When I really needed money, the universe gave it to me!
Ah. That old chestnut.
Most of us have had at least one moment we considered lucky or synchronous where we found, say, money on the ground when we really needed cash. Or where the cashier at a store had charged us far less than the price of the items we bought. Or one of the restaurant waitstaff gave us way too much change back. Some of us go further than luck and claim that this is an answer from the universe, which becomes our excuse to not fess up.
Sometimes it truly does feel like a prayer answered, right? Maybe all the time. But it isn’t all the time. How can we tell the difference? If your good fortune is someone else’s bad fortune and you could have done something about it but didn’t, that’s not the universe talking, you’re just selfish.
Indeed, there are situations where the person losing out for our gain cannot be tracked down, such as when we find loose cash on the sidewalk. If it’s a lot, the finder might want to consider waiting around a bit to see if anyone comes back for it. If it’s a wallet full of money, this is definitely not for you and you should track down the owner. And if the cashier errs in your favor? Also not for you.
I know that last one really feels like it should be, especially if it’s a cashier at a monopolizing chain store. Who doesn’t want to stick it to The Man every once in a while? But the man or woman you’re actually sticking it to is the cashier. The cashier who, at the end of his/her shift, has to cash out the drawer with the right amount of money or face reprimand and potentially get fired. The cashier whose salary likely hovers at, or just above, minimum wage.
Yes, it is true that sometimes the universe gives you what you need. But sometimes this same universe gives you what you need in a way that would harm others as a test to see if you’ll do the right thing. These two offerings from the universe look strikingly alike. Here is another example of how discernment is needed in a spiritual realm where we so desperately want to abandon all judgment.
Discerning gift from test requires a judgment call. To ignore these types of real judgments because we find that word “judgment” icky is to screw over other people as we cave to desire. The people who do this are often the same people who talk about love and light and creating our own reality. They see found wealth as a prize for good karma, not the creation of bad karma. Why believe these things at all if we are just going to bend them to our want? Isn’t that the hypocrisy of the church we’ve abandoned for the New Age?
New Age: same as the Old Age.
We cannot run from ourselves into the new, because the so-called “new” is of thought, is of time, is history repeating itself. The new is not new at all. Newness is a gussied-up costume hiding the old and the always.
There are signs “in the universe” to be read, but reading them requires literacy. When we understand what we’re reading and why, certain of these never appear again in our lives, for they no longer apply to us. If this hold true for you and yet these tests start up again in the future, that, too, is a sign.
For one who is trapped or engaged in thought, tests like these are what they appear to be. For one who transcended thought, tests are an indicator that their transcendence was temporary and they are now back to a self that is just as likely to do the wrong thing as right. This is a sign that whatever such a one experienced, it was a state of mind visited, not the new stage upon which they live.
Who is doing the testing? Who, exactly, is this “universe” giving us what we need?
Ask yourself. Ask with no answer in mind. Ask and remain clear. See what clarity becomes you. Consider reporting back to us in the Sitting Circle.