Seminary Program

This is where we post the essays from many of our Universal Life Church Seminary students. When students finish a ULC course, they write a comprehensive essay about their experiences with the course, what they learned, didn't learn, were inspired by, etc. Here are their essays.

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Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Spirit Quest

Master of Metaphysics
Rev.Philip Bower


This is my essay on Spirit Quest. To me this whole class has been more about finding yourself then in finding Spirit around you.
When I first began this class I was in a dark place in my life. I doubted my relationship with self and the divine; I doubted my work, I was over overweight, smoking, and just generally depressed.
On receipt of my first class these words rang so true "God loves you.  You were created by perfection, in perfection, for perfection.  Your success is guaranteed." These are the words I needed to read! From that day forward I chose to change things in my life one day at a time!
So I began with the list that was required and what a list it was!  Almost a whole typed out page!  I was so surprised and taken back by all the things I felt I needed to change that I started to weep both in frustration and in hope.
As the weeks passed I began to use a combination of self affirmation statements, meditation, removal of negative forces in life, and an overall restructuring of the way I viewed the world as a whole.
And then the chapter on Destruction and Creation came into my box. Being a pagan minister I have always understood the dual concept of good and evil, birth and death. But, to see in words that within a spiritual concept the acknowledgment that one first must destroy bad "habits" to create "good" habits brought forward another surge of forward movement. Up to this point I had been doing my positive affirmations but, I had neglected to destroy the negative thoughts within my psyche that kept me from moving forward. So to this chapter I owed a lot as a friendly and timely reminder that I needed to tend to both sides of the fence.
And then arrived the chapters on creating your own reality!  These where the third but, not final affirmations for self change! I had already begun to adopt the philosophy that we can change the world we live in if we would only make the conscious decision to do so. I had begun already to experiment with waking up in the morning and stating "Today will be the best day in my life! I will let all stress poor off of me and seek out the positive in each task or event that happens today".
Lesson 10 taught me that I was on the correct tract but, I needed to take it one step further!  And I did by looking for the lessons in life. Asking myself "Why was that challenge presented?" "Why did I let that happen?" Etc.
And it is from there that I was able to start to really affect my life. Now I am at a place in which I understand why I am where I am at this time in my life, I am not suffering mild depression anymore, and recently I was able to start on the hard path of quitting smoking. Without the lessons to remind me that I CHOSE my path and that I CAN and I WILL change I would not have had the strength to let go of this vice.
And soon after this I will take my third and final step to complete wholeness. Bringing my physical body into line with my spirit and mind. I hope this short trip through my personal milestones will help bring a greater understanding to others who have either taken the class or have been sitting on the fence debating on taking the class.

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