October 13, 2025

• The effect of intentions on the life force

The energy of life, the light that is life, the unity of all that exists, that presence of God that you acknowledge is constantly with you. It constantly illuminates and strengthens and supports you.

You are a part of this life force for certain, but everything you experience in human life belongs to that life force as well. You pray to God for insight. Even the act of praying is an expression of this life force. You seek ways of expanding what is good and containing what you feel is not. We would like to address some of those concerns about how to bring more presence to the reality of that life force, how to be more in service for God, how to feel more an agent for loving compassion.

We have shared with you on countless occasions about the importance of rejecting judgment, of eliminating behavior that is based primarily on judgments. But that message, that approach, is no less cogent to human life now than it was many years ago. Being nonjudgmental is at its root a process of seeing yourself in others. Your society is built in many ways on what separates you from another politically, philosophically, economically, ethnically, religiously, what separates you in terms of your perceptions of right and wrong. Much of human history, despite acknowledging the oneness of humanity, is preoccupied with those differences. Indeed, you are often identified on the basis of those differences. You belong to one race or another. You belong to one religion or another, one political party or another, one social or economic level than another. There are many ways that you find those degrees of separation. You join one club, perhaps a service organization in a community, and you feel an identity with the members, and through that identity you become even more aware of who does not share that identity. It is a separation.

Much of human history has been devoted to distinguishing one group from another. That group may be separated politically, economically, socially, racially. It may be a separation between countries. Even in such mundane activities as sports, people will identify themselves with one team and not another, with one school and not another, one conference and not another. Human life has been characterized to a large extent on how it differentiates itself from some other entity. As long as the emphasis is on how you are identified as being different from others, or others are being identified as being different from you, there will be matters of conflict and misunderstanding, judgment.

No one person can eradicate such delineations of human beings, and yet all humans have within them the capability of breaking down the barriers that impact a given life. If you wonder where to go to expand that sense of identity with others, you need not necessarily go beyond one other person, for if everyone could break down those perceived barriers of separation relating to a single person, much would be done to diffuse the agony that such separations create. But it does mean that you are committed to finding ways that join you to the essence of someone else.

Essentially, isn’t that what love is? You can love another and not be married to another. You can love another whom you have never personally met. You can love another who is no longer alive. That exercise of being loving is an exercise in being nonjudgmental. It is an exercise in acknowledging the true value of all people.

Yes, there are some you will find challenging to be supportive of, for they seem bent upon countering what you perceive to be essential. But those conflicts are superficial. Everyone experiences anger, loss, hope, discouragement. All human beings share the same feelings, the same emotions, not just the fears but the joys and all in between. So, in the most fundamental way, you are not really separated from others.

The kind of separations that you can experience may not be visible and may not actually even be conscious decisions on your part, but if you wish to expand the sense of oneness and transform an understanding into an action, you need to identify in your thoughts individuals who have been a kind of roadblock to your own personal travels. Expend whatever energy you need to understand more clearly the “why” in another rather than the “what.”

Yes, we have said that you cannot completely fill the shoes of another, but even standing in their shoes briefly in whatever way that may have meaning provides an opportunity for you to embrace another, not necessarily physically but with your spirit, a spirit that is filled with the desire to give, the desire to learn, to understand, the desire to share your pathway with another. Such acts are not easy, and they may often fail in your eyes, but exercising the need to be with others with whom you disagree is a strengthening gesture. You are strengthened as well as another.

It is by finding that common link, which will be different for all people, that in the process of seeking you are in the process equally to becoming. Becoming what? Becoming a spirit united with another with an understanding of what being so joined truly means. The deepest friendships possible can begin between those who are seen by others as being incompatible. It is the effort to understand, not to change, that carries with it the strongest life force of that change.

Life and all that life includes is meant to be lived. It is not some philosophical imagination that provides meaning. You learn because you are, and you are because you learn. You reach out as you can to others, and they will reach out according to their own capabilities. Finding a way of emphasizing the commonalities of all is difficult. What is most rewarding is the pursuit. It is not the final objective.

You grow as you seek to reach out, as you seek to understand, as you seek to listen. Whether or not you are aware of a particular depth of growth having occurred is unimportant. What is important is the effort, the intention. Your life is given greater meaning through the intentions, not through the successes. It is how you grow that is important, not how much. It is not measured in specific terms. The growth takes place because of the intention. If you intend to listen to another, you are growing in your ability to be truly loving.

You may feel at times you have failed miserably and are unable to accommodate another other than judgmentally, and that is to be understood, for it is part of the meaning of being human. But despite those natural tendencies, focusing your intention on seeking out how you and others are the same, it’s through that that your growth of life force is made even more powerful.

Those whose lives are characterized with a strong life force are recognized that way through their interactions with others. One can be very destructive and yet not show a strong life force. One can appear very passive and have within them a most intense life force. Life force is not measured by what you do. It is measured through your intentions. Just knowing that certain things need to be changed is almost as consequential as affecting those changes directly, because your intention forms the way you respond to life around you. If you intend to emphasize unity, you will see more unity. If your intention is one of emphasizing differences among people, you will have a heightened awareness of differences. If your intention is to be loving, you will be more aware of acts of love offered by others, even strangers.

What can you do to expand that sense of oneness? You can be intent upon the importance of acknowledging that state. You wish to dedicate your energies to what affirms, what supports, what lifts up. It’s the will to be engaged in the strengthening of others that the intention we speak of is the most effective. It makes no difference to consider the trappings of one life or another, for one life is not more important than another. You have the gift of identifying intentions in your connection with others, and it is that commitment that provides illumination of your spirit as it serves to expand the acceptance and understanding of the true meaning of the unity of all that is. Your life has meaning when it is your intention to sanctify all life. That is the hardest challenge that human beings can face.

Be willing to stand up for what you believe. Be willing to listen and not judge. The willingness you have for accepting the light from others allows you to move among them with a loving light of your own.

We bless you with our presence, not because our presence is important but because you are blessed by our intention to be reflective of the Spirit Center. Your life is given strength through our dedication to affirming the value of your belonging to the totality of that life force, the totality of God. Acknowledge God in your intentions and not in what you claim to have achieved. Be open to the possibilities to illuminate, to elevate, to support and affirm all others.

You are blessed in your intentions. You are blessed in your efforts, your commitment to make a difference.

God’s light is your light. God’s love is your love. Reach out and embrace the light.

Amen.