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Come Celebrate With Us every Sunday:

Meditation 10:45 am
Celebration at 11am

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Oasis Rising Center 8125 West Sahara Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89125

Enjoy another wonderful text by Rev. Phil Smedsted, minister Emeritus of Oasis Rising Center

Come and enjoy talks at our Sunday Services or get a midweek pickup on Wednesday at 6mp

 

Phil Smedstad's texts are one of the ways Oasis Rising Center supports members.

A Positive Path for Spiritual Living

Oasis Rising Center Spiritual Center
Oasis Rising Center 8125 West Sahara Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89125
(702) 804-8189
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“Accelerate Your Spiritual Growth” 
 By Rev. Phillip Smedstad

Here at Unity, we all (including me) call ourselves “Unity students.”  What we are all in the process of learning is our oneness with God and our oneness with each other.  As you might expect, there are at least two ways to learn things like this.  The first way is hearing and/or reading about these spiritual principles.  The second is to learn by doing. 

There is an old Chinese proverb which says:
“When you hear something, you will forget it.
When you see something, you will remember it.But not until you DO something will you understand it.”

Unity has a lot to teach you, but many of our teachings cannot be given to you or learned in a book.  They can only be claimed by you through practice.

This lesson is all about living a life of service, and especially being of service here at Oasis Rising Center.  A basic law of relationships we all eventually learn is that we can only receive FROM a relationship to the degree that we give TO the relationship.

On Sunday, at this point, I said that if you are new to Unity, we invite you to take time to simply focus on receiving.  Just soak up the Sunday lessons, books, and classes for awhile.  However, when you get to a point where you know that it’s time to accelerate your spiritual growth, we invite you to get involved here, and make a commitment.

At 12:30, I led a Volunteer Orientation Class.  In the Sunday lesson, I said, “I know that a lot of you already volunteer here (as am I).”  I then asked everyone who does volunteer here to stand and let us applaud you.

I then said, “I know that a lot of you are also volunteers for other organizations here in the Keys (as am I).  Would all of you who do so please stand and let us recognize you as well?”  We then all gave all of them a hand as well.
Then I said, “For any of you who are not yet volunteers, I’m going to do my best to enroll you in getting involved.”  I then defined the word “enroll.”   It means to go first and then invite others to join us.

Earlier in this article I mentioned the word “commitment.”  Many of us long ago learned to associate the word “commitment” with being in prison.  Several times at wedding rehearsals I’ve led, one of the groomsmen has said something like, “You better enjoy your last evening as a free man.  Tomorrow, life begins with the old ball and chain.”

However, the truth is that commitment is freedom.  In my own marriage, Lura and I don’t feel less free but more so, more free to become all we want to become.  And we have found in our work over the years that fear of commitment is actually fear of success.

How do you commit more deeply to a spiritual path?  You would for sure go beyond Sunday services and be a student at classes and workshops.  Also, you would become a committed volunteer.

On Sunday, I told people, “I’m not attached to having you commit here at Unity.  There are many wonderful spiritual paths.  But if you want to accelerate your spiritual growth – in other words, if you want more joy and less pain in your life – commit somewhere.”

There are a couple of things I’ve noticed about Las Vegas this past five plus years.  First of all, people here are very open-hearted and generous.  Second, people here seem to have a difficult time making commitments.

A comment I’ve heard a number of times is, “I would be happy to serve if I’m here, but I can’t commit to regular service.”

However, here’s what it means if you ARE willing to commit here – say one Sunday per month.  It means you are putting your spiritual growth first in your life (which is the only way your life will measurably change).  Also, it supports Oasis Rising Center in providing our services and programs with excellence.

Many years ago, Lura and I developed a new kind of volunteer system.  We called it a “volunteer centered task system” instead of being a “task centered volunteer system.”  The idea is to let your volunteer service support your personal goals and spiritual growth.

At the Volunteer Orientation Class on Sunday, I asked each person to list three or more personal goals – three ways they wanted their life to improve this next year.  Then I asked them to ask themselves two questions: “In order for me to achieve these goals:

• What qualities and abilities in me would need to expand?
• In what ways would I need to stretch and grow?”

Then I asked them to choose one or more areas of volunteer service which would become a kind of “active prayer,” where the volunteer service would support them in the above two areas.

Here at Unity, we want our ministry teams to be free of sacrifice, and the resentment and burnout which so often follow sacrifice.  The secret is to always include yourself as one of the receivers as you are doing service.

Then I again told everyone, “If you are new here, simply take time to soak up our teachings. 

However, if you are looking to accelerate your spiritual growth, and if you want to receive as much as you can here, commit to a path of service – not just here but everywhere.”

The truth is, we all put spiritual growth first anyway.  That’s why we create everything we call a problem.  I invite you to consciously put God and Spiritual growth first.  You’ll find yourself having fewer and fewer painful experiences, and life will get to be more and more joyful.