Serve others and recharge.
November 12, 1983
God has responded to each of your needs, those which you have expressed to each other and those that you have offered to God. The fact that you share with one another your concerns serves to bring each of you closer, for as we said earlier, it is difficult to be truly open to another about your innermost feelings, but it is in being open that others are more able to respond.
What kind of response can you offer to those in your group and those beyond the group who express needs? In many cases the best response is a loving silence. None of you is able by yourself to solve the deepest concerns of another, but that does not mean that you cannot respond. It is not intended that you should believe that in all cases you can provide answers. You can, however, provide an atmosphere. The atmosphere of acceptance and a shared, loving concern is as a fertile ground is to a seed. The ground does not make the seed grow—the seed has within it potential for growth, but if the ground is not fertile, the seed will not grow.
If your group provides a fertile environment, then each of you will be able to grow spiritually as a result of that atmosphere. Conversely, if even one in the group is judgmental, then the atmosphere of the entire group is diminished in its fertility, and the opportunity for growth is cut short.
The potential present in this group is enormous. By your sharing you make each other aware of many of the same issues of which we are intimately aware. We know your thoughts without their being expressed. We know what concerns you by how you live, without even organizing those concerns into concrete thoughts, and we respond to those needs. However, you exist in your earthly plane and cannot respond to that which has not been expressed. So ultimately, your ability to respond is directly related to your perception of a need for response, and therefore the great benefit of mutual sharing.
There are times when you feel you should be doing more, that somehow it is wrong not to want to do more. However, life proceeds in cycles. Even a battery must be recharged if it is to be useful. Life cannot constantly push forward, cannot constantly be aimed outward, without the need for some kind of replenishment from within.
You live ultimately to serve others because God serves you, but that service cannot be continuous in its dealings with those around you. There are times when you must be more open to letting God empower you, to recharge you, to give you new perspective. That perspective change is important, for at such times you gradually achieve additional insight as to how to go about serving another. Service is not unchangeable, but no change is possible until the recognition of need is felt. To ecognize that need sometimes requires a pulling in. That is as it should be, and if you feel the need for a diminished outreach, that is God’s way of preparing you for a new service at a later time.
Sometimes career concerns are surrounded by numerous conflicts. Your objectives are not necessarily the objectives of others, but in the end you must move through the course of your life according to your perception of what life bids you to do. All individual have their own calling, so to speak. No one calling is more important than another, but taken together, there is a united effort. You should feel that you are proceeding in the proper direction when you approach your decisions through prayer. You may not achieve specifically what you seek, but in the seeking will be led in the direction which is best for you. It is the responsibility of all to be accepting of the chosen directions of others.
The world is not made to be inhabited by all seeking the same objectives. The world is made to contain variety. Life is too complex to be approached from one path. There is too much to be experienced, to be appreciated, to be encountered. Therefore, tolerance and understanding the directions of all others is essential.
The differences which characterize warring parties are essentially differences in perspective. They may be differences in political beliefs or religious convictions or social ways, but strains on the societies of the world begin as the result of conflicts in attitudes. It is simply incorrect to believe, for example, that one form of government which is appropriate in one nation is the only appropriate form of government for all nations.
A teacher in a classroom may be extremely effective, but when the teacher is removed to another teaching situation, the effectiveness is limited. The teacher is the same, but the situation is different. An administrator may be very successful in one form of business, but ineffectual in another. A philosophical construct may have great meaning for one society yet be irrelevant to another. There is no philosophical doctrine which is truly applicable to all societies.
Of course, one may say that love and the power of love are effective everywhere, but love is not a doctrine. It is not some kind of human construction which is used to explain or control something else. It is simply a basic element in human life. You should, therefore, seek greater tolerance and acceptance that there is more to an issue than what you perceive. There is more to an individual than that which you know. There is more to your own lives and all that you may perceive.
You may feel that you know yourselves as individuals quite well, but there is much about each of you that you are not aware of in terms of self-awareness. From our perspective with you, we know more about you than you know about yourselves, and it is for this reason that we are able to tell you certain things about your lives that you cannot necessarily believe or else you perceive that information to be fortune telling.
There is nothing in your lives that is predetermined. None of you is destined to do this or to do that. Were that the case, there would be no need for choice. Because we know you more intimately than you know yourselves, we recognize the relationship of your response to the stimuli that surround you. You will respond in keeping with your own character. One person will not respond to a challenge in exactly the same way as any other person. Those responses will each be different, and yet in keeping with each individual considering the characteristics of personality, intellectual development, etc.
It is because of these insights that we can assure you of the appropriateness of future responses you may make to concerns that each of you has. Litmus paper responds in a predictable way because of the way the paper is made. One can predict that response with certainty. In the same way, we can predict your response. Choice is there, of course, but your perception of that choice is dependent upon the individual characteristics of each of you and what each brings to bear upon that choice.
We feel that each of you must learn to accept with greater faith that which comes through us to you about the future. Our responsibilities are not as fortune tellers, and yet our response can be one of assurance and the encouragement of positive attitudes toward the future. We can encourage you to be optimistic, not pessimistic, but you must be willing to place your faith in all that we are instructed to divulge to you and share with you. That is your response to us. That is our response to you. You look for guidance, and when it is offered, you must be willing to accept it. It may be difficult to believe from time to time, but the source of that guidance is where your faith comes in. Your response must be through faith as our response from God to you is offered through faith.
We, your guides, urge you to seek more opportunities for meeting together and sharing your lives. No other activity is more worthy of your time. We bless each of you with God’s loving light and comforting presence.
Amen.