Ask God what is important.

Your God is with each of you. This you truly know. Were we not to say this, you would still know it, for your lives are gradually drawing closer to what it is that God holds out for each of you. 

In some ways your lives may be compared to the lives of those who are less fortunate and suffer from hunger. They search many places for food, for sustenance, and only after much searching do they find that which is being offered them. Each of your lives is a search—a search for others, a search for peace both within and without, a search for acceptance, for insight, a search for opportunities for growth. But most especially your lives may be characterized through the search for love of which we have spoken. 

It is God and God only who can provide you what you must ultimately accept as your greatest need. There are those among you in the world who have not come to terms with what is needed in their own direction. Some are content with the status quo. Some feel their lives are fulfilled because the intermediate objectives appear to be met. But their lives consist of more than what lies in the immediate future. 

Life is a long-range view. It is that longer view, the view of the distance, which helps to provide meaning and shape to what is close at hand. A mountain peak may be beautiful to view, but the view itself needs a foreground. That which lies before may be of interest, but it is set apart in perspective when it is considered within the view of what lies far ahead. 

Your searching, therefore, must be governed by your perception of your ultimate goals, your ultimate destiny, if you wish to call it that. That ultimate objective is, of course, union with God. But that journey is of infinite length, and because of its great distance, so many lose its view and can only see what is close by. As you proceed through your life, recognize what is important in the immediate future and what is of lasting importance. It is too easy to lose sight of what lies ahead because of all that lies in your immediate proximity. 

What then does one do to maintain vision? There is the need to unclutter one’s life, to remove the nonessential from the essential. There is a need for simplification. Too much occupies your daily activities. They may be the activities themselves. They may be concerns, worries, but much that is a part of your immediate life takes on an importance far greater than is appropriate. If there is one suggestion that could be used to help you organize your life to the greater benefit of your growth, it would be simply stated with the instructions to simplify, to cut back, to eliminate what is really not important. This is not to suggest that you should concern yourself only with meditation and not the matters of earthly life. It is merely to emphasize the importance of recognizing the ultimate reason for your life, that being the perception of God reflected in your life and by your life. Such perception then throws light ultimately upon all aspects of your life. Those areas which are essential are illuminated and highlighted, and those parts of your life which are of little importance remain in darkness. 

We strongly recommend that you seek time in your daily activities when you can quietly ask God, “Is this important? Is this essential?” The answers will always be clear and direct. If they are unimportant or nonessential, then there is good reason for you to move those activities and worries behind you and focus on what is central to your life. 

We emphasize that the cluttering of lives is not to be interpreted merely as a material one but also an emotional one. Bereavement is a cluttering of sorts. Worry about another is a cluttering. You must face the reality that there are those parts in your life that you alone cannot resolve which must be handed to God. You ask for help from God, but for God to work with you in dealing with issues, you must be willing to let those issues be passed on to God. It doesn’t mean that you have no control over them and let happen what will happen. It is rather the willingness to act on faith with the knowledge that in all of the issues, God is a part. 

You are a partner with God. You are not somehow separate from God. Your actions are done in partnership with God. Your reactions, your emotions are exercised in partnership with God. Of course, you may choose not to consult with God but to act on your own, but it is that partnership which provides the potential for positive living. If you feel that partnership, if you are willing to say, “What do we do? Is this important?” then you shall reap the benefit of that relationship with God, and your lives will take on a stronger sense of direction and meaning. But that direction, that meaning, is achieved only with the view, a long view, to the brilliance which lies before with God and the illumination of the high peaks which are close by. 

We see your life going through many phases. There are moments when you reflect great brightness and warmth, and we, too, bask in that. There are other times in your life when we serve as reflectors of God’s brilliance upon your life. But wherever you may be in the cycle of your life, the brilliance of God is always present, reflected by you or by us. There is no time when the light does not shine. It is for you to be willing to reach forward and be willing to accept God’s offering of light to your life. 

God’s blessings upon each of you are countless in number. So many blessings have been offered of which you are not even aware, and yet despite that lack of awareness, your lives are all the richer. 

We praise God through our service as your guides and we bless you through God’s blessing of spiritual unity and communion. All of us, you and we, your guides, are totally and inseparably united through God’s love and God’s peace. Rejoice in that great union! 

Amen.