A Convention Closes

SAT., APR. 18, 1987, 7:39
FARM, STUDY

Yesterday was the close of the convention for you and the time for traveling home. You could have taken an hour for a Teaching, but I didn’t force this upon you. But this morning I pushed you a bit more, and here you are, ready for My comments on this convention as it was over.

It was a time of good fellowship, and this is an important part of a profession such as yours. It is good to see and talk with your own agemate colleagues and the few even older. Then there are those intermediate, and, finally, those just getting started. Know that I do purpose for you to be in this fellowship, whether or not you are a presenter. It is part of your mission to be a happy, positive professional… to live and exhibit the joy that is part of a good working life.

Even as I say this I would urge you to prepare for future conventions by getting yourself on the program in some way. You can make rather unique presentations, and I urge you to make this effort… even risking the unpleasantness of rejection. You have much to offer, and your doing such will enhance the more spiritual mission to which I have called you, albeit in an indirect way. Keep a list of programs and presentations you could do, and become more familiar with deadlines. This is a contribution I urge on you.

The gambling scene in which this convention was immersed needs My comment. I am not against the spirit of gambling. Life in the earth, as I describe it to you, is a gamble. You can live an earth life and in this process, by chance and by effort, you can grow spiritually… make spiritual progress. Or, again by chance or by lack of or misplaced effort, you can regress and be farther from Me. Or, in gambling terms you can beak even more or less, profiting very little from the life experience, whatever the external circumstances. You would say, then, that I would favor the gambling spirit. Invest your life to make a gain, even at the risk of being defeated. I am not against the spirit of gambling.

Nevertheless I cannot approve of the wanton waste of resources that is part of the leisure of your affluent culture. There is a decadence that is saddening, certainly. Yet many of the people you saw at tables or in front of machines do go back to a productive life, in service of their fellow humans. Some win and use winnings wisely. Some tell stories of experiences that enliven gatherings “back home.” I just see a larger, clearer picture, and though I do not approve of the overt gambling as such I am not universally critical of the scene. In the previous thought I did urge you to gamble.

8:17 AM / 8:20 AM

You were somewhat open to hearing of spiritual experiences, and you have a few more colleagues who are interested in what We do together, even as they may interpret it differently. Today, make a list of these post-convention responsibilities, and see that these are accomplished this next week. This works in a way similar to that of professional opportunities – your relationship to one person may be spiritually inconsequential, but she is the means by which you contact another, and this shall be quite worthwhile. (And it can be an even longer “chain.”) Reread the first Teaching on this trip, and reinvigorate yourself with the value of stories… and write several that you heard. Eventually this shall be recognized as a unique expression of research, even as it is not, at this time.