July 8, 2026 

• Perseverance on the path through life 

You are accompanied on your journey with a loving presence that is indeed peacegiving and affirming. The paths that you have, indeed that all have, are by nature very different. There are no two paths that have the same turnoffs, the same detours, the same difficulties, the same achievements, and yet despite those differences, all human beings can be given comfort and strength to pursue that pathway. It requires a kind of spiritual commitment or perseverance, and it is that perseverance that we would like to address at this time. 

Even when you know what seems to be the best path to follow in a given situation, there is a gap that exists between your understanding and your sense of adequacy in pursuing specific objectives. In order to move forward in the most meaningful way, two conditions are necessary. One is the broader vision you have spoken of. The other condition is confidence in your abilities, in your strengths, to follow what you believe to be the proper path. The persistence of spirit is always present, and yet you are at times unable to tap into that energy. 

What is meant by this persistence? It is both a confidence and an exercise of faith. Both must be present, for if you have no confidence, even when you have some faith in the rightness of the pathway, your ability to push forward is limited. If you have confidence and no faith, there is always that second guessing that goes on. “Yes, I can do this. I can reach that objective, but I’m not sure that is the right objective,” or “maybe I am kidding myself in feeling I am prepared.” Without faith in the journey, the journey itself can be fraught by self-doubt. Confidence can be masked, preventing you from fully seeing the way forward. You sometimes refer to blind confidence when there is confidence that is felt but yet not necessarily based on a full understanding. So, confidence in itself is important but not enough. 

Part of your pathway through life, if you are going to pursue what is most important, must be accompanied by a faith in spirit. This is a faith that what you are doing, what you are pursuing, is indeed being guided, is being strengthened and illuminated by a recognition that God is part of that journey. Having such faith as you pursue life is strength-giving, because you understand and accept that there may be more than one way to reach an objective, and no matter which choice is made, God is part of all of it. Persevering is the activation and application of a journey based on faith in spiritual presence and confidence that you will be guided in the appropriate ways. 

Human life is not characterized by absolute certainty. You have always experienced and will experience doubts, concerns, and questions about appropriateness of certain pathways. There are seldom moments when you experience such certainty that no questions come to mind. There is always the shadow of questioning “is this the right thing? Do I have the strength to see an objective to its conclusion?” It is infinitely more rewarding if you recognize your own capabilities and accept the reality that whatever you are faced with in life, you are being guided, your path is being illuminated, and that whatever you do belongs to the totality of who you are and what and who you are to become. 

Perseverance is not proceeding with stubbornness. Perseverance is not a naïve blind lunging forward. True perseverance in life is thoughtful and embracing. It is embracing the reality of more than one appropriate outcome. It is embracing the reality that no one is perfect and that no decision is made with absolute certainty. It is embracing your imperfections and the imperfections of all others. When you bring others into your view, when what you do is a way of enhancing the recognition of the value of another, then you are moving forward significantly with the kind of perseverance that we speak of. 

Certainly, you are capable of making decisions you feel are likely appropriate, only later to learn that another option may have been better. But when those occurrences happen, you cannot say that you made a bad decision, for you learn from all your experiences, and what is learned deepens the spirit. What you learn could not have been learned had you chosen another pathway. That pathway would have had its own learning opportunities. Growth and learning occur regardless of your decisions. So, in a sense we could almost say that if you have faith in the rightness of what you are doing, and you have confidence in your ability to pursue, that no decision is ultimately a bad decision. 

Of course, you see almost daily examples of decisions made by others that can affect many tragically. We are not asserting that it’s “okay,” as you would say, but we are affirming the truth that in the normal arc of spirit growth, there is a place that belongs to that growth, whatever happens. It is for that reason that we say that God is present in all things, all events, everything that exists. The strength of spirit, its persistence, is understood at that much greater scale. We say often that there is no absolute sense of what you refer to as time, that all occurs in the “now,” in the “here,” but we perceive that “now,” we perceive that “here” in a much greater perspective than what is viewed most commonly by human beings. 

How does this apply to the persistence of spirit? If you take a very short view, you could believe that there are completely wrong choices. There are complete failures to achieve something, but such responses apply to the near term. We speak of the journey of the soul without the context of a time frame. All souls become ultimately pure love. The lives of those you observe and feel are destructive may be destructive when viewed with a shallow perspective, but the persistence of spirit operates on a plane that is more vast, and therefore the requirement to embrace that faith we refer to is so important to the idea of the persistence of spirit. 

You are on a journey, a long journey that began prior to your human life and will continue beyond that life. Our sense of now or the present spans all of that which you consider. The soul, the spirit, is a powerful presence. Its strength is its ability to be drawn toward the loving center, and that journey is never measured in terms of time. It is important therefore, to have faith in what you believe in and to be confident that your pathways, everyone’s pathways, are indeed moving towards the center of pure love, and that journey will be unique for all. 

It is for that reason we say not to judge another’s value but rather acknowledge another is pursuing a pathway with faith and perseverance. You are strengthened in your journey. Your pathway is illuminated by faith and a confidence, a belief in self, and an accompanying belief in all the souls that you encounter. Believe in every way you can in God’s presence. 

Believe in every way you can in the loving hand of your guides. Believe in every way you can in your capacity to persevere, to move forward in what you believe, and to allow those beliefs to be formed and changed and expanded by what it is you experience. The challenges you face are sources of your strength. The faith you embrace strengthens and illuminates. You are growing. You are moving forward. You have the capacity of meeting what you encounter in life. You have the ability to acknowledge the pathways of others, and that acknowledgment affirms the reality that all are empowered to persevere and to grow in the light. You are blessed in your efforts to grow in meaningful ways. 

You are blessed as you see those ways affirmed. You are blessed when you are met with challenges that might seem insurmountable, for you are always accompanied by a strength of spirit and a vision of faith. 

Amen.