Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Speaking Tree - Every Day is a Celebration For the God-conscious - Dec 28, 2005

We awake each morning not knowing what to expect from the day ahead. Will it bring good fortune or pain? This uncertainty creates feelings of fear and instability. How is one to deal with daily life when one is filled with uncertainty? Mystics and saints view life from a higher angle. They recommend that we live each moment with full trust in the Lord.

Trust in the Lord requires a conviction that there is an unseen power who created this world and who created us. It means having knowledge that our soul has been created by God, and its journey is under God’s will. It requires conviction that God has sent us into the world for a purpose and our destiny is to fulfil that purpose. This means that we cannot leave this earth before our destined time comes. It means that certain events that happen to us are also preordained by God, and that what happens is already laid out for us. It also means that we have been given some free will in which we can make some choices.

Some of what happens to us each day is God’s will. We also have free will to choose, and we can make choices that are going to be beneficial to us and those around us. Our journey in life is a process of evolution of the soul. Sooner or later the soul is destined to return to God. The end goal that God has for us is that we attain this freedom. At the right moment, we get a helping hand when we think all is lost.

Ernest Shackleford dreamed of crossing Antarctica by dog sled, a 2,100-mile journey. Shackleford and his team began the journey. Unfortunately, the boat taking them to Antarctica hit an ice pack and sank. Luckily, the men survived, but they found themselves in waters with drifting ice floes. The nearest land was 200 miles away. The nearest human outpost was 1,200 miles away.

They salvaged a one-ton lifeboat which they pulled with them, crossing from one ice floe to another. When they reached an area that did not have anymore ice floes, they got into the lifeboat, but the waves were often 90 feet high. Somehow, they made it to an island of ice, which had never been crossed before. It took them seven months to reach civilisation. When they finally arrived, they told their friends that they felt the presence of an unseen power guiding them on.

The beauty of God’s unseen hand is that sometimes we actively pray for help and receive it, but there are many times when we do not even ask for help, and help comes anyway. These times are reminders to us that we are not alone. One way to feel God’s presence is to meditate. The energy emanating from God is a principle that manifests as light and sound. The light is greater than any light one experiences on earth. The sound is a divine melody that reverberates without instruments or vocal chords.

The more consciousness there is, the more ethereal the sound. Let us make everyday a celebration. The next time we feel helpless and alone, let us remember that God’s arms are around us. Let us offer thanks for the myriad ways in which God’s love surrounds and protects us.

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