Unity principles: There is only one presence and one power in the Universe and in my life

Sundays are Spirituality Day here at Taking it to the Streets

I attend Unity Spiritual Center of Woodstock and see Unity as one of the main streams of the river of my spirituality.  My nephew asked me ”Well, does this church you go to have any core beliefs?”.  As it turns out, yes, we have five principles by which we live.  Each Sunday we say them in our service and I’ll cover them individually here over the course of some Sundays.

1. There is only one power and one presence in the Universe and in my life – God, the Good Omnipotent.

(This is also expressed as “1) God is the source and creator of all. There is no other enduring power. God is good and present everywhere.”)

It’s important to me to remember that there is ONE power – God.  Not “the job market” as I seek next right livelihood.  Not “the stock market” or “the economy” as I wonder if my money is safe for retirement.  Not “common sense” as I wish that I and others in my life would not make bad decisions.  Not “ADD” or “getting older” or any of the things I think I could blame actions on in my life.  Not “the devil” in whom my mother had a great belief.  Not Republicans, nor Democrats, nor any seeming political force (oh, I DO invest a lot of energy into believing that politics is a force in the world).

There is ONE presence and ONE power in the Universe – AND IN MY LIFE.  And luckily, too, it’s not my ego!  It’s God.

There’s a great pamphlet written by Emmet Fox – The Golden Key - in which he says that whenever anything troubles you, rather than ruminating on your worry, think instead of God.

This principle helps in that pursuit.  Because when I worry about what my next job will be, or about the health and well-being of those I love, or the direction in which our country seems headed (or even just losing the few pounds that found me over the holidays), I can remember that the real power is with God.

Some people I hang out with say that if “God” seems a scary or foreign word to you, you can substitute G.O.D. – Good Orderly Direction.

And for this principle I think you could substitute one of God’s longer names – Good.

I also like the last word we use for this principle at my church – “Omnipotent”.  When things feel insurmountable I can remember that – the all powerfulness of the Good, of God.  That helped me a lot last year as my 46 year old friend was dying from cancer.  When I felt overwhelmed with sadness and wanting to stop  what was happening, I turned the whole mess over to God the Good Omnipotent.  Becky still died.  But she was definitely at peace, and over time I have become at peace with it too.  While God’s idea of good, or what the ultimate plan is still remain mysterious to me at times, I have come very much to trust the process.

So when I find myself troubled, I can turn to this principle and remind myself that thankfully, neither my ego nor {fill in the blank with the supposed power about which I’m worried – economy, health, et al} is anything else.  Over to You, God!

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