January 9, 1981
God surrounds you with light and warmth and loving care. God works in your lives in so many different ways. It really is not possible for humans to comprehend the vastness of God’s presence in daily life. What each of you senses is but a faint glimmer of a presence which is all-consuming, all-knowing, all-loving.
There have been moments in each of your lives when God has stepped in, in a way of which you were not aware, but which was vital to your life at that moment. God has preserved your lives—yes, God has saved them. God has given you strength when you needed it but failed to ask because you were too much involved in the matter at hand. God has guided you in decisions when you have not asked for it. God has provided each of you with a sense of peace, coming at a time which was totally unexpected and certainly not asked for. There have been so many times when God’s strength has become yours. In truth, God is with you, guiding you, protecting you, providing you with a sense of peace and fulfillment. Always when you face discouragement or frustration, God gives you the capacity to get beyond it. God doesn’t remove the blockade in your life, but provides you with a path allowing you the vision to see beyond.
It is the vision of looking ahead which is so essential to life. None of you has actually arrived or completed a stage of development. Rather, each of you is in a state of becoming, of evolving. It is a stage of growth. Life is not stagnant, it does not contain starts and stops. It features movement and because movement is constant, you must always look ahead. The kind of vision which presents you with perspective, in a sense, is enabling you to bypass those aspects in your lives which can cause worry and frustration. Anxiety, as you perceive it, to us is seen as a blurring of your vision, your ability to look forward.
When you feel periods of great tension and concern, do not focus your energies on that which is a problem to the extent that you are unable to look beyond. Life always has a foreground and a background. The foreground loses meaning without a background. The converse is also true. Think of the times you have viewed an object at a great distance with no obstacle in between. When that object is not already familiar to you, you are unable to judge its distance. You need foreground. If you view an object up close and see only a portion with no view of the surroundings and what lies beyond, it is difficult to identify. Both, you see, are necessary.
And so it is with your lives. When you face frustrations and anxieties, so often you ask, “Why me? Why not someone else?” Such a feeling reflects your view of only the foreground. If you can accept the realities of what it is that causes your concern and realize there is more to life than the present, your spirit will be uplifted and you will discover a pathway which leads beyond. When you pray to God for the ability to get over something, you really are searching for a background, as well as asking for strength. Think back to such instances, and each of you will recall that your capacity to endure grew directly with your vision of time further on, the future, a new possibility…in short, hope. It is that hope, coupled with God’s strength, which gives you the capacity, the power, the insight, to deal with the present.
Suffering, problems of all sorts, are essential to all life. You know of the agony of Jesus in his suffering, and you frequently ask, “How can such a person whose life was so exemplary be made to suffer in such a shameful way?” The point of the suffering is not that he was crucified because of the sins of the world. The point was that he, like all people, experienced suffering, but it is how it was faced that is so important. It was in the demonstration of his vision beyond the suffering, his faith in God, which is important. It is the exercise of that same faith in your lives which saves each of you…in other words, allows you to move forward with peace and strength.
Each of you has many opportunities before you which will challenge you to seek that vision. It is a perspective, very much so. It is a link of that perspective on life with faith in God that is what gives you strength. That is what helps you to sense meaning in your daily lives. It is that which sets human life apart from other forms of earthly life—the ability to formulate perspective, perspective of the future, and with it, a growing concept of God’s presence within that view.
God is a part of the scene. God has created it, and because of God’s presence in it, you are placed in the picture. Life has meaning. We have spoken of the development of the soul which is achieved through life. That is an indisputable fact, but that knowledge may be difficult to apply in your daily lives. Consider that need for perspective and your response to it. Your soul grows and develops along with your capacity to focus your spiritual eyes on what lies before you. The soul’s light which we spoke about also illuminates your view of your own life. The stronger the light of the soul, the more far-reaching the view. The two are so closely related.
God presents light to the world in so many ways. As you study what God has taught you about light and apply it through a developing of your vision, your soul will grow and strengthen and your life will take on greater peace. With that peace will come the love that each of you has need for, that each of you has to give to others. It is a slow process by your measurement of time.
As we have said in the past, time has no meaning to us. It is only movement. Perhaps that has different meaning to you now. You are all caught up in the pressures of time, some more so than others, but each of your lives is directed with time as a crucial pillar. Your concept of time should not be a part of your perception of what lies ahead. Do not say to yourselves, “In six months I want this to be accomplished.” Say only, “I am working to that goal.” You will find more peace and relaxation and confidence when you direct your lives more in that manner. Certainly you cannot step out of time. Your lives must be governed to some degree by the limits of time, but we suggest only, as you develop your perspective of life, that time not be a part of that view.
Each of you has much to look forward to in your lives. There is much joy. There are many opportunities for sharing love, giving and receiving strength. Each of you will continue to grow in your awareness of all that God is in your lives. Be glad that you are aware of God…there are so many who are blind. Be glad you know what to look for, for there are many who see only the stone in front of them. Be glad your life is not an empty or a far-distant future. The daily concerns and matters which demand your energies help to give meaning to all that is before each of you.
God protects each of you, is with you. Your souls are warmed by God’s presence, and we see your lights stronger and more steady.
Amen.