Is This, Truly, “The Best Of Times”?

FRI., DEC. 18, 1998, 1:59 PM
OFFICE, PULLIAM

I, Holy Spirit, have no quarrel with your answering this question with a positive Yes. For you it has been a good couple of eras, those of this lifetime of yours. Oh, life wasn’t as simple as in some earlier eras, but it has been a nice combination, in your culture, of simplicity and “progress.” I put this last work in quotes because apparent progress may be less than anticipated because of negative consequences, along with the expected positives.

The automobile has always been a part of your life, from the family Essex, to Grandpa’s Model A… and then yours… to the convertible and on… There have been improvements in this technological gift to humankind, but now there are close to an excess of these vehicles in urban areas, and, even with improvements, they send forth much in the way of “green-house gases”, which finally will not be good for human and animal life. No improvement on the automobile as a means of individual and family transportation seems yet feasible and acceptable.

Your era has been one based in oil, gasoline, and other petroleum by-products. At this point three is no shortage, but what shall happen when available reserves have been used? Nuclear energy still seems too dangerous. (Even weapons with nuclear energy are more threatened than used, because of the after-consequences.) Astronauts go into space and perform tasks, but I see this all as an expensive luxury, of no real import for human life… except “to show we can do it.” (As I have told you, each of you will, after death, have many experiences with life “out of body”… in “weightlessness.”)

One of My central, repetitive messages to you is the dangers in the approaching imbalances here in the earth. This is difficult for you middle-class humans to deal with, for two reasons. One, it asks for some apparent devaluing of human lives, seeing humans as A form of life, which needs be in balance with the other forms. And, two, it questions the wisdom of much that is now called “progress”… while progress is a high value in your culture, and you “export” this value quite willingly.

You don’t quite know how to think about the one-year-off Y2K phenomenon, with the possibility that many computers will regress rather than move easily and efficiently into the next millennium. I know, basically, how this will come out, but this is not knowledge that you need, at this point in your life. I will offer that it shall be somewhat of a test of human adaptability and of spirit as a vital dimension of health.

Another of My hallmark premises is that I value diversity. But diversity is a “two-edged sword”. I can allow people to have different values, perceptions of life, and feelings for proper actions… and that can be good, for I don’t want all of you to be clones, even of Me, as Jesus, the Christ. It becomes the harmful edge of the sword when it disrupts the governance of a people…when comprise is no longer possible and democracy edges toward rule by the strongest. Your era has been a “good time” for democracy, but its future is uncertain (The benevolent king, My favorite, is truly impractical for large nations. Saddam is not making this “choice” of Mine seem desirable.)

As you know, and as I’ve affirmed, you have had almost an ideal career, made possible by your natural and developed abilities in “the best of times” for these. You came into health education in its very early, developmental years, it became a legitimate (though minor) field, and you were at least a minor luminary in it. Your three places of employment were each ideal in “their times”, and you accomplished appropriately in each.

The spiritual dimension of your life has developed well, particularly as you willingly accepted My invite to hear from Me, regularly. You have not suffered from such a “choosing”. You have been faithful to Our relationship while serving as an active member of Presbyterian churches, keeping these out of conflict… as you did in an earlier era of your life – being a Comus and an athlete… and a good student and active Christian youth participant both at the same time. (Now you see how valuable that “time in your life” was!)