The all-encompassing narrative of the whole world—everyone and everything—is the evolution from darkness to light, from constraint to freedom, from exile to redemption. But how should we view those narratives that come up, often very strongly and compellingly, which appear to express the exact opposite?

Clearly, these are not true in the deepest sense, and we need to look at the full context.

Let’s take, as an example, a narrative of a person who is not yet making good choices and whose behavior might be negatively impacting others. It goes without saying that the issues have to be addressed in a grounded way, but at the same time, we need to remember the deeper perspective taught by the Alter Rebbe in Tanya.1

For this person to behave in such a negative way, the deepest part of them—their G‑dly spark—is constrained and imprisoned in the darkest exile. We should bless them that their soul should be fully revealed and shine. With their ensuing repentance, they will experience their own individual redemption.

Or, perhaps our clever evil inclination is seamlessly linking details into a bleak internal narrative to challenge our inherent, natural love and faith in G‑d, which is part of the spiritual DNA of each of us. We must not forget that the deeper intent of this challenge is for us to strengthen ourselves by ignoring its machinations.2 While it attempts to slow us down from our unique mission of healing the world, we should forge on with vitality and joy.

How important it is to hold this meta-analysis view to help us envision the one true narrative. Let’s open our eyes, minds and hearts to see these transitional and transformational shifts in ourselves and the world around us. This will surely give a quantum boost to our efforts and bring redemption swiftly to our world.