Appreciate The Positive

FRI., MAR. 21, 1997, 6:45 AM
ADAM’S M., ST. LOUIS

This is a familiar scene for you, this of convention time. You’re not certain about continuing this part of your life after you traverse this off-ramp; you have feelings both ways. You can think of all the folks who aren’t here, after retirement from the active field, and you see how it wouldn’t be long before you would no longer know those were the current doers and shakers. It feels good to be remembered by some of those you have taught at SIU, but you can imagine that these memories will fade, in you and in most of them.

This is a transition time in your life, and I, Holy Spirit, want you to focus as much on the positive as possible… and you’re not surprised. Those who remember you most clearly are now approaching “senior status” in the profession, and the “young blood” will look to them, rather than to you and others of your “generation”. See this as a positive way for your culture, one of the major premises of which is “the new is better than the old… we must progress away from the old”.

Appreciate that you have been at least a semi-pioneer in reintroducing the spiritual as an important and relevant dimension of health. Although this is really the old reasserting itself, in the short term it is the “new” challenging the “old” – the naturalistic, scientific, medical way. A positive view, for your culture, would be to affirm that this truly is “something new”, and therefore better, rather than trying to insist that the old returns to show its merit.

What We are doing together is, ironically, an affirmation, puny as it is, that I, as Holy Spirit, have new things to say, even some that seem to counter Holy Scripture (though it’s much more likely to be challenges to old interpretations that once were new and challenging). I can speak to people through Scripture, through liturgy, through tradition, and through familiar practices. These pages attest that I also am current, with important perspectives for you and some others, nearing the end of 20 centuries since My time on earth as the Lord Jesus.

And appreciate that one evidence of My sense of fun shines forth as I choose you, now definitely an oldster, to record these thoughts, some of which are even “ahead of their time”. As I’ve told you before, I can use your status in the field (and even your elderly status)… meaning that you are a “viejo” who is doing what it would be expected that the young would do. Yes, go on and appreciate that in some ways it doesn’t make sense. Just accept it as My Way, in this circumstance.

The convention scene is not as appealing as in your younger years. That’s pretty natural. Just accept it as the way it should be. Try to spend as much time as possible with those who accept and appreciate this spiritual emphasis and, especially, those who read and like what We do together.

“Life goes on in busy circles, leaving you behind”. See this as positive, for the “behind” has been good for you. Clearly your computer illiteracy can be seen negatively. Why shouldn’t you push yourself to become as knowledgeable and proficient in this modern art/technology as your young colleagues? If you feel the need, as you retire, go ahead. I have no firm objection.

Yet in a positive mode I call on you to appreciate your era and the values in writing in this way, not just in resisting the new and current. This means, of course, that you will be judged… as one unwilling or unable to be adapted to this “modern world”. Appreciate this as a compliment, for you can say, honestly, that your era was quite a good one… and that the new may not always be better.

You look down at Bishop Hall on your shirt, and you agree that the modern Bishop is “better” than the old one, but the old one was “yours”… and thus it has value.