There is a constant sense of loss when you consider the notion of being “too spiritual.” There is the fear among too many of you that being “too spiritual” means that you will no longer have any fun, that all you will do is sit around and meditate or contemplate, and that there will not be any fire or passion in your life. You associate drama with being the only stimulus that “gets you going.” Your adrenal glands do secrete, and this gives you a rush when you are up against something formidable, or something that appears to be out of the ordinary in some sort of scary fashion.

Sometimes you human beings send yourselves through experiences to scare yourselves. This may sound silly, but just think about it. You go to movies just to scare yourselves. You get on various kinds of carnival rides just to scare yourselves. You do a lot of things that you don’t even realize that you are doing just to scare yourselves on some level, to give yourselves a rush, to make you feel that you are alive. This is part of the energy that comes out of having so-called illicit relationships. There is something in the danger that makes you feel more alive.

You associate settling in, making commitments, sticking to a certain path, with being humdrum, boring, no longer challenging, or providing any sort of new experience or stimuli. You are afraid that marrying me will be the same tying of the knot with each other as in a human marriage, which your society jokes about. I am not some ball and chain around your neck. I am not here to stifle you or to prevent you from being all that you can be. Quite the contrary, I am here for you to be the All that you can be. You are choosing things that are scary on some levels to make yourselves feel more alive, and you can continue to do this forever. However, I have other ways to make you feel alive. I have experiences for you that are so far above and beyond the human dramas that you play out. I have so much in store for you at such a transcendent plane, but you must be willing to move beyond the gravitational pull of your interests and curiosity in the coming and goings of the specifics of your circumstances.

Understand what I am trying to tell you, my children. You are fascinated by all of the sequences, events, and little details that appear to govern your life. Many of you are obsessed with them.

You obsess about not only what is going on in your life now, but also over the places and spaces where you have already been. Furthermore, many of you are obsessed with the details and the concerns and the worries regarding your so-called future. You are so obsessed about the minutiae that you cannot see me. You cannot even see yourselves, let alone anybody else who is traveling this path with you. There is a tendency to think of the people who are around you as getting in the way of your spiritual path. Don’t you understand, my children, that they are not in the way of your spiritual path, they are the way of your spiritual path?

Understand what I just said—other people, places, and things are part of the way of your spiritual path. You are busy trying to get away from the very things that you need to be engaging in and understanding. Why do I say this? Because it is true. Everything that I have ever said to you is true. (And in your heart of hearts you know that is, indeed, the case.) You need to understand how there is only One of you here. The other people, places, and things in your life are only representative of other states of consciousness, ones that are even reflections of you, at some level. The reflection of you is not just the reflection of the small you, your persona, your personality. It is the reflection of you in your totality as a spiritual being.

People are playing out the fears of humanity. People are playing out the creative, expressive potentials of humanity. People are playing things out at all levels, everywhere. And since there is only One of us here, each and every one of them represents some aspect of the Only thing that is. Even the things created in the world that are causing all of you such concern and worry have, at some level, been created out of the fundamental building blocks which I have provided. The fact that you don’t know what to do with these building blocks, the fact that you are misusing them for all the wrong purposes, is not my fault. Understand what I just said. You need to stop blaming me for your choices—not only your individual choices, but the choices of your collective consciousness. You cannot talk about “them over there.” You cannot talk about what “they” think, or what “they” do. You are doing it, any time it is being done.

When you see things going on out there in the world, instead of blaming the specific individuals who are emulating certain activities, attitudes, or behavior … it might serve you well to ask yourself, “What is the collective consciousness that is expressing itself here?” Ask this sincerely, and then ask yourself a second question, “What is my contribution to this collective thinking?”

You are a part of everything. Perhaps it is some judgment on your part that has helped to fuel the fires of what is going on. Perhaps you haven’t thought about it at all and you are wondering how could you be a part of something that you have never even thought about. Therein is the problem. The fact that one particular idea lacks the grace of your attention allows for a less evolved consciousness to control the matters at hand. You try to carve out consciousness the same way that you try to carve out places and spaces geographically. You human beings are so extremely territorial. There is no territory of the heart. There is no territory of the mind. There is nothing in consciousness that you can own exclusively and have it somehow be separate and distinct from everybody and everything else. The same is true for everyone else regarding you. Everything is intertwined.

This article is excerpted from The Sacred Yes by Deborah Johnson Sounds True Inc. ISBN: 1-59179-480-3.

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Rev. Deborah L. Johnson is the founder and president of both Inner Light Ministries, an Omnifaith outreach ministry dedicated to teaching the practical application of Universal Spiritual Principles, and The Motivational Institute, an organizational development consulting firm specializing in cultural diversity. A dynamic public speaker, she is known for her ability to inspire and to bring clarity to complex and emotionally charged issues. She travels the nation teaching, training, consulting, and facilitating for leading organizations in the private, public, and non-profit sectors.

A staunch civil rights activist, Deborah Johnson is the successful co-plaintiff in a landmark case setting precedence for the inclusion of sexual orientation in California’s Civil Rights Bill. She has been a voice for compassion, justice, and reconciliation. She has worked extensively in the women’s movement, civil rights movement, and gay and lesbian rights movement. She holds a vision of Oneness, beyond creed and doctrine, and strives to heal the sense of separation between those adhering to conservative and progressive ideologies. A primary focus has been on coalition building, conflict resolution, public policy development, and cultural sensitivity awareness. Her ground breaking work has been featured in numerous books, magazines, and television programs including appearances on The Phil Donahue Show, ABC’s Nightline, and Showtime’s Jumpin’ the Broom. She was also inducted to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College.

Formerly, Deborah Johnson served as a sales representative for Procter & Gamble and as a real estate investment manager for The Prudential Insurance Company. Presently, she is a faculty member at UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Business, Executive Leadership Diversity Training Institute. She is also on the faculty of both the Holmes Institute of Consciousness Studies and the University of Transformational Studies and Leadership at Agape, where she specializes in Metaphysical Bible Interpretation, American Theologies, and Spiritual Leadership. She holds a BA degree from USC (1978) in economics and political science, an MBA from UCLA (1982) in urban land economics and real estate finance, and a Ministerial Degree from The Holmes Institute (1996).