What is it about you and me that we so seldom evolve without having to do so? To advance without being pushed? To change without a crisis to fuel it?
There are many explanations, I suppose.
Today, however, I’m wondering how many advances in my life I have ignored, changes I have postponed, even spiritual awakenings I have missed and all because I paid little attention to my inner voice, what you might call “intuition,” what Jesus called “the Helper,” “the Companion,” the invisible Presence (Jn. 14:26) he promised would come alongside me…to guide me…to manifest itself within me…to speak to me, to spur me along, and perhaps sometimes even shove me into evolving.
I WILL evolve. So will you.
So, I think I’m a little closer to flowing with this evolutionary impulse and a little less into debating about it. I’ve done plenty of the latter and, I think mostly to avoid the former.
Just as surely as winter follows summer and spring follows winter, so you and I are destined to evolve, to advance, to move forward and closer to who we really are…to what we really are – “spiritual beings having a temporary human experience,” as the French philosopher, Teilhard de Chardin, put it.
There is an old story in the annals of Jewish history about a prophet named Elijah. Publicly, this guy had it together. Everyone thought he was one powerful prophet. What they did not know is that, deep inside, he was one frightened phony. Like me, he had mastered the art of illusion and learned how to mask from those around him, his own inner madness.
Sometimes, people write me who mistakenly think I have it all together. What they do not know is that the stuff I’m capable of can even frighten me at times.
All it took for Elijah was this female politician threatening his life and he fled to the hills faster than a hare will flee a hound. There he hid, not from her, but from himself. You can read the story for yourself (1 Kings 19).
Hiding in a cave, God comes to him. But, it’s the way God comes we overlook, ignore, or consciously disregard. Here’s the way the ancient writers put it:
“And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”
A still, small voice.
Hm. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard this voice.
Many times.
And, people say, “God is not gracious…good!”
Maybe the voice is God? Is grace? Is good?
You have that same voice in your soul. Some of you are hearing it right now. It is the voice of evolution…of change. You are destined to evolve…to awaken…to become who you really are – not the person others want you to be – not the person you want others to think you are.
No, you are to evolve as you. For it is in being you that you are at peace…that you are in Presence.
Hear the voice within? Isn’t it amazing how decisively clear that voice is? It’s only when you ignore it, disregard, or overlook it that you become confused…that you create inner disharmony…the source of much unhappiness.
My advice? Don’t do as I have done most of my life.
Instead…
Hear the voice…listen to the voice…and you are healed. Ignore the voice, however, and you postpone your healing…
And, inadvertently, invite the pain of prolonged change. Could this be what Jesus meant when, after many of his “sermons,” he would say, “He who has ears to hear…let him do so…” (Matt 11:15)?
You WILL evolve.
Just as certainly as winter follows summer.
Thank you.