We are in incredible times of change. Many of the financial structures that we looked to for our security are gone. And for many of us there is a sense of fear, confusion, and uncertainty. People have seen their life savings, pensions, their jobs, and their homes seemingly dissolve beneath their very feet. And all of this seemed to have happened very quickly. We hear of people experiencing anger, frustration, and lashing out to others and for others there is a drawing within, a sense of depression and despair.
For many of us when we experience these losses, we lose our identity. When we identify with and become attached to our career or job, our possessions and relationships we lock ourselves into a limiting and diminished expression of who we are. When these come to an end we are brought to our knees, sometimes quite literally. Yet metaphysically we can give thanks for these blessed endings for like the Phoenix, from the ashes of our dashed hopes, dreams, and sense of security we have the opportunity to reinvent ourselves. To begin anew – that is the promise of the endings in our life.
The truth is all structures are unstable. Form, life’s outer manifestations are visible and changeable. The life essence underlying form is invisible and unchanging. It is the constant in a changing world. Your essence, your beinging-ness is eternal and formless. When we realize and accept that all structures are unstable, even those that appear to be solid and permanent, peace arises within us. The opportunity available in these changing times is to consciously examine who we are. When that which we think we are is gone, we have the golden opportunity to examine who we are as spiritual beings. We can awaken from the mist of our limited and erroneous thinking into the bright light of our magnificence. When the outer structures that we have constructed and that we use to define us have dissolved, we are left unfettered, undefined, and thus empowered to create what it is we will be. Now is the opportunity to discover the truth of who we are.
We have many heroes in our lifetime who have been defeated by the events in their lives. When their life as they knew it ended, they did not allow it to take them down. They reinvented themselves and arose from the ashes of their despair. I am thinking of Jesus who was crucified by his captors and rose again. People are still teaching his message 2000 years later. I am thinking of Al Gore who arose from his Presidential defeat to win a Nobel Peace prize and an Academy award for his work in Global warming. I am thinking of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King who were imprisoned, persecuted and maligned and rose again to lead people toward peace and freedom. Even after they were assassinated their work continued. We too have the potential to draw from the infinite field of possibilities opening to us. The circumstances of the world around us do not have to diminish or take away from what we have to contribute to the world.
Imelda Shanklin, "You will have the right kind of confidence in yourself when you have developed a consciousness of your identity with God and God’s identity with you. Encompass yourself with the certainty of God." You are encompassed in God – completely sealed in God’s protection and God’s good and God’s love. God has so planned that this power lies in your power to possess and mold your thoughts so that it can come through.
As in everything, we find the cause of our experience is in our own consciousness. Spirit is always available to us, but our union with the Source must be made in our minds. We must consciously build ourselves up with positive prayer and meditation. We must stay prayed up. We are like a battery and need to constantly be recharging ourselves – recharging our minds, recharging our physical bodies – with the Power of God. When I was going through a difficult time after my marriage ended the 23rd Psalm was my constant prayer,
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures:
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul:
He leads me in right paths for His name’s sake.Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil: For you are with me;
Your rod and your staff – they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; My cup overflows.Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
Part of the prayer jumped out for me "…Even though I walk through the darkest valley…" I was walking through this dark valley. I wasn’t camping out in it or building a house in it. I was passing through it. Ahhh, peace, sweet peace of God! This too shall pass.
And so it is.
