Articles from the Religious Research Journal
Getting What You Want
by Tom Hemphill
There is an old saying: “There are only two tragedies on life. One is not to get what you want. The other is to get what you want.” In the transformation of the Paradigm Shift, I believe we will all get what we want.
It is generally agreed that the shift involves some dividing of humanity into two separate groups. In the gospels, Jesus spoke of separating the sheep from the goats. We must be clear: this does not mean good guys vs. bad guys. Both sheep and goats were valued by the ancient Hebrews – sheep for their meat and wool, goats for their meat and milk, and both for various uses of internal organs. Neither was rejected; but they were distinctly different.
As I have written in previous issues of this journal, I believe that the circumstances we find ourselves in, after the Paradigm Shift, will be circumstances ideally suited for our continued growth as spiritual beings. Whether we are in a more advanced spiritual group, or a less advanced class, or in a temporary spiritual limbo, we will be just where we need to be, and our existence as spiritual beings will continue to be purposed and planned for great goodness.
Whatever happens, our primary purpose remains the same – to grow as a soul, an individuated portion of God’s beingness, into greater and greater godlikeness and compatibility with God. As Roy Smith wrote in Incarnation and Reincarnation, “Souls are spiritual children.” We are here to grow up. Physical incarnations – earth lives - for souls are part of God’s plan to help us do just that: grow up.
Barbara Marx Hubbard says we are “godlings.” Our job is to grow toward ever greater maturity as god-beings. Whether we are in the group of souls who are relatively more mature and ready for more advanced learning, or in the group who are relatively less mature and need more time for learning current lessons, we will each be given an even greater opportunity to grow towards God.
Inevitably, this dividing of humankind into two large groups requires a profound polarization. This is happening in spirit, at the soul level, of course. And, it is increasingly reflected here among us incarnate personalities. We are taught that, spiritually, all of humankind is One. However, right now – and for the immediate future – we are collectively in a time of polarization. We are dividing ourselves into two groups.
I stress that this is not “winners and losers.” We will not be separated based on virtue or on who does God love best. We will be separated simply on our differences in spiritual growth – and each of us will be in an environment that will stimulate and assist us at our respective levels of spiritual growth.
Each group will get what they want. The group that remains more focused on current lessons of earth-living will not feel rejected or judged or put-down. There is no need to feel sorry for them. They will feel victorious and righteous. They will believe they have won. They will be glad that those of us who disagree with them and ask difficult questions are no longer around to deny them getting what they want for themselves. Each side will feel that they are the true winners.
I believe that after the shift, each group will be relieved to be rid of the other. A more mature spiritual being tends to be focused on values such as spiritual awareness, ethics, concern for the whole human family, responsible care for the earth, and seeking peaceful resolutions – win/win solutions – to problems. He or she seeks Goodness for the “whole” within a framework of spiritual values.
A less spiritually evolved person basically is focused on personal accomplishments - getting what he or she wants for himself or herself. Untroubled by all that “stuff” about the environment and the rights of the poor and the role of international cooperation, they seek to get what they want for themselves and their small group. While the more mature spiritual seeker has long-term concerns for their own growth as well as for the condition of the Earth, the less mature person almost always has a short-term viewpoint: I want what I want for myself and I want it now.
We see this clash every day in our nation’s political life – the clash between long-term responsibility vs. short-term profit, the clash between caring for the elderly, poor, and disabled in the U.S. and abroad vs. elected officials getting what they want for themselves. I believe this division is between those souls who are relatively more spiritually advanced and those souls who are less spiritually advanced. However, for those who seek to act ethically or responsibly, the idea of take-what-I-want-for-myself – i.e., short-term personal gain at long-term societal cost – is anathema. It seems the antithesis of all that is worthy. People with this self-aggrandizing mentality seem to block action to benefit the greater good for all.
Yet, for those primarily interested in personal gain, people who keep pushing for sacrifice now in order to have greater goodness later are also seen as an unacceptable block to their aims. The “bleeding hearts” and “tree-huggers” keep getting in the way of those who seek a direct route to their personal power and benefit. Indeed, those whose values are focused on their own short-term gains do not really believe in the long-term language of their antagonists. They really believe that everyone has their same values – short-term personal gain - and that their political and economic opponents are simply using ethics as a smokescreen for pursuing their own personal interests.
For each spiritual group it seems that the others are fundamentally wrong in their orientation. Do you see that each group would welcome a world, a situation, in which the other group were not there? If you have a genuine long-term concern for Earth and all Her inhabitants, wouldn’t it be easier to act collectively on those concerns if power were not held by people whose primary interest is short-term financial gain for themselves?
Likewise, if you clearly want what you want, and you are willing to do whatever is necessary – even unethical or violent - in order to get it, and you believe that in their hearts everyone else is just like you, then wouldn’t you welcome a world or situation in which there are no people who insist that we all act with basic human ethics, or work together for the common good?
No matter which side of the polarity you come out on, after the Paradigm Shift you should be pleased to be there. You should be especially pleased that your primary detractors – those whose values are so unreasonably and radically different from your own - are now out of the immediate picture.
You are now free to work with likeminded people to achieve what your heart desires. No matter where you wind up after the Paradigm Shift, you will feel that you have “won.” You will be with others like yourself. That large group of humanity whose spiritual values caused them always to block you will no longer be present in your world. And you will be grateful.
In a way, with the Paradigm Shift, each of us will be more able than ever to get what we want, individually and/or collectively. This is precisely because those with radically different spiritual values will be learning and growing in venues separate from each other.
Truly, won’t each group feel that they have “won” – that they now have what they want? And won’t it be true for both? For each group will have a better-than-ever opportunity to face the spiritual issues that are theirs at their level of learning, to do the personal growth work that they seek to do, and progress toward greater godlikeness.
And that’s what it’s all about, regardless of where we find ourselves after a global Paradigm Shift. God has never failed to offer each of us myriad opportunities for growth and service. That will also be true in the future that awaits each of us. God will be with us, in each group. Each of us will be blessed and encouraged to grow.
We will all “win.” We will all get what we want. And we will all – each and every one of us – continue to abide in God’s love and care – just as we always have.