If you look out into the world — well, for those of us in the U.S.A., since I am speaking from my own lived context, but this can apply to other countries as well — if you look out and think that those who are leading this country are the epitome of inner transformation and the continuous renewal of the heart, soul, and mind, you need to go within yourself and have a come to Jesus moment, because true inner transformation does not look like corruption, moral incoherence, unhealed trauma running the show, and power-hungry behavior dressed up as leadership. And this can go for all people across the full spectrum of political, religious, and ideological identity, mind you.

So, if all you see are leaders in this country who are stagnant in consciousness, stagnant in their leadership abilities, and stagnant in their soul development processes, where they are parading around as if they are the end-all and be-all of what constitutes leadership, ethical integrity, embodied wisdom, and soulful growth as a leader, it’s a clear sign that the bar for a country’s leadership has been set disturbingly low. And it may be time to stop looking up to leadership structures that are not inspiring us to consciously evolve, mature as a human being, and cultivate depth of soul within ourselves.

It also may be time to stop blindly worshipping a flag, country, or political side, no matter which camp it comes from, as rigidly attaching our identity to these kinds of external constructs can keep us from integrating higher forms of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding within ourselves as human beings, because being psychologically inflexible due to having our sense of self outsourced to these external symbols, authorities, and ideologies, it can actually stunt our overall development on an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual level, where we limit our own capacity for intellectual, emotional, and spiritual growth and expansion.

And if this is the best our country has to offer for leadership — especially the leadership that has currently installed itself and is trying to make this country function in ways that are spiritually bankrupt, ethically hollow, and psychologically regressive, which is a leadership structure that Jesus himself would have shunned, spoken out against, and exposed for its hypocrisy (not saying that he wouldn’t speak out against other corrupted systems of power as well, but the one right now is definitely the modern-day embodiment of the Pharisees, Herodian elites, and Roman-style imperial power structures) — then the issue isn’t just leadership; it’s the level of consciousness that we as a country keep rewarding.

And if we don’t like what we’re seeing reflected back to us, then it may be time to become the level of consciousness we wish to see expressed in our country’s leadership — and to do the inner work in our own lives that cultivates ethical integrity, embodied wisdom, and the true ever-unfolding renewal of the heart, soul, and mind. And to stop looking outside of ourselves to these stagnant-in-consciousness institutional strutures and systems — and their so called figures of leadership and authority — for guidance, validation, or direction.