MESSAGE
Audacity is a word that has gathered a little bit of a negative connotation over the years: a hint
of rudeness, arrogance or having a lot of gall or nerve. But it actually has a very powerful
meaning: "the willingness to be bold ... to be daring; to take risks; to be fearless; to be
courageous." Winston Churchill once said, "The first quality that is needed is
audacity." Benjamin Disraeli said, "Success is the child of audacity." Audacity is the boldness,
confidence and clarity that makes things happens.
So consider audacity in a spiritual sense: "Divine Audacity." Think about a boldness,
confidence and clarity that makes thing happen from a place that is soul-centered, grounded in
God, and guided from a higher spiritual perspective. Divine Audacity is living a boldly spiritual
life that is centered in the awareness of God's presence and the truth of our divine nature.
If we want to live a big, incredible, amazing life, it's important that we live it this way: boldly,
daringly, confidently, clearly and divinely inspired. Yet most of us choose to live the opposite
of that: tentatively, cautiously and fearfully. We're afraid to go after our
dreams. Why? Because we don't truly believe that we are amazing spiritual beings and, as
such, haven't embraced our spiritual greatness.
To live a life of audacity, we must truly accept that we are divine.
In her book, Divine Audacity: Dare to be the Light of the World, Linda Martella-Whitsett says
that the only way we can live a life of divine audacity is to accept that we are divine. Most of
us find it challenging to accept that we are divine. We can accept hearing great spiritual things
about ourselves in the second person: "You are created in the image and likeness of God."
"You are the temple of the living God." "You are the light of the world." "You can do the things
that I have done and even greater things than these." But it frightens us to take the next step
into the first person. It scares us and makes us uncomfortable to say, "I am the light of the
world."
"I AM" is the spiritual identity of who we are, and we feel more comfortable attaching negative
things to our "I AM" than divine things. We are more comfortable saying, " I am so lazy." "I
am so clumsy." "I am broke." "I am always getting hurt in relationships." "I am such a
loser." "I am such an idiot." "I am not talented enough to accomplish that." We feel far more
comfortable saying all of those things than saying, "I AM divine." "I AM the light of the
world." "I AM the temple of the living God." Since we have difficulty accepting our spiritual
greatness, we would rather attach our "I AM" to things that are so far less than who we truly
are.
Affirm to yourself right now, "I AM the light of the world." Take a deep breath into that. Affirm,
"I AM created in the image and likeness of God. I AM the temple of God. I AM the light of the
world."
Fully owning our spiritual greatness in this way can be scary, because it's a big
responsibility! Too much greatness frightens us, and we'd rather play it safe than take the
chance of owning and rising to the level of greatness that is our birthright. Many of us think
that responsibility is more than we can handle. But consider what it says in Matthew 5:14-16:
"You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp
puts it under a bushel basket, but on a lampstand, so it gives light to everyone in the house. In
the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father, who is in heaven."
This powerful teaching tells us four things about living a life of audacity. First, it tells us about
our nature. "You are the light of the world." Scripture tells us right here that the light of God is
in each of us; divinity is our very nature. Second, it tells us what we are supposed to do: "Let
your light shine before others." It warns us not to hide our light, but to let it shine. And third, it
points out the result of doing so: "It gives light to everyone in the house." When we let our light
shine, we give blessings and goodness to everyone in our house and in the world. And finally,
letting our light shine glorifies God, "your Father, who is in heaven."
This Scripture tells us how to live an amazing, inspired life. The question is, are you willing to
follow this divine guidance? Are you willing to live your life with divine audacity?
How best can we live a life of divine audacity?
First, we must make prayer a priority in our lives. The Unity faith believes in the power of
prayer. We believe that prayer is the most powerful way to connect with God and with our
spiritual power. But most of us don't spend much time at all in prayer. We say we're too busy,
too tired, or too distracted to pray. And those of us who do pray tend to do it briefly in the
morning or evening just to get it over with quickly. We look at prayer as a burden rather than
the blessing that it is. We know it's good for us, but we really don't want to do it ... and look at
it in the same obligatory way as eating broccoli, doing the laundry, going to the dentist, visiting
our in-laws, or going to the gym.
Here's what Phillippians 4:6 tells us about prayer: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in
everything, by prayer and supplication, with thankful hearts make your request be known to
God, and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will be upon you."
This Scripture tells us to go directly to prayer in everything. But when things don't go right, we
don't have the audacity to go right to prayer. Instead, we tend to freak out, get scared and
worried, and run around trying to find answers and fix our problems with a hundred different
external solutions ... when what we really should be doing is praying. To live a life of divine
audacity, we must be bold enough to turn to God with prayer as our first resort, not as a last
resort.
Do you have the boldness and audacity to make prayer a priority in your life? Whatever isn't
going well in your life right now - whether it's health or finances or relationships - are you
willing to turn first to God?
Second, we must take time to heal. Eckhart Tolle has a concept called "pain bodies," which
are negative emotions that we didn't feel and deal with at the moment they arose; instead, we
"stuffed" them deep inside and tried to ignore them so we wouldn't have to feel their pain. We
think we're doing ourselves a favor by burying these emotions ... but by trying to repress or
ignore these emotions, we only give them greater power, because they stay alive in us in the
form of a "pain body." These "pain bodies" actually block and clog the divine flow into our lives
and, as such, keep us stuck in our pain.
The process of healing these "pain bodies" are an important part of our spiritual
journey. Many of us try to just keep moving forward and don't take the necessary time and
attention to heal the pain we are carrying. That's like driving the car with the emergency brake
up. The car still moves forward, but it grinds and groans a lot, requires a lot more gas, and
creates a lot of wear and tear on the engine. Trying to move forward with unresolved hurt and
pain has the same effect on us. But when we have the audacity to stop and take time to heal,
it's like releasing the emergency break. We let go of the unhealthy energy and hurt - whether
from abandonment, unworthiness, guilt, shame or abuse -so that we can begin to move
forward with ease and grace.
Do you have the audacity to heal the pain within you? Do you have the boldness to go deep
within to identify what is causing you pain, and liberate your soul from it in order to live more
fully and freely? Life only gets better when you get better! You can add as many external
factors to your life as are available, but only by healing yourself on the inside will you actually
experience optimal love, happiness and fulfillment.
Finally, we must listen to our inner voice, and let the light of God in us shine bright in
whatever we do. Listening to that voice inside and shining our light isn't always the easiest or
most popular thing to do. Sometimes what we are guided to do is scary and goes against the
grain of what our family, friends and society as a whole believe and advise us to do. But when
your soul compels you to act in a certain way, it will always lead you to the right thing. Jim
Carey once said, "So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What
we really seem to want feels at some level impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect, so
we never even dare to ask the universe. I'm a living example that asking these things is
possible. My father could have been an amazing comedian, but he didn't think it was possible
for him. He made a conservative choice and decided to have a 'safe job' as an
accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from his 'safe job,' and we had to
everything we could just to survive. I learned a lot of great lessons from my father, and one of
them was that you can fail even trying to stay safe ... so you might as well take a chance, be
bold, and go after what you really love."
So where in your life right now are you trying to play it "safe"? Where in your life are you
hiding your true light? What is your soul is calling you to do? Where in your life is your soul
calling you to be bold, to go for it, and to live your light? Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said,
"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in
it!"
Remember: you are the light of the world! How different would your life be if you started
showing up in every situation knowing that you are the light of the world? That you are
spiritually magnificent? That there is spiritual genius in you? Are you bold enough to live your
life at that level? Are you willing to go for it, and live a life of divine audacity?
A better life is waiting for every one of us. It's out there. Go boldly grab ahold of it!
God bless you all!
PRAYER
Thank you, God, for making me aware that the living Spirit of God dwells within me. Thank
you for making me aware that I am the light of the world, and for letting my light shine today.
Open my heart to your spirit, God, and allow that light of God to be expressed in all that I say,
think and do. Thank you, God, that each one of us experiences and expresses the infinite
possibility of God, and that I am the possibility for good in the world. Thank you for the gift of
life, the blessing of this beautiful day, and for the joy of being fully supported by Spirit. Amen.