by Roger Mock
Speaking for myself, I do feel used on occasion – and that’s good. Really good, actually. Writing this little column provides an example. Sometimes, like today, I really have no idea what I’m going to write about when I sit down to type. An idea shows up and I run with it, I hit “send” when I’m done and I think “maybe next week’s will be better.” A couple days later someone thanks me and tells me it was just what they needed to read. That’s the kind of feeling used I’m talking about.
Or maybe I’m planning music for a Sunday morning and later find I have “unintentionally” chosen the perfect song for that week’s message. That has happened enough times for me to know something other than coincidence is at play. I’m sure you’ve had your own experiences of having been used in this more benevolent sense of the term in small ways like these or in much larger ways.
A few years ago Mark Shepard and I attended a Unity music conference at which keynote speaker Rev. David Ault asked if we were willing to be a vehicle through which the Universe can express Itself in love, joy, health or kindness. If you attend Unity services you will recognize those words from the song that Mark was inspired to write after Ault’s talk. Willingness is the key word here. A Course in Miracles says that all God asks of us is a “little willingness”—willingness to be used by God, willingness to let go of our own ideas for a moment and allow Spirit to lead, willingness to be a vehicle for good. It’s a small crack in the door that can allow the unlimited power of God’s will to enter our lives and work in and through us. (Insert Star Wars reference to the “Force” here).
As I write this in mid-January, we are preparing to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. He apparently was not a saint. He was deeply flawed, his personal life was a mess, he was often on the verge of giving up his seemingly impossible struggle for racial justice, but in the end he was simply willing to be used for good.
I think there really is a plan to save the world, to create a heaven on earth. I think it all comes down to enough of us being willing to open to that greater Will just a little bit, just enough to let the winds of Spirit in. It’s a quiet, hidden revolution as in this saying of Jesus:
“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven
that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour,
till it was all leavened.” – Matthew 13:33
Where can you be the little bit of leaven that is needed this week?
Where is that door wanting to be cracked open just a little in your life right now? In mine?