We Interrupt Our Programming...

(We took a break on Sunday from our November theme, The Heart's Harvest, to welcome a special guest.)

We took a little detour from our November theme on Sunday, welcoming a senior minister candidate and spending time getting to know one another. It was an opportunity to explore not only who he is and what he brings, but also who we've become as a spiritual community and what we envision for our future.

The talk, The Power of a Spiritual Movement, was part spiritual teaching, part personal journey, and part invitation to consider where we've been, where we are, and where we might go next.

The timing couldn't be more appropriate.

CSL Ballard is at an inflection point. For nearly two years, we've sustained our community through volunteer leadership, with generous support from our Bridge Minister and a rotating cast of guest speakers, along with understanding and flexibility from our national Centers for Spiritual Living office. We've navigated challenges, learned a great deal, and continued to create a place where people connect, grow, and explore their spirituality.

That's a lot to celebrate. But keeping a community going isn't the same as helping it flourish. And what has sustained us these past two years isn't necessarily what will take us into the future.

Which brings us to an intriguing question: Where do we go from here?

What's love got to do with it?

We have more possibilities than we may realize, and the choices we make now will shape our future in ways we can't fully anticipate. To me, that's an important expression of power: having the agency to make conscious choices about what we want to create, rather than letting circumstances determine our direction.

Welcoming a senior minister candidate is one step in that exploration. Ultimately, though, the future of CSL Ballard belongs to all of us.

So what is it we want to sustain, grow, or create as we look ahead?

Sunday's message offered a different perspective on that question, beginning with an idea about love that's easy to say and harder to live.

Our visiting minister talked about love not as something we experience, but as our very essence.

Love isn't something we have. It's something we are.

It's a simple distinction. We spend a lot of our lives looking for love, trying to earn it, or wondering whether we're worthy of it. But what if love is already part of our essential nature? What if our work isn't to find it, but to recognize it and find ways to express it?

Ernest Holmes described love as an intelligence that seeks expression. I like that idea because it suggests love isn't passive. It wants to be lived, shared, and expressed through us.

And what happens when that love becomes a movement?

Spiritual movements often begin with a spark, a new understanding or expression of love that inspires people to come together. But over time, as Sunday's speaker described, a movement can become a machine, focused on structure, systems, and growth. Eventually, it can become a monument to what it once was, or even a relic. It can become irrelevant.

It's an interesting progression, and not just for spiritual organizations. How often do we get so caught up in maintaining something that we lose sight of why we started it in the first place?

That doesn't mean structure and tradition aren't important. They are. But they're meant to serve something larger than themselves.

For me, this raises a question: How do we consciously live our principles while remaining open to what wants to emerge?

The talk also included a quote from philosopher Søren Kierkegaard: "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."

I've often said that hindsight is a wise teacher. Looking back, we can often see how experiences that seemed confusing, difficult, or even devastating at the time helped bring us to where we are today.

But we don't have that same clarity looking ahead. Our New Thought philosophy teaches us that consciousness helps shape our experience, and we can hold a vision of what's possible. But that doesn't mean we can predict or control exactly how things will unfold. There's still divine right timing, unexpected turns, and sometimes the exasperating humor of the universe. So we make choices, take risks, and move forward without knowing exactly how things will turn out.

That's true for each of us, and it's true for CSL Ballard.

We have a legacy worth honoring, principles that ground us, and a future that's still taking shape. We can appreciate what brought us here without assuming that the future must look like the past. As Ernest Holmes wrote, principle is not bound by precedent, or in other words, our past doesn’t have to dictate our future.

A little synchronicity: On Sunday, fan favorite Trueman Beccia performed his original song, “Over the Sky.” About a year ago, on his third night in Seattle, a friend found CSL Ballard’s open mic online and suggested they show up. That night, he played that same song on our stage. He didn’t make the connection until after Sunday.

Near the end of Sunday's talk, our guest offered another thought: Sometimes, when we're struggling to figure out what to say yes to, it helps to consider what we'll say no to. Because behind every no, there may be a larger yes.

That applies to so many areas of life. Sometimes clarity comes not from identifying exactly what we want, but from recognizing what no longer fits, what we're ready to release, or what we're unwilling to compromise.

Perhaps that's part of what it means to be a living spiritual movement: not simply preserving what we've created, but remaining open to how love wants to express itself next. As practitioner Ann Forest Burns often says, CSL Ballard is a divine idea in the mind of God.

So whether we're considering the future of CSL Ballard or navigating changes in our own lives, here's a question to consider: What are we ready to say yes to, and what might we need to say no to, to make room for it?

Community Meeting: Sunday, November 15

I hope you'll join us at next Sunday's community meeting. This is an informal gathering where you can share what's on your heart and mind, and hear updates from your Core Council and practitioners. If you have questions or thoughts about our senior minister search process, Sunday's visit, or what comes next, please bring them. And if you didn't get a chance to complete a survey last Sunday for either the talk or the afternoon workshop, you can complete one on Sunday.

With gratitude,

Laura