RESPONSIBILITY

"Behold I am doing a new thing. . . .
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:18

This is the time of year when we see signs of new life in nature all around us; and we are reminded that we have a responsibility to the earth to keep it healthy and productive.We have a personal responsibility to care for those we are near to and to live out what I want everyone in the world to do. Ethical behavior calls for respect, generosity, compassion and kindness, peace and humility. I cannot be responsible for the whole of humanity but neither can I float above it and ignore what is going wrong.

I am responsible for my own health and happiness and being aware of my needs emotionally as well as spiritually and physically help me to receive the love that I was created for. There are reasons beyond our understanding for why we are the way we are. Our cells carry memories that we are not aware of and yet they are a part of who we are. There is a gift that God would give to each one of us and that is His Love for us that is our mystical inheritance. This becomes new to us in the wonder of nature that can take our breath away. A sunset, a mountain, a flowing stream, a beautiful flower touch something deep within us and I have felt the serenity of unconditional love and the peace that passes understanding.

William James, the father of American psychology and author of "The Varieties of Religious Experience" tells us that the first characteristic of mystical experience is ineffability-it cannot be explained -it is a state of feeling-a memory that lingers within us.

I have a responsibility to care for and to have a reverence for all life.

"If humankind would accept and acknowledge this responsibility and become creatively engaged in the process of evolution [as co creators] consciously as well as unconsciously a new reality would emerge and a new age could be born."
-Jonas Salk

We are all one and we are all a part of a vast cosmic whole.

I love the story of the researcher looking into the healing experiences of those who were healed at Lourdes. He reported that the common element in the miracles, at the moment of cure, the person receiving the spontaneous healing was praying for someone else.

"Son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours." Luke 15.

Teachers like Joel Goldsmith invite us to become aware of the mystic within. He wrote about the Infinite Way that is a walk of grace and blessing.