A Common Lifestyle

SUN., APR. 17, 1983, 5:31 AM
FARM, FRONT OF FIRE

Your discussion class last evening was very pleasing to Me, naturally, because it was a time of people telling stories, and many of these gave evidences of spirit. Your plan, yours and David’s, was to close with some consideration of how all of these themes fit into lifestyles, but you weren’t willing to engineer the discussion at that time. So let Me give you some thoughts on a lifestyle that is most pleasing to Me. Outwardly lifestyles can be and should be quite diverse, but there are certain elements that are common to the “life in Christ”, My favorite lifestyle for servants.

Let’s commence with spirit. In the common lifestyle there is an awareness and appreciation of spirit. Spirit is involved in a purpose and meaning for life… and in a concern for others more than for self. Spirit also is the aspect of self that responds to Me… that says Yes to a relationship with Me… that knows beyond what it is reasonable for the mind to know. Spirit unifies the self and is the best means of bringing unity out of the competing forces and influences of life. The lifestyle I urge is one with spirit experienced and manifested in these ways.

Health is the quality of that life… how well the individual functions in the many ordinary and expected ways and how she adapts to new, changed, and challenging situations. This certainly involves the functioning of that marvelous creation of Mine, the human body, but also of the incredible human mind, the emotions, and the self in relation to others. And yes, I do approve of the inclusion of an environmental dimension to health… a concern for a harmony with other creatures, plants, the land, the air, and the waters.

The fullest health is in evidence, of course, when spirit is the coordinating, unifying force. I do not begrudge the evidences of health that are in the young, even as they reject or ignore Me and seek their own will and pleasures. Sometimes it is necessary to live without My “services” in order to appreciate what life could be like in partnership with Me. The loss of health, temporarily or permanently, is a challenge to spirit, and such times and circumstances can bring more commitment to Me and to others, or, in contrast, a turning away and a feeling sorry for poor self. Yes, health begets spirit, and spirit begets health. To those who have more of one, generally there shall be more of the other.

Medicine is part art and part science, and it is the practice of means by which healing may occur… the resurgence of health. Medicine is necessary because health is not always full and abounding. Medicine is a means of serving others in powerful ways, and the common characteristic I like to see in medical personnel is a desire to use their time and talents, and the technology they can use, for restoration.