August 13, 2009

• Humans’ and spirits’ parallel lives

• Human struggle offers opportunity for soul growth

• All perceptions of God are correct but evolving

God, your father and mother, brother, sister, companion, neighbor, is indeed with you every step you take on your human and spiritual paths. These two paths run parallel to one another, but they also are totally dependent upon each other. Your spiritual path depends upon your human condition to help provide a context for growth. You understand the importance of your spiritual growth and development, but you often don’t take into personal consideration how that particular growth impacts your human development.

Human life without a soul is empty. Spiritual life with no connection to the human condition lacks depth. The sense of direction is of course there, but the depth of the journey is missing. There is no question that your souls could develop well with no connection to your physical experience, but such development would thereby be incomplete.

Your soul’s journey and your physical journey are joined because your physical experience of life, the human experience, is a different dimension from the direct spiritual learning of the soul. The soul may learn that it is important to become compassionate, but that lesson is only learned when the human presence struggles with the implications of what compassion means. You are attached to your souls because by the nature of human life you tend to resist precisely what it is the soul needs to learn. There is no question to the soul that it is important to develop a loving, compassionate, supportive approach to others, but the human condition is such that many resist what is needed to be truly loving, to be compassionate, to be supportive.

For many human beings, it is the self that is important. It is all about me. It is not about us. Too many human beings resist the inner voice which says to reach out. They resist what they know in principle to be the value of listening. They know in principle what it means to be self-expressive, but they resist exercising a life that reflects such commitments. The struggle that the human experience is engaged in between what is sensed to be essential and what is actually done is a struggle that enriches the spirit in its growth, for that struggle between what you know and what you resist committing to encompasses great energy. It is a struggle that is subtle but present, and it is in the encounter with that seeming divide that ultimately the growth that is necessary for the spirit takes a solid step toward God.

We say you learn by your struggles and that they are opportunities for growth. You also all feel at times, as was expressed, it would be nice not to have those conflicts. It would be nice not to be burdened by the uncertainty, by the pain, by the loss, by the frustration, by the fear, but you must understand that it is only through such experiences and their transformative impact on you that the soul grows. It is not enough to know the truth. It is essential rather to be the truth.

It is for this reason that we urge you always to act your beliefs. Acting those beliefs, as you know, is not necessarily doing something visually noticeable. It may just be the listening, the being present with someone, the willingness to reach out, to embrace, to allow another human being into your own world without acting with great strength and great fanfare. Sometimes being the knowledge that you know means these actions are totally invisible to others. The conflict between what you know and who you are is lifelong. You will never find yourselves in a situation where you are free of the challenge to decide, the challenge to act, the challenge to commit, the challenge to be there for someone, for some cause. That belongs to human life for a reason. Your soul, therefore, needs those challenges because it is through you that the soul learns to become what the soul already knows.

So often we speak to you about the importance of your awareness of spirit, and it is presented with the approach of your spirit being the rudder that helps guide you through your own physical lives, but we also say to you that you become a kind of rudder that helps the spirit be engaged in its own journey. The parallel relationship between your path as physical, human entities and your spiritual entity is essential. It is close, it never is separated. There are of course times when you decide to reject what you know, but that rejection of what you know also belongs to your spiritual growth. It is something that you experience constantly, and that sense of turning away from what you know should also be a welcomed part of that journey.

No human being is perfect. No human being is asked to be perfect. No human being fully understands what it means to be perfect. As close to perfection as any of you can become is the acknowledgment of the validity of every other human being, regardless of what position they take on whatever issues concern you, regardless of where they stand vis-à-vis their own societies. Criminals are equally valid. Criminals are no less important, no further from God than you. Every individual is of equal value. Often we say not to judge the person. You may judge the action as being appropriate or inappropriate, but you cannot judge the individual because you cannot judge one to be of less importance or worthiness than yourselves. All are equal.

You begin to sense this as you travel on your own journeys. The more people you interact with, the more you begin to recognize the commonality that is shared with everyone. Every individual lives a life of fear, concern, guilt, joy, anxiety, sadness, pain. No individual is spared. You all bring the same potential for life.

Each of you has your own history. You have in a sense your own baggage, your own burdens. You are in effect a combination of where you’ve been, where you are, and where you presume you are traveling. Lives are a continuum. They don’t simply start and stop. This circular kind of approach to life, beginning and ending having no place, is shared by all human beings. It is also shared in its own way by all that exists.

You do not change through destruction. You change through evolution. Nothing is destroyed. All evolves. All experience transformation, whether animate or inanimate. There is nothing created by God that escapes some kind of transformation. Transformation is essential, whether it is transformation of molecules, transformation of objects from liquid to solid or solid to gas, all have a transformation. All individuals are transformed in approach, in context, in sensitivity. That transformation affects how those individuals apply what has been experienced. Some lives are transformed into anger. Some lives are transformed to peace. Some lives are transformed into caring that were originally fully self-absorbed. In some, lives of caring for others are transformed into great personal anxiety. There is nothing that God has created that is unchanging.

The paths that you travel in parallel with your spirit are paths of change. You change because of your understanding of spirit. Spirit changes because of its interaction with human life. It’s the change itself that is important. Whether you perceive God as the father, the mother, the brother, the sister, the neighbor is of relatively little importance. What is important is that however you perceive God, you perceive that same God in all that is around you.

Labels are unimportant, for labels can change. Religions perceive God according to system “A,” and many generations later God is perceived according to an organization as system “B.” God was perceived by many for a long period of time as a punishing, judgmental God. More contemporary approaches often portray God in more positive, supporting, nonjudgmental views. There are great extremes in the perception of God, but regardless of how those perceptions currently have life, those very perceptions can be changed.

Each perception is correct. It is correct for the reasons you identity. It is correct because it has meaning to you, to others, to a group to which you belong, to a church, a temple, synagogue. Your perception of God is correct, for ultimately perception has little meaning. What is important is that you acknowledge there is a God, for all the perceptions are part of the reality of God. Is God judgmental? No, but if you perceive God to be judgmental and this encourages you to travel your path in response to that judgment, then such perception of God is appropriate. If you perceive God as being nonjudgmental and this allows you to be less judgmental of others, that is an appropriate perception of God. If you perceive God as nonjudgmental and therefore assume you have no personal responsibility, that can lead to absolute chaos in society. So perceptions as they benefit individuals are true because they benefit the individuals, not because of the nature of the perceptions.

Your lives are enhanced by your perception of God. Your lives are enhanced by your perceptions of one another. But welcome at all times the opportunity to change that perception, as long as that perception brings you closer to others. If that change builds walls, constructs barriers, either emotionally or physically, psychologically, such changes are not for the benefit of all and are therefore not according to God’s design for peace.

You’re asked to live at peace. You’re asked to be peaceful and loving to others. You’re asked to trust because peace comes through trust. Trust your neighbor, trust your family, trust others—all others. Yes, at times that trust may be violated, but it is better to trust and seek peace, to seek love and affirmation, than it is to live life in isolation and fear, defensiveness. As you journey upon your path, acknowledge the importance of the spirit in your own lives, but also give thought to the importance of the human condition, to the lives of your spirits.

We, your guides, live a parallel life to you. We learn by your struggles, for we learn by the light you emit, and that light reflects your lives. Let the reflection be bright, be loving, positive, and filled with faith.

Amen.