Do you know what is good about living in hard times, times of change and upheaval? Is there something to celebrate when gas prices are climbing and expected to be soon over $5.00 a gallon? Do you smile at the possibility that your employer is moving the business overseas or south of the border, and you are out of a job? Do you ever think about having a party because the mortgage is overdue and you are six months behind!

This is not to make light of anyone's distress or to minimize the depth and scale of traumas and troubles so many are experiencing across the nation and the globe. But if the Apocalypse is coming, can Paradise be far behind?

There is an old saying associated with certain remedial healing processes: "If it doesn't kill you, it will cure you." And yet the Sufis talk about "the subtle pleasure that comes from disappointment."

Let's face it. We are blessed to be living in times of crisis. As the great Sufi poet observed, the good thing about hard times is that is the time when people's prayers are the most sincere. Suffering is a wakeup call out of our delusional dream that all of the temporal things we treasure, accumulate, and identify with for our identity, security, and self-esteem will never fail us. The illusory dream that our way of life can continue like a law of nature is fading rapidly in the light of our own experience personally and collectively as we enter this period which the Edgar Cayce readings identify as "an adjustment in the sphere," —an action in the cosmos to restore equilibrium and balance. "Equilibrium" and "Chaos" are among the ten laws of self-renewing, self-regenerating universal systems that apply equally to the Cosmos as they do to the cells of the body and to you.

The Principle of Equilibrium that runs throughout the universe is seen whenever any condition gets too one-sided. There will be a pull toward the opposite extreme in order to bring conditions to a balanced center point. Too much is balanced by too little, and from either point we must eventually gain the satisfaction of "just enough." Just enough is a beautiful, sustainable, effortless place to be—for the soul, but not for the ego. The ego thrives on drama, whether it's the pain of "never enough" or the deluded self-satisfaction of "I have more than you, and that means I'm better than you." The ego is addicted to anger, distraction, pleasure, security, comfort, and accumulation. When these are pursued as ends in themselves, they starve the soul, shrink the heart, and enfeeble the spirit. It affects every level of who and what we are.

Our bodies are temporary vehicles, and serve as a growth medium for the soul. The privilege of having a body and a span of years on Earth is that we, as souls animated by an eternal spirit, can consciously choose to cultivate, grow, and refine that core essence of who and what we are until it truly reflects the "image of God" in which we were created and which is our destiny to realize and sustain while the rest of the world shifts, stumbles, crumbles, and dies of exhaustion.

So, let's celebrate our discomforts, our disappointments, and our failed expectations. Whatever can be taken from you was never yours anyway.

Deep inside you, with a will to be all that you are, is that eternal essence that knows who you are, where you came from, and why you are here. This is the part of you that you can never be without. It was with you before this life, it is the witness to all that you are, and it is the only lover you will ever have that will never forsake or disappoint you.

That which has a beginning must have an end. Only God is eternal, and His nature abides in us. This remains; all else will pass away. Take heart, friends—celebrate your disappointments and losses, for they hold the possibility of restoring your connection to the Divine. And have compassion and a helping hand for those who are suffering and not yet celebrating.

Fear no evil, but rejoice in Love; for it endures forever, and Love is what you are.

Pastor Robert