There is a tender, grateful spot in my heart for Detroit. My husband and I loved our life there. We worked there, we volunteered for community groups, and our kids were raised there. That’s not all: Detroit is where I experienced a complete healing from a near-fatal car accident through spiritual prayer alone – which changed the purpose and course of my life. (Click here for the healing account.)

In a way, I feel like I was “born anew” in Detroit after that spiritual experience many years ago. It taught me that I had to choose to believe that divine Life was more powerful than death, and that I – as the beloved child of the Divine – was at that moment and forever the whole expression of thriving, active, living Life. I had to choose the love of Life, not death, in order to live.

My “Detroit Life Lessons” have particular meaning for me now, with news reports of the city decaying and working hard to find a solid foundation in order to move forward. Detroit has declared bankruptcy – usually the very last option for struggling individuals and communities because it is the declaration of failure and expresses the belief that there is nothing more that can be done without drastic changes.

For me, Detroit represents living, creative, vital communities of families, businesses, churches, and schools that have not failed – but now are impacted adversely by this ‘declaration of failure.’

And yet – everything in my experience and my prayers tells me that to accept failure as a starting point for progress is like looking through the wrong end of a telescope in order to see where you need to go. Making the view smaller and farther away limits the scope when instead the perspective needs to be expanded and brought closer for more clarity. I think a spiritual perspective can help provide a wider view and reveal more helpful ideas.

Rather than declare failure, we should declare freedom, spiritual freedom that guarantees ongoing creativity, harmony, productivity, vitality, life. This freedom is inherent in individuals because it is bestowed by the source of all good, divine Life and Love. It is expressed where all citizens gather, in neighborhoods, communities, and cities in the endeavor to be better, to help each other, to build a future. Detroit has done this before: for most of the 20^th century Detroit led the world in innovation and productivity!

The spiritual freedom to express unlimited creativity is a constant force for good and unconditional blessing. It is not a finite amount, carved up and meted out to a specific person, place or time. It is a life-giving force that expands and never diminishes, demands progress and never falters, leads the movement of creative thought onward to reinforce active, growing and bestowing Life. Every prayer that affirms this spiritual fact has immediate access to the Source of unlimited creative ideas. Imagine whole communities praying from this starting point!

“God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for tomorrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment.” (Mary Baker Eddy) 

Those many years ago when I was lying in my crushed car on Woodward Avenue, frequently I felt like going to sleep, fading into unconsciousness, giving up. But there were moments of absolute clarity when I prayed, “God is my life and I am inseparable from this life!” This conviction, I believe, came at several life-or-death moments in the next few weeks and made all the difference in my eventual healing. I was, with that conviction, born anew.

There is no doubt that Detroit needs to “start anew,” to have a clean slate and a fresh outlook on how to provide an improved quality of life for its citizens, pay its financial obligations and move forward. These are not mutually exclusive objectives with a winner-loser or loser-bigger loser. These objectives are principled and inclusive, showing a spiritual foundation of strength in righteousness, not fear, and abundance for all, not lack or loss.

Best of all, cherishing these objectives is a way to expect freedom, not failure…to express Life, not death.

Calling all spiritual healers: let’s not be lulled into an acceptance of failure or death for Detroit. Instead, let’s mentally take our stand and prayerfully support those tasked with navigating Detroit through these stormy waters, and expect to see evidence of life – life expressed in principled ideas and good progress that embrace and bless all the citizens of Detroit.

Please join me, if you are in the Detroit area, for a free talk on “Foundations of Freedom: Healing for Detroit” and sharing of spiritual ideas.

Date and Time: June 21, 2:00pm

Location: C.H. Wright Museum of African American History, 315 E Warren Ave, Detroit

For more information, go to www.HealingforDetroit.com