Charles Dickens wrote a novel about hard times in the mid-nineteenth century, but Elijah Cummings* came by to talk about the hard times we are experiencing today.
Ann: Mr. Cummings, I hear you saying, “Hard times open doors.” Is that right?
Elijah Cummings: Yes, it is, Ann, because hard times make you get down to brass tacks. What do you need, really need? What feeds you, what can you do without, what people light your heart with joy? Who do you want to be? These are the questions that hard times make us face. If you can’t find the work you want, what else is available? How can we grow in spite of the roadblocks placed in our path? Maybe the old path is not the one for us now. Maybe we can come to a better place on a different road.
I am coming here, Ann, because you and many of your readers are facing some of these choices and may not be able to see their way out of the box that life has put them in. I am here to tell you that there is always a way out. It may not fit in with your plans, but it may have something important, something life-giving, to teach you.
In a way I am sorry that I passed before confronting with our country this time of pandemic, lock down, and awakening to injustice, for this is a God given opportunity to scrutinize everything we are doing in our lives. Decisions don’t have to be made right away unless disaster of one sort or another is looming, but a future which will be very different from the past is coming at us full tilt. Do not flinch. Look these changes full in the face and ask God, what do you want me to do? How can I best be of service?
Many of us would never have come to these crossroads without the confluence of the virus merging with police action revealing still virulent racism under a president who has absolutely no interest in either because he exists only to perpetuate its own power.
Ladies and gentlemen, what was the chance that all these crises would converge on the spot? They have been building over many years, even centuries, yes, so why this time? This is what we must ask ourselves. What doorway is opening before us? We will will not resolve these matters in a day or even a month or a year. But a century doesn’t need to pass before systemic change can be put in place to foster a new way of being and allow it to grow to fruition.
Plan carefully, my friends, for now is when you plant the seeds, not only for your future but for that of your children and the very earth itself. So I ask that you discard everything you thought was important and look at your life from scratch. It matters not how old or young you may be, this is a new day for everyone.
Do not worry overmuch if no grand plan comes to mind immediately, just keep asking the question. What is the best way for me to grow in your direction and to help others to do so also? Every morning, whenever you think of it, ask for guidance. Don’t be bullheaded and charge ahead without a plan. Wait for it. Wait for it. Patience is required, for everything will not be revealed all at once, weeks, months, years, whatever it takes, it takes.
But you can see it coming, can’t you? You can smell change in the air. You can feel God’s holy presence reworking your ordinary life into something more grand. Listen. Wait and listen, and you will know how to proceed. As your friend, Mary Travis, said, “The wonderful part is that God is still in Heaven and here on Earth, too, for those who learn to lean on him.”
June 30, 2020
*Referred by Anita Sacco. See "Recommended Channelers" under "Resources" tab. Anita can be contacted for purchase of obtaining the recipe for her protection spray or readings at https://www.etsy.com/shop/FairyTaleEnd.