Thank goodness our past has passed down some days that we look upon as sacred and holy. During this time of year we are given Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve and Day.
We can all look upon Hanukkah as spiritual proof of miracles. In taking back their temple, Jewish people wanted to re-sanctify it to God, with oil for 8 nights, to clear others’ use for worship of people and idols. There was only enough oil for one night, yet it miraculously lasted the eight nights. We can all notice the miracles that occur daily in our lives.
Thanksgiving gives us a date to feel grateful for what we have, including people who care, and whom we care about. We can also count our blessings all the time; no date needed.
Christmas reminds us of one (of many) spiritual icons who showed a way to live miraculously with nonjudgmental love. Though it’s not really Jesus’ (the Jewish man’s) birthday, but chosen as a date of remembrance, it reminds us of christ consciousness; not his last name, of course, but the word for the quality of higher, spiritually enlightened ways of seeing everything and everyone.
Worship no idols before God; neither man nor statue. Even Jesus said we can do greater things than he. We’re all God sourced of that mysterious, unconditionally loving, all-knowing, all-forgiving miraculous divine energy that we are created from. Most of us have people show us beautiful ways of living through love and integrity, and often idolize them, maybe worship them, but let’s remember the one source from which we can all show the way.
Each of us has a personal connection. When you trust that, you will hear and see your own divine guidance, and your life’s moments become joyful and miraculous. Are you afraid of a personal connection because you aren’t perfect, therefore afraid of punishments? Watch how you can learn and evolve from imperfections, forgive yourself and others, and rise in the comfort of spiritual grace. But you won’t know unless you try.
Would Miraculous Divine Spirit lead wars against others’ ways to strive to know God? Lead you into hate and prejudice? No, that was human man’s choice. But we can grow from seeing the light and make different choices. The current Popes opened minds through asking for forgiveness in previous religious decisions, showing faith by riding without a bullet-proof popemobile, and announcing unconditional love and acceptance to those created with attraction to the same sex, etc., etc.!
Kwanzaa celebrates the sacredness of family, community and culture. Any culture’s fractured family or community has the hope of rebuilding through understanding, and realizing togetherness comes from acceptance and forgiveness; letting God live through us. There are many other spiritual paths and holidays, yet this time of year we light lights (en-lightenment), give gifts (gifts of love) and make a sincere commitment to amend our ways in the new year.
Karen Armstrong, one of the world’s foremost religious scholars, author, prestigious TEDPrize winner, and former Catholic nun, tells us she only found a personal connection with God after leaving the nunnery disillusioned.
Continuing to research the world’s religions she found one common thread, and that is compassion. Not doing to others what you wouldn’t want done to you; i.e. the golden rule. That wisdom actually sprang from Confucius, who lived 500 years before Jesus.
She likes the Hebrew tradition of inviting us to always question, versus being instructed to accept what we are told as the only way, (this way or the highway/hell. She noted that man-made religions give people the false belief that only they are right, and others’ beliefs threaten their ego’s strong desire for that claim on rightness.
But ask yourself, would you rather think only your group is right and exclusive of God’s approval, or embrace truth that we are all innately beings of compassion, and get to enjoy the expanded love of inclusiveness, meant by God?
Won’t that create the world you want to see? Isn’t that your dream; abounding love everywhere? Is it not who wins or loses, but how you play the ‘game’ (of life)? Would you rather think you’re right or be happy?
Will it take a disaster to experience a ‘different’ person save you, with their inborn unconditional compassion, to feel love for them? Is a ‘force’ of nature required to wake us up?
Even governments lay down laws that are unfair to the people living under its man-made rules. Mandela felt deeply every person has rights to choose. In God’s vast regime, every person has rights. All you need do is set yourself free from the prison your heart has been in; let it breathe deeply in God’s natural laws.
The small ‘wars’ between us become the massive wars of collective consciousness! Really, is that God personally speaking with you, or do you listen instead to your own voice, based on what you were told to believe by someone telling you what is right and wrong.
Religiously too many people follow man-made rules with the threat of supposed hell… laws given you by a human being who studied what another human being wrote was law, passed down, (just like the child’s game telephone), by other innocent people trying to remember what they were told?
Have you questioned when religious laws were actually written, who actually wrote them, transcribed them, why some books were burned, etc.. You don’t have to ask; you can simply create your personal relationship and listen to your higher love love you in truth.
WWJD, WWMD, WWCD, WWBD? Go straight to the higher up, to the ‘top.’ How about truly WWGD. Access your personal connection without limited access or filters, or other human beings’ agendas, and you will be someone who hears and shows the inspired way, too.
Does it make heart and soul sense to keep believing it is spiritual to shun others or attempt to lower their status in living life, for not being a particular religion, or gender, or race, or culture, or persuasion, etc., when all religions basically point to treating the other how you would want to be treated? It can be that simple. What if you were emotionally abused and abandoned for being heterosexual? Could you change to make life easier to live?
The devil doesn’t make us do ‘it.’ The devil isn’t ‘in’ people. We just refuse to think about things in a conscious, evolved way, and won’t take personal responsibility for examining and healing our own wounds that lead to ‘devilish’ actions in hurting others. Is it easier to believe in a Satan than walk/think in the others’ shoes?
Giving the finger or calling names is just common behavior, right? Does it make us feel right and in with the in crowd, who do those habitual things? Walking the path of basic spiritual compassion for all others can single us out, but would you rather have a friend or more walking beside you in enlightenment, than be held up on the shoulders of a crowd whose behavior is crude and barbaric to others?
Certainly if someone is toxic and cruel to you repeatedly and you’ve extended a nonjudgmental hand as you could, the wise reaction is to keep boundaries around your own spirit, while still seeing them as God’s child and wishing for the best always, knowing God is with them too, not counting perceived wrongs, just loving them, from afar, as one who is on a different path and time frame.
That is prayer. Hate is prayer too, so observe your thoughts. Don’t take everything personally.
A life unexamined is not worth living. Let’s take responsibility for everything in our life. Everyone without exception thrives on love. When treated poorly over and over they can become depleted, miserable, ill, and lash out. When we are happy with a filled heart we can still even take things for granted. Count your presents even outside of holy days time.
If we all expect someone else to make the world better, who’s going to do it? The small effort by each one influences others, is many, and becomes the big effort, thereby, the big change.
It’s never too late to see the light and say I realize I’ve done or said some things that now I have more awareness of. I’m still growing and working on myself. I apologize.
Be careful of saying I AM sorry because the great I AM presence in us all, moves and shapes what we say I AM about. You are not a sorry person, you are perfect in your own path of growth. Remember not to hurt your own feelings!
I AM made of the only substance there is, the all, God source. I AM everything God is. I AM the child, son or daughter, of God (so is every soul). I AM loving (everyone is capable of actng so; it just takes action), I AM love (that is your inherent inheritance), I AM loved (God always loves you).
I AM healthy (define your natural state, which is at ease with all; it is the opposite of dis-ease). I AM abundant (do you even realize how much you really have, from the comb and brush to a good friend). I AM miraculous (you’ll notice it when you know it’s true). I AM joy and peace (the natural state of God which is within you).
Joy to the world. Peace on earth. Let’s joyfully, peacefully take personal responsibility being compassionate for the other, thereby, co-creating the global experience we all envision. Happy Miraculous Holy Days.
Love from Rachel Star of Sedona
Reach interfaith minister Rachel Star of Sedona at 928-282-3444, 850-566-6698 or email rachelstarofsedona@gmail.com. LIKE her Facebook page, Rachel Star of Sedona. Her free website is www.goddesstheway.com where you can find daily astrological guidance for the current month and more. She is available for a positive, empowering Reading in Sedona, or by phone or Skype. Each consultation is spiritually insightful & guiding inspiration via Tarot, Cards of Destiny, Numerology, Past Life insight and Astrology. Local rates are discounted. Classes, and individual or couples coaching are available at discounted rates in person or by phone. Feel immediate physical and emotional relief with Reiki or Young Living medicine-grade essential oils.
