An Instrument of Thy Peace
'For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened'
-Matthew 7:8
We live within each other not only because we have known one another but because we have inspired change, provoked transformation, enabled healing, and opened doors to experiences.
We as humans are keys, someone once told me. At the time that profound statement sounded like something that might be found in the lyrics of a new age song. However as cryptic as a statement like that can be it can also be a simple truth. We are keys - we unlock things. I am a firm believer that everything does happen for a reason but in my own path of faith and now ministry I have had periods of perplexity when I have seen very good people suffer, people who have done horrible things be set free and people who so deserve miracles go without them.
When I was a nursing student and taking a course called Orientation to Palliative Care the instructor, Ruth, posed the concept of Leaving a Legacy as a path of healing. Immediately I had thought: Healing? They're palliative patients they are about to pass into Spirit what kind of healing can possibly happen? Admittedly I was slightly skeptical and possibly also a bit jaded but I was open to listening to what Ruth had to say.
She mentioned that sometimes the most important path of healing is the one that comes at the point of transition. That on a mental/emotional level when someone can be okay with an aspect of their life that they found difficult was also an example of healing. She said that when a person realizes, at the time of death or other transition, that even the most challenging aspects of their life could inspire another that it helped to ease the pain of that challenging experience. That the inspiration that they would pass on, a piece of their heart if you will, could be an example to other people that we do survive things and that even though our hearts ache and our bodies wither our Spirit remains unharmed by this life. That perhaps determination isn't getting through an experience unscathed but in having the belief that one can shift their view of an experience in order to heal the wounds that were opened or created. That is something that we can teach each other.
I believe that we do not have to wait until someone passes from this world for them to be a key for us. People who are right for us or wrong for us are vital and valid in our experiences. Whether they inspire healing or inflict pain they propel us forward. The point is we are still moving.
We will grow as people, we will keep trying and keep healing. We will have periods of time where we feel the burn and times where we have to sit by the wayside. Times where we will be in self-pity and count the scars and other times where we will bandage the wounds of another. Through all of this not only are we learning but we are also teaching. 'A reason, season or lifetime' can describe the types of connections we have with others although the most important thing in any connection with another is 'Who am I becoming as a result of this?'
I asked for healing in my life. I asked God to put me on the right path which in my mind was a path where I would be living my highest good and in a state of service to the world around me. I met several people, who I can't thank enough, that have helped me steer in the direction of the healing I had requested.
We are not only a legacy within each other. We are instruments of divinity. We are extensions of an interconnected Source energy. We are not only those who find healing, or are set free or experience miracles: We just Are. When we learn from one experience as hard or as easy as it is we are simultaneously the teacher in the heart of another. Ask for healing, for grace, for love and for help as you need it. There is nothing so great that it cannot be healed and be patient - it is a work in progress. There will always be a storm that we feel we cannot weather but at some point when we are drenched from rain and are afraid of the thunder a change of wind will arise and the clouds will part and the next step on the path will be exactly who you have become as a result of your strength and the legacy that lies within.