Excerpt from The Gift of Change
An underground revolution is sweeping the hearts and minds of the people of the world, and it is happening despite the wars and terror that confront us. This revolution is a fundamental change of worldview, and it carries with it the potential to reorganize the structure of human civilization. It brings a basic shift in the thoughts that dominate the world. It wages a peace that will end all war. It is a global phenomenon that will change the cellular structure of the human race. To those who are part of it, who feel called to it, its reality is a growing if not obvious truth. To still others, it's a lofty but ridiculous notion, a preposterous and silly idea.
Yet no social revolution of any import emerged because everybody woke up one day saying, "I get it! I get it!" Such revolutions emerged instead from what anthropologist Margaret Mead described as "a small group of concerned citizens." Not only are such groups capable of changing the world, according to Mead, but in fact, they're the only thing that ever has. And they are doing it now.
A spiritually attuned counterculture is already in our midst. It is marked not by clothes or music, drugs or sex, as was the counterculture of the sixties, but by the internal attitudes of those who perceive it. They make suggestions and comments that are just a little bit wiser; they bring new insights into areas previously locked down by the status quo. They see some star in the sky that not everyone is seeing. And in their presence, we start to see it too.
Signing Up for Duty
We sign up for duty, for participation in this revolution, through a sincere desire to be used by something larger than ourselves, for the purpose of healing the world. It doesn't even matter if we don't call that "something larger" by the name of God. For some people conspire with God who do not yet believe in Him.* It is ultimately not our belief but our experience that matters.* God has no ego by which to be insulted if we do not get His name right.
But whatever name we call Him, we come to realize that we are the army, but He is in charge. He cannot use us to change the world deeply until first we have been changed by Him. To surrender the world to Him, first we must surrender ourselves.
The change begins with a shift in the lens through which we perceive the world. It grows within us to affect not only our own lives, but also the lives of those around us. It leads us to connect with others who are similarly undergoing a transformation of their ego structures, from an old perspective to something new. And through our individual and collective efforts, divinely inspired, we will turn the world around in time. Just when we thought all hope was ended, hope will reappear.
For those of us who are cynical; for those of us who are too tired now; for those of us who are weary of the way things always go; for those of us who used to care but are too busy now just trying to get by, there is a change afoot. It begins in the heart. And as it rises to the surface, it will change all things.
Imagine that God has asked you if He could use your hands and feet, to go where He would have you go and do what He would have you do.
Imagine that God has asked you if He could use your mouth, to say what He would have you say and to whom.
Imagine these things because He has.
"Many are called, but few are chosen" means that everyone is called but few care to listen.* The call goes out to all of us, all the time. None of us has more or less capacity for contributing to the salvation of the world.
Choosing to serve God, we are choosing the path toward God's greatness within us. When we see people who are clearly letting the spirit work through them—who have found their genius, their power, their passion—we are not seeing some special force at work that chose them over others. The power did not choose them so much as they chose it.
Those among us who have achieved the most have achieved only a fraction of what all of us are capable of.* The "gifts of the Holy Spirit" are waiting for all of us, when our lives are dedicated to God's plan.
Every morning, we have a choice: Will I seek out God's plan today, or will I go about my day as a slave to my ego's agenda? To choose God's plan is to choose the option with the best opportunity for turning your life into a conduit for the miraculous. As soon as we start asking Him how we can help with His plan, rather than just asking Him to help with our plans, everything will be better for everyone.
We're here to be teachers of God—that is, those who demonstrate love. God has a plan for the salvation of the world, called "the plan for the teachers of God."* His teachers come from all religions and no religion.* There is nothing to sign up for, no worldly organization or institution to belong to. It simply refers to a stirring in the heart, which then activates an internal guidance system already present within us. If we ask how to help, He will show us how to help.
While there are hate-filled people planning ways to sow violence and destruction on earth, God has a blueprint for creating peace on earth. It's not a physical blueprint, but rather a plan that exists in His Mind, pieces of it ready to be downloaded into the mind of anyone who asks to receive his or her part. Each of us carries maximal potential to be used by God to heal the world.
He has a plan. And it cannot not work.
~Excerpt >From The Gift of Change by Marianne Williamson