Sometimes they would wake up and say “ there were monsters, Daddy. Horrible monsters.” and my wife and I would comfort them and tell them that everything was safe, that they were protected,loved, and then there was nothing at all to fear.
Never once did they say “please come inside that dream Daddy and chase those monsters away.”
We would all know that the figures were imaginary, fictitious creations and that the real home life that they were awakening to was one of peace and love and comfort.

Sometimes it can feel as though we could imagine How God might feel. If God were a person watching over us in that sort of way. This is an analogy that works – for a bit.

Often in the Western tradition, God is spoken about as a father. A father who created the world in which we live, and who sometimes in some ways God can come down and either fix things (or not fix things !!)

In the life that we are leading – in the World And The question so often asked, and the subject of doubt and a thousand books, is WHY? If God exists, Why is there suffering, why is there evil?

But what if the life that we are leading Is an illusion like a dream? And God, if God were a person, would know that we were experiencing something but that it was actually non existent. Not that He didn't care or couldn't fix it, but that there was nothing real to fix. And that the truth is that all is well, all is perfect, all is in divine order, as we say in unity..."

In this episode Rev Ken Bradley explores the idea of illusion, thinking about Plato and Aristotle, and Buddha as well as Unity concepts. As always the musing is followed by a reading from the Daily Word archives.

Click  the play button below to listen to full podcast episode. There is no need have Spotify

​Here is a thought that resonates more and more deeply with me: Prayer is to help us find God in the situation, not avoid the situation. Every experience is an open door through which we can discover that God, as love, wisdom, strength, truth etc.) is here, all the time.
 
Instead of using God to help us fix or avoid the pain, physical or emotional, can we find God within the pain? For pain can be the open door through which we walk, to know God as our life, wholeness, well-being and abiding peace.
 
In 2021, when I experienced Covid-19 exhaustion, I was able to relax into the exhaustion and know at the same time that God was also present within me as my wholeness and peace. It was an amazing time. There was no fear, only joy. Subsequently, when recovering from a tongue operation last year, I was able to know God as my wholeness and healing, even while my body was in recovery. I did not avoid the pain, push it away, pretend it wasn’t there, or even try to change the pain. I was in the pain, and God as life and wholeness was with me, too.
 
Let prayer be the open door to know God as your life, wholeness, well-being, joy, freedom, peace – for the way out is through.
 
Rev Kimerie Mapletoft
Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK