When those around us that we know and care about encounter challenges and struggle, are having difficulties in their lives, we may find ourselves feeling hopelessness and despair and other feelings that make us feel trapped in some kind of negative space. It is particularly difficult with members of our family, those that we have put much energy into, given much of our lives to, to feel like somehow we must have failed them. We cannot see the truth, we cannot find the perfection, we cannot help believing something is wrong or bad. It is painful and overwhelming. It is tempting to believe that something needs to be done to fix their problems, to somehow intervene. And it’s very possible that they may need extra support. But in truth, the answer lies with us, for the helplessness, hopelessness and despair are the result of our inability to believe in our ability to overcome our own struggles and difficulties.
Despite all that we want to believe, the world is simply a mirror. The pain we believe we see is our own pain. The struggles and difficulties we perceive are our own. We have forgotten that struggle, challenge, pain, and difficulty are completely normal aspects of life and do not indicate that something is wrong or bad. But the end result is always growth. We have forgotten that the human spirit is capable of miracles, of magnificence, of amazing feats. What has surfaced in us is our own unhealed belief that somehow we are inadequate or unworthy to overcome the challenges of our own lives – that we have been broken by our experiences, we are not enough, not adequate, or not worthy.
We know that deep within us is an absolute truth, that when we change our mind the world changes around us. This has been proven over and over. So we see that events of a distressing nature are not sent to punish us or try us but are more in the nature of our spirit presenting us a healing opportunity: to gather the spiritual strength to remember the truth, to act from the truth and to live the truth, and to allow healing of the wound that caused us to doubt. We are not being punished for our failures. We are given and gifted an opportunity to heal, evolve and expand and to become the loving, accepting, compassionate and open being that we truly are, and to release all the old ideas of our failure, inadequacy, and our unworthiness.
It is hard at times to accept this pain that is in us, this awful judgment of ourselves, but we can heal it. Pain is not bad. It is an indication of healing. There is grief for the way we have suffered at our loss of freedom, our loss of love for ourselves. It is painful to acknowledge. But we will heal and then we will remember that nothing, no event, or no circumstance has ever harmed us. We were never damaged; we were never broken. Our understanding has grown bigger with every challenge.
So we remember in this moment, right now, that despite all appearance, all feelings, all the effects around us, that God is here – love is here. The one power continues to be the only truth despite all appearances, for there is only good. We have come to see pain and struggle as bad and wrong and yet, no living thing was born without pain or struggle. No new life begins without pain or struggle. We are born again many times. And so in this moment we acknowledge that the only real possibility is perfection. That we cannot claim that God is wrong, that God is missing, or that there is no love. There is nothing without love. There is nothing without God. There is only God and only love. Miracles are nothing to God. The evolution of life is inevitable. Allow yourself in this moment to acknowledge and accept this truth. You cannot change it. You cannot be outside it. It can only be true. It can only be the only truth. Your life is a perfect expression of the one power in this moment – God in form, love in action. There is nothing else. Hold your mind steadfast to the truth and accept with compassion and understanding the difficulties and struggles that we encounter so that new life may emerge. You cannot fight the truth; you cannot make it untrue. All you can do is accept and give in to it. The light of compassion and love burns bright within you. This is your guide.