Spiritual Formation and April Fools Day
April Fools Day. So much fun for some people, but others never seem to get the joke. The only thing that matters is your ability to not fool yourself and see things as they truly are.
A message from my Spirit Teacher, Gene.
Spirit Shorts Episode 90: Spiritual Formation
Have you experienced a lifetime of April Fools high jinks. Some quite funny, others simply mean and some, I still don’t get. Depending on the type of friends you have, it’s a good idea to keep ourselves vigilant on April Fools Day.
But what about the last part of Gene’s message reminding us to not fool ourselves. This one is a bit more difficult to comprehend. The nature of fooling one’s self is a lack of awareness or a blind spot. And in the absence of awareness how the heck are we to stop fooling ourselves? It doesn’t require a spiritual formation, only awareness.
To define Spiritual formation, it’s a Christian practice and process that leads to spiritual maturity and Christ-likeness. I use it in this context as it is a process whereby one looks inward to find their Christ-like nature. I feel that if more Christians were Christ-like, I would have more Christians as friends. But that’s another article.
Back to April Fools and fooling oneself. What’s interesting to me is how many times there is more at work than a blind spot. A true blind spot disappears when identified or we can compensate for it. In the case of blind spots in our cars, we learn where they are and make adjustments to manage them.
In life, however, few people ever seem to compensate or correct for their blind spots. Not correcting for know blind spots is fooling ourselves. How many times have you seen friends make the same mistake again and again, never seeming to learn. Some would think them a fool.
In some cases, this behavior is a lesson we came here to learn. But in most cases we’re simply not telling the truth to ourselves.
It’s through our willingness to change our lives that we can see the truth. We look at the results in our lives and decide we want something different then take actions accordingly.
I’ve been on a Spiritual Path for most of his adult life. I’ve also been an accomplished trance medium for most of my adult life. My experiences and the experiences helping others has me believe that the only solution is to accept and love yourself unconditionally. From a place of self-love, forgive any and all transgressions (your own and others). I would consider that I have undertaken a spiritual formation process and endeavored to become more Christ-like.
Then and only then can you look at your life and tell the truth to yourself about what you find there. More importantly see the best way to change what it is you don’t like or want any longer.
With self-love comes awareness and seeing things as they truly are. While you may still be thought a fool by many, you no longer care what others think.