December 15, 2022

• Trying to understand human behavior

• The nature of God

God accompanies each of you on your pathways. Your guides accompany you on your journeys. The spirits of all are with each of you, every step you take.

The pathways that you have are not predetermined nor are they totally of your own choosing. The pathways are best thought of as a combination of skills, sensitivity, faith however it is expressed, openness to others, your own temporary goals, the impact of others, and the seeming random impacts of what comes into direct contact with your lives on a daily basis. These pathways, therefore, are not a specifically defined set of events or challenges that you must face in your development.

Some of this pathway that we speak of is indeed a matter of your own choices, not so much that you choose to have a pathway that goes in this direction or that direction, but a pathway that is the result of other choices you make. All individuals have as part of their reality a somewhat identifiable range of personal choices. Some of those choices are good and beneficial, loving, affirming, supporting, sustaining. Other choices are self- serving and narrow with limited vision, but even within those choices, there are aspects that are available to each individual that will not be chosen.

You choose, for example, not to commit violent acts against others. You choose not to seek activities which are filled with hatred. Those are not options for you, but they are options for some that are acted upon. Such pathways as are followed by those individuals may be threatening, may result in great suffering or death, but it is important that even in those extreme situations to recognize that there is a sacredness to that presence, not to what is done but to the individual. They are not bereft of guides. God’s vision is not turned elsewhere in their presence. They are not constructed of materials far different than you. Their ancestry and genetic makeup are not far distant from yours.

The guides you have serve for the growth of spirit. Despite actions, the spirit does grow. The spirit grows especially when there is an extension of love from others that is offered to all. Even the most hardened criminals that you can imagine have been loved by someone at some point in their lives. You can examine their history and may conclude no wonder they behave as they do, for they certainly never received any love, but that is not entirely true, for what you know of the actions of others is only a part of the story of who each person is.

You can never fully know another. You may observe actions. You may listen to what is said and read what has been written, but even these windows into another fail to reveal all. The reality of this is no different from your relationships to neighbors, to family members, to all forms of life. There are aspects of life that cannot be known by another. Indeed, there are aspects of your own life that you know little of, and yet you are impacted by them. Such may be identified through relationships. Other aspects may be genetic, biologic. You are the accumulation of all that is a part of your existence, but no human beings fully understand their own specific aspects that go into the creating of their pathway.

Too often it is easy to think of pathways as some kind of individual specific journey that carries you from where you are to where you and all others will be. The direction of your path changes constantly, but it is still you who are on that path. It is still your neighbors who are on their paths. Those paths are never distinct. There are any number of detours. As we have implied, some detours are of your choosing and many are independent of your will, but you are the same person. You are the same traveler, and it is incumbent upon everyone to gain insight, to gain understanding, to clarify heart vision, to become more receptive to love offered by others encountered on the pathway, to become more loving, more willing to give that love.

The pathways of strangers are no different in concept than yours. All pathways are a mixture of conscious decisions and events that are encountered. It is the purpose of your guides, everyone’s guides, to provide light, to provide a sense of being loved, to provide a deeper heart vision. How is it then that one can justify being judgmental toward others, not the people, the behavior? If there is judgment of behavior, such judgment is also too often superficial.

It is not what someone does that is nearly as important as why, and the answer to why will never be complete. Even a sensitivity to the why is in itself superficial. You can ask yourself when you take actions, why did I do this? Why did I say this? Why did I think this? Why did I react the way I did? One must search deeply and in a profound way even to understand oneself. It is impossible to gain such vision of others. So often we say to avoid being judgmental. That you know, but it is for these reasons that there is so much right about our wish to avoid judgment.

Life is so confusing in its various layers of complexity. Accept the reality that your efforts to probe deeply into those layers will never reveal the full range of understanding. We, who are your guides, are given a heart vision that allows us to see through these many layers and to recognize that at the very center of who you are, there exists a nucleus of pure love. That nucleus has a power to reach through the layers and to find avenues of disseminating some of that love far beyond the entity that you know of as you or another. This core substance, this nucleus of total love, exists in all people. The strength of that love, which is a light reflecting God’s energy and presence, actually exists in everything that has been created. It exists and flourishes throughout all of the universes. You may not see it. You may not feel it. You may not recognize evidence of it, but this kernel of pure love is part of what unites everything that exists into a single, unified presence.

Taken together, these core elements of love are what you refer to as God. God is the core of love that exists everywhere at all times. You may not see it. You may not sense it in any way. You may not understand it fully, but that doesn’t change the reality. Religions of the world prefer to place an identity on God that is human-like in so many respects, capable of anger, punishment, retribution, and so on, but that is not the case. We see the presence of God because we see the presence of this loving center that is part of all that exists. The power, the connection of that presence is overwhelming. It is more than you can conceive of, but that power of love is not uncaring. It is not unseeing. It is not unknowing, for on the most superficial levels, when you are with someone you love, you see them in your heart vision. You want to care. You reach out. You affirm. You support. You uplift. You care for. Those characteristics belong to that kernel of love at the center of all. We refer to this as the Spirit Center. That Spirit Center is the center of all spirits. It is the center, the combination, the presence, of all of those elements of love that exist in everything created. It is the energy that continues to create. It is the energy that moves each of you forward on your paths however different each path is. It is the energy that helps in creating the directions and shapes of the pathway that are in part your choice. You are energized by love, even when you make decisions that are not loving, for the energy of love that is within remains love. It is only your actions that may be in concert or not. That is the magic of choice.

The world that you live in is filled with indeterminate actions and energies. Sometimes those energies conflict. Sometimes those energies combine. Sometimes those energies seem to be filled with light. Sometimes those energies are clouded and darkness occupies much of the space. All is not predetermined. All is not orderly in the sense that everything that happens really happens for the good. That you know, but despite those shadows, despite the negative energy that is present, that kernel of love is always there, and it is always affirming. It is always caring. It is always strengthening. It is always contributing to the heart vision. It is always finding a way from the center of who you are through the layers so that it may be sent forth through your compassion, through your prayers, through whatever you do that affirms the sacredness of all that surrounds you.

Be open to your own pathways. Be aware of your own decisions as being part of the shape and character of your pathways. But know that regardless of the difficulties that you encounter, the center of love finds its way with you as you evolve, as all of you evolve into the greater reality of shared total love. Be comforted in the love that resides within. Be supported and affirmed by that love and the love that is offered by others. Be courageous in your expression of love to others, however that may be. Believe in the power of prayer, for that is an outreach of that central nucleus of love that resides within, and know that your prayers will always be received and will in their own way enhance the love that is within others and that resides within all that exists.

Be warmed in the love, be open to faith, and be strengthened in your vision.

Amen.