Appreciate

OCTOBER 20, 1979, 6:02 AM

Hear me, o son, on a wet morning in San Diego. It is good that you come this morning, for I have much to say about your capacity and willingness to appreciate. Yesterday, certainly, was a day to appreciate. It was a day of opportunity and certainly a day of achievement. And you did appreciate it well. Of course I was with you, and I helped some, but fundamentally it was you… doing well what you do.

I appreciated this, for you are building further the professional position from which you can be of greater service. Some serve in meek and lowly ways and places, and I do love the meek and lowly. But that isn’t what you get to be. Oh, it is right that you are humble (though be sure not to overdo it… appreciate the kind of servant you are), but you must be and display this from fairly lofty places. This is what I want. This is what I need. You are developing in ways pleasing and appropriate.

The session on Spiritual Health was a dandy. Yes, I did lead you back to that writing I called Persist. It just fit in so well as the “benediction.” And, as it said in the message… as I said… you shall find students and colleagues whose spirits also are flowing and surging – even as some of them are not certain what this all means. Appreciate the opportunity. Follow up with some of them who were there. And be ALIVE to those opportunities that shall arise from this one brief encounter.

You now have confidence you couldn’t have had before. There still will be challenges (count on me, o son!), but you have passed an important marker. You cannot go back. You have revealed yourself, and you are now identified. There will be happiness but also frustration ensuing. You and Jack have stepped forth as leaders. So be ready to lead.

The Study Committee will be yours. It just will be a matter of doing the proper seeking. That means each year there can be a new infusion. Some who came yesterday will fall away, but keep your eye upon the positive. Appreciate those who seek in trembling and those who proclaim with zeal. You shall experience, in a tiny way, what is My daily excursion… amongst the panoply of those who believe… but in such excitingly different ways.

You ponder the possible chairmanship and your inabilities in administrative leading. Perhaps it shall be, so appreciate that this can be an opportunity akin to that of your Clerkship. The leadership must be exerted, but it is not monumental. Yes, it may be the time and place and opportunity for a new Ruminations. Appreciate this opportunity. It can be a good one.

Be open to how all of this shall affect your students. There is much interesting and important potential there. Draw it out. Be the catalyst. Feel the comfort of speaking more openly of the Spirit. Appreciate the transition into a new, more pleasing rhythm. (Yes, you did, finally, offer that concept. Not with the heart that I desire, but you finally have begun its public development.)