Are You an Uplifter? - The Life Enrichment Center
Are You an Uplifter?
by Rev. Stephanie Sorensen | Oct 11, 2021 | Spirituality A-Z, Sunday Talks
With its color change and trees of golden leaves that will soon turn into bare branches revealing more of the autumn and winter skies, October is a wonderful reminder that this world is all about change, and that it is change that facilitates and generates renewal, evolution, restoration, and transformation. If we trust the lesson of change, i.e., that nothing in this world stays the same for good reason, then rather than holding onto thoughts in our mind that tell us life shouldn’t vary or fluctuate, and that it must stay a certain way not just for us but everyone else, we’ll be less resistant to allowing new thoughts to take hold in our mind that will change our perception and experience of life. Nisargadatta Maharaj wrote, “Suffering is due entirely to clinging or resisting. It is a sign of our unwillingness to move on and to flow with life.”
If we are willing, change will grow us and expand us from the inside out by showing us that movement, flexibility and flow are part of God’s Universal Plan. And, that Plan is in place here, there, and everywhere throughout this human experience because God is at the Heart of this human experience, within everything including us. The God in us is the Unchanging Goodness that is forever showing up as the changeable forms, expressions and situations in our life and the world around us. Paramahansa Yogananda wrote, “As moving pictures are sustained by a beam of light coming from the projection booth of a movie house…so we are All sustained by the One Cosmic Beam, the Divine Light pouring from the projection booth of Eternity.”
If you’ve ever watched a Mission Impossible movie, then you know that Ethan Hunt, the main character in those movies, believes and proves that nothing is impossible. No matter what happens in those movies, there is always a perfect outcome in the end. Every situation, every threat, no matter how big it appears or if the whole world is in jeopardy, is not only resolved by the end of the movie, but the resolutions are filled with miraculous twists, turns and stunts that seemed impossible until they happened. In fact, there is no mission that is impossible as long as there is someone, like Ethan Hunt, willing to accept the mission. It is only through acceptance that anything is made possible.
We read in the Book of Matthew, “With God all things are possible.” We’ve all accepted the mission to come into this human experience, and through our acceptance nothing is impossible to us. If we’re willing to let go of our tight grip on how life is supposed to be, Life will show us how Life is created to be and who we are created to be in It. If we let Life flow fearlessly and peacefully between the Wisdom of our mind and the Love of our heart, we’ll naturally rise in awareness that nothing is fixed or immovable and that any change is possible in our life no matter how unalterable any appearance seems to be.
Nothing is impossible to us and through us if we are aware that it is Divine Light pouring through us from “the projection booth of Eternity,” the God in us, that is doing the works. Paramahansa Yogananda said, “I relax and put aside all mental burdens, allowing God to express through me His perfect love and His perfect wisdom and serenity.” No matter what’s going on—whether we find our self hanging from a cliff or lying in a hospital bed; whether we find our self trying to diffuse a bomb or trying to end an argument with someone— when we rely on the Pure Energy of Love, Infinite Possibilities open to us and the seemingly impossible becomes possible through us.
Everything that happens, every situation in our life and in the world, will have a positive outcome eventually. How long it takes, and how resistance-free we experience Life along the way, is up to us-. The Goodness of Life remains here, there and everywhere, and all that is required of us is to be aware It’s there. Sacred texts tell us that with Love all things are possible, with Love all things work together for good. And, we read in the Book of Romans “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” We are all called to a mission of Love, but we must accept the mission. The mission is to love God’s Creation with all our heart and mind everyday, with all our thoughts, words and actions focused on the Good that Life is.
Creation is a love story, and we are all called by Love to love, and to let Love work things out. Even if we can’t see the solution clearly, if we trust that there is nothing that can’t be changed, moved, or improved by the Presence of Love in us, we’ll become an uplifted Healing Presence in the world and a Holy Helper to those around us. We all want to be an uplifter in life, but sometimes we make matters worse for our self and others because we confuse commiseration with compassion and enabling for love. We get so caught up in the painful experience someone else is having that we can’t see beyond the problem to the healing Light. “I feel your pain” is a compassionate recognition that we understand pain because we’ve felt it too! But suffering because someone else is suffering isn’t uplifting to anyone.
If we want to be an uplifter we must constantly remind our self that every living being, no matter how things appear to be in their life, is sustained by the One Cosmic Beam. And, then look for the healing Divine Light that is Present right there to do the healing works. It’s up to us to choose our focus, on what’s before us or what is within us. We can either lock our eyes and mind on a visible calamity or look beyond it to the Presence of Divinity. We read these words in the Book of John spoken by Jesus: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
We’ve all seen pictures or statues of Atlas with the world on his shoulders. He surely doesn’t appear to be able to lift himself up, much less take the world with him into a brighter day! We all want to see a brighter day in this world, but we can’t be lifted up from the earth while we are carrying the weight of all its problems on our shoulders. When we become joined with earthbound problems, we are unable to lift our self up so that we can see the world in the light of change and newness.
When our focus is downward, we’re not an uplifting presence in the world. Rather than drawing others up, we let others pull us down. It is vital that we learn to hold our own vibration, and feel what we choose to feel wherever we are. When we walk into a room feeling good, but no one else in the room seems to be feeling the good we’re feeling, do we lower our energy so others will feel more comfortable around us or relate to us? It isn’t disrespectful for us to feel good when others are not. We are free to be happy no matter what is going on around us. That doesn’t mean we don’t understand someone’s pain. It doesn’t mean we giggle or crack jokes when someone is sad or suffering. It doesn’t mean that we dance in a hospital room. But if we allow an outer situation to affect our inner vibration, we have nothing to give. We lose our Divine ability to be an uplifter. Eckhart Tolle wrote, “The only thing you have to heal is the present thought. Get that right and the whole picture will change into one of harmony and joy.”
All of us, at some time or other, need help. All of us, at some time or other, can become a helper. We can help the world and everyone in it through prayers filled with the positive conviction that all things are working together for Good. We can help the world and everyone in it by focusing on uplifting thoughts, engaging in uplifting conversation, and by helping when we’re called to reach out and touch the hand of another. Then we become a powerful Healer in a world waiting to know its worthiness to be healed.
Mr. Rogers said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” Whether we’re a first responder, a doctor, a nurse, an energy worker, a counselor, a family member, a friend, or a stranger, Love is the uplifting vibration that causes us to want to help each other and actually be effective when we do. Helpfulness is one of the things that connects us with each other. Helpers are all about the solution. If they focused on the problem and panicked, they would become part of the problem and make matters worse!
Mr. Rogers said “The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile.” When we help through positive prayer, through our uplifted presence, through our words and actions, we tell others that they are worthwhile, worth caring about, worth staying positive for. The uplifted positivity we bring with us wherever we are is a powerful thing because we are aligned with the Power of the Cosmic Beam of Eternity that makes all things possible.