Youtube: Common Sense Faith
Audio (talk only): Common Sense Faith
One of the points I made last week involved the importance of admitting there is a problem before we can actually work with it. With this coronavirus pandemic (two words I had difficulty speaking aloud in the beginning), we have a situation that is touching every one of us. Normally, you could ask ten people to describe their most pressing challenge and you’d get ten different answers. Now the chances are good that those same ten people will give this flu and all its repercussions as their main concern.
So, we’ve identified a common concern. Now what? We wash hands, maintain social distancing, spend most of our time at home, stop hoarding and become vigilant about helping others who are unable to help themselves. We do these basic things with the intention of making the situation better for ourselves and for everyone around us. It may sound like a simple platitude to say that we’re going to get through this thing. And yet, this is exactly what we need to say.
There are people in absolute panic right now. Do you know what panic is? Panic is an expression of faith. Faith in what? Faith that something horrible is about to happen. We have to confront this burning fire of panic so we can put it out. We are going to make it though this. Let’s start entertaining this very basic notion. This thing we’re in now is our life. No one wants a pandemic to deal with, but here it is. To say it’s not real is to put ourselves and others at risk. This is a body-based problem that we must solve.
How do we deal with a pandemic from a spiritual perspective? This is a key question, one of the most important we can ask ourselves. Do I really believe in these spiritual principles I profess, or do I just profess them because doing so makes me feel good? How can I use the power of my faith to change the way I think and feel, to change the quality of my experience? As a minister, it’s not my job to answer this question for you. It’s my job to raise the question. It’s the job of every individual, including myself, to answer it.
J Douglas Bottorff 
As I do most Monday mornings, after surfing various early cable news shows to discern which (if any) are offering factual information I might need to go about my day, I next turn to viewing your Sunday message offered on YouTube. Here I find Truth that sets free!
I cannot express how very helpful and important these messages are, especially at this time of great upheaval and uncertainty in our daily lives. I thank you for today’s wonderful piano/violin duet that opened the service. It was exquisitely beautiful! The meditation with which you centered each of us to receive the spiritual truths of your message was also appreciated.
I only recently discovered that YouTube is enabled to allow me to ‘cast’ (throw) these offerings to be viewed on my ‘smart’ TV! I have not been availing myself of your meditations up to now, but knowing that I can have them readily at hand to view on my TV in the room where my ‘meditation corner’ is located, I will begin doing so. I trust they will be as beautifully produced and inspiring as the one that opened Sunday’s service.
In times of unrest, to be able to have the empowering reminders of Truth principles is indeed something I am grateful for. I thank you for offering these meditations/services freely to all who wish to access them, and I hope others will support them financially.
Thank you Jackie for your wonderful words of support. I’ll make sure our musicians get them as well.
I am very grateful for the technology that allows us to present in this way, especially in this unusual time that we share.
Greatest blessings to you, and again, thank you for your continued support.
Rev. Doug
Good point!