Accept the paths others pursue.
May 21, 2007
You are surrounded by God’s peace. You are surrounded in all directions, and you are surrounded from within. The peace that you seek, the balance that is so necessary, resides fully with you. We say this with absolute certainty but also as an affirmation that such peace, such God presence, actually belongs to the life experience of every human being. Sometimes in the clatter and clamor of life you are temporarily blinded from that peace. You are deafened and desensitized to that constant presence. But regardless of your own experiences, all that you pray for is here now and is forever.
Your challenges in life are challenges to be open, to be receptive, to be on the lookout for evidence from God in your daily activities and your contact with others. You cannot go through life always ignoring this presence. But likewise, there is no one who remains fully aware of the potential to be receptive. Even those who profess great faith in the midst of tragedy or pain, even they experience life as all human beings do, with moments of absolute confidence and faith, and moments of extreme questioning, a kind of spiritual deafness, of blindness.
We spoke to you of a kind of compass that all possess, and the question was asked how you consult that compass. For each individual, the answer will be different, but it is for you to determine the best means for yourself. For some, it is to be meditative. For others, it is to be out in nature. For yet others, there is the need to be with other people. For still others, the means of consulting the compass can only be done alone, not surrounded by others, not surrounded by other stimuli, just the sound of nature, or the aroma that is a part of the woods, the mountains, the sea, fresh-turned earth or cut grass. It is for you to identify what is best.
The means of consulting your compass is not important. What is important is your desire. If you feel the need to be in touch with this compass, the right, most appropriate means will become apparent. As every human personality is different from another, so too, the ways of knowing which way points toward God.
Have faith that everyone is moving toward God. No one moves away. For some, that movement is direct. For others, it is more oblique, but nevertheless movement takes place. There is no human being, no soul, who remains stuck, whose movement is nonexistent, whose existence is static. That is not the way of life, even for those whose activity, lifestyle, or behavior is contrary to your perception of what is godly. That is why we say that each journey is separate and that you are all joined. You are joined because you share the same objective but every road is different.
You are given life to experience the journey. You are not given life to take only a single correct path. There is no single path. Because of that, you must accept the value of the path every human being pursues. It may not be right for you, but it may be entirely appropriate for another.
A path that is appropriate does not include within its boundaries a path of destruction. When behavior is destructive, that is a turn away from the path, but that turn is not a permanent shift in direction. It may seem long in human terms, but it is a moment in the life of your spirit.
We know, we hear, we feel your prayers for peace. We understand your hatred of war, of suffering. We understand the pain you feel when others must suffer, whether by acts of nature or acts of humans. Human life is designed to allow for the existence of all events. If it were not to be, it would not be a part of what God has created. You recognize the suffering others endure because of storms, but those storms follow the pattern established by the laws of nature, what is prepared by God. Nature does not have a conscience. What happens in nature happens because it belongs to the reality of the interaction between elements belonging to God’s creation. No, God does not want you to suffer. God does not want to see many killed, devastated by what happens through nature. But the conditions that bring about such natural tragedies do belong to the overall direction that life provides.
You are concerned about climate change. Some parts of the earth become warmer; others become colder. There are shifts in the patterns of climate that have a direct influence on all that exists within the sphere of earth. Some of these patterns are exacerbated by human behavior. Long before the existence of human beings, the climate on earth went through enormous change. Partly as a result of those changes, human life as you know it became possible.
Yes, you have an impact on the environment. You have an impact on natural energy, but you are also a part of the natural rhythm that belongs to the existence of your planet. There are some things you have control over, and there is much you have no control over. As long as human beings inhabit the earth, there will be interaction with nature. Sometimes that interaction is positive, productive, supportive. Sometimes it is destructive, either to nature or to human beings.
Human lives exist, therefore, as part of a far greater reality. You are not unimportant, for you were given life and that assures its importance. You were given souls because spiritual presence in the lives of human beings is essential, both for the human beings and especially for the soul. There is much you contend with that brings tragedy or worry, but when you are seemingly surrounded by tribulation, need or anxiety, remember that that surrounding is very shallow. All that you feel, all that you experience in itself is surrounded by an encompassing layer of loving light and lasting life.
You hear the sounds of nature. You must feel that connection. You must embrace your belonging to one another, to what you hear. Your life is directed through faith, but it is also directed from within, from the compass. That compass points to God but there are other points on that compass in all directions and they point to all that surrounds you…what is comfortable/what is pain, what brings joy/what brings sorrow, what brings fear/what brings love, what brings birth/what brings death. Every point on that compass belongs to the compass. Every point has meaning. East has no meaning without north. 270 degrees has no meaning without reference to 90 degrees or 100 degrees. All the markings are related to each other, and all find their place because of the draw to the north.
It is, after all, God that provides relevance to every degree on that compass. Without north there would be no south or east or west. Everything is related. Everything belongs on the wheel of that compass. You are part of that. All your life activities are a part of that wheel. So, allow that compass to encircle your life to give it meaning and to provide context from which you can find “north.” It is only in context that you learn the true direction that leads to God.
If you lead your life recognizing where east is and where south is or where northeast is, there is no question which direction is north. If you allow yourself to be aware of all life around you, it is impossible to lose a view of where God belongs. How do you follow the compass? Not only by looking at where north points, but by orienting yourself to all points on the compass. Allowing yourself to take in every event in your life—what might provide a high, what might provide guilt, what might provide pain, what might provide pleasure—allowing yourself to take in your experience of life in its fullness, you will find a context that points to God. Take in what surrounds you and then look for silence or peace or look for others. All these contexts carry the means of finding where God is for your life.
You are blessed in your search, for without searching you will cease to find. Be open to your ways of consulting the compass, and know that in every way you are surrounded, embraced, illuminated by the gigantic, brilliant, comforting love that is God.
We thank you for your prayers for us. We thank you that you act in faith. We thank you that you seek to know.
Amen.