Examining Life

WED., DEC. 15, 1993, 12:12 PM
OFFICE, PULLIAM HALL

Examining life is something I certainly recommend. This means considering the past and what you have learned from events and happenings, the hard way or the easy way. It also means projecting ahead and doing some planning (at least some reverie) for results that you want. And, of course it is encouragement for you to examine each day, as you anticipate it, as you live it, and as you reflect on it.

Examination of life can be, therefore, very short range… to very long range. And for you, as for many Christians, it must always include your relationship with Me, the Holy Spirit… and the Triune God, the Only One there is. You are quite aware that the essence of life is spiritual, but your examinations too often focus more on the more mundane facets of this experience. You must admit that you feel different about life as you are in this meditation and writing what you hear From Me. You can feel happy that the difference isn’t stark and great… you are doing My Will in your work and, generally, in your life. The main divergence is in relation to money and what you should do with what you have… and what the future will be, in retirement.

Fortunately, as you examine your life you have no need or desires to retire to a lesser income. You are still valued here, and you probably will continue to be. You would not want to feel forced to seek further employment… and that brings the focus to your two sons who shall continue to need financial help… for how long? You know (and I’ll tell you yet again) that your concerns are excessive. My admonition to you still is to give and share your excess wealth, and this can shift, for a time, to your sons and their families rather than to the several important groups to which you contribute. You had thought of this. I just affirm it to you. The gift and the loan to UCM was appropriate, a somewhat final way you can contribute to this ministry. You can use the firewood, which they shall contribute to you.

There are so many potential uses of time. Here again, when you examine your life with a “spiritual lens” you see certain uses that seem vital. When you change to a “secular lens” there are other priorities. In your life the conflict comes in use of the “free time”… that not clearly needed for the spiritual or for work, Farm, family. Should you watch a TV program or write notes or letters, long overdue? Should you go back to bed for pillow talk with Lenore or gather the Teachings for Our next Ruminations?

What am I going to say next? You know… that almost every use of time can have anywhere from a small to a whopping spiritual component. What you need to consider is how you can reduce the distance and contrast between the secular and the spiritual. It can’t be done completely, but there is a lot of “reducing” that you can do, in your life.

Examining life can be quite systematic… to downright fanciful. You can set goals, make lists, and establish time tables. You can remind yourself of My admonitions in some tangible ways. You also can sit and listen to rain, can contemplate the fire in your fireplace… or in many other non-structured ways examine your life.

But there is another piece of advice, that you somehow expected: just as I want a balance between trying and not-trying, so I desire a balance between examining and not-examining… just living. A quite worthwhile “exercise” can be overdone. You can have too may lists, too many cogitations on how your time should be used. Your days of “puttering” are important days, and I don’t want you to give them up for excessive examination. Am I inconsistent, then, in giving you tasks that can more than fill your waking life and in telling you to put them aside for “just living?” You bet.