Obstacles
"Okay," I said. "So far, we've covered how the soul offers quests, the mind selects one, a map is made, and a wise mentor appears to assist in the journey. Now, Zac, what happens when the hero steps out into the unknown?"
"He encounters obstacles and challenges," Zac replied.
"Exactly. You see, something is not an obstacle unless it stands between Who You Currently Are and Who You Desire To Be. If you are an Olympic marathon runner, and I challenge you to run three miles, that is not an obstacle. You believe yourself to be an Olympic marathon runner, so running three miles is the equivalent of a healthy person taking their next breath. There is no fear surrounding it because the outcome is assured. However, if you ask an unfit couch potato to run three miles, that is a challenge because it sits outside the realm of Who They Currently Are.
Therefore, anything you perceive to be an obstacle is really just a physical symbol of a conceptual question: 'Who are you?' You answer that question with your thoughts, words, and actions relative to the obstacle. God succinctly sums this idea up…"
Do not condemn, therefore, all that you would call bad in the world. Rather, ask yourself, what about this have you judged bad, and what, if anything, you wish to do to change it.
Inquire within, rather than without, asking: “What part of my Self do I wish to experience now in the face of this calamity? What aspect of being do I choose to call forth?” For all of life exists as a tool of your own creation, and all of its events merely present themselves as opportunities for you to decide, and be, Who You Are.
This is true for every soul, and so you see there are no victims in the universe, only creators. The Masters who have walked this planet all knew this. That is why, no matter which Master you might name, none imagined themselves to be victimized — though many were truly crucified.
Each soul is a Master — though some do not remember their origins or their heritages. Yet each creates the situation and the circumstance for its own highest purpose and its own quickest remembering — in each moment called now.
Neale Donald Walsch
"Do you remember when God said: 'The first thing to understand about the universe is that no condition is "good" or "bad." It just is. So stop making value judgments. The second thing to know is that all conditions are temporary. Nothing stays the same, nothing remains static. Which way a thing changes depends on you.' Well, I can explain this concept using our puzzle analogy. You're traveling along your journey, and reality is continually manifesting puzzle pieces (events & circumstances). Each puzzle piece is entirely neutral, with no inherent meaning attached to it. Therefore, each puzzle piece is just a question: 'Who are you, in relationship to this?'"
"Most people observe a neutral event and automatically label it 'bad' or 'unwanted,' which is a purely subjective judgment. They then answer the question, 'Who are you in relationship to this?' by expressing a lower version of themselves. This is equivalent to turning around and marching back to their starting destination (their old self). After a few years, they look back at their puzzle and point to that 'bad' event as the reason they failed. From their perspective, that 'bad' event appears to have caused all the other 'bad' puzzle pieces that manifested after it.
Other people treat every puzzle piece as an opportunity. They get rejected from an audition, and instead of using it as evidence that they're a terrible actor, they use it as an opportunity to practice and hone their craft — thus expressing a belief in themselves and their vision. Years and years of this self-belief will compound. These people tend to believe that they're walking through space and time towards their vision, and everything that appears along the way is somehow rigged in their favor. If it weren't rigged in their favor, it wouldn't have manifested in their reality. Then, when they look back on their puzzle after the quest is complete, they point to the 'bad' event and say, 'if that event hadn't have happened, I never would have made it here, to the finish line.'
You see, in an infinitely flexible simulation, reality can manifest puzzle pieces to fit any situation. That's why you can never connect the dots looking forward — you can only connect them looking backward. How you respond in this present moment affects the puzzle pieces that manifest in the past, too. Furthermore, at any moment in time, you can change your puzzle. If your puzzle looks like a failure, you can make a new decision about its meaning right now. Years later, you'll point to your 'failure' as the perfect event that occurred in the mosaic of your life.
I'll repeat this point again because it is so important: 'The first thing to understand about the universe is that no condition is "good" or "bad." It just is. So stop making value judgments. The second thing to know is that all conditions are temporary. Nothing stays the same, nothing remains static. Which way a thing changes depends on you.'"