Finding Meaning in the Midst of Chaos, Rev. Russ Legear

It has now been nearly a month since Russia invaded Ukraine. Every day we hear about more and more people who are being displaced from their homes and their lives. Every day we hear about a new war crime. Every day, it seems as though chaos is trying to take over our lives in the form of oppression, fear, and war.

I don’t think there is an easy New Thought answer for times like these. We have to feel our feelings, no matter how unpleasant they may be, so we can better understand where they are coming from. Our feelings are not something that need consume us or our consciousness; but we cannot avoid them, either. In these feelings we can find a deeper meaning to help us move through the seeming chaos of the world around us. For me, I find meaning once I move through my rage and anger, and find myself in the compassionate part of my being that wants to know how I can best help.

It has been said that in times of crisis, we should look for the helpers. This is what I find myself doing more and more as the illegal war in Ukraine continues. I read about how many refugees Poland is admitting, and how Polish women are donating strollers filled with supplies to help the fleeing families from Ukraine. I hear about the United Kingdom offering a monetary stipend to any U.K. family that hosts Ukrainian refugees. I hear about European and Asian countries waiving visa requirements for Ukrainians trying to find safety. I hear about Russians standing up to their own government, often at great risk to their personal safety. I hear about coffee shop owners in Kyiv staying in their shops so they can provide some semblance of normalcy for times that are anything but.

When I hear about these helpers, I know that this is the still, small voice of God making itself heard amidst–and in spite of–the din of so much chaos. Once I’ve felt my feelings, I have to ask myself: how can I join in this grand symphony of divine whispers? How can I open my heart to help? This is how I land on my own New Thought answers.

Rev. Russ Legear is the Assistant Minister at the Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa

  

We Live in a Shared Reality, by Rev. Russ Legear

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” 

― Philip K. Dick, I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon

Reality. I cannot think of a greater challenge for us to confront right now. Islam talks about Allah—God—as that which is the most real. And our job as creations of God is to find our way out of our delusions and back to the reality that is God.

The problem, though, is that most of us are flying blind when it comes to our experience with reality, and thus staying far away from a real experience of God. Some of us have accepted the relativism of our postmodern age and subscribed to the idea that as long as we believe something to be true, it must be true. And sometimes, when reality conflicts with our deeply held beliefs, we feel pain… which leads to us to avoid that pain through denial. This is especially seductive within our New Thought mantra, “Change your thinking, Change your life.”

Part of me wishes that Ernest Holmes had been a little more specific. Perhaps a better phrase is, “Change your thinking, change your life, so long as you are working within the confines of the physical and spiritual laws within God.” For example, despite millions of folks believing that Covid-19 was not a threat to them, the United States is currently reeling from a resurgence of the disease far worse than the initial onset. So, why then weren’t the millions who truly believed this to not be a problem successful?

They didn’t succeed because reality doesn’t stop being real just because we stop believing it to be real. It was around long before humans existed, and it’ll be around long after humans are gone. What I believe we truly need right now is not more individual willfulness directed at changing this reality (and thus avoiding it), but rather a collective willingness to see reality as it is, sans the distorted filter of our reality-denying, fear-based beliefs.

God is not just us humans, y’all. And it’s definitely not just you.

God is everything. It has always existed, and it always will. What if we stopped trying to change God (which is sort of like an ant trying to move California), and instead came together in community to better understand God?

If we could do that, perhaps we could more wisely co-create the world we wish to live in—a world grounded in our shared reality, driven by curiosity and common values, and enriched by our mutual understanding and love for one another.

What an amazing, beautiful world that would be.

Rev. Russ Legear

Rev. Russ Legear received his Masters in Consciousness Studies from the Holmes Institute in 2020 and is a Centers for Spiritual Living Minister, Practitioner, and lifetime student of consciousness and metaphysics. He currently serves as a staff minister at Cityside Spiritual Community in Chicago, IL. His ministry is centered around taking people deeper, helping them to find ways to move past the trappings of the human ego and all the funky stuff it creates in their lives. He is passionate about pastoral care and finding ways for people to connect in a deeper relationship; not just with others, but with themselves, and with God.

Russ also works for Chicago Public Schools solving some rather large information technology problems. He uses New Thought principles there every day to break through barriers that prevent students and teachers from connecting through technology.

Finding Compassion in an Angry World, by Rev. Russ Legear

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, 

there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

Rumi

It’s been a challenging year. We’re hurting. We’re getting sick. We’re worrying about whether we will get others sick. We may be wondering whether the color of our skin will be a factor the next time we’re pulled over by the police. We’re figuring out how to live our lives in what feels like a more disconnected world.

Anger is a natural reaction to all of these things. I want to call that out because, if 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that there is no value in us bottling up our emotions. What we’re feeling during these difficult times is absolutely valid.

Shelter in place this year has given me opportunities to take a good look at all the ways that I am feeling angry. I had to ask myself: why am I so angry? I immediately went to the things I see in the news, the complications with living a semi-quarantined life. But when I took a moment to go deeper, I found that my anger really has nothing to do with any of the stuff I see in the world. It may have been the trigger, but there was always something deeper.

In short, I was angry at God. God wasn’t creating the world that I knew was possible, a world that can work for everyone. I realized that by being angry at racists, by being angry at politicians, by being angry at a virus, I was really just venting my anger toward God. I was creating separation between myself and the Divine. After all, if God is truly all that there is, then any anger I direct at myself or others is directed right back toward God.

The salve for all of this anger isn’t judgement, though. It’s compassion. It’s the conscious opening of our hearts to the pain we are feeling, as well as the possibility of authentic connection with not just those we love, but with those with whom we disagree. Because every person--every person--is a physical manifestation of God’s Love. Even when they’re acting like a complete fool.

Compassion is the choice that no matter how far someone walks from the Divine, from Love, that we will always hold that door open through which they may walk back toward Love. This choice is not easy. In fact, it’s probably the hardest thing we'll ever do.

But it is so, so necessary.

Rev. Russ Legear received his Masters in Consciousness Studies from the Holmes Institute in 2020, and is a Centers for Spiritual Living Minister, Practitioner, and lifetime student of consciousness and metaphysics. He currently serves as a staff minister at Cityside Spiritual Community in Chicago, IL. His ministry is centered around taking people deeper, helping them to find ways to move past the trappings of the human ego and all the funky stuff it creates in their lives. He is passionate about pastoral care and finding ways for people to connect in deeper relationship; not just with others, but with themselves, and with God.

Russ also works for Chicago Public Schools solving some rather large information technology problems. He uses New Thought principles there every day to break through barriers that prevent students and teachers from connecting through technology.