The Angels of Arizona
have shown us the way

They knew going in that it was an extremely dangerous job, and that they could lose their lives. That is the extraordinary thing. They knew going in.

And still, they did it. They went into that Arizona wildfire. And 19 of those incredibly brave firefighters died in the service of their fellow humans. The loss — for their families, for their fellow firefighters, for their community, their state, and their nation — is almost unbearable. We keen and we ponder: What is the meaning of this? If there is a God, why did He not protect these, His bravest and most courageous? Why did they have to die?

The Conversations with God cosmology offers us, on this topic, a message difficult to embrace and challenging to even repeat. Yet I must do so here, if I am to remain true to the messages that have been given to me to send.

They did not “have to” die. We are told in HOME WITH GOD in a Life That Never Ends that “no one dies at a time or in a way that is not of their choosing.”

Can this be true? If it is true, how and why did those 19 Arizona firefighters make such a “choice”?

As we consider this, it must first be understood that this was not a conscious choice. Clearly, by every normal human measure, these men did not wish to die, did not seek to end their lives, did not choose to perish. So the statement above from Home with God refers to a choosing that is done not by the conscious mind, but at the level of soul.

I cannot know, and will not presume to state, the reasons, in each individual case, why these souls made the choice to leave the Earth in this way last Sunday. But I do know that these 19 souls allowing their lives to end in the service of others as they did places before us an indelible statement of Who They Are — and a testament to who we all are at the core of our being.

It has been said that survival is the basic instinct of human beings. The Conversations with God messages tell us otherwise. They tell us that the survival instinct is not our fundamental impulse, but that our prime desire is to express our Divinity. That is why some people — most people — find themselves doing extraordinarily brave things when the lives of others are on the line.

We step between the child who has wandered off the curb and the bus about to hit her. We jump on top of the man who has fallen from the subway platform just before the roaring train passes overhed. We run into the burning building in response to the cries for help — or into the blazing wildfire in response to the pleadings to protect the lives and dearest possessions of others.

This is Who We Are, this species we call Humanity. And some of our species demonstrate Who We All Are so that all of us may know who we really are, may remember who we are, underneath our fears. Some of us demonstrate what it means to be Divine so that all of us may have a model, may have a way of seeing in action, may have living proof, of the goodness and love for each other of which we are all capable, if we would but embrace that part of our nature, and stop thinking, first, of ourselves.

This is the spiritual message that I received as I pondered the death of those Arizona Angels: Andrew Ashcraft, 29; Robert Caldwell, 23; Travis Carter, 31; Dustin Deford, 24; Christopher Mackenzie, 30; Eric Marsh, 43; Grant McKee, 21; Sean Misner, 26; Scott Norris, 28; Wade Parker, 22; John Percin, 24; Anthony Rose, 23; Jesse Steed, 36; Joe Thurston, 32; Travis Turbyfill, 27; William Warneke, 25; Clayton Whitted, 28; Kevin Woyjeck, 21; and Garret Zuppiger, 27.

We can all pledge to them this day to use their acts of valor and selflessness as inspiration to live our own lives as free as we possibly can of self-interest first, of self-preservation first, of simple selfishness first, and to reflect as best we can the impeccable demonstration they have given us of the true greatness of the human spirit, the true love that resides in the human heart, and the true glory of the human soul.

Sometimes it takes a great tragedy to wake us up to the unspeakable glory of Who We Really Are, to shake us loose from the moorings of our fears and our self-serving limitations, setting us free to sail again the seas of our souls’ wondrous journey back home. In humble gratitude for what they have shown us of what it truly means to be greatly human, we today honor and salute those Arizona firefighters, and we choose and announce by our oath that their demonstration shall not be in vain.

Comments

5 responses to “The Angels of Arizona
have shown us the way”

  1. Awareness Avatar
    Awareness

    Thank you Neale Donald Walsch, it reminds me of the “12th Remembrance”:

    “The death of every person always serves the agenda of every other person who is aware of it. That is why they are aware of it. Therefore, no death (and no life) is ever wasted. NO ONE EVER DIES IN VAIN.” – Home with God 🙂

    1. Michael L Avatar
      Michael L

      Thank you Awareness for reminding me of that life fulfilling axiom.
      I have a question.
      Why when we have a suicide killer, we attribute the lesion to learn that guns kill.
      But when we have a forest fire possibly started by humans…. laws are not espoused to stop humans from destroying forests and nature and sometimes our selves.
      Couldn’t that be the awareness we are looking for?
      Just in my opinion.
      Love.

      1. Awareness Avatar
        Awareness

        Thank you Michael 🙂 This reminds me of the following remembrances:

        2nd Remembrance: “YOU ARE THE CAUSE of your own death. THIS IS ALWAYS TRUE, no matter WHERE, or HOW, you die.”

        3rd Remembrance: “You cannot die against your will.”

        11th Remembrance: “The TIMING and the CIRCUMSTANCES of death are always perfect.”

        The “solution” is not at the level of enacting more and more laws. It is at the level of CONSCIOUSNESS 🙂 A change in collective consciousness is required. This is happening already. This website is one evidence of this change 🙂 The Law of Gratitude is Given 🙂

        BASHAR of the Sassani (Living LIGHT) Civilization says: “From this year forward, as we have said before, your human race will create 1000 years more for its existence on the Earth in which it will know PEACE, EXPANSION, CREATIVITY and FAR LESS limitation and will become true 4th density beings.”

        We are already well on our way to becoming HIGHLY EVOLVED BEINGS 🙂

        Blessings to ALL 🙂

  2. Marko Avatar

    This is a great way to take what on the surface can appear to be a controversial statement and articulate what would seem contrary & insensitive, in a way that makes sense, whether you agree with it or not.

    This statement that “no one dies at a time or in a way that is not of their choosing.”, could really set off some strong feelings, emotions & debate.

    It is being able to bring messages like this into a understandable context, of one possibility of how this may be explained. Really great job Neale.

    This kind of sacrifice of the temporal body is the product of the time we live in as PEB’s.
    That is, Primitively Evolved Beings, who can even now be and do extraordinary things unlike & seemingly uncharacteristic of PEB’s.

    As we evolve, we will not have the need for this kind of trauma drama in our lives, but it appears to be what currently is, at this particular time.

    As we evolve, we will have less and less need for life to show up in this way. That time has not yet come, but I believe we are moving in that direction & understanding the greatness of what these men did, shows the divine even as we transition toward a higher eventual evolvement.

    Magical blessings,
    -Marko

  3. mewabe Avatar
    mewabe

    There are different kinds of heroism…some are dramatic.

    As a Native American elder said to a young Native American boy, at the turn of the 20th century: “it was easy for us to die as warriors defending our people, in a world that made sense to us…it will take a lot more courage for you to survive in a world that no longer makes sense”.

    It is, perhaps, the every day heroism that is missed by most of us, the courage that is needed by every soul to keep going in a world that rarely reflects the values of the soul and more often than not opposes them.

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