I grew up believing in a loving God. In fact, one of the basic premises of Unity's philosophy is “There is but one presence and one power in the universe, God the good, omnipotent.” However, if this is true, how do we explain places where starving children roam the streets? Places where religion and ethnic hatred are passed from generation to generation like some sacrosanct torch that must never be extinguished? Places where just the color of your skin, your genealogy or your sex can engender hostility, fear and subjugation? How do you reconcile a loving, omnipresent Intelligence with the fact that so many of the world's people are living in such unmitigated misery?

The religions of the world have a variety of explanations for why there is so much disparity in the human condition. Most of us subscribe to the theology that we are born into or the one we have chosen along the way. And then, of course, there are those who feel any religious answer is too abstract, too improbable, and believe, instead, in a random universe where it is all just a roll of the dice.

Unity's message—its answer—is that beyond the inequalities, beyond the walls (the divisions that separate the seeming haves and the have-nots), beyond the chaos and the pain, beyond the surface turmoil, there is a divine intention that gives meaning to it all. If our visions could reach past the struggles, the strivings, the manipulations, we would find we are not just a little, lonely life; instead, we are one with all life. Although the energy of creation is constantly moving and changing, there is an underlying, orderly, evolutionary process evolving and what appears to be chaos is really transformation.

… During my years in Unity, I met many people who spoke of life-changing spiritual experiences. Some said they heard God's voice clearly speaking to them. Others felt the presence of Jesus. Still others described revelations that went beyond the ordinary. Of course, my grandfather was sure that he was guided by Spirit (God) in every way. Although I had seen the transforming power of faith, not only in my own family but also in the lives of so many others, I still felt I needed to have my own God-experience to truly understand my personal relationship with our Creator.

When I lived at Unity Farm, I loved to take long walks through the grounds … I would close my eyes and try to enter a meditative state, but days passed and I heard no voice, I felt no presence, and—although I enjoyed the peace and quiet—no revelation came to me. On the day I had decided I would have to give up my search and continue to rely instead on other people's revelations, I became aware of a gentle breeze caressing my cheek. I opened my eyes and became conscious of the beauty around me … Everywhere I looked I saw the harmonious flow of nature as summer was slowly changing into autumn.

As I marveled at the orderly progression of seasons, something inside of me asked: “Don't you know that this same orderly process is at work in you? There are changing seasons in human life just as in nature.” It was as if some wiser, higher me were speaking to the unsure, searching me. “How can you doubt that I exist when you are a part of this amazing universe? Do you think a constantly changing cosmos has no order or design, that everything just happens, that there is no intelligence behind the multifarious expressions of existence? Of course, you don't believe that.

“Well then, if all life came from a loving creative intelligence, would that intelligence remove itself from the wonder it created? Would a loving father or mother give birth to a baby and then say, ‘I brought you into the world and now you are on your own; I'm out of here'? If they did, they would be jailed for child abandonment! So why would a loving Creator abandon its creation?

“There is no reason to search for Me when I am a part of you. I am closer than your heartbeat, nearer than your breathing. I am in every experience, in every person; I am in those you love most and in those who have caused you pain and despair. I am always here, guiding you, loving you. But to feel My presence, to hear My Truth, you must quiet your busy thoughts, still your anxious mind, and let My peace enfold you—My love embrace you. It is in the silence that you hear Me. It is when the mind is still that the soul listens.”

I shall never forget that experience. When the world is too much with me, in my mind I retreat to that lovely place where I first became aware that if I listen, if I really listen, God's loving intelligence is always there with me, ready to guide and direct my way.

“Be still, and know that I am God!” (Ps. 46:10)

 

This excerpt is from That's Just How My Spirit Travels: A Memoir.  


Rosemary Fillmore Rhea is an ordained Unity minister and granddaughter of Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, cofounders of the Unity movement. She was founder, director and host of The Daily Word for television, and later coproduced The Word From Unity, which appeared on more than one thousand television and radio stations nationwide. She served churches in Delray Beach and New Port Richey in Florida.