The biggest crisis on the planet presently is a lack of empathy in the winds of injustice. The
title of this post is worth repeating in the body of this post. It is true wherever selfishness, greed and power are eroneously considered to be the “bottom line” of any kind of “success.” Lack of empathy also rears its ugly head during political times of suppression of the voices and actions of the people under fascist* mentalities and powers. It taps into the “us” and “them” mentality. *Keep in mind that fascist means the extreme right agendas politically, not the far left as some are mistakenly pontificating. Fascism is a form of far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalism, characterized by dictatorial power and forcible oppression of opposition.
Any time we as a human race classify people by our differences, we show our ignorance and our prejudices against one another.
The common denominator of all human beings, regardless of race, color, creed, gender, age, ability and/or disability, is the fact that we all have an eternal Soul. This is not a matter of religous belief. If an agnostic or athiest does not believe this, it will not matter if she or he did not believe this when her or his soul goes back to the Source of All Life, because she or he will be truly physically dead. It is merely a fact of life.
The good news is that God, the Immortal, Intelligent Source of All Life, believes in you and me. This Intelligent Source wishes to experience all of life in and through you, me, and in animate and inanimate creation through the Big Bang, as some minds like to express our origin. God’s (Energy’s, Sources’s) Spark of Life. It is in all living things, including the earth, universe, galaxy and cosmos as part of the infinitely larger expansion of this creation.
The Source of All Life is experiencing in and through you and me. Bishop George Rueger used to tell me that our hands are the only physical hands God has to work with on this earth. This is a true statement. It is the Living-God Essence of our Souls that animates our hands, through the faculty of our hearts and minds. We have free will. We do not have to do anything that is inspired by our minds or hearts. We have the ability to go against the inspiration for empathy and compassion for others. We can choose for ourselves today, for example, to only think about, do and say things that will only benefit us, and no one else.
It is up to each one of us what you and I decide to do with this precious gift of Divine Animation, which is our Soul, the life-force animating our body. Our lives are not scripted. Each of us has unique challenges and situations particular to us to navigate through. Some of us see the bigger picture, which includes more than making decisions that affect only ourselves. But for others of us, they can only see themselves. For this last group, they can only make decisions based solely on how if affects them personally (selfishly), financially (greedily), and in how much power they can gain.
Entire groups of people within families and neighborhoods, as well as individual countries also make decisions based on the foundation of a sand castle of selfishness, greed and power. Selfishness, greed and addiction to power is never sustainable in the long run, which history proves. It is a tough learning curve when it all falls apart. Some of us only learn through experience. Some of us have to personally go through things as opposed to listening to the experience of others.
Thoughts are living entities. The more we energize thoughts with feelings, the more they become reality. We can see certain thought patterns begin and grow until them become a fire upon the earth, fanned by the flames of ignorance, selfishness, greed and power. Whatever we focus on GROWS.
We do not all have to go along with the crowd, as we tell our children not to do. But as adults, we do not always take our own medicine. We forget, or were never taught to stand up in our own personal power. We can forget our voice when we do not agree, even forgetting that silence is agreement. Following the corruption of the selfish, greedy, power hungry leaders has happened in every country on earth since the beginning of time. There are prices to be paid for not going along with the crowd.
For some of us, the learning curve is to observe and grow out of the self-serving mentality that makes some people rich while simultaneously impoverishing those around them. We learn by our experiences. When we are willfully blind because of some self-serving gain, do we really believe we are fooling ourselves? That would only prove to show how very selfish we truly are.
The price to be paid for standing up for justice against inequality can be high because once selfishness, greed and power have taken root, it will stop at nothing until the ultimate sacrifice of others, and of their own malformed goals is achieved, or a change in the winds of inequity and injustice change. There are things you and I can do to construct positive change in these winds of the world. Things never remain the same for long.
The thing to remember is that this is not just a physical world with only physical considerations to ponder. Even those at the top of the fear-based selfish, greed and power game of reality have Souls. So do you and I. You and I have the dynamic force of prayer, meditation, uniting our individual Souls with the Source of all Souls, which is the Holy Spirit, God-Source of of All is. God, or Source (just a matter of semantics), cannot be disected. The ultimate power of God, is greater than any other humanly contrived power born out of selfishness, greed and earthly power.
The root of all selfishness and greed is fear, fear of lack, fear of others, fear of failure, fear, fear, fear. The hoarding of money, material goods, food, power, and anything else we can contrive to hoard in all its earthly forms, are all rooted in fear.
You and I can move mountains. Jesus said we will do ever greater things than he did. He knew the Surce of his Soul. The winds of injustice only continue to blow until we decide to use our free will to change the winds to bend towards justice, honor, integrity, and honesty.
If we have been shown empathy and compassion in our lives, it would seem we would be more apt to be empathetic and compassionate with others. If we have come from a place of lack in our lives, one would think we would be quick to show empathy and compassion to others. Often this is the case, but many times, depending on the advancement or stilted growth of our Souls, or the deep-rooted fear clinged to, it is not.
We have a decision to make at this point in our history, at this point in our country, at this point in our neighborhoods, at this point in our families, and at this point within ourselves. Let us choose to act on the impetus of our God-Shared Souls to decide to act in the Loving inclinations of our Souls, to welcome the homeless, feed the poor, and treat each other by the tenets of the Golden Rule. Jesus taught us to treat each other as we wish to be treated. That is a great place to start.
If we decide to live by the Golden Rule and consider other people and not just ourselves, we can do a better job at not getting other people sick by wearing masks during the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, by just laws that benefit all its citizens, not just the top wealth earners, and by a host of other positive realities we have yet to manifest by our thoughts and intentions.
Namaste