November 2, 2017

• Having faith in challenging times

• The functions of light and darkness

The presence of God is the source of all that you seek and is evident in your own lives, not only now but at all times. It is true, as we have so often said, that you are constantly in the view and care of a God who is present, filled with peace, filled with comfort, and the very fulfillment of love.

Your own concerns are essentially a blindness to the loving energy that is around you now and always. The blindness that we speak of is not a condition of unawareness but rather a state of preoccupation, for you are strongly aware of what in your life carries with it a kind of threat, of what is in some way felt to be dangerous, to be the cause of suffering, to be the promotion of ignorance, to be a reinforcement of disengagement. These are threats of a sort, but they are nevertheless unsettling, and it is only appropriate that your perception of God’s presence is put on hold as you are preoccupied with these issues of seeming immediate concern.

It is understandable that all people seek an equilibrium, that all seek the kind of balance that enables you to continue on your path unobstructed. You know of moments in your life when you have experienced a preoccupation that blinds you to other aspects of life that you are encountering. Such preoccupation can be a benefit, for it can act as a kind of protection, but in this sense of which we speak, the preoccupations that you experience are blocking some of the benefit that surrounds your life. Your concerns can preoccupy the mind so thoroughly that God’s presence and the presence of your guides is totally missed. We mention this not as a complaint but rather as a statement of what is, a statement of what it means to be human.

It is absolutely understandable that you experience great uncertainty, that you may experience fear, that you experience sadness at the suffering of others. While we don’t wish for you to ignore such energies, we would urge you to bring those concerns into a light that is actually fed and nourished by faith. We last spoke about the meaning of faith, and it is at times such as those you are facing that the need for faith is ever more pressing.

It is difficult to find the hook upon which to rest your faith when you are faced by many storms that push through the windows and doors of your life. It is okay to experience frustration, fear, anger, impatience, worry, or a hunger of spirit. It is natural because that is part of what differentiates your life from ours. You live a human life, and you therefore experience human emotions. You experience what it means not to be fully loving. You experience what it means not to be fully love. But the preoccupations that come along for all human lives are merely temporary. They may be intensely felt, but they are not permanent. Their impermanence is not because somehow that preoccupation will just blow away. Rather, the impermanence is because you arrive at a point in your life when you are able to open the heart, when you are able to see the presence of faith as a real component to life, and all that you experience as fear or anxiety, worry, anger, or impatience begins to move away from the forefront, and in its place comes faith. You are never more aware of faith than you are in the darkest moments of life, for faith in itself is a kind of beacon. It is a light into the darkness.

You are aware of the presence of a single light much more when it shines in darkness than when it illuminates what is already bright. Faith is not exercised or experienced when all seems well with the world. Such faith is tested, strengthened, and fully experienced most poignantly when it is the darkest. You do not appreciate the warmth until you have experienced the cold. The warmth may always be present, but without the cold it holds little significance.

Therefore, as you experience concerns about the direction of a nation or the direction of a community, it is important to lift the eyes of the heart and seek the light. When you seek that light in the darkness, it will be recognized. The darkness that is experienced is not the absence of light, for the darkness will not mean that all is invisible. It only means the visibility is restricted. The darkness of spirit does not mean the lack of God’s light, for God is present at all times, but it is in those moments of darkness that you truly feel the presence of light. Darkness does not spread; light does. You may feel the darkness increases. There is bad news upon bad news upon bad news, but in reality, all that actually multiplies is what is light, because it is in the light that one finds God’s energy.

Frustrations as a religious community seeking spiritual leadership is part of that darkness. If you are unaware of that darkness, you are unaware of the point of light. Recognizing the challenges you face personally, spiritually, corporately, or nationally, you then become more capable of seeing God. The darkness, therefore, does serve a purpose, a purpose that is not to destruct but rather to form a place from which you experience the light.

For the community that concerns some of you, there is resolution. There is reconciliation. There is direction, but in any such organization, there is always a diversity of perspective. That diversity asks of each to find some common ground.

The sadness of seeing another suffer can only be adequately met when you acknowledge the beauty of one who is suffering, for in acknowledging the beauty and the pain of that suffering, the vision of the heart is enhanced, and for each comes the opportunity to see the light in the darkness.

Every human being carries the light. It is not just God ruling from a single place. We have often said that you are the arms and ears, the eyes and the heart that collectively are God.

So where does this light come from that becomes evident in the darkness? It is not a dream or a hallucination. It is a light that is real and present. Where does that light come from? It comes from the person next to you, the person across from you, the person above or below you, in front of you or behind you. Yes, the light even comes from you. The light is there. You can reflect that light outward to those in need, and others who are nearby you can become beacons of light illuminating your own path.

The light, where does it come from? It comes most especially from you, each of you. The light that is God’s light does not come from a single source. It does not come from a God that sits on a throne, so to speak. It comes from others like you. You become a part of God’s response toward another. You become the words of God. You become the actions of God. You become an affirmation of all that belongs to what God is.

When you ask, “Where is God?” look to your neighbor. Find what is God in your neighbor, and you may be more ready to see, experience, and receive the blessing of the God that is within you. Embrace the darkness, welcome the darkness, for that gives you the ability to receive, to see, to feel the light.

None of the darkness, none of the distraction you may feel is permanent. You may be assured that though there may be expressions of darkness, of fear, of irrationality, that the energy of light, of what is good shall ultimately prevail. The acknowledgment of light within a field of darkness has no time constraints. There is nothing that dictates that in one week or a month or a year or decades that you will come to see God’s light. The faith that you are asked to experience is merely the belief that God’s light is there, and that the strength that is needed to overcome the presence of a darkness is in itself sufficient.

You are that light. You are the strength. You are God’s presence, each of you, all human beings. Don’t be surprised, therefore, when unexpectedly someone reaches out and hears what is in your heart, that hears what you express verbally, that hears the commitments that you make physically or prayerfully to healing. You are the light for others, but others are lights that are meant for each of you, for all human beings.

Accept the necessity and the naturalness of the preoccupations you experience that block the light of God. Accept that any darkness is temporary. Accept that God’s light has an energy that confirms, affirms, that strengthens what is good, that strengthens a commitment to seek more and more the light.

We say you are blessed in the light, and we mean you are blessed in the light. Accept the lives of others as being lights of others. Find ways of being illuminated on your own paths through the presence of others. Then recognize that that presence is actually God’s presence, and that whenever you are present for another in need, God is your presence in the lives of others. Be strengthened as your faith grows, faith not as an empty wish, but faith as a belief. Separate yourselves from the limitations of time, but be comforted by an acknowledgment that what is good, what is light, what is life-giving will always prevail. Feel blessed in the light.

Accept those moments of distraction, recognizing that such conditions of separation are only brief, and yet those distractions, those feelings of separation are the darkness that allows you to see most strongly God’s light in front of you, illuminating your paths and warming your presence in the lives of others.

Rejoice in the light!

Amen.