Hear and see with your heart.
January 20, 2000
God is with each one of you in ways that meet your individual needs. Some of those needs you are aware of, and some you have not even dreamt of, but those needs are there for every individual experiencing human life. There are needs known only to God. You may live a long life yet not be aware of the most pressing needs that affect your own development, the development of your souls. You do, of course, recognize the need for love, the need for being loving and all that that entails. You understand the need for physical comforts—food, rest, shelter, health—but these are all superficial needs. There are other needs that are a kind of umbrella that surround you and are a part of you though yet unseen. Part of what we, your guides, are asked to do is to help sensitize you collectively to the greater needs, those needs that have more significant impact.
One of those needs, of course, is that of compassion. You need to be compassionate. You need to be the subject of compassion. No one escapes these needs, and yet few are consciously aware of them. You are reminded at times of a feeling of compassion when you reach out in love and in support of another. Certainly, you have experienced many things in your daily lives that call for compassion, but it is easy when not surrounded by such obvious need to forget the place of compassion within your lives.
There is an important need that involves each of you and yet is often ignored or dismissed and forgotten, and that is the need to listen. In this sense, the need is not something which must come to you, which fills a gap in your lives. It is a need which emanates from you, just like compassion. Listening, listening to others, listening to yourself, your emotions, your body is extremely important in the nourishment of your spiritual life. When you listen, you are attuned to others, not with the objective of what they can provide for you, but with the objective of how you can provide something meaningful for them.
Those opportunities are not presented in a direct, confrontational relationship. What you learn by listening comes at you from the side. If your view is not broad enough, you miss it completely. If your attention is too narrow, you do not see what approaches. Being able to listen requires that you see and are aware of your surroundings. This heightened awareness connects you to the needs of others. It connects you to the opportunities for exercising compassion.
Seldom does one who is in need of compassion express that need. The only possibility for its recognition is your own sensitivity. You should always expand your vision by strengthening what you hear. You hear not with your ears; you hear with the heart. What you should listen to is not the call of an individual; you should listen to your own heart’s response to another. It is a response drawing from a commitment to love. With that commitment, your hearing is finely tuned and your vision is broadened. Someone who is deaf and blind may hear and see far more sensitively than one who relies only on the auditory and visual senses. Your need to hear, your need to see, your need for compassion are reasons for our entering into your lives. It is of no benefit to others if you close yourself to them. It is of no benefit to your soul if you are closed. Your soul rises up on wings in joy when you hear and see with your heart!
Of course, you know of the many definitions of love, but we are speaking obviously of a love that is directed outward rather than within. Your family, your friends, your colleagues, neighbors, strangers all have the potential of responding as you respond in love. The traveling that some of you have recently shared certainly made evident the disparity of life, the unfairness of life, the cruelty one could say, of life. But it also demonstrated the great heights that the soul can reach even while housed in a human body, for much that was observed was the product of that soul’s flight through human life. Nevertheless, the evidence of a need for compassion was ever present.
You cannot change the world, but each of you can have an important effect on just one other person. Some of you will affect the lives of more than one, but the numbers here are not important. What is important is your response to what you hear and to what you see. It is that response that provides character and depth to your spiritual growth and awakening.
Yes, your lives are blessed. It may seem like the result of a biological accident that you live in the surroundings that you find yourselves in at the moment. But you have been placed here for a reason. You are not all living here to absorb what life has to offer for your own benefit. You are here to receive the sustenance and strengthening that can be a part of your lives here so that you may serve others. Indeed, you have been given much, but you’ve been empowered to give much as well. You are fortunate in experiencing your lives on a daily basis, lives full of beauty, order, security, love, a sense of purpose, and a sense of fulfillment. But these are not experiences you deserve, for humans do not deserve any of their life experiences. They are presented with life’s opportunities. Every life has them.
What is important is not what you have been presented with but what you do with that which has been given to you. You may feel that this is a responsibility, a burden, but it is not. It is an opportunity to serve, to give. It is an opportunity to enlighten. It is an opportunity to lift the burdens of others. You should grasp these opportunities for they are blessings, and when you see and hear these opportunities, you are then empowered to direct them outward in an appropriate manner.
You have much to give and much to share. You have the power to uplift and support, to encourage and to comfort. Be thankful for that which is given, for you live in an environment that is really unique in this world. The more you experience other environments, the more you recognize that uniqueness. It is a blessing from God. It is a blessing that is dependent upon you to see its full flowering. It is in no way a reward; it is not a reward for a previous life—it is where you find yourselves.
Make the most of what you have been given. Direct it outwards at all times. Each of you must serve as a light, illuminating the souls of others. Be willing to recognize when you are illuminated in turn by others, for you also need refreshments, you also need replenishment, refueling. This is accomplished through the actions of others directed toward you, and then that energy is offered outward once again that you may be receptive as well as giving. You are part of a continuous chain of energy that you call love. Keep the chain strong. Commit yourselves to it.
With prayer you will always be guided in the right direction. With prayer your hearing will be clearer and your vision will be far-reaching. Allow yourselves the opportunity to listen and to see. God blesses you with that vision, with that clarity of hearing. You are blessed with a sensitive heart that is ready for all others.
We pray for your continued strength. We pray for your continued safety. We work for your safety. We work for your continued spiritual growth. Rejoice in that growth, and recognize that it is God that provides you with these gifts and empowers you to employ them.
Amen.