a Brown Girl Too. God is a Brown Girl Too is a spiritual movement that was born when I was in seminary and the Holy Spirit revealed to me that one aspect of my calling was to uplift the divine nature of women and girls of color everywhere. This movement is called God is a Brown Girl Too because it is not limited to Africa but to brown women and girls worldwide. Why? Because we have been marginalized, demonized and denigrated throughout history and need to reconstruct our understanding of Spirit as us – not as some old white man who could care less about us. We need to recapture the beauty, grace and power of our divine birthright.

God as Mother, Father, Creator of us all is always present as us all, always loving, always continuing to express as us.

The Brown Girl represents the daughter of all beginnings. Genetic studies and fossil evidence show that humans in Africa, between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago. Based on our knowledge to date, our foremothers left Africa between 125,000 and 60,000 years ago, and that over time these humans replaced earlier human populations such as Neanderthals. And yet, because those who re-wrote history and science and religion left us obscured, worthless, shameful, or – at best – comely, we fail to realize who we really are: made in the image and likeness of the creator of all.

God is a Brown Girl Too exercises the power that we all have to re-claim our legacy as God’s image and likeness for ourselves.

Womanist Alice Walker understood the significance of Brown Girl-ology when she wrote The Color Purple. Celie is the downtrodden Spirit within, who does not find her fullest expression in life until she finds out that God is not a man – but is everything, even the color purple! Shug Avery sings, when you feel the truth and love what you feel, you have found God. Understanding our Oneness with the heart and purpose of the Brown Girl, who merely sits in the shadows of scripture, dances on the edge of time, nonexistent or irrelevant to most – is a challenge worth pursuing because it is by seeing beyond her face-lessness, name-lessness and voice-lessness that we find ourselves.

People from all races, religions, nationalities, and cultures flock to hear the Brown Girl’s voice in The Color Purple on Broadway and to witness her story of realizing that God is within her and everyone else – not merely to be entertained but because there is a ministry in her message.

When I arrived at New York Theological Seminary, I met Drs. Delores Williams and Anne Elliott, in a course that I took on the Spiritual Traditions of Nineteenth Century African American Women. These two womanist theologians taught me that theology is not just how the white man sees God – but how we each walk and talk with God; that African American women have a special relationship with Jesus; that we are moved by the Holy Spirit in a particular way; that we fail to question the messages that we embrace as gospel – like the rape of the slave girl Hagar at the bidding of Sarah; that black women through time have defied death and slavery to bring the word of God; that we have a heritage which not only anoints us with salvation but also with hope.

Drs. Williams and Elliott laid part of the foundation for the beginning of this discourse with acknowledgement of how God expresses as me, along with my background in Unity.

Unity is a nondenominational faith, which teaches that there is no separation between the human spirit and God: that in this eternal Oneness, the “I AM”, we are a living expression of God. Some may find this heretical or blasphemous, but in 2 Corinthians 6:16, the Bible teaches us that “God hath said I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and will be their God.” In 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul said “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” He said that “we live and move, and have our being” in God (Acts 17:28).

In Romans 8:9, the biblical witness said “Ye are not the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” In John 10:34-35, Jesus said, “it is not written in your law, I said, ye are Gods.” In John 14:12, Jesus said “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.” These scriptures and similar passages form the foundation for the church that Spirit formed through me: SPIRITMUV. SPIRITMUV is the spiritual birthplace for God is a Brown Girl Too.

Like Unity, SPIRITMUV teaches that we have the same consciousness that Jesus Christ had, “Christ Consciousness.” Therefore, it is imperative for us to seek and embrace the kingdom in our lives through our conscious connection with the Spirit of God: in every word that we speak, every vision that we have, every breath that we breathe, every inch of space that we take up. God dwells within us and does not depart from us. We are the temple of God and we live and move and have our being in God. We are not only flesh but also Spirit; there is no separation between us and God.

In 1997, when I was recuperating from surgery, I began to write a collection of poetry called “Plain Brown Girl,” thinking not only about myself but about all black women, asking who is there to tend our wounds and comfort us when we are healing. The Brown Girl spoke through me through centuries, reminding me of that she is the face of God. She expressed herself as a Brown Girl partly because of the limitations of the use of the word “black” to embrace people who are not only the most beautiful deepest, darkest brown but are other endless shades of beautiful brown.

Brown also embraces cultures that do not fall under the “black” rubric – many Asians, Hispanics and Latinos and Native Americans whose darker color is indigenous to their land but no different than all of the darker sisters who populate this world and have been marginalized and condemned as always less than.

Brown Girl-ology is the daughter of womanist theology, born to fashion a God from a past that was before history; courageous enough to create her own myths; inventive enough to question the founding fathers of a faith that is largely prejudiced and racist and sexist; daring enough to remember God as Mother, as well as Father; prophetic enough to celebrate Spirit as herself rather than as a God that does not embrace her image and likeness. We embrace the Spirit in us through the power of community.

To date, there are been five retreats: the Opening to Consciousness Retreat in 2009; the Awakening to Love Retreat in 2010; the Creating Outside the Box Retreat in 2011; the Tell a New Story Retreat in 2012; and the Hope of Glory Retreat in 2013 aboard the Carnival Glory Cruise Ship to Nova Scotia. In 2014, we will have the Reclaiming the Vortex Retreat in Sedona, Arizona.

We are grateful for those of you who have joined us on these retreats as they cannot exist without you.

We look forward to you joining us on future retreats. We also invite you to celebrate yourself and become more aware of Spirit expressing as you by attending our Sunday Worth-Ship Services at the Unity Center of New York City, at 2:30 PM, at 213 West 58^th Street, near Broadway.

We meet in the Upper Room to meditate, pray, teach, sing, grow, listen, embrace, and uplift the divine within.

Hope you can help keep our community strong by supporting the you in us.

Much love and many blessings on the path,

Reverend Cecilia Loving

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WALK IN YOUR LIGHT By Cecilia B. Loving

April 6, 2013 #lovingfactor 3 Comments

Your light is your legacy. It is so inseparable from you that you are obligated to let it shine. In Matthew 5:14-15, Jesus said: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a candle and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds.” You cannot pick and choose who will benefit from your light.

You must be generous enough to share it with everyone. How? By simply doing what I have called you to do – walk in your light, walk in your purpose, and walk in your calling. Do what you love to do, what you do best, what harms no one else – and the joy that you give will be beyond your comprehension. Sharing your gifts and talents has a viral effect that will flow through the universe and bless millions for ages to come.

What you don’t realize is that even after you make your transition from this life, your light will still shine so brightly that it will lead people everywhere. Paul told the Ephesians (5:8), to walk as children of Light. Walk in obedience to Spirit. Walk in the beauty of discipline. Walk in the power of faith.

Walk beyond the confines of your self-imposed limitations, so that I can shine through you. Walk as an unlimited expression of all that I AM. You cannot judge your gifts and talents. You cannot see the fullness and wholeness that you contribute to the Universe simply by being the best that you are. Don’t lose your way because of what other people say or do or think. You are uniquely you for a reason. The lack of support, criticism or condemnation by some of my other children is like the wind. It is as fleeting as a single breath.

Don’t be fooled by cowards and haters to be a second-rate you. You are more than a diva, you are the divine. Walk in the beauty of your light. Otherwise, you will never give me the life that you have promised me in the Spirit, and the Promised Land will always be a distant reality.

Your greatest achievements began as divine ideas that no one else believed in. Jesus said (Matthew 25:34), “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” Come you who no longer care what others think. Come you who are no longer afraid to move forward into the greatness that you are. Come you who believe in the magnificence of Spirit. Come you who have brought oil for your lamp and are willing to let your light shine through.

Come all ye faithful. Come ye, O’ come ye to Bethlehem – that house of bread, that place of substance, that center of Truth. O’ come Beloved, from the far country, and behold the Christ within. O’ come Spiritual Rebirth, come with the Light of a new day. O’ come embrace the power that you were given, the true gift of transformation, the joyous deliverance that you can attain through a consciousness of Spirit.

You were called before your birth. The Buddhists ask “do you remember what your face looked like before your parents were born?” Jeremiah said before we were formed in the womb, God knew us. Before we were born, God set us apart (Jeremiah 1:4-6).

You may not remember exactly where you are going or know how you will get there, but I will lead the way. I will give you the voice and the vision and the victory that you need. I will part the Red Sea so that no one will deter you from your path.

As I told the Psalmist, “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm” (Psalm 105:15). Just stay on the path, as Denzel Washington said in The Book of Eli. Stay on the path of righteousness, regardless of evildoers. Return from the far country. Go on about my business. Don’t just get a glimpse of the Promised Land, but be in the right consciousness to enter it. Be a believer – not just in somebody else’s testimony, but know me for you. Shut up and listen to Spirit for yourself. Be liberated in the unlimited power of all that you are.

Walk the walk and talk the talk – with the sword of my power. Watch a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand fall at your right hand and nothing come near you (Psalm 91:7).

This reminds me of the Israelites who were at the edge of the wilderness, when Moses blessed them as they journeyed into the Promised Land. They were not just standing on the bank of a river to cross. They were on the threshold of a new consciousness. They were not just leaving the wilderness because they had traveled a certain distance, or mapped out a particular strategy, or had served a certain amount of time. They were crossing over because they were ready.

The Promised Land is not a physical place. It is a place in consciousness that gives you spiritual food that feeds your mind, soul and heart, the unlimited feast of my Kingdom. It is a place where you will no longer be captive to the wilderness of your own negativity, grumbling, and strife.

It is a place where materialism and greed will no longer enslave you. But you cannot get there until you are ready.

The number forty in the Bible symbolizes preparation rather than a specific number. Forty years in the wilderness means as long as it takes to get ready.

You are ready when you realize that I AM always working with you for your greatest good. I will always feed you enough manna – enough spiritual food to sustain you.

You are ready when you stop worrying about what other people say or think. As Terrie Cole Whitaker says, What You Think About Me is None of My Business. You are ready when you are willing to make the sacrifices that need to be made to accomplish what you want. You are ready when you learn that I AM within.

You are ready when you can bless even the appearances of life – whether they are bad or good – because you realize that they are the motivation that you need.

You are ready when you understand that love is the spiritual law that supersedes all others.

Love does not judge but is unconditional.

Love has an all-encompassing heart that fulfills Karma with Grace.

You can accomplish anything with the power of love.

If you are worried or doubtful or in need, all you have to do is bless the situation with the power of love.

Love is my energy in its most powerful form.

Love allows you to be compassionate toward everyone, even when they second-guess you, because you know that they are part of your blessing.

Even when others mean something for evil, I mean it for good (Genesis 50:20).

They serve as the catalyst that pushes you beyond your comfort zone and make you aim higher than you ever aimed before.

You cross over to the other side when you know that you are blessed with my anointing.

You never know how you are going to make it there.

But you can trust that I will put the right people on your path to push against your resistance and pull you across the threshold to something better and greater.

You have spent enough time in the wilderness.

You are ready to do what I have called you to do – ready to walk in the newness of life,

and nothing and no one can stop you.

EXCERPT FROM GOD IS A BROWN GIRL TOO

Spirit

THE BEGINNING AND END OF YOUR LOVE STORY by Cecilia B. Loving

February 18, 2013 #lovingfactor Leave a comment

Marlon and I are huge romantics.
We enjoy every love story.
We have probably memorized the script to Pride and Prejudice.
We are huge fans of Masterpiece Theater, especially the award-winning Downton Abbey series:
we couldn’t wait for Mr. Bates to join his beloved Anna.
We have enjoyed Enchanted April countless times and have seen it on stage and screen.
If Love Jones or Princess Bride is on, there’s no getting Marlon to budge;
if Daddy’s Little Girls or Love Holiday is on, there’s no getting me to budge.
The red roses, the Godivas (especially those chocolate-covered Oreos)
and the Cupcake Prosecco are plentiful.
But we both realize that the beginning and end of our love story
is not about romance.

Love is Spirit.
Whether in life or death, love is the eternal energy
that connects us, draws us, manifests us, and expresses as us forever.

Love never fails. Love is not merely flesh but is the most powerful energy there is. There is a reason why the Biblical witness John wrote in his letters that love never fails because love is God.

1 John 1:5 says “God is light”: a light that purifies us – as love does – from all sins.

This is not worldly love, as 1 John 2:15 indicates, not lust of the flesh or egotistical pride but the eternal love of Spirit. This is not a fleeting love, a seasonal love – or a love that dissolves or fades like the petals of a rose or melts like chocolates – but a love never, ever changes. We are required to love – not with words or speech but with action and truth (1 John 3:18).

Love never fails because “love comes from God” (1 John 4:7). As John says, “[w]hoever does not know love does not know God” because God is not an engagement or a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a date or a promise or a marriage or a desire – God is the divine in us, the truth as us, the infinite, inexhaustible good in us. “God is love” (1 John 4:8), a love that can never ever fail.

We don’t need to love for love because love is here – living in us (1 John 4:12).

“There is no fear in love,” no hatred, no jealousy, no anger, no resentment, no despair, no failure because perfect love – the love of Spirit – cannot, does not and will not fail.

No matter what challenge you have before you, love will take care of it. No matter what you perceive as the enemy, love will remove it. No matter what you fear, love will turn it on its head and make it serve – rather than harm you, protect rather than hurt you, prosper rather than rob you.

Love will turn bitterness into support. Love will turn catastrophe into success. Love will turn the enemies into friends. Love will wrap you in a circle of power so protective that those who thought they meant you no good will succumb to your greatness or distance themselves so completely they no longer remember who you are.

No matter what the situation, what the circumstance, what the complication, love will heal you, love will lift you, love will shield you, love will guide you, love will direct you, love will strengthen you, love will feed you, love will completely re-order your affairs because love cannot and will not fail.

As I say in the book God is a Brown Girl Too, on page 44, “You are the beginning and end of your love story”: a story that will bless you, heal you, prosper you, and never, ever fail.

Spiritual Fitness

THE BEST BEAUTY SECRET EVER By Cecilia B. Loving

September 21, 2012 #lovingfactor Leave a comment

Some of us spend a lot of time at the hairdresser, making sure our locks are locked, braided, straightened, weaved, curled, or extended – not to mention colored, streaked, highlighted, or otherwise anointed by the magical goddess we pay even if we can’t pay for anything else.

We also pay the nail goddess to soak, scrape, cut, carve, shave, wax, paint, glue, gloss, gel, clip our finger nails, feet, chins, brows, upper lips, legs, and extraneous places just in order to polish our appearance.

We also worship the gym god – lifting weights, running like hamsters on a treadmill, crowding the Zumba classes, gazing up during simulated rope climbs, jumping off steps, spinning soulfully, walking, dancing and sweating in 105 degrees of Bikram yoga to carve ourselves into more magnificent beings.

We watch our diets – foregoing cookies, cupcakes, candy, cokes, and chips – and for those of us who are really religious – we eat only lean protein, green vegetables, oatmeal, brown rice and sweet potatoes. We patrol our portions, pieces and pounds – measuring on digitized food scales, planting apps on iPads and iPhones and other electronic wizardry to ensure that everything adds up – from the oz. of water carefully counted, the step diligently taken – to the minute of sleep that we spend each night on beauty. But the best beauty treatment has nothing to do with these things.

The best beauty treatment is intangible and invisible to the flesh but it heals our imperfections, smoothes our wrinkles, brightens our eyes, thickens our hair, reddens our cheeks, clears our complexions, washes away our cellulite, flushes our toxins, and releases extra weight. The best beauty treatment ever is simple: it is the love that we fill our minds with, bless our souls with, and surround our hearts with. The best beauty secret ever is a love that transcends flesh and form, igniting every aspect of our being with the light of Spirit.

Do you remember in whose image and likeness you are made? Do you know who loves you with an everlasting love? John said that “God is love” and “[w]hoever does not love does not know God” (1 John 4:8)(NIV). The biblical witness teaches us that “[w]hoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16). But we never really try to put these words into practice. We never really see these scriptures as more than poetic frippery for the pious self-righteousness. But realizing that God lives in us and we live in God is our connection to the love inside of us so that what’s on the inside (our consciousness) can cover what’s on the outside.

We cannot love anyone unless we first love ourselves, and when we love ourselves the light of that love fills the room and others can see it and feel it and be uplifted in it whether they realize it or not. We bask in the glow of the beauty of our love, and it fills all of our ornery cracks with smooth surfaces and our rough edges with real honesty, real compassion, and real beauty.

Most of the time we spend at the hairdresser, at the manicurist, at the gym and many of the other places where we worship the beauty god, we are not tapping and turning on the true beauty secret of love.

Instead, we are hardening ourselves, aging ourselves, plaguing ourselves with hate. We are judging how long and thick someone else’s hair is, whether it’s a weave or real. We are comparing someone else’s girth to our own – their speed, their flexibility, their stamina – and even their strength. We want so badly for men to accept us as the queens that we are – that we condemn others, knock them, belittle them, and begrudge them their true self-worth because we don’t know our own.

Our beauty treatment starts with a love so strong on the inside that it washes away insecurity, washes away hopelessness, washes away fear and gives an instant makeover of dynamic new energy, amazing creativity and divine strength that is magnetizing and miraculous – defying age and attracting the right loving supportive people onto our path. This is a beauty treatment that cannot be bought over the counter, scraped by a dermatologist, blasted by an aesthetician, or revitalized with a makeup potion. All we have to do is love ourselves deeply and profoundly — without worrying about what anyone else thinks.

We need to stop wherever we are and whatever we are doing — here and now and love ourselves completely and unconditionally, really close our eyes and see the flow of our love filling every cell and atom and muscle and bone of our body — from top to bottom. We need to love our flat feet, our big hips, our wide behinds, our freckled noses, our small hands, our full bellies, our squinty eyes – the things that make us different and the things that make us alike.

We’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places. Whether we are with someone or not – real love, true love, undivided, spectacular, awesome, wholesome love starts with us loving ourselves unconditionally. When we love ourselves deep down on the inside – the fears, the shadows, the doubts subside and the pure potential of our true purpose glows on the outside. We have to spend as much time as we spend at the beauty salon and the manicurist and the mall looking inside ourselves and saying “I love you. I am here for you. I support you. There is nothing that you cannot accomplish with the love I have for you. My love is everlasting, and it will not change. My love will never falter or subside. I love you from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head. I love with a soul that only knows eternity and with a spirit that goes before you to smooth the way for your passage.”

We want to make love with the man or woman of our dreams and be worshipped as beautiful and sexy and smart. We want our spouses, our lovers, our partners to love us more than we spend time loving ourselves. But someone else’s love will never be as good as the love that we have for ourselves.

We’ve done the do – allowed our better judgment to be seduced by what looks and sounds and smells good. We’ve entered the flesh – been entered, dared and swung around a few poles of foolishness just to please or be pleased. But have we ever really taken the time to visit the real love, the true love, the one and only love – the Kingdom of God in us? Have we ever taken the time to say “God, I know you are in there and I love you. I love how you shaped and formed my body so that I could move and create and exist and taste and smell the beautiful universe of this right time and extraordinary place that you have blessed me with. Oh Kingdom of God in me, I am glad that you allowed me to be – that you created me and recognized me and gave me every power that you have. Oh Kingdom within me, I see you penetrating every cell and bone of my body with your love and I know that love of me. Your loves heals me, protects me, satisfies me, uplifts me, delivers me, provides nothing but good for me. Oh Kingdom within me, you are beautiful and glorious and awesome, and I am grateful that you shine as me.”

When we take the time to love ourselves, the power within us soars and the beauty within us glows even more magnificently. When we really love ourselves, people comment on how beautiful we look, are drawn to our unique energy, ask us if we are going out, wonder what’s going on in our lives, want to follow our aura, feel the impenetrable power of God’s love radiating as us. This is the best beauty secret ever. It will charm any woman or man. But more importantly, it will guide us and shape us and mold us into the incredible beings that we are – so much more in the Spirit than we could ever imagine in the flesh.

Cecilia B. Loving is Pastor of SPIRITMUV, which holds its services each Sunday, at 2:30 PM, at the Unity Center of NYC, 213 West 58th Street.

Speak the Truth

THE “HELP” OR WHAT WE CAN DO TO HELP OURSELVES By Cecilia B. Loving

August 9, 2011 #lovingfactor 3 Comments

I was at a salad bar in New York City recently – that was so trendy there was a line salivating for chopped greens, cheese and chicken that extended down the street. As I stood in line watching the mating ritual between young blonds and brunettes, I could not help but wonder where the sisters were. We eat salad. We take lunch breaks. But when I looked around Manhattan (not everywhere but as far as the eye could see), I saw very few of us representing the well-heeled corporate work force.

Oh I see more of us in Carroll Gardens cast in leading roles as “The Help” — strolling down Court Street with our noses held high. Haughtiness is sometimes a coping mechanism for those who have the decent but thankless task of caring for white babies who will likely grow up to remember “the help” while refusing to hire the brown children left to raise themselves. (I’ve heard one — which was one too many — say that the only thing we can do for them is clean their houses.)

My mother and a good many mothers and grandmothers were “the help,” so that we could get advanced degrees and earn the right to good-paying jobs that gave us the opportunity to contribute the “book sense” education gave us and the “good sense” our parents gave us – informed by the “God-sense” the Holy Spirit gives us. But when I look around, I see fewer of us in the big city at the big company holding down the big job. So what happened?

Well The National Women’s Law Center says more black women lost their jobs than any other segment of society since 2007. Even during the so-called economic recovery period (2009-2011), the unemployment rate for women actually increased rather than decreased. Black women, the Women’s Law Center reports, who are at the head of the black workforce and at the head of most black families, continue to lose jobs. At least 475,000 sisters have lost their jobs since 2007 and those are only the ones who had one in the first place. Few of us went to go work for Oprah. Even the one who was hired to run OWN (meaning Oprah’s own network – not yours) was kicked to the curb. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming O for not doing for us what we can do for ourselves. She’s a living testimony that we have the power to build our own empires.

The surveys indicating no job growth for sisters never give a real perspective as to whether we fell on our behinds, got pushed to the edge or kicked to the curb. It seems to project the behavior that one white male New York Times writer urges: use the “recession” as an excuse to do what you never had the courage to do in the first place (e.g., fire people you want to get rid of and perhaps never wanted to hire).

But God is a Brown Girl Too is not about what other folks can do to help us. It teaches that we have the power to help ourselves. So the challenge this current dilemma blesses us with is figuring out how can we “help” lighten our load, help ease our burden, help enlarge our territory and help step into our greatness. The question carries within it the assumption that whatever we do for others, we do for ourselves – and vice versa. I help everybody; it doesn’t matter what your ethnicity is. But my sisters and brothers are definitely at the top of my list because I know that we need help the most.

This is the first part of a seven-part series on what we can do to “help” ourselves: help us reach our goals, help us recreate ourselves, help us build the empires that we are destined to build.

Put God, Love, Jesus, Yahweh, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Ra, Divine Mind, Universe, Source — or Whatever You Call the Kingdom Within — FIRST

This is not about semantics. It’s not even about religion. There will be different religions as long as there are different personalities. I don’t argue religion; it’s a losing proposition. But I do urge us all to realize that we are here to love one another.

If you call yourself a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, or affiliated with any other faith, you should know that God is Love. We have to love ourselves because in so doing we realize the presence of love as us, reverberating through every aspect of our being. We can only be as loving to others as we are to ourselves.

Love is the only thing that will heal every wound, ease every pain, and conquer every enemy.

When we put love first, the universe (love) puts us first and we receive the good that we desire.

This means that we can’t be hard on ourselves. We have to love every inch and every cell of our beautiful bodies – every delicate hair on our heads. We have to love our minds and all of its attention to detail and memory.

We have to love our souls and our mission, our purpose here on earth. This sounds more simple than it is. But if you see, hear or read anything in the media, it does not support our love of ourselves. Black women are marginalized or even demonized rather than celebrated. We are not cast in most television shows or movies. We are seldom in books. And most of the images of us are not flattering. We are usually denigrated as less than, unworthy, lusty, nasty, addicted, assimilated beyond recognition, or just “the help.”

That’s why I love what Toni Morrison said: write the book you want to read. Tell the story you want to hear. Make the movie you want to see. Otherwise, you won’t be starring in it — unless you’re The Help. (Footnote an exception to this is my all time favorite Halle Berry kicking butt as Catwoman and making love to Benjamin Bratt — I know why some folks didn’t like her strutting her stuff, for the same reason I watch it everytime it comes on — cheering Halle on through every powerful butt-kicking scene.) We suffer from fibroids and high blood pressure and diabetes and so many other ailments – because society has blatantly kicked us – the “help” to the curb and we are so busy celebrating our starring role that we fail to realize the joke is on us.

We kick ourselves to the curb — repeatedly foresaking our own power rather than embracing ourselves with so much love that our uniform falls off. We need to love ourselves enough to at least realize we don’t need flat butts or skinny thighs or blond hair to be beautiful. We were all born as beautiful children of God.

We just need to start loving one another — as well as ourselves without a single ounce of contempt. There never has been any room for hatred — especially in this so-called enlightened age.

If you don’t love yourself – with all of your imperfections and your hopes and your wish lists, you cannot love your sisters, brothers and all humanity.

[To be continued in Part Two . . .]

Believe in Yourself

I AM HERE

April 4, 2011 #lovingfactor Leave a comment

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

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.

Re-Discover Your True Self

Step Into Your Greatness

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The Divine is Within Each and Everyone of Us