Confusion

March 31, 1980, 6:28 AM

Let us talk this morning, o son, of an aspect of your life which is both natural and troubling.  I shall use the word “confusion” to describe it.  It is represented by the clutter on this desk, the worse situation at the office, the messiness in the backyard, and, finally, almost all aspects of the Farm.  And it was brought to your mind and spirit this day in the dream you just experienced… a frantic running around after lost articles… an experience of utter confusion.

First, I’ll admit that you’ve managed fairly well in your professional life to balance a variety and a number of opportunities, commitments, papers, folders, letters… and still know basically where things are and how to separate important items out from the general confusion.  You will never be a neat and tidy person, nor will your surroundings be so, but I want you to consider and react to a drift toward confusion.  Enough is enough.  You are beginning to lose efficiency, and this is troublesome to Me.

You make lists, and these help you avoid utter confusion, but you continue to have other “lists” in your head, and these, in action, bring forth confusion.  It is time to do some consolidation, some setting of priorities, some cleaning up, and some maintenance of order in which you can be more enjoyably productive.  This is the week to start, but don’t try to accomplish everything at once.  That increases the confusion.  Now that the major writing project no longer commands your time, attention, and energies, reorganize the confusion that your life is becoming and set your directions with more resolution.

Begin this morning here in this study.  Clean the desk, and keep it clean hereafter.  Get a filing cabinet.  Take a few moments to organize, and then persist in that organization. Don’t let it rule you or overcome spontaneity, but let it be a help to you.  This backyard is another symbolic mess.  In a relatively few minutes it could be much better.  And you’d feel better.  I almost guarantee it.

The office is next. Don’t attempt it all in one day… even one week.  Just don’t let the confusion build each day.  And take an hour or so once a week to reduce it some.  Finally, set some days and actually do some things at the Farm that are part of the confusion in your head now.  All of this should be done this Spring.

Now this all seems to be a very unspiritual teaching… practical, housekeeping.  Listen, o cluttered son, to the reason for My interest and concern.  There are two, actually.  One involves your capacity to respond to My will and seek, first, that which I would have you do.  You cannot do this as well in the midst of confusion.  Oh, you can do it, but I want more focus and more commitment.  The other is that you will become a visible, identified representative of My Kingdom, and that image must not be one of disorder and confusion.  Again, I am not asking for a complete change of style… merely a reversal of a detrimental trend.

Be aware, now, of this desire on My part, and try to avoid the unnecessary development of confusion.  Begin to measure opportunities and challenges against the standard of My desires for you… as a person and as a professional.  You must not say Yes to everything.  But be eternally alert to those which have special significance.

Pay less heed to the finances of your life.  You know that I provide means for your adequate sustenance.  I have and I will.  Lenore’s ventures will contribute sufficiently.  You shall have enough.  Use the criterion of money-making less often.  You will find, interestingly, that as you do not seek directly, benefits will flow more surely.  You know in your heart (since I put it there) that this is true.  Now I challenge you to live more in accordance with this knowledge.

I realize that with the scattered nature of your life that even the reorganization has to be organized.  I have given you the rough outline.  Fill that in according to your judgments, but just retain the main admonition – CLEAN UP THE CONFUSION.  Organize a bit more.  Begin to change the image of yourself as a mess.  The time is not critical.  The intent, the purpose, the resolve are.

Walk in My ways and hear My Voice.  I speak to your head, to your heart, to the spirit which mingles with My Spirit.  I am wholly Other and yet inextricably a part of your being.  You have heard well.  Now do accordingly.  Have a neat day.

Shalom

6:32 AM