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"Give
all to love; obey thy heart." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
This past week the Rev. Jerry Falwell made his
transition and almost immediately the blogs and message boards were
filled with people's opinions and thoughts about him. The Rev.
Falwell was a very polarizing figure ... which is another way of saying
that some people liked him and others hated him ... very few people were
lukewarm in their opinions of him. And the message boards and
blogs were filled with words of hate from so many. The numbers of
people who felt "justified" in their hatred or dislike of him
were tremendous. One message that sticks in my mind from the LA
Times message board was, "the world is better off without
him." And it occurred to me ... how do we know? I
assure you, there are probably just as many people who would disagree
with this statement as there are people who would agree with it.
In the Science of Mind we understand that the people
we dislike the most ... the ones that make us feel the most
uncomfortable ... the ones we entertain thoughts of hate towards ... are
the very ones who carry with them the greatest lesson we are here to
learn. And that lesson is, "love one another, as I (GOD),
have loved you." In order to do this, we must eliminate from
our minds two of the most self-defeating emotions we can experience;
judgment and self-hatred. We cannot hate another unless we find
something within our self that we hate. Now ... this may not
always be clearly apparent to us ... but it is the Truth. And, it
may not be something that is apparent to our present conscious mind ...
but, it is within our subconscious ... or otherwise, the impulse to hate
another would not arise in our conscious mind.
Just this past week someone asked me if I had
been talking to members of my family since my mother's transition a few
weeks ago. I replied that I had been in contact with several of my
brothers and sisters as we are a close family. To which this
person replied, "well, I have seven in my family and we all hate
each other. We haven't talked for over twenty years!"
Was I surprised at this? ... no. I have witnessed far too much of
this already in this ministry. Oftentimes, people will not use the
word "hate" ... but the way in which they judge others ... or
feel about others ... can be summed up as "hate." But
... no one is affected by "hate" except for the person who
carries this in their consciousness. And no matter how anyone may
attempt to "justify hate" ... there is never any justification
for it.
"Hate" can be a very subtle stumbling
block within our consciousness. Resentment, bitterness, jealousy,
indifference, manipulation, arrogance, dislike, racism, anti-Semitism,
homophobia, hetero-phobia ... judgments based on race, creed, gender,
religion and culture ... all of these are the subtleties of hate ...
there are, of course, too many to list here ... but, any thought in our
mind that "causes" us to "withhold love" ... is
hateful. And it will reveal itself in our consciousness at some
point in time ... reflecting in our Life experience.
The following is a great example of a man who
chose Love over hate:
Subject: a poem for Liviu Librescu
I wrote this poem today about Mr.
Liviu Librescu, who survived the holocaust and saved the lives of 8 or 9
students at Virginia Tech on Monday and died from gunshot wounds.
I read it at our synagogue this evening and the Rabbi suggested I
distribute it to as many places as I could. I wanted to send you
all direct copies and I hope it touches you like it touched me as I
wrote it. Thanks. Phil
My Stand
A Tribute to Liviu Librescu
By Philip C. Selz
In the darkest times we’ve seen, I was sent into the camps
As I smelled the stench of burning flesh, I knew my kin were gone
Survival was my only thought, I knew I must come through
But I didn’t know the reason that my living must go on
And when the war had ended, liberation finally came
And I grew to be a man and shortly after took a wife
And we raised our kids in Israel and we did the best we could
And we lived for those who died and worked to make a useful life
Then a teaching job came to me in America one day
And I thought that building new young minds was destiny for me
So I traveled to Virginia and I made a brand new start
And I taught engineering in this homeland of the free
Now I hear the hallways screaming as shots are fired there
And I hear the terror in the screams and understand their plight
So I bar the door from danger and I tell my students Run
And as the bullets breach the door I know that I must fight
And in these final moments as my life is seeping out
I think back over 60 years and finally understand
My own salvation now makes sense as children flee and live
I was saved that day to save this day, I’ve finally made my stand.
<end>
We are "in God and of God" ... let us
keep knowing this every day ... and the only way in which we can fully
express this Truth is to Love ... to give freely of our Love ... to Love
those who have lost sight of the love that is within them ... and to
expand our awareness of our infinite ability to give of our Love more
and more every day. We can love everybody ... even those who have
gone to the Other-Side ... for Love is activated in our mind ...
consciously ... we must consciously choose Love over all things un-like
It ... and then our world will appear to be heavenly ... right where we
are!
AND
SO IT IS!
Keep
the faith!
Rev. Bates
Visit: www.IraqMemorial.org
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