Responsibility

Real spiritual and personal growth begins with responsibility.  No one is coming to save you.
This doesn't mean that miracles don't happen. They do.  As long as you are blaming people, or the economy, or your mom for your life the way it is, you aren't responsible. Miracles are unlikely in this state.

Whatever is happening in your life--you own it. You are the one who must respond. There is no power in being a victim. There is no happiness in playing that you are always the "good one" in relationships, or that the world has been unfair to you. You aren't, and it hasn't.  We all have lessons to learn.

There is power in responsibility. You act, and you accept the consequences of your actions. When you stop blaming you are free. When you choose to act rather than sitting around hoping, you are empowered. You are responsible. You never know for sure what the exact outcome will be. Move forward, trusting that things will work out. Be open to all possibilities. This change in perception, from victim to victor, from powerless to powerful, is a miracle in itself. When you see yourself and the world differently, you act differently--and you get different results.

William Frank Diedrich
Author of
Human Adulthood: A Spiritual Romance
(A novel about responsibility and miracles)
http://humanadulthood.com

Original Blessing

You are born blessed--blessed with love, with gifts to offer, and your self to share. This is original blessing. If you believe in God, then you are born with his blessing, his unconditional love. You are made in his image.

If you don't believe in God, you are still born with a blessing. See the animal and plant kingdom, how every creature and plant is perfectly itself. So are you--perfect.

If you see God as all-encompassing, the essence of all, then you are born of that essence--created in perfection. How could you be anything less than that which you came from?

There is no such thing as original sin, at least not as most people understand it. You have not fallen from Grace. A sin is a mistake--missing the mark. Original sin is our forgetting who we are--forgetting our perfection and making for ourselves a separated world where we think we must struggle for love and recognition. You are not punished for your "sins." You are punished by them. They contain their own consequences.

You have no need to change or fix yourself, or to be saved. Your greatest need is to love yourself--to appreciate who you are--and then the courage to be who you are.  Recognition of who you are helps you to recognize others--that they are as you are. Your behaviors arise from who you believe you are.

Nothing you have said or done prevents you from being a blessing to the world. Don't waste any more time with guilt. Observe it when you sense it. Don't judge it; just move forward. Be the blessing you are now.

William Frank Diedrich
Author of
Human Adulthood: A Spiritual Romance
http://humanadulthood.com