Our Hearts Compel Us

In the follow-up television coverage to President Obama’s Second Inaugural, a network commentator reporting from the National Mall referred to a part of the President’s speech where he said: “’But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.’” The commentator noted that many in Congress would be in opposition to this view, because of the increasing national debt and the problem of government spending.

So many don’t know “how”, don’t see a way forward, a way to respond to the real and present needs of the people, while also being responsible in all aspects including in regard to government spending. It is an understandable dilemma, from the level of the mind that says: ‘I don’t see how this would be able to happen”.

But the first question we must ask, is not “how”.

The first question must ask is “What is right?" What do our hearts compel us to? And the contrary: how could we in good conscience fail to act to address the real needs of people - and allow people to suffer - when suffering could be averted? Our hearts know, and need to know the answers to these question, before considering the question “how”.

To know what is right sets us in a direction, establishes the goal, the course and the path for us. The great challenges of the past for America, have not been a question of ‘how’– they have been a matter of resolve to do what is right and good. From this foundation, the ways forward emerge.

We must not let the fear of not knowing how, deter us from doing what deep in our hearts we know to be true.

From choosing the path that is right, new possibilities will emerge. For from this place, a new willingness grows – to participate together in what our lives are most deeply about: our love and care for one another, the expression of the unique gift of who each one is, and the journey of learning to live together in peace and harmony on the earth. Each human being has vast resources of the heart to give. Each also has to offer, to contribute, what we have been given, and what we have achieved, toward the great shared endeavors of our times. It is an axiom of modern times in America, that when there is tragedy we come together to help one another. Each and every day there are great unmet needs, and so we in each an every day can participate in that spirit of coming together, and ask ourselves in each day: today, what is mine to give?

So the question is not 'how'. The question is, are we willing to follow what our hearts tell us, to do what is right? Are we willing to move in this direction? To the extent any of us are not yet willing to, we must ask ourselves – with great compassion and honesty – why. We must seek to know what holds us back. Then with prayer and dedication, we can come to know that the ‘reasons’ that hold us back…will be melted and transformed within the greater truth of the love that lives more deeply at the center of our hearts, and at the center of Life itself.