July 29, 2021

• How to handle pandemic-related disagreements

It is truly the Center of Love, the Center of Creation that hears through that love of your collective prayers for understanding, for vision of the heart. We, who are your guides, are in communion with all guides everywhere. There is a network, so to speak, of understanding in which we are connected to one another forever as we are collectively connected to each of you forever. You are never alone. No human being is alone. No concerns held by others are not known. No concerns are not responded to.

You wonder about the most appropriate way of responding to those whose beliefs are so radically different from your own. Your concerns go beyond the realm of the pandemic, because as this plague, this real health threat to all, recedes, you will still be left with those most important questions: how best to be reflective of your own spiritual beliefs in the face of overwhelming opposition.

We can simply respond with a pithy answer along the lines of “you are human and are therefore subject to a response toward life based on your own understandings.” While this is true, it seems woefully inadequate given the widespread impact of such widely divergent beliefs. It is true you are human. It is true that your understanding of all the facts is limited. It is also true that the most perceptive scientists who study this pandemic only have partial understanding. Granted, they are closer to the nucleus of the problem than are most of you, but nevertheless all the understanding that exists currently is limited. Some of that is human limitation. Some of that, as you know, is because of the changes in what is being studied, observed, and investigated.

The truth of how best to go forward for the benefit of all is elusive and requires the willingness to share beliefs, understandings, resources, and treatments. All of these require a personal will to achieve what is necessary. In fact, the majority of human beings understand at some level the severity of what is before you, but that understanding, as we say, is incomplete and yet it is impacted by fears, suspicions, and false assumptions. Those false assumptions are held just as close as the assumptions that are closer to fact. No one wants to be deceived. No one wants to be tricked into doing something which is felt to be wrong.

Everyone in the situation that you find yourselves in is concerned about self. Some are concerned not only about self but others. There is no one whose orientation is toward others with no interest in self. That centering in what is perceived to be right is based on what one believes to be right for him or herself. You know from your own personal experience that you will interpret events around you as they impact your lives and frequently as they impact the lives of others. There are those who have little or no concern about what is good for others, for their primary interest circles around self.

Part of your mission, if you wish to call it that, in human life is to develop concentric circles of love, compassion, and sensitivity. For some, many layers of those circles surround the self, but for others, for a number of reasons, those additional circles of identity and commitment are limited. There are many reasons for such limitations. Some can be identified with individual preferences. Some of those reasons have nothing to do with preferences, with medical needs, with a sense of place in society. There are countless reasons to explain the opinions of all human beings. You have your justifications for your beliefs, and they are strong justifications, but those who do not share your beliefs also have strong justifications.

The issues of world health considered globally are not totally foreign. One hears, sees, and reads the news. Regardless of the source, all of a certain age and education are aware that there is furious debate about issues concerning the health of many. Where one falls on this debate will depend upon so many factors. It is easy to be impatient when you are challenged by many others in conflict with your own beliefs, but you must also understand that others who perceive a reality different from your own also hold their beliefs with equal conviction.

So what is to be learned from such varied encounters? First of all, positions change. Those who are convinced in one camp may begin to question that wisdom. It is much like the issue we discussed in our last gathering with you about a belief in God. The same conditions to approaching the value of a belief in God apply to this crisis you know of now. You will find there will be those who resist taking appropriate steps for their protection and the protection of others, while feeling in time that perhaps a change is in order, but they accept the need for change because of their own experiences, not because of what they have specifically been told.

An understanding of God occurs not by being told what to believe but by experiencing what leads to beliefs. As experiences accumulate, beliefs change. Each of you have held beliefs close to the heart in the past, and yet with thought you can acknowledge how those beliefs changed. Sometimes it was a singular event; other times it was accumulation of experiences. It is this same reality that belongs to every human life and is applied to every possible experience shared by a human being. Values change and understandings evolve. You can bring to this dilemma the necessity for devoting your energies to an open heart. This does not mean ignoring your own needs and concerns about your health and well-being or the health and well-being of those you know and love. Such can be applied in all directions.

How do you respond when challenged? Your response is governed in part by your understanding, by your awareness, by the connection you feel to Spirit Center and the exercise of that Center. If you disagree, it is of course acceptable and perhaps necessary to express that disagreement, but such expression must be one of sharing your perspective, not shunting away the perspectives held dearly by others. It is disagreeing with an open heart. When you state categorically that someone is wrong, you will never change hearts, rather you will harden them.

If you wish to understand the motivation of many, you can reach an understanding one at a time. You ask how can “they” believe thus and so? There is no “they.” There is only a collection of individuals, and it is in understanding the perspectives of individuals that you become more open in your understanding of a collection of individuals. There is no answer to how can “they” believe that. There are as many answers as there are individuals holding those beliefs.

It is difficult to fight the anger and impatience you may feel when you perceive the intransigence of others as being a danger to yourselves and others who share your beliefs. You cannot change another’s mind by telling them something. You change by listening and by sharing understandings, not necessarily agreeing with others but sharing where you are on your own journey. We can also say simply to pray for those whose behavior you feel to be a threat, but we can assure you that there are those who pray for you as they perceive you as a threat. In other words, leave it to God; it’s too much for me. Such an approach is obviously less than satisfying, for if you wish to make a difference, you do not pray to God to make that difference. You pray to God to give you the insight, to give you the open heart to contributing toward the differences you seek.

We often assure you that even as you are more aware now than in the past of what seems to be negative forces, the dark side, in truth it is the light that contains the strength. It is a light that has energy, power. Darkness is the lack of that energy, that power. It is also important to realize that in your current understanding, you may not be totally in the light, just as no one has a full understanding of God’s presence. But in seeking, you learn something of that presence. In seeking, you learn something of the power and energy of light. Without that seeking, there is no growth. There is darkness.

Continue to seek to understand. Continue to seek with an open heart. Continue to seek with a willingness to change as you gain in your understanding and continue to acknowledge that all evolve in their understanding. All participate in change. There is nothing that is static. You do not remain constantly in the light. No one remains constantly in the darkness. We might say that all human beings exist in a very broad area of gray. Some parts of that gray are brighter. Some parts of that gray are dimmer, and you wander from time to time from one extreme of gray to another extreme of gray. You are never fully in the light. You never fully understand God. You are never fully in the darkness beyond the opportunity for growth.

Your lives bring these differences in approach into a harsh and contrasting view. You either believe this or you reject this. That seems to be where so many people appear to stand. The truth is different than what is said. We referred to those who reject God and yet act with loving compassion and generosity. There are those who claim full knowledge of God and yet have little understanding of what it means to walk with a heart that is open. What is claimed, what is asserted may seem black and white, but what is behind those claims is more varying shades of gray that lighten and darken along the pathway of life.

Despite your concerns, greet the day with an open heart. Be open to our voice within each of you. Before responding to another, draw back, reflect, and ask for an awareness of our guidance that is with each of you constantly. We do not offer our guidance after being requested to do so. It is there always. All you must do is be open, be receptive, be humble, listen, and be truly loving.

Amen.