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Portions of this article were excerpted from John\u2019s book, \u201cThe Blessings Already Are”.<\/em><\/p>\n This world is designed to bring lessons and not necessarily comfortable ones. Each lesson presents an opportunity to experience and express the loving that is already present. That is not a secret or even a revelation. At some point, we will know that loving is always present. Even if we do not want to admit it to ourselves, even if we do many things to deny it, we will know loving is present.<\/p>\n At times, this world can appear cold, hostile, tyrannical, or alien. At some point, we may begin forming an attitude that could be called unloving. When we form an attitude of unloving toward anything or anyone, we are actually forming that attitude toward ourselves.<\/p>\n One of the ways our unloving can be recognized is as a hardness that comes into our consciousness. As hardness comes into our being, we can become callous and insensitive. As we become more insensitive, our perceptions portray a harsh and painful world. It then becomes easier to adopt an attitude toward the world resulting in our experiencing and in turn expressing more harshness, negativity, and pain.<\/p>\n Occasionally a person can go all the way through their life gradually becoming more hardened and harsh as a way of dealing with the world. That is very rare because usually somewhere along the way, there is a visitation, a moment. \u00a0No matter how dark or how cloudy or stormy it is, the sunlight gets through and touches us, reminding us that there is more to this world than the darkness, harshness, or storms.<\/p>\n In our process of dealing with the world, we play two sides. One side we refer to as the negative, painful, or disturbing. The other side is the loving, light, and the beauty. As we learn to play this game between the two sides, we realize that one is more of our true nature. Perhaps we see it as more of the way we would like to be. In other words, we can look upon ourselves as actually being unloving, dark, or no good. We can still realize, however, that underneath our negative picture of ourselves is the desire to be good because that is who we truly are.<\/p>\n No matter what attitude we form in relationship to the polarities we find in the world, we are still called upon to make choices. In each moment, we are always making a choice to be more loving or more unloving. \u00a0The source of loving is inexhaustible. There is no way we can ever exhaust the opportunity to be more loving.<\/p>\n Each situation in our lives presents a challenge and an opportunity to choose into the Light. There is something magnificent in every aspect of the creation.<\/p>\n Choose to love more this day. Like the song, \u201cI\u2019m going to love more this day.\u00a0I\u2019m going to give more than I take. I\u2019m going to live much more for the sake of living love.\u201d<\/p>\n I see it coming down to real, simple things like making each place better than you found it. Are you doing something to lift? Maybe right now it is more important that you be lifted, that you be nurtured, that you take time to withdraw so you can restore yourself. If you are off and thinking, \u201cI am off so anything I do, say, even think right now, is problematic. It is magnetized into the negative,\u201d then it may be time to stop, take time to go inside to restore yourself in your true loving nature.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This world\u2019s magnetism is potent. It is a potent illusion. It is a potent image. Can you see through it? \u00a0We need to take ourself into the high consciousness if we are going to see this world for what it is and to see the truth of it.<\/p>\n When we come into the Spirit, it is fully revealed. There are no secrets. There is nothing hiding. It is all known. When we do that, we have transformation. Our doubts don\u2019t make it. They get burned up along the way. What makes it is the purer part which can involve a purification process, a cleansing and clearing of fears and negative thinking.<\/p>\n When you are disturbed or upset, that\u2019s a perfect time to go into the Spirit. When we do, amazing things occur. \u00a0Choose to accept, which is a way of expressing, \u201cI trust in the Lord.\u201d \u00a0You then gain understanding.<\/p>\n Understanding starts with letting go. \u00a0It starts with releasing yourself from, \u201cI want it this way. I don\u2019t want it that way.\u201d \u00a0Choose to come into neutrality by letting go. The understanding will follow.<\/p>\n My faith and trust tell me there is something perfect and good in everything. \u00a0You may not always be conscious of what it is, but make it your intention to be. You can choose, \u201cI\u2019m going to go to where I can have the good revealed in my consciousness.\u201d That\u2019s being in cooperation. If you want that, you are in cooperation with how it works spiritually. Then the understanding follows. It is like a virtue that rewards you by its own nature.<\/p>\n If you are holding a foundation of false ideas, ideals or images, it will tumble and fall down. Those things have to come down eventually. When we are disillusioned, that is a day of glory. That is a blessing. It may not feel like it. \u00a0You may feel confused, disoriented or shut down. But it\u2019s actually a movement forward. Something is going on for the good as you are waking up.<\/p>\n The first law of Spirit is trust in God which means acceptance. Faith in God is in acceptance. Go towards acceptance with all you\u2019ve got. \u00a0Maybe you are there a while because you were not in acceptance. Maybe you are in process right now of getting to acceptance. \u00a0So keep trust and acceptance as your intention.<\/p>\n One thing you can\u2019t let go of is the love. \u00a0If you do, you will experience hurt. That is no surprise. If you shut down the love, it hurts. It is supposed to. That\u2019s good. Why? It\u2019s not a punishment but an awakening. \u00a0Holding back your love does not work, so get back to the loving.<\/p>\n If you are going to love somebody else, the love has to go through you. That is why it is wise to be around people where loving comes easily, particularly to you. What good is it to be around people who withhold, deny or make all kinds of conditions about loving you? The blessing is they can teach you that you can love yourself regardless. \u00a0You don\u2019t need others to be loving you for you to be loving of yourself.<\/p>\n Love where you are. Love where you stand. Love your grieving and your wounds. Love your fears by not joining and reinforcing them. Don\u2019t get into fear, discouragement or depression as the order of the day. Your life is not meant for that. It tends to keep you out of the field where the soul is playing which is at a high rate. \u00a0Be bright, be bold, be beautiful. These are qualities of the soul.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n John-Roger made a distinction that will is with God, and God\u2019s will is done. It has an absoluteness in it. That is tremendously in our favor because we are part of that absoluteness. God\u2019s will is done in an absolute perfection. Yet, we get a choice.<\/p>\n When you are aware of going into fear, you can change your approach. There is a basic, real simple opportunity. We are essentially dealing in a choice in our consciousness all the time. There is free choice in our attitude.<\/p>\n Whenever you go into the negative of any kind, there are some practical ways you would know it because something goes off. There is a sense of, \u201cOh no,\u201d or \u201cHere we go again.\u201d It hurts. It has an incorrectness in it.<\/p>\n When we get onto what is actually true, it is like happy days are here again. So it is correct. It is not just partially correct. It is totally correct. Always correct. \u00a0So what is it when we are off? \u00a0I just look at it as a temporary lapse. It is a momentary blink.<\/p>\n There is something about this world that allows us to have the luxury of karma. It is permitted, but it is still a temporary condition. We are not going to be in anything in the world forever. So at some point, we are out of it. \u00a0We correct it.<\/p>\n I love another way that John-Roger put it for us which is to \u201cMinimize the downtime.\u201d \u00a0Don\u2019t wait. \u00a0Don\u2019t tarry. \u00a0Don\u2019t entertain it. \u00a0Don\u2019t pile negativity on top or do one wrong decision with another wrong decision. Don\u2019t go into thinking, \u201cWhat is the use?\u201d That is not a good attitude. That attitude is not going to help.<\/p>\n My experience over and over is when things are working, there is a harmonious energy in it. For example, when you hit a baseball out of the park, there is a thing called, \u201cThe sweet spot\u201d or \u201cThe zone.\u201d I\u2019ve had the experience of it being effortless. There is a feeling in your hands like you didn\u2019t even hit the ball, as if there was no impact. In my experience, it was rare to hit the sweet spot. When I did it was an amazing feeling. It felt like I didn\u2019t hit anything, even though I knew I did. I realized something went on, like a power got in from the unmanifest into the manifest.<\/p>\n When we are \u201con,\u201d there is synchronicity, beauty and grace. I call them enchanted moments. They\u2019re not just from hitting a baseball. It could be turning to somebody and saying, \u201cAre you feeling that beautiful energy?\u201d and they respond, \u201cYes, what is that?\u201d<\/p>\n I look at it that as a moment when we are in touch with heaven. We are in touch with the divine. It is manifest.<\/p>\n Where we are playing in the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness is a grace field. So let\u2019s make it about grace and invoke that divine presence as much as we can. Then we have to do our part. We have to spark it. I encourage you to choose right now in this moment. Perhaps it is as simple as ceasing againstness. \u00a0Maybe you say something like, \u201cI know I don\u2019t want to fight. I don\u2019t want to argue.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes that\u2019s where there is a block. Some folks won\u2019t say, \u201cI love my enemies\u201d because they feel that\u2019s forbidden. They feel as if they took a vow, \u201cI will damn you all the way to hell even if I have to be the last one in hell. Just to make sure you\u2019re in hell, I\u2019ll be there.\u201d Is that what you want to do? \u00a0I don\u2019t think so. It is really not worth it, that damnation and vengeance.<\/p>\n Someone discovered and announced for us all, \u201cVengeance is mine,\u201d and that is from the Lord. \u00a0That means, God\u2019s got it covered. You don\u2019t need to worry about revenge. God will take care of it.<\/p>\n I have been in a situation as a peace officer where I wore a badge. \u00a0My job involved telling people, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing here folks. Please move on. We have it handled. We don\u2019t need your gawking eyes, curiosity, and wondering what happened and what is going to happen. That\u2019s not really helping, so move along.\u201d \u00a0That\u2019s the idea when it comes to vengeance. \u00a0It isn\u2019t your level of concern. Those who have that level of concern to handle it are here, present, and accounted for. We don\u2019t really need you to get involved with revenge. If you want to help, move along. Be on your way.<\/p>\n I think that is one of the ways the Christ does what it does. It basically comes in and says, \u201cI\u2019ve got the karma if you\u2019re willing to let it go.\u201d It does not absolve us of correctness. In the story of the woman who was the adulteress, Jesus said, \u201cLet any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.\u201d Nobody stoned her. Everybody walked away. Then Jesus and the woman had a dialogue, and Jesus said, \u201cWho has judged you this way?\u201d \u201cNobody,\u201d the woman replied. \u00a0And Jesus said, \u201cNeither have I\u201d [John 8:1-11].<\/p>\n There is a path of righteousness. There is a way to do something in the correctness of the choice. How do we choose correctly? \u00a0By having that intention, even if it is, \u201cI know I don\u2019t want to fight. I know I don\u2019t want to argue, but I don\u2019t seem to know what I want to do.\u201d Maybe there is a pause there. \u00a0Maybe there is a question, \u201cIs there a way we could work this out so it is good for both of us or all of us?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We need to have the courage of the truth that sees the face of God. We have to somehow not hide or retreat from whatever appears as the truth in the moment. How do we process it then? \u00a0Is it loving in the way we process it? The way to check the loving is to check it out \u00a0 — Is it a whole truth and nothing but the truth? Or is there something masquerading as loving that\u2019s a kind of conditional loving or a lesser truth?<\/p>\n There is a reason why we are playing at that level. It takes all we got as in the commandment of loving God as the truth of God, which is the absolute truth, a truth that is universal. That is one of the salvations we are all in. Thank God, we don\u2019t have to sort it out. It is sorted it out in the truth. The truth will set us free, if we are willing to get onto that way of being. \u00a0So ask, is it loving? Check it out. \u00a0If it is not loving, then keep looking. The truth has to hold up in the loving, and the loving has to hold up in the truth.<\/p>\n If you say, \u201cI love you, love you, love you, but this part, I don\u2019t love that part,\u201d that is where the truth stops. Right there. You haven\u2019t got to the truth.<\/p>\n The Lord is a lover of it all. God is calling us to play at that level. The transformation truly takes place in our willingness to keep stepping it up.<\/p>\n Each situation in our lives is a challenge and an opportunity to choose into the Light. The only difference is the degree to which we find ourselves challenged by the nature of each situation. Perhaps it is more challenging to choose into the Light when we are happy and contented because we have a tendency to forget the importance of choosing the Light when we are at our best.<\/p>\n There is a wartime saying, \u201cEverybody in a foxhole knows God.\u201d When we are at our worst, even the most devout unbelievers call upon God. \u00a0If you wait for trouble before you call upon God, then you are in trouble. \u00a0God always answers our call. The question is, are we listening? Are we hearing God\u2019s answers and abiding by those answers?<\/p>\n Perhaps the obvious answer to that question is no, considering any number of situations in the world where there is violence, disease, corruption, injustice, and the like. Humans have been consistently ignoring and violating the answer from God from time immemorial. The results are the difficulties in which we individually and collectively find ourselves in the world today.<\/p>\n One of the great answers that applies to all of us is to \u201cLove your enemies.\u201d [Matthew 5:44]. The path to loving your enemies is entered by forgiveness. \u00a0It is traversed by an unconditional willingness to let go of the past and live in the presence of loving.<\/p>\n We must learn to break down the barriers of separation caused by patterns of hatred and bigotry that have been repeated across generations and cultures. The real \u201cenemy\u201d is what lives inside of us as hatred, fear, condemnation, indifference, etc. We shall overcome the enemies that we encounter inside or outside with unconditional loving and acceptance. We demonstrate the loving by the choices we make and where we place our focus.<\/p>\n During times of powerful upheaval and negativity in the world, we often question our ability to overcome or even survive the enemies that confront us. \u00a0The answer is always to stop the cycles of perpetual negativity, both individually and collectively, by fulfilling the call to love unconditionally. The cycle of negativity is stopped by choosing the good not just once, but again and again until it is goodness that prevails in your life and in our world altogether.<\/p>\n One day each of us will understand that negativity, while being a choice, is never God\u2019s answer or God\u2019s intention for anyone, no matter how evil they have chosen to be. God\u2019s business is always unconditional loving and forgiveness of all\u2014which still includes responsibility and stopping the againstness that confronts us. \u00a0Loving is what we all have always. Love is who we are.<\/p>\n It takes great strength to see the face of God in those who are acting with destruction as their expression. Each and every time we are confronted by negativity in others and the situations we face, we must strive toward God\u2019s answer to all of the creation: \u201cLove one another, as I have loved you\u201d [John 15:12], \u201cLove your neighbor as yourself\u201d [Matthew 19:19], and love all of the creation with \u201cAll thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind\u201d [Matthew 22:37].<\/p>\n Be glad you have any opportunity, great or small, to express your charity and compassion regardless of the resistance or indifference you may face. Loving is your true nature, as well as the true nature of all those who act against it by choosing negativity. This, in part, is God\u2019s calling unto each of us. This, in part, is the divine action and the partaking in the blessings that already are.<\/p>\n Baruch Bashan<\/p>\n
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\nIn MSIA, we are lovers of the truth.<\/h4>\n