All of us, at some time or another, make exceptions to the rules we live by. Sometimes these exceptions serve a compassionate purpose:  you decide to forgive something that on another day might have made you really angry, for example. But just as often, our exceptions are born of judgments that drive wedges between us, keeping us separate not only from one another, but from God.

As human beings, we are born to perceive the world through the lens of our egos. It's unconscious, until we decide to become aware that we are doing it. As a result, we create a list of exceptions in our heads that validates what our egos want to believe. For example, there is a public debate about torture. A number of people believe that it's okay to torture "under certain circumstances." There is the exception. Most people believe that torturing and terrorizing a fellow human being is wrong—unless it isn't. Of course, no one can fully agree on when it isn't wrong to treat a person this way, but there is a belief that an exception must apply.

The problem with exceptions like this is that it causes us to think in a crazy way. It causes us to contort our own beliefs in such a way that we achieve what we think we want (a false sense of security, in this case), while simultaneously denying that we are distorting our own sense of truth.

To illustrate, let's take the Golden Rule:  "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Most people think that's a pretty good rule and would agree with that, in theory. In practice, however, we all create this long list of exceptions, of situations in which it's okay to treat someone the way you would never want to be treated yourself. Unless you're a masochist, you probably wouldn't want someone to torture you. Yet some people feel that torture, denying aid to "certain people," or being rude to wait staff or the customer service rep on the phone is okay—even though they may subscribe to the Golden Rule.

Christ himself said nothing about exceptions to the Golden Rule. He didn't say, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you—unless it's a matter of national security." This is the guy who stopped an angry mob from stoning a prostitute. This is the guy who loved the tax collector. This is the guy who humbled himself before the most humble. This is the guy who never made any exceptions to Love at all. And yet, we make exceptions to Love every day.

We are imprisoned by our egos. The ego desperately wants to be validated and believed in. It will do anything to raise itself above another, or to bring someone down, to feel better about itself. So this process of exception-making is the ego's method of distorting what is real so that its belief system is vindicated. And what is real?

What is real is that God is within us and all around us. We cannot perceive anything, anywhere, that is not God. Therefore, there is nothing, anywhere, that isn't Love. When we make exceptions to Love, we are making exceptions to God. We cannot decide to love some people, but not others, without excluding God in that judgment. We cannot decide that some lives are worth more than others because of who they are or what they have done, without excluding God. And this is a really scary concept for most people.

We really want to judge. We want to feel superior to others. The thought of loving someone who may have made really bad choices or with whom we completely disagree is daunting. Our egos resist mightily. But our hearts know the truth. The heart remembers that Love is all there is, even while the head tries to shout it down. We can get there, but we must begin by opening our hearts.

The most evolved people to walk this earth had open hearts. They did not make exceptions to Love. They didn't have to, because they knew that there was nothing to fear. Even when the people around them tried to kill Love, by killing them, they had nothing to fear. We are not separate. Divine Love never abandons us, under any circumstances. Even death is an illusion.

The first step in your healing and your spiritual growth is to decide to open your heart and heal the things that made you want to close it in the first place. We have all done it. No one is exempt. It's just part of the human game we're playing, and that's okay. But when we open our hearts, and we get used to how that feels, and we trust again, it becomes easier to rid ourselves of the list of exceptions. As we open ourselves to Love, we receive more Love, and we have more to give. As Love grows, our ego is no longer needed, we remember our Oneness, and we can become the masters that we truly are.

Related articles:

• Opening the heart
• We are One: All of our past lives
• We are One: We are the things we do not like
• Stuck in judgment ruts
• We are never alone
• Players on the holographic stage