Interchange In A Tub

MON., JAN. 1, 1990, 7:25 AM
REDWOODS, BEN LOMOND

Yes, o son, I did bring you and your son Michael together last evening in a hot tub. The circumstances were all reasonable… the interchange did not come out of some miraculous events, from which My hand would be easily recognized. Still, you knew I was involved, as I was on your walk yesterday when I helped you resolve the sadness of your worship experience. And I am with you now, in the quiet of these majestic trees. There is no sun shining this morning. I, speaking for the Son, shall be your morning light.

You have had loud, argumentative conversations with this son of yours in other years and in other evenings. Last evening was quiet, humble… a true expression of love and respect. It was also a discussion of spiritual matters, relating to the actual worship service experienced, not just in theory. It was an evening in both of your lives that should be mutually remembered. Such conversations are rare between father and son, even when both are servants of Mine, as you both are. Be aware of opportunities with each of your other sons, for it is a time in your life to experience such resolutions. Also, this is not once and for all. Rather, it can be the commencement of interchanges that can continue throughout your live, helping to make parenthood more spiritual meaningful.

In this case, Michael took the initiative. It was not easier for him than it would be for you. Hear Me again: be aware of opportunities and take the initiative as I help arrange. I do not leave you alone with your own resources in matters spiritual. Trust that I want these resolutions as you do.

Be aware of a spiritual lesson learned: you have come to greater appreciation of Holy Communion through the experience of being denied participation than in many years of comfortable acceptance. This church body, in the joy of its exclusiveness and its faithfulness to traditions they have recently accepted, denied you the culmination of the worship experience. Not since you were a young military man has this happened… certainly not in your born again Christian life. You were denied, and this brought a sadness. And it also brought a new appreciation for this ritual, which is one of My best means of grace. All lessons are not easy to learn. This one was worth the sadness.

The corollary lesson, that you realized in your review of the experience, is that there are balances in life. The joy of inclusion in the Christmas Day Episcopal service had to be balanced with the sadness of exclusion from the Orthodox Eucharist. And please see it, as you did, that the positive joy was a balance to the sadness rather than that all joys must be blunted with some negative experience. Put another way, the lesson is not that you should not fully enjoy life, for every joy will have to be balanced out, but, rather, that hardships, tragedies, and times of sadness will always be balanced with some positive joy, for this is My world.

Another important lesson: there are right times and right places. That hot tub, on a clear, cool, starry evening, was a place where the two of you could talk, virtually uninterrupted. It could not have happened, in so important a way, in the living room with other people around, particularly the children. Such situations are often hard to arrange. It would not normally be considered that I, the Holy Spirit, would consider a California hot tub as a place for a crucial spiritual interchange. Just call Me adaptable to modern life!

You do not have such a place at home, but there are places on the Farm that could provide somewhat comparable atmospheres for interchange. There are students of yours with whom you should have spiritual conversations. This one was special in being with a beloved son, but the joy of the experience should motivate you to initiate some interchanges with special young people, several of whom I have purposely sent to you.