Welcome to the EarthCare Module on "Order.
Unit Focus: To the worldly mind order is a way of organizing our affairs. The spiritual perspective of order, however, is Divine Power established as creative design. Divine Order is, just as God is. Divine Order is already established in all creation yet it is within our mind that we become sensitive to the orderly creative process for bringing the invisible into visible form. Each seeming step of bringing new ideas and new solutions for sustainable living in our lives and on the planet are guided through insight into Divine Order.- Demonstrate an understanding of our power of imagination as a transformation and creative spiritual power.
- Identify ways to engage imagination in expanding our connections with each other and our planet, and to be in service to our common life.
- Engage our power of imagination to evoke new, creative, and powerful expressions for sustainable and vital living on a climate-changing planet.
Divine awareness reveals Divine Order is established in my very beingness. I am established in Divine Order as my power to flourish life in every decision. I affirm Divine Order restoring full health to this planet and all creatures upon it.
BIBLE: “Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” –Psalm 119:18
I enter into an awareness of God present here and now, in me and as me. I am grateful for the profound peace as I come to know my oneness with God. This is my Divine Order. I prayerfully surrender my compulsions to organize myself or others. Divine Order is my Source. Divine Order is established in my mind, my body, and my energy to work and share for the good of all. It is so, and so it shall ever be.
Divine Order and Our Earth
By Rev. Kathy Harwood Long
There is a simple organizing principle in all creation: life. All life is designed for life. This is our greatest order. We humans may call this our Divine Order as we work consciously with the organizing principle of all creation to flourish life.
During our current era of global efforts to address human resource over-consumption, human pollution, and climate warming trends, we may question whether global efforts by countries and individuals are well organized or effective. But because our worldly perception will not be whole, complete, or even accurate, we must draw upon the inner organizing principle: the power of order, what we in Unity call the spiritual faculty of Divine Order.
American author, lecturer, and advocate of eco-theology and post-doom, Michael Dowd said:
Post doom spirituality is “what opens up when we remember who we are, accept the inevitable, honor our grief, and prioritize what is pro-future and soul-nourishing.”
When we remember that we are spiritual/human beings, we are able to work with our life energy guided by an inner power of order and make choices and decisions that are pro-future and soul-nourishing.
Recently I started my day with prayer and contemplation, followed by my regular workflow schedule, and then an unanticipated interruption by my old washing machine's loud, unfixable, abrupt end. I quickly researched options for a new machine. I explored EPA energy features available with new machines–combining this info with the possible longevity of my top choice. I explored business recycling practices, and decided to support my local economy rather than having a new washer shipped to my home. Of course, this all required an investment of time. Sadly, I became overwhelmed with all the choices, details to consider, and the inherent uncertainty with any choice.
No matter what we are challenged by Divine Order is right where we’re at, but it doesn’t leave us where we’re at. Another way of understanding this life principle is to realize that that which we call God is not designed to be stuck in overwhelm, sadness, or anxiety related to decision making. Divine Order is always ‘working’ to flourish life. We may have missed this with inattention in pressured decision-making situations. We may have bypassed the power of Divine Order if we have a predisposition to the worldly way of making decisions based on convenience or social attitudes.
Divine Order became obvious for me, once again, when on day two after my old machine’s death, I experienced a flow of order and wisdom. I began my day with my regular spiritual practice of prayer and contemplation, followed by a shopping visit to a local business. I was well equipped with research, clarified values, and Divine Order as my power to flourish life in my decisions. Within thirty minutes my machine was chosen and paid for and included a savings of almost $400, free delivery, free install with no plastic hoses, free haul away for recycling purposes, and a projected increase of yearly electricity use but also an increase in the longevity of the machine predicted. I left the store soul nourished and pro-future, living beyond doom and gloom, and with faith in the power that is God to flourish all life!
Lesson Engagement
This pre-recorded talk is available for your personal use or for viewing in your congregation (in-person or online). The speaker is Rev. Cylvia Hayes, who can be reached here.
Content by Rev. Cylvia Hayes
Content by Rev. Kathy Harwood Long & Rev. Liesa Chase
The town of Gateshead in Great Britain has converted a deep coal mine into a source of green energy. Once mining stopped the cavern filled with flood water that became heated by the Earth’s core. That water is now being pumped into heat pumps and for the past six months has provided low-carbon heating to 350 high-rise buildings, an art gallery, a college, an industrial park, and several office buildings. It is believed the project could be replicable in other areas with super deep remnant mines.
Books
Sacred Geometry: Deciphering the Code, by Stephen Skinner
Videos
The Journey of the Universe.
Quotes
“We have today to learn to get back into accord with the wisdom of nature and realize again our brotherhood with the animals and with the water and the sea. … “ – Joseph Cambell, the Power of Myth.
“The moral Laws form one system with the Laws by which Heaven and Earth support and contain, overshadow and canopy all things. These moral laws form the same system with the laws by which the seasons succeed each other and the sun and moon appear with alterations of day and night. It is this same system of Laws by which all created things are produced and develop themselves each in its order and system without injuring one another; by which the operations of nature take their course without conflict or confusion, the Lesser forces flowing everywhere like river currents, while the great forces of creation go silently and steadily on.
It is this – one system running through all – that makes the Universe so impressively great.” – Confucius.
The Peace of Wild Things, by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.