Do I Believe What I Think I Believe?

I am trained in how to work reliably with spiritual principle to produce the result I want in the world.  I believe that thoughts, words and beliefs create reality and that whatever I put my attention to grows and whatever I resist (which is a form of attention) persists.  So when it comes to the political realm, which unlike some of my spiritual brothers and sisters I am VERY interested in, can I put my money where my mouth is?  How am I using my thoughts, beliefs and actions?  

Once upon a time I was in business with a wonderful woman whom I adored.  After months of doing business together we found out that we were absolutely antithetically inclined politically.  It was a staggering discovery for me.  I felt betrayed by my inability to spot this coming.  Out of respect for her privacy, I won't describe the many ways in which she presented like one of my tribe and NOT "the other" but it blew my mind.  This was simply not possible.

This discovery coincided with a general election presidential campaign. I was committed to my candidate and she was committed to hers.  We were accustomed to starting our meetings with affirmative prayer (something we BOTH believed in) and as it was getting very close to the election, this prayer came to me:

I know that the next President of the United States of America is intelligent, loving, caring, disciplined, experienced and ready to lead the country ethically and responsibly.

We both loved the prayer because we were both sure that that meant our candidate would win.  Her side won.   In my estimation, that meant we had just re-elected the worst president of my lifetime (and that was saying a lot, even before the current era).

I tweeted out a similar prayer yesterday.  And as I wrote it, I hovered over the word "next" -- if I really believed in affirmative prayer could I write in the present tense, "I know that the President of the United States is intelligent, loving, caring, disciplined, experienced and leading the country ethically and responsibly"?  I couldn't bring myself to do that because it seems patently false to me.  

But how different is this affirmation from any other affirmation that might set my teeth on edge?  If I had a client who was barely making ends meet, I might have her affirming "money is flowing easily and effortlessly to me."  If I had a congregant who wanted to manifest a wonderful life partner, I might have him say "I feel happy and joyful and comfortable with my wonderful partner."  Neither of things would appear to be true at the time, probably they would feel if anything as false or more as my presidential affirmation does.

So then, it makes me wonder, do I believe that this stuff works?  Am I afraid that affirmative prayer works or that it doesn't work?  If I say this with conviction and passion and energy, what if it works?  What if I suddenly experience this president, this man, whose name I cannot bring myself to utter, what if I experience this president as intelligent, loving, caring disciplined, experienced and leading the country ethically and responsibly?  Would that mean that I am suddenly wearing red hats and watching Fox News?  Would it mean that this person actually becomes those things?  Would it mean that he suddenly dies or is removed from office and is replaced with AOC?  What would it mean?

Part of the obstacle for working reliably with spiritual principle is that I want to control the results of what I pray for.  But if I could have controlled who was going to be president, this is NOT how I would have made it go.  The universe, life, is having its way with us, and this is the president it has elected.  

Last weekend I saw a show called She the People: the resistance continues at The Second City in Chicago.   This all female comedy review featured six women, most of them not conforming to traditional standards of beauty, on stage, singing, dancing, and mostly making us laugh really hard.  They hardly ever mentioned the president or men at all.  It had an unabashed feminist through line. There is no question in my mind that this show would never have existed if it weren't for #YouKnowWho.  How is this not answered prayer?

While I may not be able to imagine that #YouKnowWho is that kind of leader, I do know and sense that a Divine loving intelligence is guiding all things.  Maybe the right prayer for now is to call upon it to make itself known even more obviously in the world and to allow me to know that all is well, despite all evidence to the contrary:

I know that the United States has a loving intelligent, loving, caring, disciplined, experienced, ethical and responsible leader at the helm.