Do Greater Things

NOTE: I believe there is Truth in ALL religions and philosophies. I use Jesus and the Bible in this post simply because that is the reference from the book I’m talking about. At one point in my life, I took on the project to compare and contrast major (and some minor) world religions, and I found that in important Spiritual matters they were all *mostly* the same. I’m sure that whatever religion or faith you practice teaches lessons similar to what I discuss here.

I just finished reading the book Do Greater Things by Rev. Felicia Searcy.  I read the book on Scribd.com. Felicia is an empowerment coach, and the book focuses on the Prosperity principles of Service, Forgiveness, Faith, Prayer, Gratitude, Humility, Community, Death and Visioning, although not in that order.

My husband and I attended a 4 hour workshop facilitated by Felicia at our church before Christmas. We both left the workshop feeling uplifted, inspired and re-energized to pursue both our individual dreams and our dreams as a couple.

Her book has left me feeling the same way. Her words helped me to see what I could do better in my Spiritual practice, interactions with others, and in my work life.

I tend to get frustrated easily. Personally, I strive to do my absolute best in everything I do. I believe I am capable of near perfection in everything I do and I strive to reach that level of performance in every area of my life. I put a lot of energy and thought into my actions, big and small, and because of that I become frustrated when I see the people around me fall short on effort. I don’t expect those around me to be perfect, but I do expect them to give full effort in everything they undertake, and that often leads to frustration with others. In one chapter Felicia recalls a Bible story and uses her imagination to bring the scene to life. The scene is after the story where Jesus creates food for more than 5000 people from a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. Jesus and his followers had to escape by jumping into a boat to get way from the adoring mob. The story goes on to explain that in their haste to get away safely, no one grabbed food for their dinner. Jesus was asleep on the boat and awoke to his disciples arguing about who was to blame for forgetting dinner. Felicia does a good job of painting that scene. When Jesus wakes up and hears these followers who just witnessed him manifesting a meal for thousands arguing he asked them if they had so quickly forgotten the lesson they had just witnessed. Felicia points out that Jesus must have been incredibly frustrated at that moment— He had just SHOWN the people closest to him, his chosen family if you will, that there is never any lack, there is always enough, and here they were later squabbling over what seemed like lack. Jesus didn’t give up in frustration. According Felicia, he continued teaching because he had faith that eventually people would get what he was saying and start to use his lessons in their life.

I also struggle with not knowing if my actions are making a difference in the lives of those I come in contact with. It’s my personal goal to have a positive impact on every person I come in contact with. I believe that each of us has daily interactions with those people who can best teach us and learn from us. And because of that belief, I make it a point to attempt to be open to the lessons and ideas of others, while at the same time, sharing my own experiences, beliefs and ideas. You never know what will resonate with someone. But, for me, the flip side of this is that I sometimes get discouraged when I don’t know if my actions are making a difference. For example, if I give a seminar on health and the audience seems disinterested and uninvolved, I might walk away from that seminar feeling that it was a waste of my time and wondering if I should present any more seminars. But what Do Greater Things reminded me of is that I need to hold on to my faith that I am doing the work of Spirit by sharing my story and the things I’ve learned along the way. It could be that my seminar has a profound impact on a friend of the attendee, and I’ll never know that.

Another thing that resonated with me is the idea that, “…there were many times during his evolution when he did not have the faith, strength, patience, or wisdom to succeed in what he was attempting to do.” In other words, Rev. Felicia believes that Jesus failed sometimes. There were times when he did not measure up to our modern ideas of the ever perfect Jesus. And that speaks to me because I fully believe that Jesus meant it when he said that we could do the same things that he could, and that we could even do greater things than he. Sometimes he struggled to live fully in Spirit, which tells me that it’s “okay” that I struggle to live fully in Spirit.

What does this have to do with a website devoted to health? Only this.. I firmly believe that physical health, emotional health and spiritual health are deeply interconnected. They depend on, and influence each other. In my own life I have noticed that when physical body is unhealthy, something in my emotional state, or my spiritual state needs attention. And the opposite is also true— when I fail to pay attention to my spiritual health, the health of my body declines.

Each of us— every human on this planet—has a spiritual self, as well as a physical self, and it is our responsibility to attend to both.