In the end, there is only Love

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Often they start off looking for truth and meaning in all the wrong places.

If you ask people "What makes you tick?" most people cannot answer coherently.

Self knowledge is a rare phenomenon. People are busy taking everybody else's inventory, and spend much less time on their own.

On the spiritual path, though, self knowledge is the key to understanding the universe. Knowing better what makes one tick opens doors which previously had been shut and usually not even noticed.

Without self knowledge we are victimized by emotional and cognitive forces which are confusing, perplexing, frightening, incoherent. These emotional and cognitive forces can create an experience of hell.

A teacher of God may come along and ask ever so gently, "What's happening to you?" This question can trigger anxiety, anger, sadness, and even more confusion because we haven't a clue. Like a loving parent, the teacher of God encourages us to "use our words" and try to articulate as coherently as we are able some explication of what is happening to us.

As the story becomes more coherent over time, we begin to remember who we are and what has happened to distort what is now experienced as a more accurate perception of ourselves and the world.

Jesus told us that the kingdom of God is within us and among us. Most of us have no way of relating to this information because we have never explored that kingdom.

This exploration is more easily facilitated by a guide. The guide's job is merely to suggest the path we can take but the journey must be ours. The journey is one of self exploration which can be terrifying.

Finding the courage to engage in the journey of self exploration is a great day, a significant achievement. The journey of self exploration requires bravery to confront our demons and dissolve them so they no long haunt our lives and block our experience of Divine Love which is our natural inheritance.

As we confront our demons, dissolve them, and clear the way for the experience of Divine Love and peace, we realize that there never was anything real for us to fear. We had imprisoned ourselves in the dungeons of hell of fear's making. We come to realize that once we overcome the fears, there is only Love. Our life changes and we begin to embark on the walk of Love.