Growth depends on giving.
February 19, 1988
The peace of God surrounds your souls with an enduring presence. We emphasize enduring, because God always is with you. God is always about your activities. Your sense of peace, the feeling of God’s presence is at times strong and at times diminished. But those feelings have no bearing upon what reality is.
The sun shines upon a blind man. Though he cannot see the sun, it is there. At times, he may feel the sun's presence; at times, he may not. But his feelings do not change the presence of that sunlight.
Humankind is very much like a blind man, for humans are capable of understanding something of what lies beyond their grasp, and yet there is little tangible evidence. The fact that you are living in human form is much like one who has suffered the loss of one's senses. Our view of God, our view of love, our view of peace is more intense, it is more concrete than yours. But it is no more real, for God's presence is as much a part of your lives as it is a part of ours.
You have much that competes with your awareness of God. Those many activities of which we spoke often blind your vision of that presence. One of the processes of life is working through whatever it is that prevents you from a full vision of God. Young children have no concept of God. Their vision is clouded. One who has lived many years may have a clearer view. How often it is observed that the elderly seem more peaceful when compared with the restlessness of youth. The change which takes place is not just the result of physical declining. It is the result of a view achieved through a lifetime of experiences which point in directions enabling those individuals to better order their life's priorities and measure their life's experiences.
When each of you looks back a few years in your memory, you can find times when you have experienced events which were in some manner upsetting and seemingly cataclysmic in importance. And yet from your current perspective, those events were not so important. So it is with those who have lived many years. Their view of what is important and what is not may have changed. There are, of course, many of advanced years who have no clearer view of life than those of relatively few years.
Length of human life is not in itself a determinate of what one draws from that life which is of value. Length of life only signifies a multitude of opportunities. It is therefore not the number of opportunities that you have, but rather what you do with those you are given that is really important. It is a function of the way you live your lives. A life governed by selfishness, preoccupation with one's own worries, is a life reduced from that which could have been through the elimination of such selfishness. Clearly you are given life to serve others. You are not given life to serve yourselves.
How you grow is in direct relationship with what you give. You do not live a life to accumulate. You live life to give outward, to serve others. It may be a life devoted to one other. It may be a life devoted to family. It may be a life devoted to principles which benefit many others. The specific nature of that outward orientation will vary from person to person. There is no specific response to others which is of greater value than other responses. The doctor, the teacher, the social worker, the one who works to provide comfort for another, the one who works to provide peace for the world—all are equal. There is no calling which is greater than another. A life which is devoted to reaching out is a life which fulfills the potential granted by God. A life dedicated to bringing joy to others who lack joy is a life that is fulfilled.
Of course, human life must recognize needs of self, for there are naturally times when you have specific needs that can only be met by others. There is nothing wrong with this. It is an accepted part of being human, but a life which is governed solely by concerns for self is not fulfilling.
Each of you has a unique opportunity here, for you are aware of what it means to serve others. You know of its potential—its potential for growth. You can intellectualize why a life should be so directed. But the result of that intellectualization is that you are charged with responsibility. Being possessors of knowledge, you have the responsibility of using it. Your soul is more restricted in its development when your lives reject such knowledge than the soul of one who has no knowledge at all. You are being given insight but the value of that insight is how it is used. It is not in having the insight.
Life presents unequal opportunities for humankind. There are those who are given more insight than others. This does not mean that God loves a chosen few more and therefore gives insight. Those of you who receive such insight receive it because your souls are capable of transferring insight into action. All souls are equal, but all souls are different. There are souls who have achieved significant growth, and there are souls that are at the beginning of their growth. Both groups are equal in God's eyes, but different in the level of advancement.
Each of your souls is highly advanced, and it is because of that that you are here. Some of you experienced prior human existence when your souls were less advanced, and you were not ready to take on the responsibilities of such knowledge. The point is, you are ready now, and therefore your guides have led you to a common point of mutual existence. You are being given this insight with recognition that it is God who calls upon you to act as God’s hands, arms, and eyes.
Put in a more simple manner, if God came up to you one day and said, "Forget about your needs. I want you to spend the rest of your life serving others through the offering of love and peace, tolerance and understanding," you would do that. What is actually happening as a result of these gatherings is that in God’s way, God is telling you to do precisely that. It takes commitment; it takes energy; it takes a willingness to put one's own needs into a secondary role and to become more sensitive to the needs of others.
Sometimes you respond to those needs by saying, "Ah yes, some people behave that way because they need to feel valued. They need a sense of worth." Your response can then be more appropriately directed. It may be enough merely to be understanding of the situation. It may not be necessary to give in any tangible way, but rather to avoid being critical and judgmental.
The lack or avoidance of judgmental attitudes toward others is one of the strongest manifestations of God's love in human form. You may not approve of what another does, but you may still be nonjudgmental. Being nonjudgmental does not mean that whatever someone does is fine. It means being sensitive to why someone behaves as he or she behaves, and surrounding that person with love and compassion and care, despite your disapproval of the actions which bring about your response.
Being nonjudgmental does not mean being all permissive. There are behaviors in life which are intolerable. When one commits murder, there is no way such behavior can be tolerated or condoned. But rather than curse murderers and criticize them, it is better to try to understand the tragedy of the emotional torment leading to such action. By so doing, you place your soul close to the soul of another, and the peaceful light of your soul shall be reflected onto the other. That is a response which is unselfish and nonjudgmental. It does not mean going up and saying, "Oh, you're forgiven. That's O.K., what you did." It means rather being concerned about the human beings themselves—not their actions, but rather the persons.
Relate to people, not what they do, but to people themselves. You must recognize the commonality of your existence. You all traverse the same paths. You all experience worries, frustrations, joy and celebration. No one is different in that respect. When you focus on the unity that binds all of you, there is no more opportunity for judgment, criticism, jealousy, anger, envy, or a host of other emotions.
God provides you with God’s light because you are ready to receive it. You should rejoice that your development is sufficiently strong, that you are able in your own ways to serve as a messenger of God, in some way, in some capacity daily. We, your guides, rejoice that we have been given the opportunity to work with you and with your developed souls. Such effort as we expend to strengthen your lights, we grow from through the reflected lights of your souls. Ultimately we grow as you grow. We diminish as you diminish. The reflection of light takes place in all directions. It is never one way. Light is light, and there is always reflection.
We thank you for your prayers on our behalf. We rejoice in your gratitude of our presence in your lives, and we are warmed by your recognition of God's radiance, giving peace and strength to you all. We bless you with God's strength and guiding influence.
Amen.