April 29, 1985
God blesses each of you now as always.
It’s difficult to understand how God is a part of the lives of those who suffer significantly to the same extent that God is with those who endure fewer trials, for God does not play favorites. There are not individuals or nations or faiths that are favored. All are equal. There are those in life who feel quite honestly and sincerely that they have been forgotten or left behind by God, just as there are those who feel that they have received more from God than others. It is true when we tell you that you are no more blessed than the poorest being on earth. To understand this you must understand what it is to be blessed.
Blessings do not come clothed in worldly riches. Blessings come in the form of character. Blessings shape your souls. Even the poorest has a sense of self. Even the poorest can have a glimmer of hope. Even the poorest knows what it is to feel love. Even the poorest knows what it means to receive love. Blessings from God are received through growth.
Perhaps you are tired of hearing spiritual growth, spiritual growth, and even more about spiritual growth. And you may say at times, “That fine, but how do I relate that to my life? I’m glad my spirit’s growing, but what about my life? What about the lives of others?” Those who suffer unbearably from an ailment grow spiritually. You may feel that such growth has little bearing on the pain and agony of their lives, but therein lies the difference between your perspective and ours. We see pain and suffering, of course, just as we see happiness.
Pain and suffering and happiness are never equally divided among humanity. There always shall be those who seem to you to experience more of the negative in life than the positive. God does not decide who has the positive and who must receive the negative in life. That’s not a matter of decision. It’s a matter of circumstance, much of it human-made and little of it made specifically by those who suffer. God’s blessing in your lives, therefore, cannot be measured by the experience of suffering or the freedom from suffering. There must be another dimension to God’s intervention, as you may call it, in human life.
How often is it that you say or hear another say, “I’ve been so blessed…something has happened which is so wonderful,” and on and on. You see, God does not bless another so that another responds like that. One is responding out of joy and gratefulness but certainly without any understanding of the nature of divine blessing—grace, you may call it. Since all humankind is virtually equal to God, is it not illogical to expect that God would distribute God’s presence unequally? That would defy your understanding of your position within the realm of God.
You are blessed by God, you receive God’s grace directly and through others, but what is it? We often close our moments with you reaffirming God’s blessing on your lives. What do we mean? Quite simply, we mean that God’s light, which is God’s love, is a part of the lives of each of you. It is very simple. God does not love one more than another. We speak of love because it has more immediate meaning for you in your search for an understanding of the relationship between God and you, God and all humankind. But even the term love in its many interpretations is not altogether adequate. Theologians have grappled with this for centuries. Unfortunately, for many the term grace may have some impact but little meaning.
You are a part of a continuum as we have discussed: past life, present life, future life. That is part of this blessing, this grace from God—the fact that you always will be. There is no end. There’s only more growth, more insight, more vision, more understanding and thereby greater love. This continuity of which we speak is what is commonly shared by every human being, good or evil. There is no human who is without a potential for a greater future. The future is there for all. The individual who is gravely ill from starvation, from disease, has no less a future than the richest king.
Many religions have tried to expound upon this generality by weaving complex philosophies and formulas as a means of gaining a clearer understanding of how one gets there from here. But the truth is so simple it doesn’t need formulas. The commandments of which you know are such formulas. If you live according to your perception, according to your growing perception of the nature of God and therefore the nature of life, the commandments are self-evident. They need not be learned. Your lives are governed through your perception of God, not your comprehension of formulas.
Life may be tragic or triumphant, but it is always direct, and it can be very simple. You are what you are because of what you have been and what you are yet to be. It is very simple. If you find it difficult to perceive God’s lessons in life, particularly when viewed as being equal to all people, you must concentrate on the simplicity and directness of which we speak. The Christian has no greater place in heaven than the heathen, despite what is preached. There is indeed no promised land, no chosen race, no single religious philosophy. They don’t exist. Much in your world is founded upon erroneous assumption that one of these elements is essential. But if you believe such concepts, how can you believe that God bestows grace or blessings equally upon all people because God’s love for all is equal? It can’t be done…you can see that.
Religions and philosophies were formulated and continue to be formulated as a means of achieving some understanding of life. For many it has been out of desperation, out of the belief that if this is all there is, why are we here? What is so important? The philosophies are a response to such questions.
We cannot reiterate enough, and so shall continue in the years ahead, to emphasize the equality of each individual and the virtual equality of God’s response. God is no closer to you than to another. God does not favor you more than another or another more than you. You can accept this intellectually. It may be more difficult for some to accept it deeply from within. God’s blessings are indeed with each of you, but they are also with those who suffer, those who are in inner turmoil with themselves or turmoil with their world. Life is not fair, you’ve heard that, but God is. When you fully accept the fairness and equality of God, then you accept life as it comes.
There’s no reason to be bitter from your own suffering or the suffering of another, for the suffering is unimportant. Life continues; you continue. There is no end. Why feel bitter when instead you can feel blessed? Bitterness comes out of self-pity, but what promotes self-pity is lessened in impact when viewed as a small part of a far greater and infinite continuity. You are part of that continuity. That is the blessing, the grace if you will, that is from God. As you grow spiritually you become more aware of that continuity and your part in it.
Pitfalls and frustrations along the way are greatly diminished in impact, and you begin to emerge into a life of greater equilibrium, of greater smoothness, of less conflict felt from within. This is what you seek. You all seek a smoother life, not an easier life but a life that you can accommodate, that you can accept. If it is a life of difficulty, so be it. You pray for the ability to accept those difficulties, not to have no difficulties. It is in the accepting of life as it comes that you achieve that smoothness, that equilibrium of which we speak. You all have it within you to achieve.
Paupers may not ever experience good nutrition and health, but they can experience acceptance that somehow their lot in life is not so critical—that there is something greater, there is something beyond, there is something more important—and thereby they achieve a kind of or a degree of equilibrium. That recognition that there is something greater is a part of this gift from God, is a part of this blessing or blessings, if you wish to make it plural.
So as we bless you, as we focus God’s blessing upon your life, as we open up your souls to receive God’s blessing or grace, that is what we seek—the smoothness for your life, a security of a sense of direction, the peace inside, a freedom from anxiety, the receiving of the gift of life and all that comes with it. You should all rejoice, for you have been shown that there is much ahead of greatness and warmth, all of which are bathed with an incredible light of love. All humankind is indeed greatly blessed. Rejoice, rejoice!
Amen.