This week at our sunday Celebration Rev. Richard Buessing offered thought-provoking insights and practical suggestions for a life well lived.
Developing sensitivity to the spiritual side of life can help your life stay in balance. Rev. Buessing’s message, focused on the relationship between the spiritual self and the physical self. We were reminded of the essential elements of creating happiness. The following highlights some points of his message.
Life After Life
When we attend a memorial service for someone who has passed into the spiritual realm we reflect on the wonderful life that person lived and the happiness they brought to the lives of others. This was the case as many members of our local congregation attended a memorial service on Saturday for Irene Joy Thalheimer, the mother of Phil Thalheimer and mother-in-law of our pastor.
It was evident from the testimony of Irene’s friends, co-workers and family that she had a profound effect on peoples lives just because she was a loving and caring public minded person. She was a woman who was dedicated to her faith, her family and her community. Although she will be greatly missed in this physical realm, it was obvious that the impact of her life would live on through others.
Heaven on Earth and Thereafter
Everyone wants to go to a good place after they die, but how do we get there? The way we live our daily lives creates the state of mind and heart that we take with us after leaving this physical realm. If we genuinely love others, and live in a way that is mindful of others, then it would be completely natural for our spirit to dwell in a place of pure love after it leaves the physical life behind.
In this way we can understand that Heaven is not a place that we are assigned because of our position in life, nor can we get there by chalking up brownie points. We create heaven as we live. As Jesus said, it is in the midst of us.
Love and truth are as freely available as air and sunlight
This world was created infused with the love and truth of God, it is all around us all the time. Because of the Fall of Man human beings became insensitive to God’s love and truth. If we compare the love and truth of God to the air and sunlight of this physical world, then humans became half blind with impaired lungs in a spiritual sense.
The good news is that we have an original mind that can not be destroyed, and God’s love and truth also can not be destroyed. No matter what atrocities we have witnessed in human history, God’s love and truth has prevailed. But is prevailing enough?
In the same way that we can see the impact of humanity’s insensitivity to the environment through pollution, wasted resources and disappearing species, we can also see the impact of humanity’s insensitivity to God’s love and truth through greed, war, inequity and oppression. The world around us can seem like hell.
Creating a center of love
God wants to do more than prevail, God wants to thrive! The same way that you want a life of happiness, a life filled with love and good times, so does God. We are created in the image of God so our original mind seeks the same thing that God seeks.
Regardless of a daily onslaught of disturbing images and thoughts from the world around us, the original mind is pure, it is the part of the mind where God dwells. If you go against your original mind you will feel something right away. If you listen carefully to that inner voice it will pull you back to your center.
Because we are co-creators of our lives we have the opportunity, based on our original mind and the principle of give and take action, to create a life of love and goodness. We have the opportunity to create our eternal dwelling place. When we study scripture or other words of wisdom we empower the spiritual mind, which then influences the physical mind to get the body moving in a good direction. Through our physical acts of love and service toward others our spirit receives vitality and grows based on the quality of our life.
Many live by the philosophy of just doing what feels good to me right now. That view of life is based on a self-pleasing, physical-centered way of thinking that ignores the spiritual reality. Creating happiness is not about just doing whatever pleases me in the moment, because the universe is not based on self-centered principles. The physical and spiritual worlds were created in such a way the everything exists for the sake of others. Everything exists because of relationships that are centered on a higher purpose.
The Value of the Divine Principle
This teaching is the very core of the Divine Principle, that everything exists because of and for the sake of others. When we see others who live this way we call them saints, patriots, wise men and women, peacemakers, or just good people. We recognise and honor people who have lived according to high principles, not self-serving philosophies.
As we move forward in our lives, let’s not take God’s love and truth for granted. Let’s live choosing to be inspired by the love and truth that has been freely given to us, let’s create a life based on high ideals and living for the sake of others. Let’s create our heaven right now.
