Blessings Must Needs Be Balanced

TUES., JULY 7, 1998, 11:32 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM

Your earth life as Bob Russell is one of many blessings. Yet there must needs be a balance, if there is to be growth and development of spirit, the purpose of life in any of its many “forms”. Reading over a number of Teachings from 1992 has just been a blessing, the original “form” being My Gift of the Teachings to you in the busyness of that year. It was a blessing to have the energy to do all that you did in those working years. Now you should see your increasing slowness (or should it be your decreasing rapidity?) as your current blessing. What is a blessing at one time may give way to what seems its opposite in another… and each are blessings.

So blessings do balance blessings, but it would be too pollyanna-ish to try to see everything as a blessing. Yes, there are some “non-blessings”, just for balance. The condition of your left hand is not a blessing. It is bothersome to have lost strength and function, as you have. You have not decided to what extent it should be treated… and how… and this is troublesome. The blessings, of course, are that this right hand is not affected… and that you have had good use of this left for nearly 72 years. Blessings are not “all alike” – some persist, while others last only for a time.

As you have re-read these Teachings of six years back you are reminded that your career was a major blessing, as well as participation in national conventions. It was a reasonably long career, starting with the joys and sorrows of coaching and junior high teaching. You accept, rather fully now, that I guided you. You did not make all of your career decisions totally independently. I do this with only a relatively few humans, and there is not consistency in who and why I choose as I do. As I have told you often, you were not chosen because of special merit. I just chose you. You could have rejected My guidance AND… you really couldn’t.

It should be interesting to you that this mainline Christian church to which I guided you is one with a theological heritage of predestination, but now, in the U.S. of A., it seems to be trying to forget such a heritage. I chose John Calvin to have this vision of relationship with Me and, in effect, to found this church. Now this important part of his vision is “deemphasized”. But you should help to keep it alive. How? Let Me guide you… perhaps an Adult Forum in the Fall?

Were you predestined to live the life you have lived? Yes, generally, with some adaptations by you and by Me. You shall see “the big picture” when you come back across. I know you’ll find it interesting.

Relative independence is a blessing, and you have enjoyed this, as a feature of your life. Your Dad did, too, but now his independence is fading, and his blessing is the home and capacities of Joanne and Howard. You don’t expect to live as long as he has, but you do wonder how you would react to loss of this blessing of independence… and whether there would be a balancing blessing for you.

So, you see that there is some “reality” to blessings. If the state of Florida would now get a steady downpour of rain it would be a blessing, as a balance to the wild fires. Yet in flood conditions water does not seem like a true blessing… more and more of it. The opportunities that came to you during World War II were mostly blessings, leading to more blessings. Yet for many others that war, in its many facets, was not a blessing for many humans.

But you must also see that blessings also are a matter of interpretation. You perceive this continuing relationship with Me, Holy Spirit, as a blessing, but you also realize that some others, in your church, here at the University, and even in your own family, do not see it as such. Which is it? You know what I say… Should you face the conflict? Not yet.