August 5, 1991

• Little in life is the result of chance

• Dealing with adversity and difficult relationships

God surrounds you all with great light as you gather in this group this evening. Each of you brings your own light to the collection, and together you reflect enormous brilliance back to us. That brilliance brings warmth and nourishment to each of us, and we are grateful for that.

Your lives and our lives are united in a great community. It is a oneness, a commonality which is the goal of collective spiritual development. Each of you pursues your own path of development, both physically as humans and spiritually. Despite that diversity, you are joined in a spiritual union here.

It is not just a matter of coincidence that each of you is a part of your gathering. You have all been drawn to this point in your lives through a number of circumstances. As you live your lives on a day to day basis be aware of many comings together, and recognize that there is really little in life that is the result of chance. You don't just find yourselves here. You got here. Innumerable elements in your lives brought you to this point, whether or not you are consciously aware of them.

You are all being directed in some form or another, and it is your souls which choose to follow that direction, that guidance, or not to follow it. The fact that you are unaware of the many influences which shape the path upon which you travel serves to give evidence that there is much in your life which occurs that is deserving of your greater attention.

Events which take place in your lives are not circumstantial. Things happen which are the result of other things which have taken place. If you are wet from a storm it isn't by chance that the storm arose. There were many elements of nature, as you would say, which came together in just the appropriate way to create that storm. And you are where you are when the storm broke as the result of diverse influences in your life.

When you are approached by adversity it is easy to ask yourself "why me?" When another suffers unreasonably it is tempting to ask why that person should be the recipient of such difficulty. There is no answer which would satisfy you. There is no "why" or "therefore" or "because." You cannot interact with your lives constantly asking why, for the answer has no significance, and therefore is not worthy of being an answer. The issue should be “what do I do with the circumstance I find myself in. How do I deal with what happens,” not “why is this happening.”

The way you deal with your lives is governed by your spiritual direction. You can approach disappointment, pain, tragedy, and sorrow from a position of spiritual strength, being firm in the recognition that there is much growth to be achieved, there is much strength to accumulate, there is much depth to grow as a result of what happens. Each of you can think of events that have taken place in the past involving individuals who have risen to the challenge, who have grown through the groping, who have deepened as a result of being stretched. They have become bigger in spirit as a result of their experience in life.

You also know of individuals who seem to be diminished by their experience of life. You see, it is not the experience which is the issue. It is how they deal with the experience which is important, and it is because of the importance of this element of human life, your reaction to what happens, that we are so essential to your ultimate growth, for we serve to provide you a perspective with which to view the events that confront you, be they situations or individuals. It is the spiritual strength that you carry with you that provides real meaning to your human lives.

A life spent with no sense of the eternal or the spiritual is a life that has lost much of its potential. A life governed or directed by spiritual awareness is a life full of fulfillment, regardless of whether that fulfillment is recognized by others or not. It is spiritual growth, as you know, which is the bottom line of human development. It is not physical strength or mental agility or specific prowess. It is spiritual development. We are here to provide meaning and relevance to your human life.

When you meet individuals whom you find difficult professionally or personally to work with, be aware that you are being provided with an opportunity for growth. It is not the differences between individuals which are essential, but rather it is what you make of the relationship. What you make of a relationship can be translated to tearing down of walls. When you are committed to responding in a positive and supportive manner, you are eliminating the effects of those walls, of those barriers.

The barriers that exist between countries and ethnic groups within countries are caused by an inability to respond to what is happening. They are caused by pulling away from a response. They are caused by a need to pretend that a response is not necessary. A response is always necessary, and therefore the walls have no meaning.

As you proceed down your path of life until you join us and many other souls on this side, keep in mind the importance of how you respond and not what you are responding to. The "how" breaks down walls, the "what" creates them. There should be no "what" because that emphasizes differences. By focusing on the "how" you are recognizing a bond between you and all of life and that bond reassures the unity of what God has created.

We pray for your strengthened abilities to eliminate those walls, to eliminate a sense of difference between you and what lies out there. We pray for your heightened sense of belonging to all that God has created, all that is visible as well as invisible. Your souls contain the seed for such continued growth, but it is up to you in your human form of life to nurture that seed so that your souls may flower becoming ever broader and brighter and warmer through the illumination of God in your lives.

God blesses each of you as individuals and as a collection of souls. We ask that you rejoice for the unity that you recognize, and we look forward with great joy to your being gathered together, producing the luminescence that we see so clearly. God's love is passed through us and brightens each of your souls. Rejoice!

Amen.