March 20, 1982
God is with you all again and shares love and light with you.
God accepts the burdens of your life in ways that you cannot imagine. So often you proceed on your course with the feeling of loneliness. You may know that somehow God is with you, but deep inside you feel alone. It is not a feeling which is consistent, and yet each of you has experienced it. There are many accounts of a suffering God, a God who shares your burdens, and even of a God who accepts the pains of your sins. There is so much that has been written and spoken about such a suffering God that somehow the real truth has been dimmed from your view.
In the Christian philosophy there is the belief that Jesus died for your sins. There are other accounts in other religious philosophies of God in some way experiencing the difficulties personally which are encountered by God’s people. Whole doctrines have been built upon interpretations or assumptions of the suffering of God. We feel that at this time in your lives of an organized faith it is necessary and valuable to transmit to you God’s teaching relating to the nature of suffering, God’s suffering, and its importance in your lives.
God, as we have said countless times, knows each of your concerns. God is aware of worries and anxieties, as well as your expressions of great joy and thankfulness—thankfulness for your lives and all that surrounds your lives. To the extent that God knows your troubles, you may believe that God accepts those concerns, but God does not really suffer or feel weighted down. A flashlight is not dimmed by the lack of light at nighttime. It still illuminates. God’s love, seen as a light, is not dimmed because of the presence of others less bright. God’s light remains strong. God’s light may be interpreted in part as joy, as an immensely positive, constructive emotion.
If you wish to illuminate a dark corner, you may shine a light upon it. When God is aware of the darkness of another individual’s life, God’s light is shed upon that life and that life is made brighter. Therefore, when you encounter difficulties, God does not really suffer. God does not bear the burden per se, but you may open yourself to the light; you do not thrust your darkness upon God. So God shares the burdens of life in that God knows the burdens of life and responds to those difficulties.
There is much that has been taught about Jesus’ suffering because of sins, and while such a statement may have a grain of truth, there is so much misinterpretation as to lead many in the wrong direction of understanding—understanding the purpose of Jesus’ life as well as the meaning of the lives of so many great teachers. Jesus was, of course, aware of the burdens of life, but Jesus was not being punished because of them. He did not really suffer because of generation upon generation upon generation of bad will and lack of faith. That is not the purpose of his death.
There are many great religious leaders who have suffered at the hands of others with an apparent injustice beyond comprehension. Later generations have always interpreted such suffering as a cleansing of sorts, a cleansing of the lives of those who lived before and after. The suffering of any individual is not given by God to be endured as a way of repayment for prior debts or future debts spiritually. Suffering that takes place is a result of living a life in a human environment. Therefore, it may be the result of human failings, but it is not because of failings which have taken place over prior generations or those which take place in the future.
Despite the many varied and conflicting doctrinal teachings, what is important to remember about the life of Jesus, the life of any other religious teacher of great power and insight, is the kind of life that was led. It is the example which has been set that must be remembered. You have been told through these communions that God works through people, that God’s presence is made known only as people make it known. In the history of any organized religion there are many who have served to reflect God’s presence on earth, and it is for that reason that such figures as Jesus and others should be remembered.
You are drawn to a quality of life. You are not directed by a cause of death. You should not be directed by assumptions related to the reason for death of any great teacher or figure, for that is missing the whole point of life. That direction comes through God’s teaching. That teaching is transmitted in many ways. It may be through such communions as you experience together, and it may be through the lives of others.
The stronger that life reflects God, the stronger the perception of God. The figures that you cherish in your worship are figures who have reflected God most intensely, figures which therefore provide a focus for your own life. That is the principal reason, the main idea, behind any religion finding a center in someone who experienced human life. Your lives are no different in their potential for reflecting God than those of great leaders of the past. Each of you is imbued with the sense of God in your life, and each of you recognizes the need for somehow transmitting that reality to another. That potential is equally shared by all.
What is different from person to person is the will to reflect. It is the will to be evidence of God in a life of turmoil, in a life of instability. Those who have a great will as well as insight have the potential for making God’s presence directly felt by many, but without the will, the potential lies barren. It is there but it does not grow. It does not flower. A seed in the ground may spring forth and become a beautiful sight, but another seed with the same potential may remain dormant. The difference is not between the seeds, but in the environment. It is permitted to grow or is not.
Your lives are exactly as those seeds. They may blossom forth and create great beauty in the world, or they may remain dormant, aware only of their potential, but never witness their growth. Each of you must seek real growth, not just recognize your potential. Each must develop the will to reflect God in a powerful way. It does not have to be in front of thousands. It may be evidenced before one other, but that is all that is required for you to reflect God to another. If that reflection is pure and bright and unselfconscious and unselfish, the life you touch will be illuminated, and that illumination will be carried to other dark corners and will spread.
Such is the application of God’s reflection in life. That is truly a common ingredient in the lives of all central figures in organized religions of the world. An example is recognized and responded to. It is not important that your lives touch others in the same way as such figures of worship, but it is of utmost importance that you draw from the knowledge of the value of their reflection making it your own will, choosing to reflect God, choosing to be loving, choosing to listen to another, choosing just to be there when you are needed—saying nothing, choosing to be close to another. Your lives will become far richer by the unselfish expression of unabated love to even one other.
We see each of you growing and becoming better reflectors. Sometimes you are strong reflectors of God, but at other times you are barriers to God. That is natural. You strive to be able to receive God’s light constantly and be able to pass it along, to reflect it and focus it, but the nature of life is not steady, and therefore there are many instances when your ability to reflect is diminished. You know those times. You recognize those moments when pride, when ego of one form or another, selfishness, step in the way between you and God. You recognize those moments. They do not go by in your lives unnoticed.
Continue to find ways of eliminating those blocks. When you feel so concerned about your own well being, try to switch your awareness to the needs of someone else. It may be a brief response, but, having made it, you will again recognize that you have been the hand of God for a moment and that moment will generate far greater pleasure and joy and feeling of peace than at any other times in your lives.
We pray for you. Each of us prays for each of you. Your guides are next to you. They are inside. They completely surround your being. We are a spiritual presence for you. We are not physically limited as the body has defined limits. We can be next to you but we can also surround you with protection. We are in your thoughts. We know your joys and thanksgivings as well as your frustrations. We are not above you or below you. There is no geographical description which accurately indicates our presence in your lives.
God’s light is so much greater than ours, but our presence within your lives is much as God’s is. Feel our presence as you feel God’s. Be reminded that it is your guide, your individual guide, who helps to focus God’s light on your soul in a manner that you can recognize, in a way that brings response from within. God’s light is everywhere, but it is your guide whose responsibility it is to focus that light into each of your lives. Therefore, we do bless you in God’s light for we focus God’s blessings onto your soul, and we surround you with our love and our constant presence.
Amen.