Hurdles

Good morning, God, and thank you for a new day in my life.  It's going to be a cold and windy day this day, and I'm looking forward to feeling the colder weather after a very hot summer.

I'd like to talk to you about the hurdles in our lives.  We've just hit another one, one that hit us pretty hard in a way that we weren't expecting to get hit.  We've been doing our best for so long to try to get things stabilized a bit, yet we can't seem to be able to do so.  Is this instability a planned part of our lives, or is it coming to teach us valuable lessons, or is it a result of poor decisions on our part?  I certainly don't believe that you send stuff like this as retribution for bad decisions that we might make, so I can't see the obstacles as originating with you--that makes no sense.  So where do they come from?  Why can we not make ends meet--and why can't so many other people these days?  Is this some mass preparation for dealing with poverty and austerity that's coming, or is it a reminder of just how good we've had things in the past, things that we've come to take for granted?  I'll bet there are tons of people who wish they could step right back into their lives of five or ten years ago, back when they had what they considered to be stability and prosperity.

So why are we being hit so hard, still, with financial obstacle after financial blow?  Why can't we reach any sort of stability, no matter how hard we try?  We are very fortunate because we aren't starving or living on the streets, but we're finding it very difficult to continue to be beaten down by life without seeing any real results of the efforts we make to stabilize our situation.

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Good morning to you, too.  It's nice to be able to hear from you first thing in the morning like this--yes, I do like hearing from you, whether it seems that way to you or not.  You and I--and everyone else--have an incredible connection that most people learn early to deny and ignore, so every chance I get to have a one-on-one chat with someone is a very good, very welcome chance.

As far as what you ask is concerned, there is no pat answer for you, as I know you already know.  First and most importantly, you are right in saying that there is no effort on my part to punish anyone for mistakes that they've made.  I have no lightning bolts in my hand to toss down on people who do bad things, and I have no written plan that's going to guarantee someone years of poverty just for having taken for granted prosperity they might have experienced.  We are all tied together, and would I shoot the foot and damage the whole body just because the foot did something "wrong"?

Your current situation is a result of a combination of factors--decisions that you've made, decisions that your wife has made, decisions that your family members have made, decisions that people you'll never know have made, decisions made by heads of corporations and people in the government.  Most of those decisions you'll never be aware of, yet they do affect you greatly--and that's a part of the life you're leading.  Accepting that fact is one of the keys to making that life more bearable and even enjoyable.  Yes, you have made some poor decisions, but remember that what you see and experience are simply results of those decisions--not punishment or rewards.

You are doing things that will help you down the road, and your current situation has been the catalyst that has jump-started your efforts to do those things and to maximize their effects.  In some ways, then, your current situation has been positive and helpful.  It's also forcing you to learn a bit more about patience--even though you're already a very patient person, we all could always stand to learn a bit more about it, and put it into practice more effectively in our lives.

When things are going poorly, I find that people either give up, ask someone else to do what they should be doing, or just get out there and try to make things right.  For the most part, you are being active and you are trying your best to put yourself on the track that you wish to be on, and that's a wonderful thing.  It does take time, though, so please be patient.  You will find that others will help you, but you must be patient so that those things have a chance to manifest themselves--and be manifested by you--in your life.  We can talk more about that some other time, though!