Another Return…

TUES., JULY 9, 1996, 10:41 AM
AIRPORT, ST. LOUIS

On your way, yet again, to a visit in that island state where you began your professional career 48 years ago. It is not with the same anticipation that you had as you boarded the Lurline, but it is far from an ordinary place, so there is some sense of thrill.

You shall look forward to seeing Central Union Church again, where you enjoyed serving Me as a member of a fine choir… and where you and Lenore were married. Their Thrift Shop is now a kind of symbol, so you expect to get a shirt or so, just to remember the visit. In those early days your spirit was exhibited in your teaching and in your relations with the kids who were students… and athletes. It was your spirit rather than your ability that brought about your selection as head track coach and, finally, head football coach. You didn’t reject the Church, but it was not a time, yet, for the kind of spiritual knowledge you now have.

You can now see the progression. You weren’t there long before you knew that you and Lenore were meant to live this life together. Your lack of spectacular success as a coach combined with your perception that Lenore was not a sports enthusiast and would not want to be a coach’s wife pushed you off to Stanford as a doctoral student. But if you hadn’t been at Punahou, would you have thought of going to Stanford? It was a “minor tradition” among faculty there, and you became part of that tradition.

When you finished that degree, with an active life as a Presbyterian nicely begun, you were led back to Punahou, for some good teaching experience and some important learning about yourself. It was that your best role in the education field was to be as a professor, and you got your chance to start that career in the comfortable/uncomfortable place, Stanford. (But also remember that if you hadn’t been there for that 2 year period your sister would not have ventured so far West, and you wouldn’t be making this present trip, to the visit with family there.)

Aside from good experiences at Stanford and a good start on your adequate publishing career, remember that I entered your life in a more direct way, through some noon-time Bible study. You affirm that you were born again there in Menlo Park, and thus you and I came a step or two closer together. You also began a short time of early morning written meditations, a basic pattern for these Teachings, 15 years later.

The position at SIU in Carbondale seemed initially unlikely, but then seemed “just right”. I had guided you, and now you were to settle in this unimportant part of the country. Actually it was partly an example of My sense of fun. I was to call you, after nearly 14 years there, to be in the mystical tradition, receiving Teachings from Me, the Holy Spirit. You had become a reasonably good writer, but you were a Presbyterian, in health education (a decidedly minor field in higher education), and you were working in Carbondale at a less than prestigious university, and living on a funky Farm near Cobden. It was like… “What good could come out of Nazareth”! But that’s what I did, and I’m pleased with the result.

Though your teaching, your relations with some students, and some published writings you are identified as one concerned with spirit as a dimension of health. This is as it should be. (And, remember, I haven’t called you to be a Moses-type leader… aren’t you grateful?!) And now these Ruminations of Ours come forth regularly, wherein you reiterate your special, mystical relationship with Me. A few who read these will truly accept what you affirm, but most will have some amount of doubt… or just not know how to react to such an unlikely combo.