Shake and Wake

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”
Søren Kierkegaard

For the past couple days there has been a lot of news about deep freezes, hate crimes, lying politicians and political advisors, unrest in foreign governments, and on…

and on…

and on.

Well, I guess it’s been more than a couple days.

It seems there will always be bad news. The challenge today seems to be the way in which we address the bad news personally. I know people who avoid the news. I know people who just don’t care because they believe it doesn’t have any impact on their personal live. I know people who live and breathe the news cycles—just so they can “be informed,” but they don’t take action in their personal lives.

What to do can seem daunting when we are barraged with the negative. That is why it is important to stay on top of our own consciousness around these issues.

Ernest Holmes wrote, “one alone in consciousness with the Infinite constitutes a complete majority.” I hold to this premise as truth for my life. I take it as a personal call to me to keep my consciousness on the side of love and kindness, joy and peace, power and wisdom. When I maintain this conscious point of view (and it takes work) I create a better world for myself and those around me.

It is my responsibility and no one else’s to address the issues when they are in my sphere. I would love to encourage everyone in the world to take deeper responsibility for their lives and the world around them—but I can’t force such consciousness, I can only serve as a beacon, state my truth, and trust others to make decisions from a point of view of wisdom. This is challenging for me sometimes because I have wanted to shake people and say “wake up!” When I want that, though, I have to take a step back into the reminder that everyone in my life is a reflection of me, so in those moments I am likely the one that needs a shaking up into waking up.

Well, there is it. Personal responsibility again.

Today I recommit to my spiritual practice. It is a daily recommitment. I allow the news cycle to become my personal prayer list and I chose to know the deeper truth in all situations to which I am made privy. You can too, if you want. It feels good to change the world one prayer at a time.