An underground revolution is sweeping the hearts and minds of the people of the world, and it is happening despite the wars and terror that confront us.
This revolution is a fundamental change of worldview, and it carries with it the potential to reorganize the structure of human civilization. It brings a basic shift in the thoughts that dominate the world. It wages a peace that will end all war. It is a global phenomenon that will change the cellular structure of the human race. To those who are part of it, who feel called to it, its reality is a growing if not obvious truth. To still others, it's a lofty but ridiculous notion, a preposterous and silly idea.
Yet no social revolution of any import emerged because everybody woke up one day saying, 'I get it! I get it!' Such revolutions emerged instead from what anthropologist Margaret Mead described as 'a small group of concerned citizens'. Not only are such groups capable of changing the world, according to Mead, but in fact, they're the only thing that ever has. And they are doing it now.
A spiritually attuned counterculture is already in our midst. It is marked not by clothes or music, drugs or sex, as was the counterculture of the sixties, but by the internal attitudes of those who perceive it. They make suggestions and comments that are just a little bit wiser; they bring new insights into areas previously locked down by the status quo. They see some star in the sky that not everyone is seeing. And in their presence, we start to see it too.
Signing up for duty
We sign up for duty, for participation in this revolution, through a sincere desire to be used by something larger than ourselves, for the purpose of healing the world. This instigates a process of inner change, that begins with a shift in the lens through which we perceive the world. It grows within us to affect not only our own lives, but also the lives of those around us. It leads us to connect with others who are similarly undergoing a transformation of their ego structures, from an old perspective to something new. And through our individual and collective efforts, divinely inspired, we will turn the world around in time. Just when we thought all hope was ended, hope will reappear.
There is no worldly organization or institution to sign up for. It simply refers to a stirring in the heart, which then activates an internal guidance system already present within us. If we ask how to help, God will show us how.
Our spiritual magnitude
What will happen as we grow into our spiritual magnitude? In each of our lives, it will look different. Every moment holds infinite possibilities, and how much magnificence we allow to move into us and through us is determined by our willingness and receptivity. To whatever extent the blocks are removed to the awareness of our divine nature, to that extent we are magnetized to the events and situations – and they are magnetized to us – that resonate with our grandeur. If we're vibrating at a low energy, we'll attract low-energy situations (how many times have we stubbed a toe or banged a finger when we were angry?); if we're vibrating at a high energy, we'll attract miracles.
People will call out of nowhere; situations will just seem to improve; abundance of all kinds will just appear. And when they do, it is good to acknowledge them. We often build an altar to our disasters, giving them so much time and attention and energy. But do we do the same for our blessings? Are our minds truly disciplined to call forth and accept the good?
We're living during a 'celestial speed-up' in which everything is moving more quickly – including us! Our issues aren't coming through in slow gentle breezes any more, but in huge torrential storms! And that's not because we're failing; it's because we're available. God knows it, and this is it.
A critical time
This is a critical time in all our lives because it's a critical time on earth. Each of us has the opportunity now to grow into the fullness of our divine potential in order to take our place in God's plan. The plan exists in the Mind of God, and to the extent to which we surrender our thinking to Him, we take our part. Our primary function is to stand in the light of who we are and become the people we are capable of being. From that, all good will follow.
And we step into that light in any moment we choose. When our hearts are closed to love – when we're judgmental, withholding, unforgiving – we are literally not being ourselves. We are, in those moments, choosing to be hostage to the ego rather than host to God.
Our function, our happiness and our purpose all emanate from the same point of power: our capacity to embody love in any given instant. And love is more than 'being nice'. It is the surrender of separation, a claim to the totality of life as part of ourselves. Knowing that we are part of the whole, we shift our perspective from a sense of individual identity to a sense of universal connection. It becomes impossible to act only for yourself when you know that your self includes everyone.
If someone suffers on the other side of the world, he or she is no less a part of ourselves.
And when a critical mass of humanity realizes this, then obstacles to world peace will fade. In the realm of spirit, we see our goal fully accomplished: we want the world remade in the image of love. In the realm of the body, we achieve it gradually: we will do what we can to make the world a better place. Yet the power of the vision keeps the process on track. We know that through our individual efforts, we are contributing to a larger one. Our goal is not just to create a world in which loveless things are outlawed: our vision is a world in which such things have become literally unthinkable. That is the role of the miracle worker: to think with so much love that fear begins to lose the false authority by which it rules the world. Think of a world in which there is only love, and hold that thought for several minutes each day. The day will come when our thinking will lead to our believing, which will lead to our acting to make it so. We don't realize the big secret in our midst – which isn't how little power we have to change things, but rather how much power we have that we aren't using! We're like birds who were never informed, or have forgotten, that we have wings.
But a great remembering is reverberating among us, and whatever we've done or haven't done, succeeded at or failed at; whatever time we've used well or time we've wasted; we are here, we are available, we are present to the moment and up to the challenge.
All we need remember is this: if God has given us a job to do, He will provide for us the means by which to accomplish it. All we have to do is ask Him what He wants us to do and then be willing to do it.
From The Gift of Change, © 2004 by Marianne Williamson, published in the UK in 2005 by Element.
|
Inspirational features 
