“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I have always loved that quote. Have you ever had a project about which you felt passionately guided by your heart and intuition to do, yet for some reason you felt afraid to begin? On some level, perhaps even unconsciously, you were already worrying about the end result or how you would deal with the 19th and 20th steps? You haven’t even started it yet!
What I have learned is that the first step is the most difficult. Once you take the first step, the next step is shown to you – and then the next, and the next and so on. Your awareness, knowledge and understanding are at a particular level when you are guided to do step one. Once you complete it, you will gain greater awareness and learn more. The Universe will have changed somewhat because of your action and the actions of others. The field, if you are into quantum physics, will have shifted so that new possibilities are available to you after taking that first step.
Think of Indiana Jones in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. When Indiana was going into the first temple to get the gold statue, he had to look around, intuitively scope out his options, and take a step. Then, being in a new location, he was able to look around and see new things from that vantage point that he would not have seen from his previous location. This is a great metaphor for Dr. King’s quote about taking the first step.
Life isn’t always as treacherous as the path Indiana Jones took in that temple, but to our unconscious mind, taking that first step may feel like it. We humans feel most at ease staying in our comfort zone. Moving out of our comfort zone is often where our intuition guides us to go for personal growth. Personal growth may have an element of healing emotional issues we have stored within us. We may or may not consciously be aware of what needs to be healed internally. We may only view it as what feels uncomfortable versus comfortable.
Procrastination and addiction are great ways to avoid personal growth or “taking the first step.” When your intuition guides you to tackle a project or grow in some particular area of your life and you procrastinate by watching TV, eating, shopping, drinking, claiming not to have enough time, or whatever your excuse may be not to follow the call of your Soul, there is typically a fear or unforgiveness issue inside of you calling to be healed. We will always attract to us that which will help us heal. Spirit knocks lightly the first time. If we don’t listen, the knock becomes louder and continually more persistent in order to get our attention. Our intuition will always offer us the most grace-filled path to our intentions. Our job is to listen with faith and act on our guidance.
I recently saw Bishop T. D. Jakes on Oprah’s Next Chapter. He told the story of the miracle Jesus performed by turning water into wine and creating enough food for guests at a wedding when there was lack. I will paraphrase what Bishop Jakes said: “Jesus blessed and broke the bread…Jesus blessed what was not enough…The blessing is in the breaking.”
In meditation a few years ago I heard “be grateful for what you have and I will give you more.” At that time, I was in the middle of too much fear-based thinking and believed appearances to be concrete rather than flowing. There was an unconscious wound that needed to be healed before I would be able to focus on the good in my life and be grateful for what appeared not to be enough. Everyone around me was focused on the idea of lack also. One’s environment is a very powerful influence unless one is very strong and able to overcome personal and collective limiting beliefs.
When Bishop Jakes said “the blessing is in the breaking”, I believe he meant that we grow stronger through both adversity and sharing.
Spirit, God, whatever name you give to your creative source, wants us all to be happy, feel loved and break free of the fear of following our guidance and being authentic. Our intuition is the voice of Love telling us the grace-filled road to our intentions. When we have fear-based wounds and beliefs running the show unconsciously, we may be unable to hear or fear to follow intuition. God wants all of us to be free of fear of lack and limitation so we can be “like” Jesus who said that all of this I do, so can you and more.
Have you heard the phrase “go with the flow”? I have come to believe it means you cannot push the stream of life – your particular journey. However, you must keep up with it so the undertow does not drag you down. Intuition helps us keep up gracefully with the stream of life. Addictions and other avoidance behaviors are part of the undertow. Trust your intuition, seek help if you need it and know God Loves you more than you can imagine. In the stream of life, hurry is a mask for fear but procrastination needs to be examined. In meditation, ask: “Is the timing right for _______?” Or ask: “Am I just stalling?” If you get a yes, ask why you are stalling. Keep asking questions until you get a very specific bottom-line answer and nothing as general as “fear”. Fear of what? This process takes bravery and you must be ready to hear the answer rather than block it. When you are ready, the answers will come.
When you follow your intuition which is your direct connection to God, this means breaking free of the appearance of fear or lack in whatever form looks to be real outside of you. You as an infinite being created by God cannot fear or lack. Only your belief in fear or lack can stop you from the gifts God has for you.
Having been brought up Catholic (but now Spiritual), I was told from a very young age that there is an Angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other shoulder. They are both always whispering in our ears and we need to know the difference between the two and follow the voice of the Angel. Those voices are not outside of us. The Angel and the devil are not beings outside of us. Although they can appear that way through projection.
Modern science has proven that we are all energy which is made of up atoms. Atoms consist of positive, negative and neutral energy – protons, electrons and neutrons respectively. We are hard-wired with positive, negative and neutral aspects within us. The journey of life is meant for us to realize we are Love and give up the struggle and search outside of ourselves for it. When we finally get this, nothing anyone else says or does can shake this knowing. It’s like the line from the Led Zeppelin song “Stairway to Heaven”: “When all are one and one is all. To be a rock and not to roll.” When we are whole inside, we view everything as part of the whole of God. We are all One, inside and out with neutral, negative and positive aspects available to us while here on Earth.
Albert Einstein has a great quote that speaks to unity of the beliefs of which I write. “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” Science, religions and spirituality teach the same things using different words. There is no difference at the core of all the messages. Ernest Holmes created the Church of Religious Science (Science of Mind) by combining all the like messages from all the religious texts. He found the same message threaded throughout all religions and created a unified view. God is all there is and modern science has proven this using the word Energy.
I highly recommend the book “Dying To Be Me” by Anita Moorjani. In it she tells of her near-death experience where she became aware of the Love that exists in and around us all. That love is here now. All of us are made of that Love. It can be likened to The Matrix Revolutions movie. At the end when Neo is looking at the machine city through his third eye, all he can see is Light. When we look at life and other people through our human eyes, the view must go through our personal human filters of our neutral, positive and negative beliefs and judgments. When we look through our heart or our third eye, we see it as all Love. It is all God in another form waiting for us to become aware of it as an aspect of the light of God. The blessing is in the breaking free and realizing God is all there is and everything is a gift.
If something or someone resides on a different level of awareness with which you do not resonate, it is your responsibility to choose differently. That is what free will is all about. When we exercise our free will, unless we are a little child and unable to do so, we are free to choose. Freedom of choice prevents a victim mentality. It is a victim mentality that leads to fear and lack. How can an infinite being of Light created by God and given free will to choose thoughts, feelings and actions ever be a victim unless they are taught to be so and believe it? If you are stuck in a victim mentality, please seek help.
Spirit is always trying to heal the wounded aspects of self. When we are hurt, we have a choice to find the gift in it and let it go or hold onto it. If we hold onto it, it resides in our energy body where it will attract more of the same until we choose to heal it and let it go. Viewing it from a victim mentality causes one to think “why does this always happen to me?” Our ever-expanding Soul is a joy-filled loving being. It does not wish, nor does God wish for us to suffer. Only we humans are taught that we deserve to suffer. This is not true. When we are happy, God is happy.
When Bishop Jakes said the blessing is in the breaking, he said a lot. When we listen to the voice of Spirit within, we will be shown the quickest way to heal. When we are grateful for what does not appear to be enough, we tell God we are ready for more good in our life. Even if what is currently in your life does not feel good, to be grateful anyway is the act of faith. Faith is always rewarded. Once planted, does an acorn worry that it will not become an oak tree? Does a mustard seed worry that it will not grow?
If you do not have faith (belief in the unseen), do not follow guidance from Spirit, do not keep moving with the flow of life, life will bless you with a “breaking” at some point. This breaking down of an aspect of the ego is only necessary when we refuse to follow the voice of our intuition or our inner Angel. Spirit tries to get our attention gently so our journey can be graceful, but if we keep putting off taking that first step; Spirit will find a way to eventually have us see the need to move forward.
As Bishop Jakes said, the blessing is in the breaking. Do what Jesus did and be grateful for what may not appear yet to be enough, and take whatever step Spirit guides you to take. You won’t be shown the whole staircase until your awareness grows to be able to see it. Just take the first step and keep the faith. Feel grateful in advance with the knowing of a mustard seed. Faith and gratitude from the heart can move mountains!
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Enjoy infinite blessings that feel like Love!
