Are You Adaptable? Still?

WED., MAY 24, 2000, 5:32 PM CDT
IN THE AIR, TOWARD HAWAII

You knew I would urge you to a Teaching on this long cross-country, cross ocean flight, and here you are, amid engine noise and conversations… and videos. As you are on the kind of trip that you used to take, with ease, you are asking yourself… “Am I still adaptable enough?” To do what? To leave your home place and be away from all that is familiar… AND… to have a Teaching in a less than ideal setting. Well, you didn’t “turn Me down”, so let’s see what you can hear.

You have considered yourself quite adaptable, in this life, as Bob Russell. As a child and as a teenager you functioned well. You were more successful athletically than you had a right to expect, and you realize you did well in your military “career”. (It still is hard to believe that you were Battalion Commander!). You adapted to life in the Islands, to which you now head, succeeding as a teacher and a coach, and competing successfully for the wife that I wanted for you… and you for her.

It was a challenge to adapt to university life in the small Midwest city that We chose for you. You did that well, and had a fine career… not spectacular, but fine. You struggled some with being father to teenage boys, and you told yourself, many times during “those years” that your concern was for how they would be as men, whatever the troubles of teenage… “then”.

Then I came to you and “invited” you to hear Me, “in the mystical tradition”, and write what you hear Me telling you. But I wanted you to continue to be a Presbyterian (a group with… well, few mystics). You continued to lead this “double life”… as one who regularly hears what is quite unlikely and yet is active as an Elder and as a serving member of a congregation. You often wish it were easier to be “both”, comfortably, but you have adapted in ways that generally please Me.

I, of course, am quite cognizant of what your church is like, and it has been one of your challenges to continue with them… and with Me. Now you have given up your two “official” responsibilities, and you wonder how it will be, as you have declared that you shall not seek, or accept, such positions as you finish out this earth life… a good one!

So, the question in My title is “How adaptable can you be, in this elder portion of life? And… how adaptable should you “try” to be?” One of your akamai observations, as a health educator has been, “If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it”. But how much do you want and need to try to remain adaptable? You expect that you’ll have increasing failures… or at least lack of the success you have come to expect. Which is more preferable – ceasing to try or trying and being less than adequate?

As you think about that recent film, “Jesus”, wonder, as you have before, I’ve noted, how I would have been as an “old Jesus”, One without the adaptability that “came” with being 30’ish? As a younger person, and professional, you noted the decline in Tex, Ned, Ohie, and some others. They continued to live for some years, but you recall Ohie’s observation that “life is just a bowl of peach pits”. Part of that was physical problems developing, but a major aspect was “when to finally retire from what no longer comes easily?” You have done this quite well, and, perhaps, even, it was good that you lost function in your left hand before you started to forget songs and what they meant to you.

What’s My recommendation? Be cautious about “taking on” responsibilities and “contributions” that were “you”, in days of yore. Simplify your life, but continue to adapt in some ways. Don’t settle for life without some adventure. Avoid the frustrations of “too many things”. Yet don’t settle for a too-safe, blah existence.