Alas!? O World Of Mine

TUES., JULY 31, 1990, 6:16 AM
FARM, STUDY

Two experiences from yesterday trigger this title… and, yes, the punctuation is correct. The talk with Ray and the television program centered in the big city emergency room each encourages the thought that I have lost control of this earth scene, and that destruction and chaos are upon us. So, as you expect, again I shall affirm that these impressions, however vivid, are not reality. This is, still, My Father’s World. We are still firmly at the helm.

You listened to impressions of life for some urban youth in the drug scene. They used drugs, they were part of gangs who sold drugs, and they now are in a correctional institution for crimes committed, not often drug related. This life brought them money and what it could buy. Most will go back to that life, for its advantages and despite its woes. They seem to have no other better choice.

My chosen people, the Jews, were slaves in Egypt and slaves in Babylon. In your time, early, they were persecuted and killed in great numbers in Europe. Life is precarious in and around Jerusalem today because of the competition for the place among three Peoples of the Book. There always has been danger and suffering for some of My people, even those chosen and reasonably faithful to My call. Alas, this world is not the Eden you expect it to be.

In contrast, you live in simple luxury, on this beautiful Farm, with work to do and opportunities galore for service… and you’re paid well. Are you more deserving than these youth from Chicago ghettoes? than poor Palestinians? than those who are hurt in the urban clashes? Yes and No. Each person in the earth has an equal chance to live a selfless, worthwhile life. It may not seem this way, but I, the Holy Spirit, do affirm it.

Each person has had some say in the kind of life into which she has been born and now lives. It is not complete free choice, for there are many spiritual “forces” involved, including Me. And some individuals choose poorly and then must live a life for which they are not suited. In one sense, then, you are “deserving” of this life situation and the chance to continue a long “career” as a teacher and writer. But in such a scene much is expected of you, in terms of motivation and of actual behavior. Those who succumb to selfishness and pride in situations like unto yours must atone later in ways that seem harsh.

Yours is not a career of saving lives, as personnel do in hospitals. In contrast, you have developed a popular course in which learners come to appreciate more the realities of death and of the dying process. Physicians have many opportunities to serve Me and their fellow humans, but they must deal with temptations to be greedy and to idolize themselves, as well as physical life.

While many of these young men in the correctional facility shall never rise above their competitive urban life, a few will. A few will come forth to be physicians, teachers, probation officers, even clergy. And, yes, their achievements are greater than yours could ever be, because of this rise from squalor. In one sense the earth experience is quite important. In ultimate reality it is simply part of a larger whole… an on-going attempt at spiritual growth. Some spirits “crash and burn” but then rise up again and develop. There is no need for you to know more about this now.