Between Two “Worlds”

THURS., MAR. 15, 2001, 9:40 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM

Here you are, in a place that has been familiar to you for many years. (No need to count and decide on some number.) It is a small office, compared with the large one you had during your active teaching career. But it is larger and “roomier” than the one you shared with a graduate student during your years at Stanford. Is this an example of “what goes around comes around”? This is Spring Break for the University, so it is much quieter than during “class times.” So this is one sense in which you are between two worlds here on campus – the world of students, classes, and much varied evidence of the organized learning process… AND… the “quiet time” when few students and few faculty are busy in these halls and classrooms.

You have been an active participant in these latter “worlds,” and you miss this involvement… slightly. Now you are Emeritus, and you choose to be still a part of this “world,” even as its relevance in your life is fading fast. The search for a new, young faculty member for your Department may be a harbinger of your more complete retirement. You’d rather this wouldn’t happen to you in the near future, but you know that your “ouster” will come sometime… soon?

Just be thankful that you’ve had these several years as Emeritus… with a gradual retirement. You enjoyed the active teaching roles, but now it is quite satisfying to be “on the fringe,” appreciating the professional role vicariously. ( 10:02 / 10:07 )

In a “wider sense,” of course, you are quite accepting of the judgment that you are between the world of physical being and cognitive functioning and the world of spirit, where knowledge as you have perceive it and the bittersweet experience of being in a physical body, that becomes older and more dysfunctional, is no more. You’re not yet quite sure how you feel about this, for you have enjoyed this life as Bob Russell and would like to continue it, even with some pain and other handicaps, for you don’t remember how “it has been” in “spirit realms.” Still… you accept My assurance that this “change” will be good for your spirit… and some, even many, aspects of it will be quite familiar to you. And I’ll remind you, yet again, that you are having the “privileged experience” of changing “worlds” gradually, rather than with suddenness.

And you accept, in your spirit, that this spirit world (or these spirit worlds) is (are) the true reality, even though most in your culture, including Christians, do not accept and anticipate a passage like unto your expectation. The main difference, of course, is your belief that you don’t “go to heaven” until you “get it right” – your spirit fully linked with Mine. This is rarely a “one earth life” process… AND remember that I, and all that I tell you about, am/are outside of time as you know it. So, “how long does it take?” has no meaning in spirit realms.

You are now toward the end of an incarnated earth life, in a culture and in professional positions that have encouraged (even forced) you to overvalue time and “what time is it?” and “how long will it take?” (This is a good reason for expecting you, as you receive and write these Teachings, to pay NO attention to the time EXCEPT the times, by the clock, of starting and completing the Teaching. You now do this quite easily and comfortably. Just accept that Teachings that take over an hour are not better or worse than those under. Sometimes this is your fault and sometimes Mine.)

This morning, earlier, you were an active part of a study group, focusing on the Acts of the Apostles. This showed forth another “set” of two worlds – the world of 2,000 years ago, featuring Paul and Peter, after My crucifixion, as Jesus… AND the world of 2001, with life quite different, in many ways, from that in which the Acts took place. Your faith tells you that the differences are not as important as the “eternal truths,” but it is hard to get agreement on which is which. You have often considered the provocative question about some present-day experience, “what would Jesus do?” It just is not simple to assume that every Teaching, by Me, or by others in the “Story,” is equally relevant in every present-day circumstance.