September 5, 1983
God is, of course, with each of you. That you know. You know God is with you even when you do not pray for God’s presence. There is really no time when you are alone, but when you pray for God’s presence, what you are doing is praying for your receptivity of God’s presence. Your receptivity, individually and collectively, changes from time to time, and there are moments when you are extremely open, when you are able to achieve an intense insight into God’s presence in your life. However, there are other times when your ability to sense God’s light is diminished.
At the stage each of you as individuals is in, a period of extreme receptivity, you are each at a point in your lives when you have much to look forward to and have much that you wonder about. The wonder may be concern or curiosity, extreme worry. But you are coming through a phase in your life, be it brief or long in duration, which has been characterized by a kind of gathering-in. By that we mean that you have gone through a period of self-assessment—assessment of your lives and an assessment of your beliefs, your faith—a time of examining what kind of strength you have. This assessment is important because it can serve as a springboard from which you proceed through the next phase of your life. When making such a procession, you are at a natural point which draws you more intensely than at some other times toward a vision of God, toward an application of God’s strength and light.
For some it is a view of what life is to be—its nature, its quality. For others, it is a question of where to direct one’s life—a change in heading, a change in emphasis. Whatever your perspective, you are again at a crossroads, and it is at such a spot that the potential for receiving the light of God is so great.
It is best for each of you in some form to consciously rededicate your lives to be a willful reflection of God. You have the potential, you have the ability—for that you are indeed greatly blessed. There are those who believe that dedicating one’s life as a reflection of God is a one-time dedication, that somehow one makes a decision on a particular day and from then on life proceeds as it should.
The truth is that each individual must continue periodically to evaluate life as it has been within the light of what life can be. It is not a matter of whether one has failed to live up to what life can be. It is merely an acknowledgment of where you are on the road of your spiritual development and whether you choose what lies ahead to be an appropriate destination. It is not a choice that one makes very frequently or on a regular basis, but there comes a time in each of your lives when such choices must be made. It is a matter of God’s blessing and wisdom that each of you is at the same stage in life as it relates to the choice at hand.
You are aware of the choice you’ll make when you join us—whether to continue development toward God or to eschew such growth. Such a decision does not wait for only this stage in your growth. It comes at various periods. There is a responsibility which each has to another, and because of that responsibility we strongly suggest that you strive to be fully open with one another about concerns—concerns for yourself and concerns for others. It is simply not true that one can go through life with virtually no stress, with no worry, for life contains that. You are given human life because of its human qualities. But each of you can help the other in this group directly and significantly by your willingness both to be completely open with another and your willingness to be completely nonjudgmental of one another.
There is a magnificent potential for mutual support. You have all the conditions which could ever be expected for providing strong spiritual support for one another. It is easy to be distant. It is easy to be noncommittal. It is easy to insulate and isolate oneself internally from another, but the great potential for challenge which is so rare and yet available for you as a group is the opportunity for openness and loving support. You have supported one another in the past, certainly. All we suggest is that you consciously seek more experience for support, more candor. Risk being open. Risk it in the faith that such openness is received and meant to be received without judgment of others. You are who you are, each of you. You are not what someone else wishes you to be. You are not what someone else is. The differences are great, but that is the nature of humankind. If you can learn to be truly nonjudgmental in your group, you have a chance of being nonjudgmental to the rest of humankind.
Therefore, grasp the opportunity which is given to each of you. Grasp the challenge, the chance to reaffirm your dedication to a life according to your perception of what God would wish. You are who you are, and yet you have learned to understand that God is really not a judge but a loving power. If God does not ultimately judge humans, who are you to do so? There can be no judgment in the presence of love. Choose to let love grow—choose to exercise it and thereby strengthen it. Choose to have faith in another—In another’s openness, in another’s acceptance. The potential is there in this gathering. Rejoice in this opportunity! It is not common, and yet it provides you with the opportunity for growth far beyond your dreams. That growth will then enable you to be more effective in reflecting God to all around you.
All of your guides are together at this moment, blessing your group, focusing God’s life and light upon your life and light. We pray that our purpose as given to us by God will continue to be effective in your lives, and that you will proceed outward to one another and ultimately to all others with pure love and an unselfish giving of God’s light.
And we join God now in blessing each of your lives.
Amen.