Fire of Thought

I, for one, am very much in touch with my own needs and desires, and much of my energy is focused on protecting and defending those needs and desires. Mine. But I have pledged myself to a religious tradition that demands more of me than simply getting my own needs met.

Our religion demands that we reach beyond our most basic human impulses and strive for wholeness, for beauty, for transformation. It demands that we accept and encourage one another in spiritual growth; that we respect our interdependence with one another and with all Life; that we actively promote peace, justice, equity, liberty, compassion in our human relationships. If being a Unitarian Universalist means anything at all to me, then I must accept those demands as more than just words. They are my religious calling—a calling that would have us be in real relationship with one another… a calling that would have us recognize that we are more than individuals sharing the same space—we are beings who depend on one another if we are to be whole. We must be seen and heard and known by other loving beings if we are to fulfill our religious calling. If I am to participate in that endeavor, I must see, really see others’ beautiful faces and complex natures—not just as a projection of, or response to, my own needs and desires, but for who they are. That is love. That is abetting creation. That is making life real.