Oil And Water

THURS., FEB. 11, 1988, 7:58 AM
FARM, STUDY

You are apprehensive, o son, with a title that came so quickly and with thoughts that flashed, with conflict evident. Yet you have faith in a process now well established, and so you will listen and write. You must always accept that any particular Teaching may not be a true representation of My thought. And yet you can’t count very many in your volumes that do not have considerable value.

Oil and water are two valuable substances, and the platitude says that they do not mix. There are many kinds of oil, and water exists in different degrees of purity, being part of all living things. Instead of saying oil and water do not mix, let’s go with the assertion that oil and water are complementary substances, one not meant to completely dominate the other.

One of the important machines of modern life is the automobile. The fuel for most engines is gasoline, which is extracted from one kind of oil. If water is mixed with the gasoline it cannot function as a fuel, and the engine will not run. Yet without oil the moving parts of the engine are not lubricated, and the engine is ruined. Likewise, without water the engine becomes too hot and is ruined. They do not mix well, but without either one the engine not only doesn’t run, but becomes permanently inoperable.

On the other hand when you make some cornbread or a cake one ingredient is oil and another is water or milk (which is mostly water). These blend together with the other ingredients to become the delicious edible finished product… evidence that they have mixed quite well.

Yet another example was the recent oil spill into the Ohio River. Many gallons of oil spilled into the river, and they did not mix. The oil floated on top and contaminated the water for its many domestic uses. Yet as the river flowed, with its much greater volume it began to dissipate the oil. Without further help from humans or technology the water slowly emulsified even that great volume of oil, and its presence became insignificant in some number of miles.

These are three physical analogies. How do they point to spiritual truth? As you come back later this morning you shall know.

8:28 / 11:39

The spirit that is eternal and the physical life in the earth are, in some ways, like oil and water. In some instances they do not mix at all. One instance would be a person with some strong tendencies toward spirit associated, in work, with friends, or with family, with those who do not acknowledge spirit, but who enjoy the pleasures of earth life. She finds no way to put these together, and they remain separate and competing.

In contrast you have discovered and developed a way to mix these into a lovely pastry. You teach in the church and in a secular institution. Your interpretation of your health field includes the spiritual as a natural, partly explainable dimension. You feel spirit in your teaching and in many of the processes of your work. Your Ruminations goes to many professional colleagues, who have more or less capacity to combine this oil and water as you do.

Then there are some, perhaps as in the first example, who let the secular world and its immediate aspects overpower and dissipate the relationship with spirit. Conversely, there are some who retreat from the world to live lives on contemplative spirituality, leaving as much of the world behind as possible.