Enjoyment Of Life

SUN., MAR. 27, 1983, 5:34 AM
FARM, STUDY

Life is continuous, and enjoyment of it should be continuous, just because it is life. That beginning, o son, that you had some difficulty receiving, provides the basis for enough comment and counter comment to fill many pages. I shall limit Myself to our regular time and amount, but return to this theme at another time will be beneficial.

Life is continuous. You know this. Yet it is most apparently continuous when it is enjoyed. If a person lives an earth life and does not feel the enjoyment of it he may, at death, pass on over into unconsciousness… a sleep state… and miss the reality of life in continuation. If the lack of enjoyment is pretty much limited to the dying period (as when a death is slow and painful) then the unconscious period may be rather short. If this lack, however, has been characteristic of most of the earth life, then the “sleeping time” may be quite long.

The positive connotation of this leading statement is of more importance. When a person has enjoyed life, right up to the end, then there usually is an increase in consciousness as physical death comes. The more understanding there is of the continuity of life and the more expectation of a continuation, in relation to Me and to other family, friends, and acquaintances, the more likely it is that death is expansion of consciousness.

Enjoyment of life is rather easy for you. You are an above average human creature with abilities and a position that certainly encourages enjoyment. What about those born into poverty and/or strife which makes life objectively grim? There is still a choice. It is easier to be joyful when earth life is satisfying and good. Still, many souls in abject conditions choose to enjoy the “bits and pieces” of a grim life that “shine forth”. The beauty of a sunrise, the appearance of new plant growth, the smile of a baby, the pleasure of tired muscles at the end of a working day, the gathering of family, even for a funeral… all of these can abet enjoyment.

When you know Me and the possibilities for life in the earth… when you realize that every happening, every circumstance is an opportunity for spiritual growth… then you can enjoy almost everything in the actuality and everything in retrospect. Nothing could happen to you, by design or by accident, from which spiritual growth could not come. When you realize this you are aware of My marvelous economy. In spiritual terms there is no necessary entropy, no waste, no loss. Everyone does not view life this way, and that is unfortunate. To do so is one of the marks of spiritual maturity. (Be sure you include this in the paper you shall write, in haste, this week.)

You begin today, in the Christian tradition, the time called Holy Week, culminating in Easter Sunday. This is and should be an enjoyable season. It was hard, even for Me, as Jesus, to enjoy some aspects of it, but I knew why it was happening, and this gave Me the strength and joy to bear the suffering and humiliation. Now We can all celebrate it as the reaffirmation of the continuation of life and the repudiation of death as any reality. That should make it fundamentally enjoyable, even as the agonizing moments are being recalled.