January 5, 2012

• Governments evolve just as human beings evolve

• Peacemaking among nations

• People and nations must become vulnerable

• Focus should be on what is best for all

• God continues to create

God is with you and embraces you with loving warmth and an unconditional surrounding within which you can reach out in love, compassion, and an abiding faith and belief in your place within the entirety of God’s creation.

You ask so often in your own ways about the direction of your society, the direction of the world, the place of light and darkness, the relationship between balance and imbalance, the purposes of joy and sadness. You are, as are many in the world, on an extensive journey. This journey encompasses fair weather and foul. It encompasses great friendships and challenging relationships. The journey that you are on is the journey you must be on.

You are not placed upon your paths by some matter of random occurrence. You are where you should be because you are where you belong. You are brought to this place of consideration, of listening and sharing, because you are ready for this encounter. You are brought here because it is most appropriate for your own paths of growth.

Your position within your own paths is not unlike the position of your society or your government within the wider framework of humankind. What you experience politically and socially within your country is presented to you not as a random act but as an integral part of what it means for many to evolve into a society that values others.

Your society, indeed your nation, is very young. It is much like the youth of human life. Youths approach their lives as they feel it is best for them; the degree of commitment to what is best for all measures the development of humans on their paths. A child thinks about “me.” Many adults think about “us,” and a few think about “you.” This latter group has reached a stage in their development when the sense of “I” or “me” or “mine” is entirely eclipse by the importance of “you, yours.”

Ultimately when a group of individuals considers of primary importance what happens to or what is important for, the ultimate beneficiary becomes not the other but all. If you wish a group to benefit and grow in the most effective manner, each member of the group must be concerned primarily with the other. You ultimately grow through your concerns for another, and when that is the condition of everyone, everyone grows. There are no fences. There are no barriers. There are no deterrents. It is all a function of doing what helps and affirms and provides love to someone else.

And so it is with societies, with communities, with nations, with collectives of nations. Most in the early stages are concerned about what is in their own interests. How often do you hear it said about your own government, “We are concerned about our defense and an appropriate response to our interests abroad”? How often do you hear statements that say, “We are interested in our own defense, but we are committed to what is best in the interests of other nations”? That “otherness” is a state of being that can only take place with great maturity and humility. It is as rare a national policy as it is an individual perspective.

It is a form of judgment to say that another individual cannot think beyond himself or herself. It is also a matter of judgment to say, “A nation cannot think beyond itself.” As you are always being asked to be nonjudgmental of others, you collectively must learn to be nonjudgmental on a much larger scale. You may not be happy or convinced about the direction of your political machinery, but it is important that you recognize that what you are observing is part of a process. Governments evolve just as human beings evolve, for governments are merely a collection, an assembly of human beings. The government will never be more advanced than the humans that occupy those positions of authority and decision making, policy making.

If you wish to see a change in how governments relate to one another, you must be concerned about how you relate to others. Your development as individuals is not separate from your development as a society, your development as a nation, or your development overall viewed as the entirety of humankind. Each of you is part of a process. Each of you is evolving. Your community is part of a process, and it is evolving. Your nation is part of a process, and it is evolving. The relationship between nations of the world is a process, and that also evolves.

It is not a problem to recognize the shortcomings of your own or the shortcomings of those around you or the shortcomings of a nation, but it is counterproductive to feel that the current state of development is what in your words would be considered “a lost cause.” There is no lost cause. You are not a lost cause. There is no one individual who is a lost cause. You know that. No government is a lost cause.

Human beings may be misdirected in their passions just as nations may be so misdirected, but misdirection has no bearing on value. You’re not a lesser being if you proceed through life somehow misdirected. A nation is of no less value when its policies are misdirected. They are simply misdirected, and being a part of the process, they will move forward. Each of you continues to develop as human beings. Each nation is on its track in evolving and discovering what is truly important—that not being the continuation of self but the valuing of others.

It is easy to feel discouraged when your lives experience imbalance, when you face frustration and anger, regret, when you experience illness, but that imbalance is part of the process. It is part of what it means to evolve, to grow, to become broader. All the values that you hold to be true as they relate to personal growth apply equally to the growth of state.

You turn to us asking for insight. That action is a statement filled with trust and more importantly with the kind of vulnerability we speak of so often. It is the fate of all nations, all communities, all groups of individual that they ultimately become vulnerable. Vulnerability is not related to weakness but rather refers to an openness and a willingness to learn from others, a willingness to value the presence of others. When you become vulnerable, when you become willing to receive the gifts of love, you grow. You become more sensitive to the gifts of God’s presence. A nation must also in its way become vulnerable—not weak, but yet willing to acknowledge the value of all other nations to the collective good, to the collective growth. When one nation acknowledges the importance to another with the objective being a peaceful, respectful relationship, then that acknowledgment generates the peace and the respect that is sought after.

If you and another individual are committed to sharing existence as human beings characterized by mutual respect, then that relationship will create respect, and that respect will create justice and peace. It requires a commitment from both parties. So it is with nations. When countries acknowledge the value of one another, not for the purpose of how another can satisfy our needs but rather how each can satisfy the other’s needs, then the building process that leads toward peace is begun.

Your relationships to your neighbors must ultimately be based on this mutual commitment. It is uncommon to achieve that relationship truly, for one generally finds one party more interested in mutual respect and another party seeking ways to meet its own interests. But this reality should in no way discourage the effort to create those types of relationships. A good marriage must be worked at. If one party seeks a good relationship and the other does not, the marriage is not strong. But if both are committed to the value of the other, then that relationship is sealed with great strength.

When you are in relationships with another individual or another community or another nation, and that other seems less interested in acknowledging shared mutual interests, that is not an excuse to give up seeking to contribute in some way to that relationship. You seek because it is who you are, not because of what you expect to get from it. You offer love because you are loving, not because of what you expect to receive in return. That is not love. That is all about another entity meeting your needs.

Just as you must learn this as individuals, so must nations also learn the same lesson. We can say with absolute clarity that the process and the result that you seek— one of fairness, one of understanding, one of responsiveness at the national level—is moving forward. You may not see that progress because you don’t see the pattern. You see the details. You cannot understand the great beauty of a tapestry by looking at one small corner. You must stand back. You must gain a perspective, and then you begin to sense with great clarity the nature of that tapestry.

From our perspective, we see the entirety. Yes, there are details that are important, that contribute to the entirety, but our view is what is happening in your growth as an individual, what is happening in the growth of your community, what is happening in the growth of your nation, what is happening in the growth of humanity. Looking at that greater pattern, it is very clear that what is good is far stronger than what is not.

Light is stronger than darkness. Light contains an energy that is lacking in the dark. The power of love is far more impressive than the power of hate. The desire to communicate is ultimately stronger than the desire to separate. A view is more powerful than a fence. The warmth between human beings far outweighs the animosity. What you see that unites you with others is more powerful than the evidence of your differences.

We can say these things with full knowledge. You can understand the words, but the challenge is to apply them in the practice of your daily lives. You must have faith that the hand of God is very much a part of the human experience. The Creator does not create and then pull away. The Creator creates and continues to create. Human life has evolved to become human life, but as humans you continue to evolve. That evolution did not stop once human beings existed in forms that you now recognize. This is again evidence of the continuity of process. You are part of that process. You are part of that growth. You are part of what it means to be godly.

As you continue your lives on a daily basis, consider what it means to relate to those around you with full respect. Avoid the temptation to base the relationship on what serves your interests. Take that relationship and turn it outward rather than inward. Live the kind of life that you hope others will emulate.

Don’t reflect what is dark, for the dark does not have energy to reflect. You can only reflect what has energy. You can only reflect what is light. Reflect all that is good that you see in others, and let that reflection be acknowledged as worthy of the benefit for all, and you will find the evidence you seek in life moving forward with more peace, more tolerance, more understanding.

We guide you with our love, not because of what you do for us, but because we are committed to what is best for you. As you reflect that love, as you reflect that light beyond your own circle, you will truly be the hand of God. We pray for your reaching, we pray for your hands, we pray for your vision of others, and we pray for your openness and willingness to reflect all that is good.

Amen.