Holy Spirited

Today I come to give you a gift and tell you a story. 

There was a man who had no shoes.

[Me, thinking] I’m pretty sure I’m just making this up, and writing whatever comes into my head. But no, go ahead and tell me about the man with no shoes. How did he walk?

He walked on his bare feet, building up layers of skin that protected him.

He did this unconsciously, without obvious effort on his part, and without straining and willing it to happen. 

It happened naturally, as a result of his will to walk, and his body’s reaction to the surface of the road.

Building a spiritual muscle is no different than growing new skin. You put yourself under a spiritual test – and everything on Earth is a spiritual test – and you grow muscles to carry that burden or lift that obstacle without consciously willing yourself to do it.

When you are ready for the test, when you actually start and put yourself forward and dare to begin, the muscles twitch without your conscious awareness. 

They tear and little and regrow and slowly, slowly they build, all without you having any thoughts of what the process is to build the muscle or shape it for the specific task you’re doing.

So the man with no shoes, he didn't think it was a problem to walk barefoot. He did what he could do with the skin he had, and did no more. 

Observers said: ‘That must be agony. He'll hurt himself, he’ll get all cut up. He’d be better to stop and buy some shoes that have been made specifically for the purpose of pounding the streets.’

But in other people’s shoes, your skin never hardens. It never becomes used to the harsh conditions of the road. It stays fragile, liable to break, and therefore useless for the purpose of walking long distances without outside assistance.

I did not make you useless. I made you to walk. And do you think I wouldn’t give you the means to walk without protecting you?

Much of life on Earth is like seeking shoemakers and pacifiers to help you stay fragile, delicate and untouched by life. This is not living. This is the fear that I won’t be there, manifesting in an over-reliance on other people to make close-enough approximations of protection for you.

But my child, I am the One who forged you from my own being, and I’m made of the toughest and gentlest material that exists. I am all that exists. 

I am the skin and the road. I am also the shoes and the shoemaker, those sleeping parts who take their rest without any knowledge of who they fall asleep in.

Any time you walk down a road with bare feet, you grow. It’s tiny, imperceptible. And even cuts serve to remind you that healing happens perfectly naturally, without your conscious input.

Being open to life means you will grow in ways you are not consciously controlling, but which are – clearly – part of the natural order of things.

For a time it is usual that you will seek shoes – those that come with added protection, those that look beautiful, those that promise extra bonuses or shiny parts or make you feel taller. 

This is all the path. But do not forget your feet, which have powers to serve that you do not yet know about.

You will grow the abilities you need, even if you cannot imagine what they will be or how you will even start. You do not need to know, and trying to figure it out will leave you unwilling to begin, such is the enormity of the task.

But go within, pray as you did before you started writing today, ask for the support and I will come and lift you up. 

Indeed, you are permanently lifted up by me, but it’s so normal to you that it feels like nothing at all. Yet you have never taken a single breath without me. You have never blinked an eyelid or moved a muscle. I cannot be without myself.

Showing a will for something is much bigger than you imagine. Your thoughts are carried throughout the universe when you show willing, show up and get to work. 

You work, and I work. You can have anything you want, and what you want will show you who you are. This is why ‘getting’ is such a crucial step in your development. You cannot grow to understand the concept of what it means to get, if you never get. And you cannot get over wanting to get until you get.

So I can show you any version of what it means to be. 

Look at the billions of parallel expressions of me just on this planet. Look how many versions of you there are. Too many to count, and counting them would be… not a waste, but not productive to what you want to fulfil in this lifetime.

My dear child, you are not yet ready for my love in its fullest expression. You could not bear it yet. 

But I see your willing heart and I hear your prayers. 

I am here for you. That is the gift.