The quiet invitation

It is long, and nothing new, but I find this text really inspiring. From Neale Donald Walsch's weekly bulletin.

"It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. It is the best of thoughts, it is the worst of thoughts. Which thought will win, do you think....?

Make no mistake about it, the world is in a thought war here. I am talking about the way in which we think about ourselves, about our world, about our lives, about Who We Are. Thought has power. Believe it. (In fact, if you don't believe it, it doesn't – and you therefore prove it.)

I am reading a lot lately in newspaper opinion columns, in blogs, on website postings, everywhere, about how bad things are, how horrible everything has become, how hopeless and dark our moment truly feels. The Terri Shiavo tragedy has everyone shaking their heads. It doesn't matter what side you're on. Everyone is aghast that anyone could be on the other side. This evidences the extraordinary split in our communal thinking right now. It used to be that members of a common culture thought pretty much the same way, at least about the most important things. No more. Those days are gone.

But that is not all bad. That is a sign is that we are making up our minds anew, deciding again about ourselves, looking at our values and at least questioning them, and it is the questioning that is causing the split, but that is not all bad. Ought we not ask questions? Ought we not wonder whether everything we have believed up until now is working, given where it has brought us, which is, in case nobody is looking, to the brink of what some have called our own self-destruction?

Is it possible that the way of life we are dismantling has needed dismantling, and that what we are seeing is not self-destruction but self-preservation? Could we be preserving the human race by changing the human race? Is it time for a look at the messages of Tomorrow's God? Is there even such a thing, or must we return to the God of our Yesterdays to bring us the moral prescription for our Todays?

In our Todays every headline gives us a headache, every newscast makes us downcast. Yet I think that these are not the End Times, as it is so widely and triumphantly and almost smirkily declared. "Smirkily" is not even a word, someone will now declare with a smirk. And that is the perfect playing out of the world as it is today – those who are willing to use new ways, and even new words, to convey the real meaning of life, and those who are willing only to staunchly defend The Way We Were. Ever it has been and ever it shall always be on the Cusp of Tomorrow.

This is where we are now, and what we are experiencing all around us are the final throes of our rebirthing, the final convulsions of that portion of our human society not yet ready to change and yet not knowing how to avoid it, and so, seeking to stop the unstoppable, fingernails screeching on the blackboard of life, making us all want to plug our ears.

Even some of those who stand in the light are now glancing at their own shadows, bemoaning them. These days I find myself wanting to urge all the liberal Sayers of the Doom and Seers of the Darkness, as they speak and write and act from their space of deep anger and unremitting glumness, that they must, must, must, as they attempt to wake up humanity, find something, some little tidbit, to share with the Already Awakened.

It is one thing to out a litany of our offenses against each other, but that can be balanced, can it not, with a sense of hope even now, even in the face of everything we all see, that there is something more to see, something else to see, and something different to create, and that it is createable, right here, right now?

Indeed, it is being created here and now, in small pockets, in tiny modules, in little places of the heart of humanity, and it is growing even as we speak, growing in the soul and mind of a few who would be bringers of the light.

It is as I have said about its wonderful and healing message in the final chapter of WHAT GOD WANTS...

There will come a day when everyone will accept what has been said here as an "of course." On that future date all of this will seem so obvious. Even today it is obvious to some. There are those who will believe the message here right now, this moment. Of these, a few will find it difficult to sit still. They’ll want to do something with what they’ve heard, because they’ll recognize immediately that it can change everything in our world.

These will be the fearless ones, stepping into uncharted territory, blazing a trail for those who would follow, dreaming the dreams that only the courageous can dream.

They may not hold positions of great visibility, but they’ll soon be seen as candles that truly light the world. They may not be found in places of great power, but they’ll soon empower an entire species to claim its inheritance and live out its destiny at last. They will, therefore, be among those human beings who change life on the earth in remarkable ways. And this will be their legacy.

You may be one of this select few. If your soul leaps with joy at the message revealed here in such simple terms that it can no longer be misunderstood, distorted, or denied, you are. If your mind races with new possibilities for your own life and for people everywhere as a result of that message, you are.

If you are, you may find yourself beginning to live the messages that you have found here. And by your living of them, you will be silently inviting others to consider the dramatically alternative ideas that inform your experience, for others will not be able to ignore your behavior, and they will wonder what you know and how you have come to know it.

That will be the perfect time for you to extend what I call: The Quiet Invitation. Your behavior; your life lived, is the first part of your Quiet Invitation. Others around you will soon desire to explore the extraordinary possibilities that your thoughts present. When they ask you how it can be that you move through the world so much of the time with such peace and joy and love, you will tell them. Quietly, without any attempt at "converting" or proselytizing, you will simply tell them what you understand of the world, of life, and of God.

You’ll do this because you know that these ideas could turn your world upside-down – and because you see that your world could use a little upside-down turning right now. And you’ll do it because you know that if someone like you does not do it, no one else will.

It’s true that the message presented here will come to the attention of many persons in positions of influence and visibility. It is too astonishing a message not to make its way to people of high profile within government, business, media, entertainment, sports, academia, and religion. It is also true that, of these, a handful may find that they actually agree with the message. Hardly any, however, will be able to admit it.

Prominent people of influence and power do not like to make too many other people uneasy. That’s the problem with prominence. If you are married to your prominence, you are often divorced from your power. Prominent people cannot, therefore, be expected to do much in a public way to activate the ideas with which they may agree if those ideas are unconventional. Some do. Most do not.   

Corruption comes in many forms, including corruption of the conscience, of the mind, and of the will. It’s the last of these that is the most devastating. Most corruption is not placed into the world by what people do, but by what they do not do. To do nothing is to do everything. Saying nothing is saying yes.

No, it turns out, has to be spoken.

Because it’s difficult for people in prominent positions to say no to humanity’s present ideas about God and about Life, new leadership will have to be found if new ideas are to reach a larger number of people for their consideration and exploration.

The first qualification for becoming one of these new leaders is will power. Humanity must regain its collective will, and new leaders must show it the way by leading the way. That’s where you come in.

Please consider the possibility that you brought yourself to this healing message at this moment in answer to a call from your own soul. It is a call to soar. It is a feeling of yearning from deep within for you to make a difference in a world of indifference.

Because of that indifference, our world is being taken from us. The life of which we have dreamed is slowly turning into the nightmare of which we have despaired, and it will continue to do so if we do not now wake up.

We have seen the sun set on the hopes of many. Yet, as Ernest Hemmingway so eloquently said, "the sun also rises." Let us not now sleep through the dawn. This is the time of the awakening of humanity.

Shall we arise, one by one, and gently wake each other?"

Comments

[Matt]

I'm not sure gently waking is the answer. People are so soundly asleep right now, it's going to take some vigorous shaking and some cold water on the face.

[Annelene]

But remember, Matt, that it is only with love that we will bring love, with compassion that we will bring compassion, with kindness that we will bring kindness, and with light that we will bring light! There is no other way, really...

[Matt]

Annelene, I appreciate the point you are making. I don't believe that positive results will come from any actions taken in a negative way. So when I talk about vigorous shaking to awaken our comatose patient, I have love in my heart while trying to perform the revival.

[Annelene]

I guess the key for us here is to have with us all the good tools handy to perform the revival, and to take good "CPR classes" hee hee ;-)