The process of change is messy. It's an uncomfortable place to be. We tend not to seek out change unless our current situation has somehow become unacceptable. The human mind in us, the ego, will put up with quite a lot before it willingly seeks change. There is much truth to the old adage that until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change, we will stay the same.

 

We are indeed spiritual beings, AND we are having a very human experience. Since only the Absolute (God/ Spirit/ Divine Mind/ Infinite Field of All-Potential...) is unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable, we can be assured that changes will happen during our human lifetimes. It may come gently or it may come harshly. We may know that we have invited this change, or it may feel thrust upon us through some sort of circumstance that we surely would not have chosen. Whatever the outer-appearing catalyst, it is up to us to navigate the waters of change. It is up to us to choose whether to move through those rocky waters kicking and screaming, or to cooperate with what appears to be a normal process of the human experience.

 

Most of us will initially choose to kick and scream. "Why me?" "I knew something like this would happen!" "How could they do this to me?" "What kind of god would let a thing like this happen...?"

 

Our human ego (the "adverse" ego as Unity co-founder Charles Fillmore calls it) wants to be in charge. It believes that it knows best how to do things and what is best for us and how to make the world a better and safer place for us. These are not bad things- they are just not very productive for spiritual beings having human experiences. If we were really "only human" perhaps the human ego would indeed have all the answers. But we are not 'only human". We are spiritual beings. Spiritual beings must, at some point, come into the willingness to be guided spiritually.

When we are through kicking and screaming, when we are complete with proclaiming our victimhood to all who will listen, we come to a point of willingness. We reach this point of willingness in very great part because the pain of victimhood has now become greater than the pain of change. There is That in us which recognizes the need to either change or be doomed to keep playing the role of victim over and over and over again. There is That within us which says, "No! Victimhood is NOT my inheritance. There is another choice." That is the Christ mind, which Fillmore calls the "spiritual ego". It is That which the apostle Paul called, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27, NRSV) It is That which we call I AM.

 

That moment of choice is when we claim illumination and understanding: Let there be Light. In that moment of choice we put aside our preconceived notions and stand willing to allow Spirit-Within to guide us in our next steps. In that moment of choice, we agree to stop fighting the currents of change and cooperate with the process of Divine Mind that is the orderly outworking of the Universe.