Leading Thought.
Richard Goodall.
One of the big tasks with which we are charged in the Christian Community is to always strive to gain insight into the spiritual realities which live behind and which give the impulse for the outer occurrences of our time – both good and bad. Very often we are tempted to focus on the negative in this regard and forget that the main impulse-giver in our time is the re-appearance of the Christ in the etheric and that almost everything else is in response to this deed. It is far more fruitful to seek for how the Divine works into the world in the interest of the good and to align oneself with that than to become fascinated by what is not good.
We find the main orientation for all that we do every day – that is if we wish our actions to be fruitful – by asking ourselves what the principle aim of humanity’s existence on the earth is and where we find our life’s aims within this principle aim. We may know in theory that this aim is to learn more and more about the mystery of love, but what does that mean specifically and how do we find the right course of action to meet this aim in everything we do?
It soon becomes clear that we will not find the answers to these questions out of ourselves because what lives in us is all historical and what we are looking for has to do with the future. I will only find these answers or leads to the answers when I open myself up to be inspired out of the spiritual world. For us to become receptive for what is constantly streaming towards us from the spiritual world we need to cultivate a deep love for the spirit and for working with the spiritual world. In fact we need to develop a love for everything else in the world as well. This is extremely difficult because there is so much in the world which we really don’t like and which we may even consider to be evil.
However, the reality is that if we want to work towards redeeming what is evil in the world and if we want to contribute to the healing of what is wrong in the world, then we need to realise that the only force that is capable of bringing this about is Divine Love working through us into the world. Practicing love in the sense of Divine Love is what makes us show up as willing co-workers who wish to participate with the striving of the angelic worlds in regard to humanity and the earth.
Learning to be a place where this healing love can work in the world is a matter of conscious determination and requires a great deal of strength, courage and commitment. For this inner strength and courage we need community where we are inwardly supported and carried by that which comes to meet such a community when it is formed around a common intent and striving. The power of such a community, united by common striving, is way stronger than anything that an individual can bring into being -and each individual in that community can draw from that community power.
All of this is summed up in the following verse by Rudolf Steiner:
We unite in our striving towards the Divine,
that strength of life quicken in us,
courage of life strengthen in us,
love shine in us.
May the Light Divine illumine our souls,
that we find the Spirit
which guides us to life’s aims,
which can reveal the working of the Divine.