March 24, 2008
You speak of changes in what life offers, wondering how the actions of others can be considered of value, and how your own actions can contribute to your movement along your chosen path of life. As was shared, no choices are random, no options are random. All is ultimately directed toward the greater good for which you pray. There are many paths, as you know, that lead to what it is you seek, namely the growth of your souls and your service to others.
The choices you make are indeed never completely false, never completely erroneous. They never point solely to what can only be described as evil in their impact. Everything you do, everything others do, finds its way forward by whatever path is appropriate. You are given choices, and some choices are easily recognized and the proper and most appropriate selection is easily chosen. But some choices that are available to you are not quickly seen, they are not immediately felt, and you can find yourselves needing to respond and feeling totally lost and bereft of insight. It is natural to experience these moments, but the assurance that you are aware of what you may do comes only through prayer, a prayer for openness to the possibilities that are arranged before you at your feet.
There is no choice to be made for which there is no resolution, there is no answer, there is no way out, there is no way forward, for all choices that you have available to you are choices that contain within them a seed for growth toward God. But all seeds need to be nurtured. You do what you do, others do what they do, and for every action there is a consequence, and it is through the consequence of those actions that progress is achieved.
No action is engaged in bereft of impact. You cannot have a thought of any kind without an impact. Thoughts are energy. That energy is never wasted. It returns to you. It does not merely go out in one direction, because whatever is issued beyond your presence becomes a part ultimately of your own experiences. For those engaged in actions that bring suffering, pain, death to others, there is an energy that returns to them. There is a learning which ultimately takes place. You may feel that such learning is at the expense—the unnecessary, undeserved, unwarranted expense—of another, but part of your learning as human beings is encountering what is negative as well as what is positive.
You grow as you experience success, but you often grow more profoundly when you experience what you may define as failure. You never really fail. What you define as failure is simply a set of circumstances that you are now provided with that are other than what you anticipated or hoped for. So nothing is fully lost. It is for every human being to find ways of moving toward God, recognizing the mistakes, errors of judgment that result in grave consequences and yet those consequences belong to the process of growth.
You contemplate, in your own ways, how there can be benefit when innocent people are victimized by actions that seem to fly in the face of spiritual growth. For those who fall as victims, the growth continues, perhaps not for the moment in human form, but the growth continues. For others who are affected by the victimization of someone, there is also opportunity for growth, but what can come out of experiencing tragedies inflicted upon others?
You know that an act of nonjudgmental love is compassionate. When you experience compassion for another, you are taking enormous strides in your own growth, for your compassionate responses are thoroughly unselfish, and the objectives of those compassionate actions and thoughts are only directed to others and not to self. Isn’t this what you are asked to learn? Isn’t this part of the action of being loving? You are given that attitude to exercise. You’re given that desire to follow through.
There is grief, but there is grief that everyone experiences. The grief you may feel is indicative of feeling abandoned by God, but it is in experiencing grief that you open your spiritual eyes to a vision far broader than was possible before. You cannot reject the validity and importance of grief, for grief is the route for much growth. It is difficult to go through. It is difficult to see others endure, but it nevertheless provides enormous breadth, depth to the human experience. Despite the horrific reality of the loss of life, there is this kernel of beauty and blessing that lies at the heart of the grief that is felt.
We have said there is no place for guilt in one’s own view of oneself. Stating that, it is our purpose that you acknowledge two facts: one, that guilt is important, and two, that the overcoming of that guilt is essential. Without experiencing the guilt, you cannot grow as you overcome. Guilt is a form of self-punishment. It is a feeling of personal denial of self. When someone feels one cannot do enough, or someone feels one has done too much, or someone feels one should not have done something, there is always the opportunity to overcome, to seek light, to seek acceptance of self, to seek an acknowledgment of the value of self, the worthiness of self.
If you find that whatever you do is inadequate, acknowledge that, but ask yourself why it is you feel it is inadequate. What was wrong? What was missing? What did you feel you should have done? And then you must ask yourself why you felt as you did. Understanding why you feel guilty, inadequate, misdirected is an important stage in overcoming that which creates such personal agony.
Every human being has value. Every human being is basically good, as you would say. It is incorrect to assume some are good, some are bad. All are good. God does not create what is bad and evil. What is interpreted as evil is part of the nature of choice—choice in interpretation, choice in action. You are given life not because you are good—you are good because you are given life. What you do with the life you have is your choice, and those choices all carry with them the seeds for growth, regardless of how those choices are played out.
Because all human beings are basically good, valid, spiritual, there is no appropriate judgment. You cannot judge individuals, for there is no one who is above question. All human beings are good, as you would define it, but not all beings are right all the time. Being wrong in a decision, being wrong in a remark, being wrong in an activity does not in any way affect the goodness of what has been created. Allow yourselves that opportunity to grow in spirit while you are given a human life. You will have many opportunities to grow as spirit-forms.
Those for whom you pray are growing. You have mentioned Martin [deceased] and you must know that Martin is with all of us as we join you. He is with you, and your thoughts of Martin, your thoughts of others who have joined us invite their presence. Your thoughts bring strength, they bring comfort, for they are loving and longing thoughts.
You cherish life so often when others are no longer physically present. You must learn to cherish life at all times. Cherish those you know, those whose actions you support and those whose actions are opposed to your wishes. All must be cherished. There is no reason to believe that whoever joins our form of life is somehow more valuable than when occupying your own life-form. All remains valuable. All remains sacred. There is nothing that has been created that doesn’t contain what is sacred. Every object, every part of nature, every individual, everything made by any individual belongs to what is sacred and what does have value. When you contemplate what humankind has created, it is difficult often to accept the validity of that creation, but you cannot stand in such judgment if you accept that all that is is sacred.
No human life is without value. No other form of life is without value. The person whose actions are “good” as you would define them, has no more value than someone whose actions are “bad” as you would define them. You cannot make that judgment. Therefore accept everyone. Find the goodness that is a part of each human being. If you have disagreements with another, you certainly can express them, but take a moment before expressing them to acknowledge what you respect, what you value in another. Acknowledge what you know about another, acknowledge what you don’t know about another, for there is much behind every individual. As has been said, every human being has a story. You are part of a continuum of that story. Everyone shares being part of their own continuum, but everyone also shares being a part of how that continuum becomes self-directed.
The various filings that are attracted by a magnet are attracted not because they are resting in a straight line. They are attracted because of the energy of the magnet which covers an area that is never linear. In the same respect, your souls are attracted to the magnetic of the Spirit Center, God. It makes no difference where you are located. The attraction is still there, the pull is still there, and all that takes place is entirely as it should be.
Proceed in your relationships with others with complete faith that every human being shares equal value, that every human being is growing, that every human being is developing into a loving presence. And when actions interrupt that sense of direction, be the first to forgive. Be the first to say, “Yes, but that person is equal as a creation of God. No human being is below another.”
Find opportunities for acknowledging another’s gifts. Find opportunities for acknowledging what is good about everyone. Focus on the good and acknowledge that what is not good in behavior is a part of a far grander design than you can possibly see. No human being is fully evil, for no human being exists without the need to be loved, and no human being exists without a feeling of reaching to another in some way. You may be unaware of that outreach, but it exists at some level for everyone because it exists as an expression of the Spirit Center in each.
Be glad when you are aware of the goodness of another. Be slow to criticize. Be quick to support and affirm, and always see in another that very divine spark that is within you.
You are blessed as we are by our mutual awareness. You are blessed in your actions that reflect that awareness. You are blessed in those moments when there seems to be no awareness. You are blessed…you are blessed…you are loved.
Amen.