Barking Dogs

FRI., JULY 24, 1998, 5:32 AM
FARM, STUDY

You were awakened by your dogs barking in ways suggestive of “trouble on the home place”. The cows have not been out of the pasture for several months, but this could happen again. You got up and walked around the area they were “protecting”. No cow evidence. What then? Why the commotion? Did I use these barking dogs to bring you to this place and this “activity”… hearing Me? There can be no “proof” either way. But you are here, and that can be satisfying for both of Us.

With you being Emeritus now there should be ample time for Teachings that would parallel and interpret the events of your life and the ideas you encounter. This has not happened as We, both, assumed it would. I’m not expecting one each day (though you have done that in the past, along with the fullness of your career) but you seem to be struggling to hear Me, in this “formal way”, even three times a week. You are letting less important concerns supercede Our time together. This is not “healthy”, and barking dogs are reminding you of this. Whether I caused this… or not… it was effective… and you recognized it… even as you awoke and were getting up.

I want your attention, for, while you are old and relatively learned for your culture, you still have much to learn from Me, Holy Spirit. Your learning is less efficient now, and your attention cannot be focused as well as in younger years. You also tend to forget more readily, and thus, as a good Teacher, I must repeat and reinforce.

For, you see, this education is about understanding and appreciating the life you’ve lived, in this culture, and how it relates to the eternal, everlasting life that allows you this unique “journey”. I obviously come to some persons in their youth, shaping their vocation and mission early in life. I tell you now that I did this with you, but without revealing My Presence and Influence. You were destined to be an educator; We had agreed on this before your immortal soul entered and became Bob Russell.

You might ask Me, “If I were destined to be an athlete, why didn’t I “get” a bigger, more well-coordinated body, so that I could have had more success?” You know the answer – you needed the struggle to achieve… to not quite be able to be all that you wanted to be. And yet you were co-captain of your high school team and, at UCLA, earned the awarded for “best spirit and scholarship” for two seasons. You “achieved” your destiny, just about right.

This led to your first teaching-coaching position and to your introduction to classroom teaching. It also led to the friendship with Lenore, that became love… and a relationship that soon will be 50 years long, part of the destiny of both of you.

I wasn’t micromanaging your life, but I was fully aware, as you were not, of what this life was to be. Punahou led to Stanford… and to your becoming Presbyterian and, ultimately, a born-again Christian. Back at Punahou you had a chance to “sample” being a Dean rather than a classroom teacher, and you saw that the latter was “your place”. Then the years on the Stanford faculty prepared you well for your career here… with all of the satisfactions you have experienced.

Your field of health education was, during your career, one ripe for inclusion of the spiritual, and I helped you begin to make this legitimate and accepted. Your influence on some of the fine young teachers, in the field you have departed, is evident. We both can be proud and pleased.