I am so interested in this idea of avatars lately. It’s why I’ve chosen the topic for this Sunday’s talk.

What is an avatar? Well, I didn’t know in some sects of Hinduism that it was defined as the form a Hindu God would take upon coming to earth. Most of us, however, are familiar with the use of avatars in online video games. Psychologists study the use of avatars in video games. Did you know that most people will create or pick an avatar that has the qualities they would like to have? In other words, let’s say they are overweight, they will create an avatar with a thinner better body. In a psychology article, the author wrote, we choose the avatars we do in order to make better versions of ourselves. They also researched the idea that the avatars people pick do bleed over into their real life way of being. It’s fascinating.

And then, there is the emoji app on my phone. I love playing with that. I painstakingly try to create an avatar that looks like me. However, I will admit that I do perhaps give her a few less facial lines and maybe a slightly smaller waistline. My husband couldn’t believe I was spending so much time designing my emoji. For me, it is just fun, but I think there is more to this idea and it can be related to how we perceive ourselves as spiritual beings and our self-esteem.

In the Science of Mind text Ernest Holmes writes about personality. There is a point where he discusses that someone might come to us as a practitioner who believes that he has no personality. He/She needs Treatment. The Truth is we are Personality. We come to earth with Divine Personality. Our earthly use of our Divine Personality can be as limited or unlimited as we choose. So many factors go into it, consciously and unconsciously.

Why aren’t we making full use of our Divine Personality? Why aren’t we just letting it all out? Why aren’t we leaping tall buildings with a single bound, or maybe just consistently feeling prosperous or loved? These are good questions.

I call it Spiritual Evolution.  We get to choose how much of God or our Divine Personality we will experience and we can only experience what we understand God to be. I believe right now we are at a turning point. We’ve spent a lot of time designing God as ourselves – vengeful and judgmental, instead of unveiling the loving Infinite Self.

However, something else is finally happening. As we begin to spend more and more time really taking care of ourselves, forgiving ourselves for the past, following our true passions and talents, listening deeply to our inner callings, studying and embracing philosophies that teach love, we are shifting and the world is shifting. We are at a pivotal point in our evolution. What will we do?

Ernest Holmes once wrote, “When things look the worst, that is the supreme moment to demonstrate to ourselves that there are no obstructions to the operation of truth. When things look the worst is the best time to work, the most satisfying time. The person who can throw himself with complete abandon into the limitless sea of receptivity, having cut loose from all apparent moorings, is the one who will always receive the greatest reward.”

Why would the worst time be the supreme moment? Why would the worst time be the best time to work? What is the limitless sea of receptivity and what moorings do we have to cut loose from?

The answers to these questions are individual ones. However, for me, when I am growing into the greater me, I am always faced with more to challenge me. It’s because I’ve stepped up to the plate in a bigger way. Challenges are just me asking me to prove what I say I know. If I can let go of appearances (moorings) and jump into the unknown, I will be rewarded with a new way of being. Life is about expansion and moving forward.

We are beings asked to reinvent ourselves right now. The old way we approached our challenges is definitely not working. The only way to reinvent ourselves is to go back to that Divine Personality and begin to peel it back and reveal it. The more we can commune with the Divine self in our own particular way and then bring that Divine self into the action the more we will be creating the Avatar that can function heroically in this changing and challenging world.

We are in time and space, but we are not of time and space. We are Infinite beings, Spiritual beings with super human powers. We are being challenged to vibrate as such or fall into the negative abyss. The more we can lift our vibrational rate, the easier and more effortlessly we will see the changes we want in our own life and in the world.

To begin to reinvent myself, I must let go of the emotions that bring me down, the ones I have been addicted to, the past I keep repeating. The only way to do this is through disciplining myself to meditate, use Spiritual Mind Treatment, and then take my reinvented self into action. I must become not a new me, but the me that I came here to be.

Of course, I am always at choice and evolution can take as long as we want it to. But, how long do we really have? I feel a world demanding that I make the changes now. I love experimenting and proving this. As one person raises his/her vibrational rate, there is a ripple effect. I’ve witnessed it. As Einstein once said, “It’s not Philosophy it is Physics.”

I can’t wait to see all the new avatars that begin walking on this earth, filled with love, light and unlimited possibilities.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita