May 15, 2006
God joins with each of you on your individual and collective journeys through life. You experience your lives most poignantly, most personally, as individuals, and yet you are asked by us, by God, to experience in communion with others. Your lives, of course, have meaning in themselves, but the ultimate purpose is seen in your relationships with others and with all of God’s creation.
We spoke to you the last time about the relationship between human life and fear and faith. There is much to be said about fear. There is much, of course, to be said about faith, for even after many opportunities to listen to God’s word, each of you has much to learn about both fear and faith. There is a common misconception about faith that is echoed throughout the world and practiced in many religious groups, and that is that faith is a way of ordering God, that faith is a way of anticipating what is in God’s plan, in a way that provides the benefits that you design. Faith is not a blind belief that God’s response will ultimately meet your own objectives, for in a way that is dictating what you hope will be that response. What most individuals miss is the message that faith is really listening. Being faithful is listening to the presence of God. It is keeping your heart open to know the presence of God in all things.
You cannot define God’s presence in your own terms. How often is it you hear someone state, most emphatically:
I have faith that God will see a particular goal achieved.
I have faith that God will do this or that.
I have faith that God will intervene and prevent this or that.
These are putting conditions on God’s response. That is really not faith. It is a kind of wishful thinking. A statement of faith would be: “I firmly believe that God is a part of this and I want to know that presence.”
A statement such as that reflects one’s willingness, one’s desire to be open, to recognize God’s response. It is not a set of anticipated results. Faith is listening. Faith is being open. Faith is looking for God. Faith is a commitment to an acknowledgment that God is always present.
It’s up to you as individuals and it is up to you collectively to allow yourselves the ability to recognize God. That recognition comes in forms that may be far different from what you anticipate or believe is best. If you accept that God is always a part of everything, you eliminate fear, you eliminate anxiety. Such negative components of life lose their power, and instead you are buoyed by a firm commitment to the reality that God is present—no matter what.
The God of whom we speak is not just a single entity. God is a collection, an accumulation, a joining together of all that is good, all that is loving. Every soul (not just those on our side), but every soul, yours included, belongs to what is really God. You are, in your way, creators of your environment. In your way, you choose much of what is in your life. In your own way, you choose to be vulnerable. In your own way, you may choose to be vindictive. You may choose to surround yourselves with doubt, fear, with anxiety, worry about others. But you are still a part of all that is God.
What you choose to believe in, how you choose to respond to life does not in itself reduce the truth that God Is, and that you belong to God, you are a part of God. You know there is nothing that separates you in a meaningful way from God. If you accept the fact that you are always connected directly to God, how can you be so fearful? How can you be filled with guilt or anxiety or self-pity or remorse? There is no place for that.
Each of you has concerns about the health of others who still experience human life. Each of you has questions and concerns about the health and vitality of souls who now share our life. It is important that everyone accept as truth that all souls who have crossed into a different form of life are being supported, are surrounded by love, are understanding of what it means to be loving, are aware of those they have known and loved, and are always present in the lives of those left behind.
It’s not unusual to be aware of one’s loved ones or parents as one experiences the mysteries of nature, for the spirit of one who is loved is often sensed by another. When you think of a soul who has joined us, that thought alone is an affirmation of the presence of that soul. If you are reminded of that soul because of what you see or experience, such a sign is fully valid. In reality, one’s beloved friends and close family, all for whom one prays, are eternally a part of your own life. If you lose a close friend, you are not being left alone. Your friend is not being left alone, for you have each other. That relationship is retained. You may not always be aware of closeness of another, but that closeness does not cease. Even when you join our life form, those relationships are retained. All loving relationships are permanent. There is nothing lost. A loving relationship lasts without ceasing.
You are left with memories of those who have joined us. But for those who are with us, you are more than a memory, for each of us sees your lights. Each of us knows what is in your hearts. Each of us experiences a permanent bond with you. For that reason you are never separated. You are with close friends, you are with family, you are with all whom you have loved.
We have said that your soul is all that is permanent. But what is your soul? Soul is the infinite and permanent capacity to love. Your soul grows in that capacity, but the loving relationship between two entities, whether human form or spiritual form, is permanent.
You may see your mother in the mists. You may see your close friend in the face of a perfect stranger. You may see your faith as it is reflected by those who offer comfort and loving support. This connection between you and all else, visible to you and invisible, is real. It is tangible, it is permanent, it does never subside, it remains strong. You may look to another and see a friend. You may look to nature and see family. You can look in the eyes of a stranger and see God. You can look at the smile on a face of someone you have never met and know that you are close, that you are related, that you share a divine light—one with another.
Be willing always to be open to God’s presence. Be willing to see
God, be willing to hear God, be willing to feel that presence. Allow yourselves the blessing of faith based on what you hear, what you see and feel. Do not allow your faith to dictate or control, but use your faith to expand your view, your sense of God in everything you see.
You are blessed as you seek God’s loving presence. You are blessed as you turn to God, as you turn to your guides. You are blessed as you turn to one another. You are blessed as you bring unto those in great pain, for in your loving and in your comfort, you become God’s loving and comforting hand and heart.
Amen.