Being a Professional / Servant

FRI., NOV. 16, 1984, 1:58 PM
ANAHEIM, LARRY’S

Hear, o son, toward the end of this sojourn to this professional meeting and former homeland, that these experiences do give Me opportunities to help you grow. You needn’t call Me a health education professional, but I am interested in and capable of helping you learn about better functioning and adapting. With some you can share My perception of health, and you need to have it more firmly a part of you, even when you must be reluctant to advocate it.

Being a professional implies being a leader, even if that leadership is exercised in a gentle, indirect way. Being a servant implies accepting the leadership of others and doing what needs to be done, without especial recognition. My title today encourages an amalgam of these, for this is what I want from you. Your leadership positions must be intertwined with servanthood, and your service should have a leading quality to it.

Today you talked with a young woman, and I heard your interchange as a pretty good example of this desirable blend. You mostly listened, which is the servant role. You occasionally spoke and interpreted and served as a teacher/leader. You volunteered to help her write her ideas, which is service, but out of that there may come some leadership. You just should be a bit more aware of these balances.

You accepted a position on the Hospice Board, and that will give you a minor position of leadership, but do not take any officeship or chairmanship. Your servant role is to produce an informative and motivational newsletter, and you must let that be your avenue of leadership. This is a small responsibility in your life, but it is important… and something you and Lenore share, so I approve.

As a teacher you are a professional, but that must not be all leadership. As you organize your next classes seek a better balance between yourself as leader and the capabilities and offerings of others. To be a servant/teacher is to make it possible for others to be teachers and for learners to teach one another… even themselves. Be reminded of the importance of mutual learning.

You have completed the letters which reflect an aspect of leadership, but which should benefit your department and your colleagues more than yourself. Thus, these are manifestations of servanthood.

You have “played with” and yet rejected the word “servitude” in this Teaching (and you should have resisted). Though technically there is nothing wrong with servitude, it does have the implication of a servant role which is involuntary, forced, and undesirable. These are not the characteristics of being My servant, even though it is not entirely voluntary. I chose you before you chose Me, which is a better phrasing than You did not choose Me, but I chose you. It is mutual, but I took the initiative.

You are in servitude to Me, and you really can do no other unless I should release you. Fortunately this is no big issue with you… as it is with some of less spiritual development (even as such may seem to be more religious). You know that you have accomplished more as a professional of your age, with My help… under My yoke of servitude… than you would have under your own motivations (though it is hard for you to imagine, now, life on more independent terms). It has been pleasant and rewarding as well… a perfect combination, by definition.

Yes, I do approve of this projected gathering of those who have been here… back at the Farm. This can be another amalgam of leadership and servanthood. Make it happen, but don’t be concerned about perfection. Even a few can be of help, one to another.