In Time Of Stress

JAN. 4, 1981, 6:58 AM
W. WILLOW, KITCHEN

This is a reasonably good test of Our relationship, o son, for this morning you clearly are stressed from pain and lack of sleep… and therefore you should not be very receptive to My teaching. But you have started, having kept the commitment made yesterday morning. So let us see how receptive you can be for about an hour.

In time of stress there is a tendency to turn in toward self and to feel sorry for self. This can, of course, produce some good results… if it leads to proper care or changed behavior. This is where its value ends. Focusing on the cause of the stress beyond that necessary to engineer its relief is rarely worthwhile. A time of stress should be a time in which to deliberately move away from self and think of and act for others. This is difficult, certainly, but I share the truth with you and invite you to try it.

Oh, you are exhibiting some of that spirit now as you write. But thus far the teaching has been mainly about you and this stressor, so it is not a shining example. Hear and write more, that your learning may increase.

One important quality of spiritual maturity, as I have told you before, is the natural tendency to let times of stress on self be stimuli for a turning to others. That is, as you mature spiritually, you tend to turn and serve others without even thinking. “Oh, this is one of those tests where I should be doing for others. I’d better do to show my maturity.” The more you think about what you should do the farther down the path you are.

But, if that is where you are… as it is where you are… then you must act from where you truly are. There is a lot of attempted faking in spiritual matters (and you do your share). That really isn’t necessary. Before one can move toward maturity you have to know where you truly are, for that is the only place from which you, truly, can grow and develop. Simply said, it is a sign of more maturity to admit you are not very mature than to pretend, even with self, to more maturity than is honestly yours.