It is true that I am comfort, but truly I am more than comfort. Comfort is the least I give you. The truth is that when you know your place in My heart, you need no comfort. From what egregious fear do you seek comfort or protection?

Again, as with loss and gain, you feel you are bereaved in life, and therefore you need solace. You feel denied something. You may even feel you are owed something, something big, and that I owe it to you. You keep waiting for it. Perhaps you think you are owed a prince who will lift you off your feet and carry you to a palace called enlightenment.

But you have not paid attention to where you are. You are already in the palace.

It is your recognition that need changing.

You have let outmoded beliefs hold you back.

Thus you have held yourself back.

You hold on to old beliefs more than you look to Me.

You say you have to find Me for yourself, and yet you hang on to other men's thoughts and quote them, as though they were the gospel, not I.

You favor what proves your point. The point you like to make is that where you are (where your thinking is) is just right. You want to be right more than you want to be open to Me.

You say you have to be enlightened before you can know Me. Forget enlightenment. Remember Me. Otherwise, everything you say is an excuse for staying where you are. Nothing bars you from Me. But you allow much to keep you away. You tantalize yourself.

Your thinking is mixed. You say enlightenment comes before Me. That is like saying you must have your Ph.d. before you can go to school.

I come before everything. Locate Me, and you will have enlightenment. Enlightenment is a by-product of Me. I am not a by-product of enlightenment. Enlightenment is not your name put up in neon lights. There will be no flash-of- lightning-announcement that you are enlightened. There will be no great signal of My arrival. Do not make conditions for My arrival. I am arrived.

What excuse will you have next for not claiming Me as your own?

Until you accept your worthiness, you will excuse yourself from My presence.

It is true that I am a gift I bestow upon you, but you do not wait for a gift you have already received. You open it up. There is no need for you to wait for anything. Do not wait even for Me. Why patiently wait for the One Who is already here?

All you have to do is look up. Look into My eyes, and you will see that I have been looking into yours for all eternity. I have been waiting for you to look up and see Me. Be not so patient with yourself when it comes to Me.

You have got it all wrong if you think I am down the road somewhere. I have already traveled to you. I am right before you. I am in your path, but you simply have kept your head down. You have kept Me out of your sight. You cannot keep Me out, but you can keep your eyes closed to Me.

It is such a little veil you have put over your eyes. Lift a corner of that veil. Admit the possibility that I am right here before you, eager for your embrace. It is not flattering yourself to believe that I am yours; it is acknowledging truth. It is unmasking yourself. I am already in plain sight before you. All that remains is for you to say hello.