Expand God’s light within to others.
January 28, 2021
It is God, it always has been God, and the presence of God is always with each of you. There is no break between the past, the present, and the future. It is all essentially one. It is all actually now. You seek an understanding of your lives individually and corporately with others. When we say it is always now, with the same breath we will say it is always here, for in truth there is no there versus here anymore than there is then and now.
Your human lives exist in a sort of bubble of unity. That bubble, that globe, that sphere of reality, is essentially the home of all that interacts with human existence. There is, of course, enormous life that exists in different realities, in different spheres of energy, but those are differences that all belong to the same reality of here, of now, of unity. You belong to that gigantic sphere, that bubble.
Your lives take on their character based on your perception of what is closest at hand, as you would say. That proximity is not a proximity of space but a proximity of understanding. Daily there are new discoveries, and discoveries are often characterized as being something that is completely unknown, that is completely other. Sometimes those discoveries are elements of existence that you claim as human beings to have been a part of its creation.
The reality is actually that your awareness of relationships, your awareness of what is around you, shifts. Sometimes that awareness is achieved solely from your abilities and perceptions as individuals, and other times that awareness is the result of machines, chemicals, other equipment, other processes that are brought to bear, and in that process the vision is increased. That reality is a reality of what already exists in some form. It is part of the now.
You explore the heavens, and you learn that the universe appears to be expanding. Such appearance is as it seems at the moment, but in the future that sense of expansion will take on different proportions and characteristics. Those different proportions and characteristics are not something new. It is only your perceptions that have evolved.
Human life, therefore, is characterized to a great extent by a metamorphosis of sorts—a growth in perception, a change in appearance, an expansion of understanding, a deepening of vision, an increase of knowledge, an expansion of sensitivity. It is precisely your abilities to change and transform that distinguish your life-form from the lives of other forms of energy. Other animals that you are aware of go through transformations, but they are not so much transformations in terms of self-awareness. There is, of course, an ability to learn, to adapt to an environment, to surroundings, but that gift of being able to step away and observe oneself provides for a kind of evolving that is unique within the energies that you are aware of. It is those gifts that are essential to what distinguishes human life from other forms of life on earth.
We have said often that there are other forms of life that are knowing forms, that are discerning forms, and they perceive themselves also as evolving. They are in their own way able to step back and observe themselves observing.
Part of what we ask you to do is to provide yourself with opportunities to observe yourself. This is not a new concept, but it is an important one, for it is too easy for many to simply react. Something happens and there is an immediate response. What is most helpful is to observe what is happening around you, for example, and then observe how you respond, evaluating that response and asking yourself, “Is this truly appropriate? Is this response reflective of understanding? Is it reflective of fear of loss? What is it truly responding to?” You are then evaluating, measuring, and truly coming to an understanding of your interaction with life around you following that theme of being truly nonjudgmental and asking yourself to try to see beyond what is being judged. It is important to allow yourself that gift of standing back and truly observing yourself observing something else, someone else, another situation, a concern, a worry.
How often it is that what you worry about is what you would say is a worst-case scenario, and that hardly ever occurs, and yet it dominates the worry. It dominates the fear. It dominates the sense of loss, and therefore it dominates the initiation and expression of anger. But by being able to remove yourself even momentarily from a response that is immediate, you discover another way of responding which may be fully appropriate to the situation in your efforts to inhibit the inappropriate activities of others, but yet you find a path forward that gets you beyond that judgment. In effect, you get beyond judgment when you can step back, observing your actions, observing your emotions, observing your thoughts. It becomes much easier to say to yourself in effect, “Yes, but…,” and what follows that “but” makes all the difference.
Is it appropriate to judge the actions, thoughts, intentions of others? It is sometimes absolutely necessary, but you are not judging the person. Even when you may feel that is what you are doing, you are in truth judging what that person is doing or saying or acting or writing. You are responding to another’s response, and that response can always be judged. It can be found to be totally appropriate or felt to be inappropriate, but you are reacting to the response of others.
The same can be said for responses that are yours. You can look from a distance at your own responses, and you can evaluate those responses, but you are not going to be evaluating your worth as a human being. You may feel guilty. You may feel disappointed in yourself. You may feel frustrated. Your response may be one of justifiable anger and displeasure, but you don’t judge yourself in that process. We therefore make the distinction between judging behavior and judging a human being.
As was pointed out, you are asked to find what bonds you to another, what the connection is, and recognizing that that connection is not a sometime connection but a permanent connection. It also is an affirmation to recognize that you yourselves are always sacred. You yourselves are always a part of what God is, just as your guides are a part of God, just as all that exists in that bubble, that sphere, is a part of God, just as the universe as you become aware of it is a part of God. The challenge, therefore, is to acknowledge that bond, that sticking together permanently, that belonging together. How do you recognize that? It is one thing to say see what’s sacred in another, but it is a far different skill to actually see that connection. How do you go about finding that common bond?
It may seem obvious when we provide a one-word solution, but the challenge is enormous. The one word is simply “search,” for searching is an active commitment. If you want to find what bonds you together with another, you must search. That searching is not necessarily what you see in another but rather what you see in yourself. If you find you are not in concert with the behavior of someone else, search yourself. Is there something within you that you observe in another? Searching doesn’t mean another person somehow is connected to you, and therefore because they’re blessed, you move on. That’s not seeing the common bond. You cannot know all that is in the heart of another, but you can look for what is in your own heart that resembles what another would certainly experience.
Each of you wants to be loved and understood. All people want to be loved and understood. Perhaps what they are saying is not what you seek specifically in your own life, but they are acting out of a need which you also have.
During times of great turmoil, emotions run deep, and those emotions run deep because there is a commitment to the rightness that is felt. Search within yourself, and you will see that you also are governed by commitments that you feel are justified. Therefore, you and another share the sense of commitment, even though what you seek may be different. When you search, you see the act of seeking is shared.
We all recognize that your lives are impacted by the lens through which you interact. For some, the lens is focused on what seems close and immediate. For others, the lens is focused on what is felt to be more distant in concepts, in perceived time. One person seeks a resolution that can go into effect now. Another defines that resolution to be achieved in years. For yet another, that sense of resolution might require centuries.
Is one more valid than another? For the person who seeks immediate resolution, those whose lens is focused at a greater distance are seen to be out of touch, unrealistic, idealistic, and they are so judged. For those whose view is much broader, they may experience the individual whose sense of resolution must be immediate as being nearsighted, selfish, impatient. There is the judgment, and yet both are trying to find a meaning to their lives by way of the lenses through which they see.
Is one lens better than another? Of course not, for there is reason to be concerned or involved with what is immediate. If there is a fire in your house, you are not consumed by worries of what you will plan for the following summer. Each approach, regardless of the lens through which one sees, has its valid place. The objectives that are sought after may be in conflict with one another, and yet it is the seeking that is a common thread.
We speak of the thread of unity that is spiritual. Of course, that is the ultimate bonding material for all people, but it is one thing to say you are united in spirit and quite another to wonder how that can be given life, given strength, and given light. Finding what is within you becomes the vehicle for understanding the other. It is equally true that as you become more aware of those common elements of human life, the search, you can begin to accept your own frustrations, your own searchings as belonging to the human experience. The difficulties that are faced personally are not difficulties that are reserved exclusively for you. They are shared by many.
As you become more sensitized to these common bonds, you are also more able to accept your own challenges freed of guilt, self-pity, whatever negative energies you wish to apply. Human life is not an experiment of God hoping to find ways of enhancing the spirit. Human life belongs to the entirety of God’s creation. Your lives serve a purpose in addition to being an opportunity of spirit, for what grows is not necessarily your spirit but the spirit of others. The way you respond to life can have a profound impact on the way another responds.
Despite these differences in response, despite the differences in the lenses through which human beings interact with life, there is no one who lives without the spark of light. That essence resides, whether or not it is expressed or acknowledged. It is always present. Were it not so, we could not say that all human beings have a part of God within. That is indeed a true statement. You all, all, contain a light that is part of God’s presence, God’s energies, and it is your individual lives that can help to expand the impact of that spirit presence to others. You may not see the goodness in someone, but it is important that you acknowledge that deep within, that goodness is there. Despite what is done, despite what is said, despite any activity associated with another, God is present in that other person.
Despite what you may feel about yourselves being successful, being a failure, winning, losing—however you see yourselves does not change the truth that God’s light belongs to the essence of who you are. If you live in a house with the shutters drawn, the light outside when the sun is shining is still there. It doesn’t change the reality of that light, and it also is important that even with the shutters drawn tight, there is some light that does get in. There is some element of that sunlight that penetrates the shutters. It may not be a visible light, but it is nevertheless an energy that comes through. It may be the warmth. It may be other waves that vibrate through the shutters, but the energy from outside is never totally shut out. Even living in the darkness, there is no true darkness. There is nothing you can do as human beings that blocks out that energy of God’s light with totality. It is always present, and because it is always present, you and others will always contain that sacred spark.
Therefore, search, but search first within yourselves. Gain an understanding of what moves each of you, and then you will be far more successful in seeing the common ground, the thread, the bonding cement that joins you and all whom you encounter.
You are blessed. You are blessed equally. You are blessed with that light. You are blessed, all of you, with the energy of that light whether it is seen or not. Know that the energy of spirit far exceeds what is observed in yourselves and what is shared with others. Each of you belongs to this bubble, this sphere, this creation of God, and each of you in your ways is a part of that Creator.
Be illuminated on your path, even when the way is darkened with the shutters. Be confidant that the sun always shines with love for each of you.
Amen.