Honesty

Honesty has no shades, we are either honest of we are not. However we are accustomed to measuring dishonesty by degrees so we have white lies and whoppers, omissions and commissions, exaggerations and outright falsehoods. Clearly there are degrees of dishonesty but traveling that road is like rushing headlong down a slippery slope. The danger here lies in the fact that there are very few signs along the way to let us know when we are crossing the lines between degrees. 

We have relationships in our life from the most important to the least. We can measure the respect we have for others by how honest we are with them, our self included.  Conversely, dishonesty is both a betrayal of others and our self as well. We cannot be dishonest with others unless we are willing to do so. Further, we cannot choose to be dishonest with institutions and honest with individuals because once the choice is made, once we have lowered our standards, it will affect our behavior with everyone. Dishonesty is choosing to lower our self-esteem to manipulate a desired outcome and the rest is how we express this in our relationships with those in our life. 

With this in mind, why would any of us choose dishonesty? The first act of dishonesty is to convince our self that compromise is of little consequence. Then we allow our self to measure our dishonesty by degrees. We undoubtedly have to make greater compromises as the degree of dishonesty increases but we often do so in stages. Much like crossing a line over which we do not leap but cross by inches so the final step is so small as to appear inconsequential. 

Honesty is our natural state and it exists within us even when we cloud it over with contradiction. Let us imagine a well-ventilated room with a shining light. If we fill this room with enough dark smoke so it cannot escape easily, the reflection of the light will be reduced. We may wish to consider the light is still just as bright but we have dimmed its reflection with the dark smoke. As soon as we stop filling the room with this smoke, the luminosity is restored and the room is again brightly lit. In this way we do not have to become honest, we are honest but we may need to stop shrouding our essential goodness with illusion. 

The illusion giving rise to dishonesty likewise inhibits the life force within each of us and eventually causes discord both mentally and physically. However, by the grace of that infinite tenderness we call God; as soon as we change those attitudes that have brought about the discord healing will begin. For like honesty, health is our natural state, cloaked in discord and eager to resume illuminating our life.

Infinite Mercy

As our experiences vary our daily life takes many turns. Some experiences are pleasant while others are very unpleasant. We go alternately from love to hate, faith to fear, generosity to selfishness and patience to downright exasperation. None of these conditions are good or bad but how we use them determines who we are becoming. 

When it comes to the changing landscape of our life there are two certainties. First, we will never be tried by more than we can bear. Second, any experience that lacks the opportunity for growth will be withheld from us. It is difficult for us to turn away from old established concepts but we are not being punished by our circumstances and there are no lessons to learn but just experiences for us to use. Our Lord is infinite, He is merciful, and therefore mercy is infinite. Let us take a second look at our life and ask our self, would infinite mercy judge, condemn or punish us?  Would infinite mercy allow conditions to overwhelm us? Finally, would infinite mercy abandon us even for a second? For the answer to any of these questions to be yes then infinite mercy would no longer infinite or merciful. 

We are the children of perfection, of incomprehensible Tender Loving Kindness. Nothing exists apart from our Lord; therefore every experience is equally divine. If we can accept this we may begin to see the opportunity for growth in everything. We are blessed by all things and all conditions that flood in upon us for our benefit. When we brood over our wounds we miss entirely how to use them for the good infinite mercy implanted within them. When we run from that which challenges us or hide from that which causes us pain, we are rejecting the mercy for which there is no end. 

No situations are too large for us, nor are we too ill prepared to meet life constructively. Let us open our heart and our mind to all we encounter to see the possibilities implanted by infinite mercy. For all situations, all encounters and all challenges are the embrace of our precious Lord waiting to enfold us.  

May God bless you with that awareness that He is fully present in every experience in your life and whatever you feel is simply your response to His embrace.

Expressing Spirituality

It is true we are larger by far than we are aware of. As immortal beings, we have always been and will always be, we are not merely reflections but actual fragments of God, and all of creation awaits our direction. However, unless we find ways to apply this in our daily affairs our unspeakable grandness is wasted in this lifetime. We did not come in to flesh and bone to abandon our spirituality but to experience it exactly where we find our self this day.

Life is not easier once we recognize our spirituality but it begins to make much more sense. We lose our victim consciousness, we stop making victims of the world around us and we grow in every way. When we see the road stretching out before us most of the chaos in our life ceases as the hard work begins. It is easy to deny our grandness because we cannot see it, however we do not deny electricity, gravity or even radio waves. Although we cannot see these forces we can use them because they act in predictable ways. So too can we use our spirituality the only difference being that it influences matter more gradually than does physical phenomena. So for many of us the challenge is not one of faith but of patience.

Why, we ask why does it take so long to experience the results of our application of spiritual laws? Would it not be more helpful if we could see results, even small ones, more quickly like we do when using electricity or gravity? Yes, indeed it would if results were the objective of spiritual activity. We grow not from the results but from the experience itself.  For it is to experience infinite loving kindness in all of its physical forms we find our self in the world this day and we lose our way when we require specific results. However, observable results are inevitable as we patiently and persistently apply those spiritual attributes we awoke this day to experience.

When we change our focus from application to results we may find we begin to lose faith. As a result where there was once faith, fear and doubt enter our life. When we become disheartened; we begin to escalate those conditions that bring pain and confusion in to our daily affairs and illness is often the result.

Let us each acknowledge our limitless spirituality and resume our dedication to its application. It is by the gift of grace that we already have what we need for success and as long as we persist we cannot do it wrong. We are not required to find new ways to experience God but new opportunities. Every day, in every way we are to express Infinite Loving Kindness only with what we have at hand. And when the focus is upon the doing and not the result we may find we are far less vulnerable to fear and doubt. In this way the world around us will be healed and we will find our experience in flesh and bone justified.

Give and Let Go

How we feel, what we think and what we do affects every living soul. However, those closest to us are much more sensitive to our actions. We are not as isolated as we would imagine but connected to all living beings; so much so that we penetrate the hearts and minds of our sisters and brothers. Generally, we would prefer the feeling of separation so we are free to do what we wish without regard for others. However, when we are in need we appreciate our connectedness with them. This leaves one important area to be considered and that is when others need us and we are obliged to set our desires aside to help them.

Two major obstacles we face in helping others is our presumption of what they really need and our prescribing what they should do with it. For a mature adult freedom of choice is more than simply an entitlement, it is the birthright of a living soul. Freedom to choose is directly linked to our creative ability and without free choice we would be dependent rather than independent souls. We must respect this in others and respect both their choices as well their inviolable right to make them. If we decide what help others wish to receive is not in their best interest we are free to simply withhold it.

When we are observant, when we choose to see and listen we will often understand what our brothers and sisters need. When their needs and desires come together close enough compassion compels us to bless them with whatever we have available to us to do so. Then, after giving our help it is our duty to step back and let them do with it what they will. We may not hold on to the help we have given but to release it and them to decide as living souls how to use it.

All too often we find we cannot clearly understand what our brothers and sisters really need nor what they should do with it. At those times we may consider praying to our Lord to bless them in that way and manner they are in need of, to make manifest in their lives that which only Infinite Loving Kindness knows they can best use at the time. Where we are uncertain we will find that our God does not need our help in deciding what our brothers and sisters really need. If we believe in God, let us then believe in our brothers and sisters and act accordingly.

God has no need of our standing between Him and our fellow souls, nor do they have need of our standing between them and Infinite Love. Sometime the greatest gift we can give to our brothers and sisters is to live the way we pray, to awaken the best in those around us and leave the rest to stand between them and that Infinite Tenderness we call God. Can we do it, can we live so that we awaken the best in those around us and then step back to let them do with it as they will?