I was ordained to the gospel ministry 20 years ago today. I remember the event well. My son read scripture (he was six years old) while my daughter played in the nursery. A group of lovely, lithe teens danced a sacred dance to the tune of Simple Gifts. My husband of those years put a stole on my shoulders and blessed me. I had no idea of what I was getting in to. It was just another step of obedience on a very long journey of divine love.
At that time, the journey was mostly within the structures of church, albiet an ecumenical understanding of church. I knew absolutely nothing of other religious expressions. Some of this journey was a running from as much as a running to. But the grace of Christ has been painfully apparent in these ensuing years. What is most evident to me now is that for all the knowledge I have gained in my brain, the truest knowledge has no words and is in my heart.
I didn’t know where this ordination would lead me. I would have been terrified if I had known it meant the continual melting of all that I thought I was and thought I knew to become merely a vessel. I was like Peter in those days – anxious to prove that I would do anything for my Lord whom I was certain I loved the best. I had no materialistic asperations other than to pay the bills. I was awed with the joy of motherhood which to this day I see as my holiest calling. But I did not know that 20 years later I would find my self living on a mountainside with my ultimate spouse melting into God’s presence in a life of prayer far from home.

There has been much attention to The Secret on Oprah and other talk shows. I have yet to read or see it. The little I have gleaned causes me to pause for consideration. Much of it seems like newly packaged power of positive thinking. Some of it seems like wishful thinking. Some of it seems dangerous to me. I found the following discussion with Deb Ford and Jean Huston especially instructive about these dangers.
http://www.passalongwebsites.com/secretcall/jeandebbie/
This danger is to me the fundamental danger of what is broadly known as New Age, particularly the “law of attraction.” The ancient traditions that come to us through the writings of Christian, Hindu, Sufi and other mystics, speak of the importance of paying attention to what you think about. Each say something like: “What you focus on grows.” In my own experience, I have found the thinking of Carl Jung who first spoke of our inner world creating our outer reality, to be true in my own life experience.
However, one must be very caretul to not flip this thought. In other words, not all that is in our life is of our own making. The person who has cancer or any other life threatening illness almost always asks “Why did this happen to me? What did I do wrong to cause this?” And the answer, more often than not is “Nothing. This isn’t personal.” Or basically, Sh** happens! This too is truth. Jesus was often asked why this person was blind or that group of people were crushed to death in an earthquake. Jesus answer was that such consequences happen because we live in a sinful world (i.e. delusional, imperfect, temporary). His followers wanted to believe that each was caused by the victims sin. And so do we. And so do we. We want to think that everything is under our own control because then we can control our lives and make them in our own image.
It is not so. We live in a karmic soup – everthing that happens happens within a much broader context than our own thoughts or the consequences of our own behavior. None of us lives independently of the consequences of others behaviors or of past generations behavior or of our family heredity. Cause and effect is not so simple as the New Agers would have us think. Would that it was so.

The second sequence of the Pass Along Concepts conference calls on the principles of The Secret answers questions about where God is in understanding “the Secret.” It can be heard at:
http://www.passalongwebsites.com/secretcall/ndw/
In essence, life is God living us.

I have not read or seen The Secret that has been featured on Oprah but what I have heard thus far certainly expresses truths I personally have experienced. Truly living from the inside out. You can listen to the first of four sessions on the Law of Attraction for World Peace with James Twyman and James Authur Ray recorded on Wednesday February 28th. It takes about an hour to listen to – time well spent:
http://www.passalongwebsites.com/secretcall/jamesray/