You are already in the kingdom of heaven.

How many times have you used or heard someone else use the expression, "Yes, but if only...?"  How often do we find ourselves looking at life and wishing to change things?  How many times do we think that we could be happy 'if only' we had something that we lack but others have?  Well, the truly good news is we never really have to make any changes to our real, true being to find perfect happiness and peace.  You see, we are already in the kingdom of heaven - here and now, wherever we are.  Jesus taught us this lesson when he told his followers that they shouldn't look here or there for heaven but, in his words, "...the kingdom of heaven is within you."
And if it's within you, then you don't need to go anywhere or do anything or change any part of your being to get there.  Yes, you may well find it hard to accept your current situation as heavenly.  You may be dealing with pain, death, betrayal, sickness, sin, etc., but it is so vital that we separate this sometimes painful physical reality from our true, ideal, spiritual being.  In Genesis, the Bible tells us "...and God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good."  The Bible and countless other spiritual teachers also stress that God is infinite, omnipotent, omnipresent Love, providing us with our lives and the lives of all those around us.  So, what could be a more accurate description of heaven than to be the image and likeness of perfect Love, surrounded by an infinite company of heavenly angels?
If this is the true reality of life, why then does there seem to be so much discord, hate, pain, war, poverty, and suffering in the world?  Evils only exist in the human realm, the domain of the earthbound mortals who are living lives "...of quiet desperation."  We live in desperation because deep within our souls we know we are in heaven, and we are so devastated to see that we have lost our vision of that kingdom of Love and see instead a world that seems increasingly to be filled with hate.  That picture so agonizes us that we suffer.
But the Truth is that we have within our power a way to end that suffering.  We can learn to turn wholeheartedly away from the mortal, material, hellish picture the human world puts before us.  We can discipline ourselves to stand guard over our thoughts and forbid entrance to mortal, erroneous ideas.  Yes, such discipline is work.  Yes, the temptation to believe the news headlines about thousands dying in an earthquake or scores being killed by a terrorist bomb is strong.  Yes, we have been taught our whole lives to think that what we see around us is objective reality with a mind and a cause of its own, outside of God's control.  But if we were taught that 2 + 2 = 7 from kindergarten on and everyone we knew thought it was true too, does that make it so?  Of course not - it just makes it an aggressive and persistent belief that often seems impossible to shake.  But if Christ Jesus tells you that 2 + 2 = 4, would you doubt him?  And if he told us that "...the kingdom of heaven is within you." why would you doubt that?
The trick is to trust the Christ, Truth.  Have that mustard grain-sized faith that allows us to trust in Jesus' words.  In this present material world, such faith may rarely be easy.  We are receiving too many signals from matter to the contrary.  This doesn't mean it's not true; it just means we have to persist in our faith and our trust that Jesus meant what he said.  It doesn't mean that suddenly the evening news is going to be filled with nothing but stories of heavenly bliss, but it does mean that we will slowly and surely begin to see more of heaven around us.  Practice makes perfect, and the longer we insist on abiding in faith and trusting in God, the closer we'll be to truly seeing heaven here and now.  God, Love, bless you all.