Spiritual Guidance

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Forgiveness: Why It’s So HARD!!!

We all may agree that forgiveness is needed in our lives.  It is a spiritual prerogative.  It is also a social, emotional and psychological imperative.  But, it is one of the hardest things to do within our own heart and mind.

There are so many factors that are involved with forgiving.   There are so many facets of our own psyche that are attached to the circumstances and actions in which we are called to forgive about.  So, of course, it is going to be a difficult challenge, especially if the different parts of us – within us – are struggling against the other parts of us that are within us.

Books and more are written about forgiveness.  There are countless articles and treatises that are written about forgiveness.  The Bible is filled with the calling to forgive, and so we try.

Forgiveness isn’t always a “freeing” experience, like some say.  It isn’t always a wonderful experience.  This is because we are multi-dimensional and multi-faceted individual souls.  There’s a lot going on inside us – in our minds, in our hearts, in our hopes for life, in our dreams, in our motivations, in everything about us.

Forgiveness is, in fact, an act of letting go.  But, there is sometimes great grief in this act.  Why grief?  Because there is a death occurring.  It isn’t a death of a person, but rather the death of a dream and image of something – giving way to the reality of something.

More often, it is the death of who we think a person is, and who we want that person to be, as well as what we think our relationship to the person is, and what we want our relationship to be.  Forgiveness brings us to a realization that the person and our relationship aren’t what we had imagined, thought, believed, hoped, dreamt it all to be.

It is with forgiveness that we come to realize that the person is slightly or greatly different than we had projected onto them.  The death of that “imagined person” comes through the act of forgiveness.  Who we wanted to believe that person or persons were comes to an end (or partially).  There is sometimes great grief that comes with this realization.

This all brings us to the point that we can let that other person become a human being instead of being an imaginary person whom we projected onto.

In our hearts, it is easier to like and love someone who we don’t know that well as a human being.  It is easy to project onto that person.  In our hearts, it is more painful to love an actual human being who is capable of hurting others – someone who we learn about in a deeper way – someone who demonstrates their ability and willingness to disregard and hurt others.

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Forgiveness is an act of growth for us when we forgive.  We open up our mind to see a real person – a real live human being who has thousands of qualities – both good and bad – and not some idealized image of a person whom we only were willing to see either the good or the bad – without the other.

When we put someone on a pedestal, we don’t see the reality of who they are.  We don’t see them as human beings with all their faults.  We only see an image – a false human being – an unreal human being.  That is why it is then so easy to crucify them.

When we forgive, we let them get off the pedestal and become a soul who is trying to learn how to be a human being – regardless of whether they’re successful or not – regardless of whether or not we’re aware of whether they’re trying – regardless of whether they are even trying or not.

When we forgive, we change ourselves into a human being who sees another human being – instead of an image of that human being.  When we forgive, we allow the relationship to be what it is, rather than what we want it to be – leaving us in a better place to decide whether it is a relationship we wish to continue and bring forth a different love or discontinue because of the need to remove ourselves from a bad relationship.

The reason why Christ can love us without reservation is because He forgives us over and over.  Forgiveness doesn’t make the relationship better not even how we relate to Jesus, but it does create an open door for our inner change to happen.  If we’re willing to walk through the open door for change, then the relationship can get better, but not everyone who is forgiven is willing to walk through the open door for change.

That is why forgiveness can also bring grief.  Forgiveness can also bring the reality of a destructive relationship which needs to come to an end.  We can forgive ***and forget*** but it comes with change.  Sometimes that change is to love more.  Sometimes that change is to move on.

The challenge of many of the Jews and others who were alive after WWII was to forgive the Nazis.  The awareness was present for many that only in the forgiving of them did the prisoners become free from the Nazis.  If there was no forgiveness, the two were still tied together.

Forgiveness doesn’t make everything peachy-keen.  Again, it brings a view of the reality of what the relationship is and what the relationship isn’t.  It helps us to see when we have been holding onto someone wanting them to be someone they aren’t.  It helps us to see when we’ve been holding onto a relationship wanting it to be something it isn’t.  And with this awareness, perhaps be able then to choose a better action on our parts other than idealizing someone or some part of someone, and idealizing the relationship or some part of the relationship.

Finally, mercy is always available to help us to forgive.  Remember, each of us has been forgiven many, many, many times and by many, many, many people – including by Christ, Himself.  And we’ll never know the full spectrum and all of the quantity of the times we’ve been forgiven.  As long as we are alive as human beings, we will never know.  We can only know that we’ve been forgiven countless times, but for the rare occasions that we may learn a few of the details of when and why.

We can then participate in our forgiving of others without holding onto expectations – just letting the act of forgiveness itself be a hidden act of mercy, and then moving on with our life.

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Forgiveness is also the act of taking our own heart in our own loving arms, holding our self close with kindness, forgiveness and love.  ©, 2016, Jodie Senkyrik

“Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid! I can’t take God’s place.” ” Genesis 50:19

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Wisdom in Life

Every person has wisdom within them.  Every. Single. Person.  And yet, we have questions and struggles, and confusion, and problems, destructive behavior, hatred, violence, rage, etc.

All wisdom is within us.  We keep our wisdom within our inner refrigerator/freezer.  Sooner or later, in this life or the next, or the next after that, we will dig into our freezer, pull out some wisdom, thaw it out, devour it, digest it, integrate it into our cells, and thus putting it to use, it will be part of us.

Obviously, it will never be part of us – our muscles, our organs, our brain, our heart – if we only look at it and study it.  It must be put to use – like vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, etc.  In addition, none of this wisdom will help us while it is still being kept frozen deep within us, not sought after and not considered.

Sometimes a willingness to learn helps to motivate us to dig into our freezer of wisdom.  Sometimes pain and suffering helps motivate us to venture into our freezer.  Obviously, a willingness to open our minds and hearts – a willingness or desire to learn – feels a lot better than the pain and suffering experiences.  That’s been my experience, having gone through both.

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Kindness – on Purpose

Right now in the US, we face a kind of craziness.  It is brought on by the political situation in the US.  It is brought on by the stress, the fears, the concerns, the words, the actions of the people.  Very few of us are immune to all these above.  All these issues show themselves via people across the nation arguing with each other (and worse) – people who usually don’t argue (and worse) with each other.

For the people of this country, (or anyone you choose) – it’s time for those of us who pray and meditate to do so – pray and meditate for the people of this country (and anyone you choose.)  Those of us who pray – pray.  Those of us who meditate – meditate.  Anyone of us who doesn’t do either – do acts of kindness – on purpose.

Acts of kindness are not meant to be accidental, so let them be on purpose.  Look for opportunities to do a kindness for someone – on purpose.  Look for an opportunity to speak a kindness – on purpose.  Look for an opportunity to think a kind thought – on purpose.  Random kindness is no longer enough.

These acts or words or thoughts of kindness are not automatically done by us.  Kindness is not always automatic.  Kindness isn’t  always second nature.  These acts are not always our automatic response when someone does or says something that causes anger or pain in us.

Many times, the opposite is our automatic response.  Anger is our automatic response. Resentment and bitterness are our automatic response. Unkind thoughts are our automatic response.  Verbal arguments and abuse are our automatic response.

If this is the country we choose – one of anger, resentment, bitterness, abusive words, blame, etc.  we are moving towards that, now.  What we see happening in our country will only get worse.  As we continue along this road of anger, resentment, bitter arguments, and abusive words, we will move into the next decade building mountains and mountains of even greater anger and abusiveness.

Christ started a trend when He walked the roads of the Middle East.  He started a trend of looking for opportunities to offer kindness – through His healing, through His actions towards others one on one, and through His words.  It caught on with His followers because it offers something a whole lot better than what we automatically offer through anger, bitterness and abusiveness towards others.

Blessed are those who do kindness on purpose, for they are offering a medicine that we need much more of.

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A word of warning:  Don’t you dare think it’s going to be easy.  Remember, kindness is rarely an automatic response.  Those times you we fail, we practice “Kindness on purpose” on yourself ourselves, as well.

By the way, the kindness we give to others, the kind acts we do for others, with regards to receiving back from them – think of all the kindness that God extends to us every moment of every day.  We aren’t even aware of His kindness, are we?  But, yet His kindness comes and comes to us without end.  Such is the gift from the Spirit of Infinite Kindness.  The question is how many times have we given an equal amount of kindness back to God?  We all know the answer to that.  So, we can let God extend the kindness through our human hearts so that the other person will have had the experience of receiving kindness from God, through us – this being the purest kind of kindness.

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“Being patient towards someone is one of the most important acts of kindness there is.  You can be sure that being impatient with someone has no kindness in it whatsoever.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1996-2016, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Praying and Meditating With Others

All of us, at some point in our lives, if we pray and meditate in our lives – have prayed and meditated with others.  Whatever method in which we’ve done both, whether we sat, kneeled, stood, danced or whatever, we can say we’ve done this with others, because there were others in the room, in the circle or in the very near vicinity.

And, of course, we can argue that all of us at some point in our lives, have prayed and meditated alone.

Or have we?  Let’s take a closer look.

What we’ve been very unaware of during so many times that we’ve prayed and so many times that we’ve meditated, is that we’ve never done it alone.  Ever.  In these moments of prayer and meditation alone, we have been used to thinking only to look at our immediate surroundings to determine if we’re alone or not.  We only examine who might be within our sight.

The Physical Earth

First, what we’re unaware of is that all around the globe there are other people praying and other people meditating at that same moment.  Each and every person praying or meditating is part of the energy field that each of these activities generates.  Each person connects to each other that prays or meditates.  Physical location can truly have no bearing whatsoever.

We need only open our minds to these other souls, and become aware of what we have been unaware of – that even when in a particular room alone, we are connected on the planet in that moment in time, to all other persons praying or all other persons meditating.  The energy of prayer and meditation can be felt, recognized and even seen with our mind, if we allow ourselves to feel, recognize and see it.

We are never alone in our prayers.  We are never alone in our meditations.  The joining in prayers is around the globe.  The joining in meditation encircles the whole Earth.  Pick a time to pray or meditate and we connect to those who pick the exact same time.  This is true 24 hours a day.

The Spirit Side

Second, when we pray or meditate, we can also pray with and meditate with those in Spirit.  Those in spirit who seek to join in prayer are countless beyond our imagination.   Hold out your hand ready to hold someone else’s hand and there will be another holding onto our hands.  We may not “see” or “feel” their hand as we are used to thinking, but if we open our minds to them being there, holding our hand in prayer or meditation, we will learn just how many are linked in that moment.  Again, we only need to open our minds to this actuality.

Meditating with the mind open to those souls in spirit that are present to help us connect to the light within, allows us to join an energy field infinite in scope – the field that is all life.  Again, we need only be aware of this connection in order to become aware that we are a part of it when we pray and meditate.

When we open our awareness of these others beyond our room and beyond our physical world, who are ready, willing and able to connect with us in prayer and meditation, our prayers become united throughout this world and the next.  The strength and expanse of our meditation grows to beyond that which is our own concept of the size of our universe.

We need only allow it to be, and we will become aware that it is.  In this, we will know then that we’ve never prayed alone, ever.  We will know that our every meditation connects us to all others, in physical bodies or not – these others who are like minded.  Together with these others, we are connecting with this side and the next in raising our vibrations to the One Life, One Love, One God that is All.

In doing this, we become part of the chorus singing the highest and the most beautiful of songs which is what prayer really is.  We join as part of the most expansive community within the ocean of consciousness which is what meditation really is.

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“The more prayer and meditation, the more God. The more God, the less war.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2016, Jodie Senkyrik)

“Enough Prayer.  Can.  End.  All.  War.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2016, Jodie Senkyrik)

We practice meditation, in order to meet God within, where He tells us, “Come unto Me, and I will come unto You.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1999-2016, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Praying for Climate Change and the Weather: Yes or No?

(The original article was posted here on July 11, 2009.)

I want to bring up a few important points to answer this issue.

#1  God’s answer to any of our problems and difficulties has never been – “Don’t pray.”

#2 The Climate Change problems we have now are vastly created by human consciousness and only minimally by mother nature – whether believed or not.  Those that believe this can know to take steps to help change this.  Those that don’t believe this, usually do little to change this and usually create more problems.  Sadly, many choose to not believe and not do anything to help, than believe and help the work of turning things around.  But the Bible reminds us, “the prayers of a few will save many.”  The prayers and meditations of those willing to work will change and influence all things.

#3  The weather and climate change patterns we have now are also partially karmic related and so, like any other karmic energy pattern manifestation – can be changed and healed through the raising of the vibrations through any means, including prayer and meditation.  The amount of healing and rebalancing is directly related to the amount of prayer, meditation, and spiritual acts of brotherhood and oneness.

#4  If we’re concerned about what to pray for, always remember to include, “Father God, Mother God, please bring the life-giving help of all kinds for all people and all life according to what you know we all need.  Let my prayers go to you to be used to help in whatever way you may know to use them.  Here am I, use me and my prayers for your greatest will and service for all life.   Amen.”

#5  It’s okay to pray for God’s will to be done, even with regards to weather and climate change, because God’s will has never been to punish and smite, and always been to show mercy and give life – even in the form of healthy weather patterns.  God is also desiring for us to learn that praying is worthwhile even if we have to learn how best to do it.

#6  Pray for healthy weather patterns.  Pray for balanced weather patterns.  Pray “HELP US, GOD!”   Pray using no words whatsoever.  Pray for whatever you feel okay with, just pray, and then let God decide what is possible with our prayers.

#7  Praying and meditating accomplishes more than “not praying” and “not meditating”.

#8  Praying is like building a bridge, with prayers being like the bricks from which the bridge is built.  We can’t cross the bridge when just the first few bricks are in place.  The bridge isn’t ready for use until the all of the needed bricks are in place, too.

#9  Praying is like rowing a boat.  With each paddle in the water, and with each effort to row the boat, the boat moves eventually towards its destination.  But, when we stop rowing, there is no progress towards any destination and we are left to the currents made by others’ Karma.

#10 What are we willing to pray for those we love?  Are we willing to pray for healthier weather for those we love, because we know their lives will be helped from it?

#11  Nothing can stop God from helping in our lives more than a closed mind or a closed heart.

#12 Don’t put God to the test.  Don’t guess what God needs to do or not do.  God is not the one here needing to learn something – in this case – to pray – even if it’s for healthy weather patterns and healing the climate changes.

#13 God is not seeking just to change things on the outside of us- like the weather, but rather change things on the inside of us.  It is this change that we keep with us through time, and eventually changes the outside of us – even the weather.

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“Let God Decide What is Possible.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2007, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Deuteronomy 30:19

When in human history has there not been conflict among each other, hatred, war and killing of people by other people. And yet, we human beings are still alive and living our lives. We have 7 billion people on the planet, and I know why.

It’s because “he” loves “her,” and “she” loves “that guy,” and “they” love “somebody,” and “he” loves “somebody” and “we” love, and “she” loves, and “different people” love and “children” love and on and on and on and on. Any planet where “many people loving other people” exists, is a planet worth living on. Any planet where a person or many people express their love through all the different forms that love gets expressed – support, kindness, patience, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, more kindness, etc, – for other people, is a planet where God is among us and active through our choice to manifest love to other people through support, kindness, patience, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, more kindness, etc.

God and Love and God and Love

Where love exists, God exists. Where people love, God’s love gets through to us.  When we love any person and any life that God has created, we bring God’s Presence, Kindness, Patience, Compassion and Love onto the surface of this planet, mixing into the lives of the people we contact and with whom we connect.  We bring God’s active involvement into our personal lives and our lives as a planet full of people.

The Choosing

If any person or group of people wants to bring more conflict with other people, more condemning of another group of people, more war among different groups, more killing of men, women and children – more hatred and fear of someone who is different – into the world, we can choose this activity simply by harming, judging, condemning, fearing, abusing, or hating the person we see either in front of us, next to us, far from us, or someone on the news channel.  This then becomes the act we add to our children’s lives, to our family member’s lives, to the lives of the people in our community, to the people of our nation and to the people on the planet.

At any time, we can choose to condemn different people more, judge different people more, kill different people more, be more violent to people we don’t want near us.  We can do this more and more, not just through our actions, but through the words we speak and write, through our beliefs about other people and our actions born from our attitudes which then become our real treatment of other people.

We can fear and hate, either the person sitting next to us on the plane who looks different, or the person who looks different on the other side of the planet that we only see on TV – all at the drop of a hat.  We can inspire others to hate through our written words and our spoken words in any avenue of writing (and now social media.)  We can return hatred to those people that already hate thereby increasing the hatred among more and more people in the world.  Look at the world and see how we have chosen the easy way of hating and fearing the person that is different.  No one of us is innocent of doing this.  And as Dr. Phil says, “And how has that worked out for you?”

When we fear and hate, our hatred and our fear within our hearts and minds, go hand in hand. They are two sides of the same coin. They are the right hand and the left hand to a body of living that we can choose simply by believing our own words of fear and our own words of hate.   Our fear feeds our hatred and our hatred feeds our fear. Anyone who fears and says they don’t hate is selling more fear and more hatred to any buyers.

Is Christ a real option?

Jesus was/is a real person.  Regardless of what the Bible tells us, we don’t know that much about Him.  We fill in the details with whatever we come up with in our minds, and from what other people come up with in their minds.   We even remake Jesus in our own image and likeness, sometimes.

Other times, we put Him so high on a pedestal that He becomes unreal.  When He becomes unreal, His guidance becomes unrealistic.  His teachings become unrealistic, and our beliefs about Him become unusable for any real-life situations.   We live day to day, and we don’t practice any of His teachings and guidance.

He was a real human being.  Perhaps not the human being that we’ve imagined, though.  He died from physical wounds and the blood loss.  Real people die from physical wounds and blood loss.  There were no EMT’s or Surgeon’s.  If we were in the same situation – a knife, a sword (not too many any more) a gun, a bomb, or the like, we also would possibly die from the blood loss  from wounds.

We may yet think of Him as an imaginary person.  Imaginary people don’t suffer or physically die.  Imaginary people go away and don’t come back.  Imaginary people aren’t around when you need real help.

But, to better choose Christ, we can start with entertaining the idea that He is a real person, like you and I – “one of us” – with Him walking down the street, or next to us, or waving as we walk by.  As a regular real person, His statement – “For man, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26) gives us the room for something better to be hoped for and chosen.  This statement can give us hope that we can find it within ourselves to choose something better – with help from within – with God, a better choice can be chosen, from within.

Real people can act with kindness, gentleness and tenderness.  Real people can act with patience and compassion.  Real people, like you and I – “if God was one of us” – can choose forgiveness and mercy.  This is how we can choose Christ.  He chose to extend forgiveness, patience and mercy and still does.

Making a Choice

We can focus on continuing to choose to love-which takes making a decision, and then following up that decision with prayer asking for help to manifest the decision, and then following up that prayer for help with hard work – as anyone who is married, (one of many examples of an expression of love,) will tell you – continuing to love takes hard work.

On the other hand, in any one moment, in any one second, we can choose to hate and express that hatred through violence, through vengeance, through killing,…

or we can choose to love and express that love through patience, through faith, through kindness, through mercy, through more patience, through understanding, through prayer, through more prayer, and through the examples that we have already learned.  We can choose through any method that brings our minds and hearts back to the better side of human beings and away from the worst side of human beings – fear, hatred, and the like.

It is so, so easy to become just like those we condemn, those we hate, those we fear or those that are different. All we have to do is condemn others and justify the condemnation, hate others and justify the hatred, fear others and justify the fear.  The other side does exactly the same thing.

Deep within ourselves, we don’t want to be hate-filled and fear-filled. But, we choose that when we choose to return hatred for hatred – when we choose to return condemning of others with more condemning of others.

There will never be a day that we can stop hatred and violence in the world by opposing it using hatred and violence. We cannot add to the cooperation and unity among different people by adding more conflict and separation.  Whether it’s felt towards people next to us in the grocery line or someone on the opposite side of the planet – it is the same.  Thoughts of hatred and of condemning other people as well as thoughts of fear of those other people, find their way into how we treat the people in our own presence – the people sitting next to us on a plane or standing next to us in line.

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There is no difference between the violence of one person and the violence of another person.  There is no difference between the hatred and condemnation that one person has, and the hatred and condemnation that another person has.  Both people justify their own and both people say “God is on our side.”

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While the title refers to a “strict or strong” stance – sometimes an interpreted judgmental stance – in the Bible, I list it because it recognizes that we have freewill.   We will always have freewill.  We will always be able to choose.  Our response to all things in life is up to us.  We can choose life.

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The real God is the God of Infinite Love – the Love that existed before time, and which will exist beyond any imagined future.  The real Jesus Christ is the Christ of Infinite Love.  The real Spirit within all of us is the Spirit of Infinite Love.  We have within us more capacity for love than we currently choose to imagine and manifest.  When the time comes that we choose to imagine Infinite Love and choose to manifest Infinite Love, this world and all other worlds, as well, will change to One of Infinite Love, Infinite Kindness, Infinite Patience, and…

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“Those we pray for have God available in their lives in stronger ways than those we don’t pray for.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2016, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Love Is It

Every individual struggles to live life as best as possible, even with all the hurdles we place in front of ourselves, and the stumbling blocks we cling to. Yes, our lives are filled with difficulties, pain, suffering and the like. Even when we have wonderful things to potentially make life easier, bring joy and be less painful, and bring happiness and have less suffering, our lives are not free from any aspect of life. We simply have a different kind of pain and suffering in our life.  Some of it is easily seen, and some of it is hidden to everyone except ourselves.

No individual’s life is strictly either black or white. No life is strictly either pain or joy. No individual, no soul is strictly either good or bad. Consequently, no experience is strictly only good or bad, black or white, pain or joy.

In our world, we know suffering exists and many of us try to help there be less of it. In our world, we know that understanding God more can help there be less of it. Yet, again and again we run into the wall of the differences between our efforts and our results. Over and over we seek ways to offer others insights or learning which we have with the hope of reducing suffering and with the hope of increasing understanding and compassion in our societies and the hearts and minds of people.

It is so common to get very discouraged and saddened when we believe that we’ve been ineffective and unsuccessful. If we hold to this belief – that we’ve been ineffective and unsuccessful – or that we haven’t even been able to change ourselves or enhance God’s presence in our own lives, then we can also become depressed or despairing – feeling that we get nowhere with our efforts at changing another’s consciousnesses.

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But, if we open our minds just a little bit more, we’ll be able to see something different happening. If we can see that our effort at changing our self is the superior path – the path that brings us to greater awareness of our world through the greater awareness of our self, we can begin to see that, of course, we’re going to get depressed about our ability to change somebody else. Of course, we despair when we think we’re here to put love into someone else’s heart.

There’s a paradox here.  These tasks are not realistic tasks for us. These tasks are not the tasks set before us by God.  These tasks are not why we’re here. We’re not here to bring salvation to someone else. We’re not here to bring enlightenment to someone else. We’re not here to bring about someone else’s greater learning.

We’re here to demonstrate something special.  We’re here to seek salvation within. We’re here to seek enlightenment within. We’re here to come to know our own self as uniting with God within. We’re here to seek our own greater learning within.  We can do this by loving God above all and loving our neighbor as our self, and demonstrating all of the above.  What we learn from this is a very simple realization.

Each time we love or express love in some way, each time we feel love in our hearts and demonstrate it, we are in a very real way, bringing God’s consciousness, energy, and vibration into this plane in order to affect this plane – like a tuning fork, to raise the vibration of all things. Each time we love, regardless of who or what receives, we are opening to allow God to have a greater presence in the world. Each time we love, the love energy extends and strengthens the connection we have, and increases our awareness of the Oneness of all life. Each time we love, the world, the planet, the environment we’re in changes. Each time we love, we change.

This means the way to healing is to love in a greater capacity than the way of illness. This means the path of illness, dis-ease, darkness or whatever we call it and this path’s strong inertial pull, can be changed by choosing to love and sending this love out.

While the path of love is not an easy path to walk, it certainly offers more than the path of trying to change others instead of ourselves. It offers more than the path of thinking that we’ve failed because the world is still “crazy” even after all those meditations and talks we’ve done. It offers more than the path of trying to figure out what what we’re supposed to be doing to make ourselves “spiritual.”  It offers more than the path of believing that spirituality is what we do rather than what are.

The path of loving is the path that can offer the strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and taking life one day at a time.  The path of loving is a path of demonstration of all that has been said in this article.  Every time we love, we bring God in all God’s Infinite Consciousness into the present moment into this space that we’re in. Every time we love, we demonstrate love to someone who may have forgotten it.  There is no greater spiritual act that any of us can enact than to love. There is no greater spiritual purpose to which we can attain. There is no greater spiritual path that we can progress upon.

Love is it.

Now, a few questions:
If any of us died right now, would the people in our lives have known for certain that we loved them?  or would they think something else?  If anyone we knew died, right now, would they die knowing that we loved them?  or would they die thinking something else?

What is the harm of demonstrating to someone else that we love them?  What is the harm of expressing to all life that we love all life?
What is the harm of showing God that we love God?

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This article is dedicated to a friend of mine – someone I love.

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Falling Flat on Our Faces

Even though no one ever wants to do this – it’s embarrassing in front of others – it reduces our self-view – it gives us even one more chance to belittle ourselves – etc., etc., etc., it also has its good points.  Falling flat on our face has good points, if we look at it from a perspective of being on a spiritual path.

There are real benefits, or rather real things to learn with falling flat on our face.

  1. The experience gives us a very clear view from the inside out just exactly how it is for others who go through the “Falling flat on our face” experience.
    • This is probably the most important reason of all, because it helps us to experience what it is like to be a human being.  Human beings fall on our faces all the time – even with the act of walking a spiritual path.  While we talk the talk of “walking in someone else’s shoes”, the experience of FFOOF, or FFOYF (Falling Flat on Your Face) puts our feet in the shoes.
  2. The FFOOF experience helps us to see our fellow human beings “eye-to-eye”, instead of being “above them” (or below them).  All humans have all the qualities available to all humans.  (Remember that.)  Seeing ourselves and others “eye-to-eye” not only puts us on the same footing, but can actually show us that we’re bonded together among our fellow humans with the fact that we all have human experiences.  Human beings are alike, no matter where you go.  This includes the having of the FFOOF experience.
  3. The FFOOF experience can help us restart at “Go”, instead of pulling the “Go to Jail” card (in Monopoly).  When we’ve been throwing ourselves off balance with a skewed perspective of ourselves, (thinking we’re all “spiritual” and stuff) we can start over by once again, being human.  There is a phrase somewhere in the Edgar Cayce Readings that states, “God loves a soul that’s willing to start over.”
  4. The FFOOF experience allows us the chance to laugh at ourselves, while we dust ourselves off, and try again.  If we actually do have a sense of humor, we can get the best material for laughs by looking at ourselves when we puff ourselves up.  Human nature is the best place to go to get a good laugh.
  5. To learn to give ourselves a break.  Many of us beat ourselves up – a lot!  And we do so thinking that it’s justified and that we should beat ourselves up.  (Just be careful not to over do it.  If we’re going to beat ourselves up, we need to do it just the right amount – not too much and not too little – just the right amount of beating ourselves up.)  Once more, lesson #5 is “to give ourselves a break”.  We have eternity to accomplish it all.  Eternity.
  6. Okay, I’ll say it before someone else does.  Humility.  Put another way – eating humble pie.

I’m sure there are many more reasons why FFOOF is an opportunity to learn and grow… and laugh.  These are just a few.  For anyone who acknowledges that they are on a spiritual path, don’t try to avoid the FFOOF experience at all costs.  It’s meant to teach, and we’re meant to learn.  When we try to place ourselves above others, we throw ourselves off balance.  Thank God we have the FFOOF experience to help us back to our place of equality as a human being among all human beings.

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“Human Nature is the best place to go to get a good laugh.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1995, 2016, Jodie Senkyrik)

“We have eternity to accomplish this.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1997, Jodie Senkyrik)

“All humans have all the qualities available to all humans.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2016, Jodie Senkyrik)

PS.  Having Eternity to do something or figure something out can be very helpful.

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The Secret of Forgiveness

One of the most challenging acts to fulfill is forgiveness.  One of the most challenging people to forgive is our self.

Within ourselves, with inclusion of all the different levels of consciousness within our whole consciousness, we hold a full understanding of all things.  However, these unconscious store houses of understanding rarely come forward to enlighten us and heal us when we struggle with life.

It takes an extra effort – effort beyond what we know living our day to day lives.  It takes different effort to understand guilt, forgiveness and how these work.  Yet, this extra effort, once made, opens up aspects and experiences of healing, learning and loving that before we were unaware were even available.

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We start with this – the chains of guilt are all one chain – connected from our self going out to all life.  When we wrap others in the guilt we place on them, we wrap ourselves in the same chain.  When we place guilt or blame on anyone for anything, we are placing guilt and blame on ourselves for the same thing – even when we “think” (using our day to day consciousness) that we – our self – haven’t done the same thing as those we place guilt upon.  There is no escaping this.

Be aware that our day-to-day consciousness and memory doesn’t remember 99% of our life, does it.  It rarely ever remembers the things we’ve done in our recent past, or how we impacted the lives of those we’ve known all through this life.  Our day-to-day memory almost never remembers a single past life, much less all of our past lives, much less our lives outside of human existence, or before we entered into this human existence realm, or the realms and dimensions we existed in before we ever came to this Earth realm/dimension.

Very few, if any, remembers the infiniteness of our existence, much less the lessons learned and unlearned during this infiniteness of existence.

To say that we don’t deserve guilt that we then go on to place upon others speaks volumes to what we are aware of.  To say we feel guilt but don’t work to resolve it, also speaks to what we are aware of.  However, it also speaks to a potential beginning.  It speaks to a beginning – if we’re willing.

It can speak to the beginning of discovering how we came to wear the chains of guilt – and it’s not what you might think.

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The challenge to forgive ourselves of any failure, mistake, fault, crime, sin, or shortcoming is a challenge to pick up – a very difficult challenge.  It is a challenge that we don’t succeed at very often, (if we don’t have the willingness or understanding.)  It is an act which we don’t always feel within our minds, hearts and souls.

The way to forgive ourselves of xyz (anything) is to forgive everyone of the very same failure, crime, shortcoming, sin, etc.

The chain of guilt we place on ourselves, we have also placed on others.  Likewise, the chain of guilt we have placed on others, we hold up in the light of day showing their guilt, and then when the time comes – even without our awareness of this process – we forge this same chain for ourselves.  As I’ve said already, there’s no escaping this.

To help us learn what it’s like for other human beings – to help us learn what it’s like to be a human being, God will sometimes – and we ourselves sometimes – lead us to circumstances that give us opportunities to experience situations of failure and sin, of those with whom we’ve judged and condemned most vehemently.

Lifetimes can pass, and future lives can be lived, before the day comes that we experience that which led others to stumble and fall – which we condemned and called “guilty” and of which we chose to never let go.  But, as long as we hold onto chains of guilt for placing on anyone else, never letting them go for anyone under any particular circumstance, we are forging and holding onto the chain of guilt for ourselves, as well, and hence why it is so hard to let go of our own guilt – the chain of guilt which we forged and now wear on ourselves.  We’ve worn the chain for so long placing these chains on others, and only feel the chains when we feel the weight of guilt from recognizing that we’ve acted in a way that we, before, criticized and condemned – (and almost always is unremembered.)

Only when we let go of the chain of guilt we place on others are we also letting go of the chain of guilt we place on ourselves.  It is one chain.  Only then do we understand what it’s like for human beings to be human beings.  Only then do we understand how a person can act a certain way through unique circumstances which lead to making mistakes, stumbling and falling, sinning, or whatever we call it.

Does it always require us to go through the same experiences, situations and circumstances to learn how to do this?  NO.  No.  and no.

Only when we are unwilling to understand.  Only when we are unwilling to demonstrate patience, or compassion or mercy.  If we’re only willing to place guilt, shame, judgement, criticism, or condemnation, do we set in motion the path that will eventually lead us to learn the healing effects of forgiveness for ourselves and the others we condemned and judged.

If we’re willing to let go of guilt and shame, judgement, criticism and condemnation, we open ourselves to forgiveness and open others up to forgiveness.  Only with willingness, do we come to this process, and with willingness, we let go of the one single chain that binds us altogether to guilt.  If we’re willing to let go of holding onto the chain of guilt – towards others, we can let go of the chain of guilt that we held upon ourselves.  With our hands opened and empty of placing guilt, the chain falls for all.

Only then, with willingness, do we forgive our self, and others at the same time – letting go of the one and only chain that held all of us – all this time – the chain which we, ourselves, forged from placing guilt and condemnation onto others.

It adds another level of truth to the saying – All for one and one for all.  Holding onto the chain of guilt or releasing the chain of guilt is this way.  It is for all, including our self or it is for none.  This is the secret of forgiveness.  Forgiveness is for all or forgiveness is for none.  True Forgiveness is infinite.  Put another way, finite forgiveness – target forgiveness – individual forgiveness doesn’t exist except in pretend forgiveness.  Only Infinite forgiveness exists.  This is the forgiveness which God gives us, for when the day comes that we share it with others.

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“If you were to want to see a sign from God, would you rather experience seeing water turned into wine, or would you rather experience feeling deeply loved and forgiven?” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2014, Jodie Senkyrik)

“The world gets better when any of us says, ‘I’m willing to try –
to see what I can do to help.’  Not when we say, ‘YOU didn’t do enough.’ ” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

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The Prejudice We Don’t Know

Everyone knows prejudice – what it is – that it exists – that it contributes to the pain and suffering of human beings.   During our own lives and in our past, we’ve seen prejudice be at the core of oppression, suffering, and the killing of people.  We see it without trying to find it.

Like a ball, it has many sides.  Contrary to some beliefs, understanding prejudice is not a black and white understanding – either knowing it or not knowing it.  Recognizing prejudice is not a black and white experience – either seeing it or not seeing it.  Human prejudice is as visible and invisible as the human psyche and spirit permits.

This is partly because very few know how to cleanse themselves of prejudice.

This is because the real issue is never whether we are prejudiced or not.  As difficult as it is to read this statement, it is true.  The real issue is different.  The real issue is how do we cleanse ourselves of prejudice.

Imagine if God, in His/Her ability for Infinite Possibilities, one day when we woke up, had turned us from what we are in this world into another race or the opposite gender, or a different religion or sexual orientation or different nationality, an opposite or different… anything – than who and what we are right now – all while we stayed aware of all of this transformation.  In one moment, we went from one identity and paradigm of who we are to an opposite in the next moment.  Impossible, but not for God – since “it just happened.”

How would we feel being aware of who we were one moment and then being aware that we’re no longer who we were but we’re now the opposite?  Would we welcome it?  Would we dread it?  Would we be glad?  Would we be sad or devastated?

The real issue mentioned above is whether we could then be honest with ourselves, because we would come face to face with our true feelings, thoughts and attitudes of the “other” that is now our self.  Our feelings and attitudes would give our self away.

Within the awareness, within the body, within the mind or within everything of this opposite that we now are – would we feel it is a punishment? or would we feel it is a release from a prison?  or a prison sentence?  The next question becomes “Why?”  Why would we be glad? or sad?  Why would we feel it is a punishment? Why would we feel it is a release from a prison? or a prison sentence?

And there are other questions.  Are we now that which we had blamed, looked down on, hated or targeted?  Have we become someone who we would want to be?  Or are we someone who we would dread to be?

Targets

Ultimately, the question is ‘Have we ever thought, felt or acted against another person or group?  It is this person or group, who we thought, felt, or acted against that is our target.  Targeting anyone or any group is what prejudice is about.

Only when we take the journey of working on ourselves within, striving to have no one anywhere as our target – only then, do we strive to work to cleanse ourselves from prejudice of any kind- and cleanse ourselves from our judging another person or group who is not that which we individually are.

Who among us can claim we have cleansed ourselves completely of prejudice?  and then become the opposite of what we are – with no qualms or shame, or worry, with no gladness, no sadness and then go on to recognize that we are both the previous self and the opposite of our self – and both of these are our self.  Ultimately, in being prejudiced, we are only prejudiced, and have targeted, (and seek to limit, blame or hate) our own self.

Not being prejudiced is a journey of letting go of judgment of ourselves as much as it is letting go of judgment of others.  It is a journey of discovering that every one is our self, and our own self is everyone – including the ones we currently target, judge or hate.

If we choose to strive to cleanse ourselves from targeting anyone, we also strive to accept and welcome everyone as our own self and our own self as everyone – more importantly, we will have traveled a journey that leads us to accept our whole Self -that Self who contains all the opposites within one person even though the surface doesn’t show it, yet.

Is this possible to do for human beings?  As Christ said, “With God, ALL THINGS are possible.” even traveling a journey of discovering as individuals, who we really are.  With that discovery, hopefully being that we are all one another and therefore, we are all One.

Is this hard to understand? Sure, but cleansing prejudice is only done with effort to understand more things and greater things about people, than that amount we understand so far.  This takes effort and striving.

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Changing away from prejudice is a journey of “a thousand days.”  However, on a day to day basis – taking one day at a time – it is a light switch.  It is a light switch when we realize that we targeted someone yesterday, and we can choose to not target them on this day – today – not target another person or group of people through our words, our actions or our thoughts – today.

We can turn our journey into “1000 light switches” when we take our journey one day at a time, and choose only on this day, today – with each “today” which we are given – to target no person or group of people whatsoever based on that which identifies them beyond their own character.

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There was a movie made in 1970 called “Watermelon Man” which covered the experience of waking up as “a different man.”

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“The things we can do, are the things we’re willing to do.  The things we can’t do, are the things we’re not willing to do.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2016-2018, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Knowing One’s True Self

“My question is pertaining to knowing one’s true self and truth. How do we know we are making the right decisions and being true to ourselves and not just making a wrong, selfish decision? God is telling us things all the time, but how do I know which voice It is? The one that says “be true to yourself and go for what you are feeling right now ( this feeling overwhelms me)” or the one that says “are you sure you want to do this, the grass may not be greener on the other side, and people will get hurt in the process?” Its like a battle. How do I know the right way to go? Which voice is right?” M.

How do we know?  Through practice, practice, practice, practice and more practice. Life is not just a process of learning what God wants of us. It is a process of learning about our own self, in addition to common sense, understanding, and wisdom (eventually), and even with all this, learning that mistakes can be learning opportunities, also.

Think of this process, even this life as a “school-like” opportunity, not a tight-rope that one has to get perfect or else lose everything. This is why Christ is recognized as a teacher rather than a judge, jury and executioner. He is a gentle yet persistent teacher.

Our life is more like a school that gives us many, many opportunities to learn about how to live our lives with love from our hearts and what we’ve learned in our minds.

Some advice I encourage is:

  • Continue to practice having an open mind and an open heart. God can fill both of these.
  • Continue to practice the Fruits of the Spirit – like kindness, patience, mercy, forgiveness and more. God comes into this world in those moments that these are expressed.
  • When praying and meditating, pray for sincerity in one’s prayers.
  • And another: it helps to regularly ask ourselves, “Am I willing to learn, to love, to live, and to practice? Am I willing?”

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“If you can’t decide between the left hand choice and the right hand choice, then throw them both out and pick from the third hand.” The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1993, Jodie Senkyrik

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The Hidden, Yet Absolute Need for Humility

Our lessons come in many ways. In fact, there is no end to when something will come into our life from which we can learn – including for psychics.

I’ve been Clairvoyant for many lifetimes. I’ve worked at this ability each opportunity it comes. Yet, the learning continues even past today.

One of the lessons I learn is humility. For me, this lesson comes via learning that what I have to say and write is not for everyone. In fact, there are many people with whom nothing I have to say is for them. This is a very difficult lesson because I know that there are words of wisdom and help that will help heal every soul. The lesson is that it is not I that can give these words to them. In fact, for some, anything and everything that would come from me would be rejected even if it were exactly what would be needed. It would be, and is, rejected for the very reason that it comes from me.

This is the humility which I am to learn – that I am not the person able to help them. I am not the person that will give them light or learning or any words or concepts which will be the key that will unlock their chains.

This is a lesson that so many of us must learn – that we are not the person that will unlock the suffering for many others. Even Christ learned this lesson of humility – that even though He knew He could help, He also knew that some people rejected and would reject everything that He would give.

When He said, “Do not throw your pearls before swine”, He didn’t see people as swine – as “less than” any other soul. He saw the consciousness of the person as being someone who would no more hear, see or understand His words in a similar way that a farm animal could – a farm animal whose main focus is to eat and have babies. A farm animal is not open to understand the words of Christ. (For the record, even farm animals respond to kindness, to love, to patience, to compassion and to mercy.)

Human beings are not farm animals. They have the choice to have an open mind and open heart – open to all the Christ has to teach. All human beings also have the choice of having a closed mind and a closed heart. As you and I are, so are all other souls. We have the potential for making any and all choices.

There is a saying, “Don’t try to teach mathematics to a turtle. It will annoy both you and the turtle.” It is a lesson in humility, to recognize when we are not able to help. Perhaps all we can offer some souls is to pray that God be with them or bless them in whatever way they need. God alone has Infinite Insight into what will help another and how best to bless them.

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One of the best mantras to help with learning humility:

“It’s not about me.” K.G.

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How to Pray for Refugees

This is one of the more difficult posts to write.  Not because of any hesitation, but because of what the topic is about.

There is a better way to pray than how some of us are praying, so far.

About Refugees, the debate rages on and as we all know, many are enraged.  We Americans, like others in our world, are people who pray, but how?  On the whole, we haven’t been starting at a good spot.  There are too many people praying “God bless America first before everyone else, if ever anyone else at all.”  There are some praying, “God, take away the freewill of others, or turn them into [people that we are not afraid.]”  There was a movie some years back with a character running for President who’s slogan was “God bless America and no one else.”

Unfortunately, real life seems to be imitating cinema art.  This is no longer a movie line, but is closer to becoming a reality of how some pray, if not already here.

These are common prayers, coming from people tired, frightened, and in pain.  Yet, are these the prayers that God asks us to offer for anyone going through disasters or horrors?

Whatever and whenever we pray for someone else, we are saying the exact same prayer for ourselves without realizing it.  What we pray for others, we are praying for ourselves.  God sees us as all in this together, equally.  What is available to one person from God, is available to all.  What is prayed for one person, is prayed for all people, without us always aware of this.

Consequently, we might consider a better way to pray than the examples above.

DIFFERENCES

We easily see the differences in our American lives and those in other nations.  We see the differences in our nationalities, our religions, our ways of life, our skin color and many other areas.  From these differences, it is easy to take on the “Us vs. Them” state of mind.  Even when there are also many similarities.

But, other options are available.  There are possibilities in the way that we can help them with our prayers.  These possibilities come from reducing our similarities down to that one common quality which we humans all share.  We only need to distill down to that one thing which ties people together, which no one can dispute and which both the “us” and the “them” share in common.

Human suffering.

Individually in our lives, and as a collective, we, Americans, know human suffering.  We know real pain and real sorrow felt deep within us.  We know fear of the coming of even more suffering, pain and sorrow.  In truth, there is no human being on the planet that doesn’t know human suffering in some form within each  individual’s self (and what it is – is known only to God.)

If we distill our prayers down to what we can pray for those suffering – we can then pray very real and helpful prayers that God asks from us.  These prayers:

“God, please help all who suffer.”

“God, please help all who are under great pain and great sorrow.”

“God, please help all of us who have lost someone we love through violence or through any means.”

“God, all of us need Your help and only You know the true and real help that each one of us needs.  Please, help in whatever ways we need.”

“God, please, help all life.”

“God, please, do not limit Your help by our beliefs, our thoughts and our feelings.”

Thank you and Amen.

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“Those prayed for will have more of God’s loving, patient, merciful and healing presence available to help than those not prayed for.”  (the Rainbow Cards, 1994-2015, ©, Jodie Senkyrik)

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A few of the many helpful prayers that have changed things through the Ages.

God, help the Hebrews under the thumbs of Egypt’s Pharaoh.

God, help slavery end for black people.

God, help stop the massacring  of Indians.

God, help stop the murders of Jewish people, and all other people at the hands of the Nazis.

God, help stop the killing of people in Rwanda.

God, help the people under Soviet Communist oppression.

God, help end Apartheid and the suffering with it.

Prayers that are still needed.

God, please help people find peace both within and without.

God, please help heal all people, everywhere.

God, please, help.

God, give us wisdom to know better.  God, give us patience so we don’t react from panic and fear.  God, give us kindness in our hearts.  Thank you for these.  God give us the willingness to put these to use with each person in our lives.

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Refugees?

When Jesus was born, He, Joseph, and Mary became refugees fleeing into Egypt to escape the threat of being killed.  The comment has been made that neither He nor Joseph and Mary were threatening to kill anyone.

In hindsight, we can hold to this comment, now, 2000 years later, because all that history is now written. But there were people who feared this child who they knew nothing about, and considered Him a very real threat – before the history that is known to us in 2015. They didn’t know what kind of threat He would be. Many considered that he would be like all the other threats and violently seek to overthrow the government since violence was how things were accomplished back then. They knew nothing about what He was really like and what He would really do. They didn’t know what kind of person He would become in their future. Even His apostles, who walked with Him every day didn’t know. One even thought He would eventually overthrow the Romans by violent means if forced to and tried to force that to happen.

The issue isn’t just “with any of the refugees that would come into the US is there a chance they would bring death into the US,” – ignoring the truth that theirs wouldn’t compare to the violence and killing we Americans do to ourselves. Death comes from all walks of life without any help from refugees. The issue is are we going to give them a chance for life.

No one can look into the hearts of another person and tell if they are good or bad – or like reality tells us – both – like all the rest of us human beings. God alone knows all of what is in a person’s heart. Can any one of us look at a stranger standing next to us, and tell which ones are the good ones or bad ones just by looking, what choices they’ll make in their full life, what they’ll choose to contribute to the US, what their future will be?

Can we look at ourselves and know what choices we’ll make tomorrow? We tell ourselves we would never kill from hatred, but we still fear and hate. We don’t live in any circumstance close that would put us in a position to know for certain. What if we lived in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s and 1940’s with our fear and hate – watching our children and family members that we love, shot or gassed – murdered – right next to us? Can any of us say we would still be our calm normal selves that we are in 2015 in the US under these circumstances or would we also find a way to kill based on our hatred of what the Nazis were doing to the person we love right in front of our face?

Look how easy it is to hate and fear someone else and then justify our own fear or hate. When we hate or fear anyone, in that same moment, we have then judged them to be bad, not based on any truth we know about the real person God alone knows them to be, but based on the fear we own and the unknown of their being a stranger, and the assumptions we come up with in our minds. We are always told to fear strangers growing up. Yet, we are those strangers also, to others, that others say to fear. Do we deserve the finger pointed at us to fear, also that we say others deserve?

It is this easy to say refugees should be feared. This easy. But, could it be that we fear more that our lives would be disrupted and changed? Can we say without refugees our lives would be safe? Or without refugees, our lives would be better? or without refugees, we won’t have certain problems? We do tell ourselves this in the back of our minds, don’t we.

The question isn’t just what will they give us, but what will we give them. We fear them bringing us death, and so it becomes easy to give them something similar first, screaming our choice “No” and washing our hands of the problem. We are now walking in the shoes of those in history, which, when we see them, we say, “I would never do that if I lived 2000 years ago.” And now we have before us a wash basin which a Roman soldier brings us with the citizens screaming their choice. The next step to “end all the citizens’ problems of fear or hate” is simply to say to the soldier, “Take Him to His fate.” turn to the refugee and say “I wash my hands of you, Jesus Christ.”

It is this easy to do it again.

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“We cannot build new roads to healing in our World, by just repaving the old roads of fear, prejudice or hate.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

“We can only build the new roads to healing in our World, by using the materials of faith in God, patience with others, forgiveness, showing mercy, compassion and demonstrating the Oneness of  life.”  (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2015, Jodie Senkyrik)

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What Can I Do?

There really are very specific things we can each do when seeking how to respond to all the events  happening on the planet Earth, now.

1. Pray – when we start our efforts with the seeking of a greater communication and connection with the source of wisdom, intelligence, compassion, heart, understanding, patience, loving kindness, mercy and brotherhood – God – then we have a greater chance that our efforts will be healing, helpful, will build rather than tear down, will unite rather than create schisms, and will bring about a real and lasting result.

2. Meditate – when we meditate on the highest spiritual ideals within ourselves – Loving kindness, Peace for souls, cooperation, etc., this reconnects us to our own better parts of ourselves. This also helps to raise the consciousness level available in the world, especially when millions (and there are millions) of others are also praying and meditating for the higher level expressions of Mankind’s presence in this planet.

3. Work on myself, so that I’m not reacting automatically adding to the polarization, anger, blanket accusations, prejudicial statements and hate-filled rhetoric.  Acting responsibly is the ability to respond from a place better than that place where the problem was created.  This doesn’t happen automatically, though.

4. Join with others – when we join others with like hearts and minds, our efforts expand and become stronger in exponential ways. “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20.  Joining with others strengthens our sense of belonging to a community, it strengthens our own resolve to keep on keeping on, and it strengthens the community as a whole.

Joining with others can also help us feel that we’re not alone in having feelings of great concern for dangerous issues and that we don’t have to face these challenges alone.

5. Pray again.

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