Spirit Matters: Our life principles are evident by the choices we make

What do you stand for?

What values drive your life?

Do you consciously live them as best as you can, regardless of the prevailing views around you, or do you find yourself falling into thinking and acting like everyone else?

Falling in with the crowd is easy to do. We all know this from our younger years. It takes maturity and courage to recognize when the way we’ve been on doesn’t work for us any longer. It most certainly takes heeding the voice within, calling us to step into a different way of being. To heed that voice, we must be able to hear that voice. And hearing that voice requires us to step away from the noise we are accustomed to.

Consciously choosing to think and behave according to your values will have consequences, especially when they are different from those of the people around you.

You will be misunderstood. You will be mocked and gossiped about. You will be avoided and rejected. You will lose friends.

Are you OK with this?

Because if you are, and if you have the courage to live according to your deepest held and most precious values, you will find a freedom you’ve never known on the other side of the necessary darkness you must go through.

When you know who you are and what you stand for, your life begins to take on much more clarity. You begin to know who you are on a deeper and deeper level.

You make friends with your beautiful soul, the guiding principle that has animated your being since you were formed in your mother’s womb.

Your soul, if listened to and honored, will always point to your highest good. It will always lead you to engage in matters and experiences that will amplify the goodness that is at the heart of existence.

Listening to your soul and following its call will bring you a peace beyond all understanding, the kind that God promises us. Because God’s desire for you from the beginning is inscribed in your soul. God is much wiser and more intelligent that we will ever be, so making life decisions in conjunction with God’s loving, gentle and merciful nature simply makes sense.

Even though we will face times of confusion and uncertainty while on this side of the veil, following our inner compass will always provide us a deeper knowing and confidence that we are on the right path.

In these critical times, it is imperative that we all listen to our consciences – that we listen to our souls leading us to our highest good, and to the highest good of the rest of our human family and the planet we all share. Are our daily choices aligned with that highest good? Do we consider the overall wellbeing of the world in whatever we do, or do we choose what is going to most benefit us and make our lives easier? If we need to, are we willing to sacrifice some of our individual comforts for the sake of the whole?

In that respect, do we recognize that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers? Do we recognize that, to the extent we are able, we have a responsibility at the very least to do no harm to others directly or indirectly, and to then do whatever we can to make each other’s lives easier?

This doesn’t have to mean material comfort, but it can. It means thinking of all other people, even those strangers who are unfamiliar to you, as deserving of the same basic rights you have, simply by being a thought that God lovingly sent into this world for his purposes.

As I grow older, my values have shifted.

More and more, I am less driven by buying more books and more by a desire to live and experience the beauty and magic that infuses everyday life – to live a soulful life. When you begin to look for that beauty and magic, you will find it everywhere and in everyone, and you will begin to radiate that beauty and magic in your life and have a positive effect on others.

Time is of the essence. Despite what we thought when we were kids, our lives are not invincible, and they will not go on forever. They are short and will be over before we know it.

When that time comes, will we look back with gratitude and feel proud of the way we lived our lives in service to God and others, or will we bitterly resent never having had enough because someone else got it instead of us?

The choice is ours to make – beginning now.

SPIRIT MATTERS is a weekly column by Jerrilyn Zavada Novak that examines experiences common to the human spirit. Contact her at jzblue33@yahoo.com.