Pain… And… Sin

THURS., MAY 9, 1996, 6:30 AM
FARM, STUDY

You felt almost elated in yesterday’s “victory over pain”. You took no pill (or even caplet) for a 24 hour period, and you had no apparent pain. You ran across the pasture in a way that surprised even you. Perhaps… could it be? Then you went to bed, and the pain returned. Dull… but definitely there. As you remember it, for you do have the blessing of forgetting experiences with pain, it was a persistent discomfort. You determined there was no pain-free position in which you could go to sleep, in bed.

So down you went to the chair… and the chairs. But first… two pain relievers, of the tiny, but supposedly powerful form. You had some sleep, enough to return to bed and sleep the rest of the night, with only auras, even on your left side. Did the active ingredient in these teeny caplets conquer the pain… or were they just coincident with the normal ebbing? You can’t know, but you’ll probably assume they are effective… and… you’ll also try to let your body deal with its ills, as best it can.

In what amounts to somewhat of a “stretch” I’ll now suggest a relationship with sin, which was the focus of yesterday morning’s after-breakfast discussion. Let the pain you experienced be sin. Let last night be a lifetime. (When you return to an out-of-time realm you’ll see that this is a fair analogy.) The pain was not unbearable… not sharp and debilitating… just continuous discomfort. Just as you don’t remember pain experiences vividly you don’t recall your life before salvation as being decadent and miserable. (Actually it was “clean”, but devoid of spiritual richness.)

And then came this spiritual revelation that “I have done it for you”. With your hand in Mine you cannot sin, and My hand is extended to you… individually… to Bob Russell. Like unto taking those caplets that diminished the pain, this realization of election, undeserved and unmerited, diminished your spiritual ennui. But your culture can be likened to this arthritic condition. It tells you that you are responsible and that you must work for what you get. It doesn’t reinforce that, for you Christians, enlightenment is this acceptance of My gift to you. With this enlightenment you are pain-free. It is the equivalent of the best of the pain-relievers to which you have access.

The “pain” of living the “I have to be responsible” life can still return. But then can come the “caplet” that counters with “you are part of Me, for eternity, and with your hand in Mine you will be ‘responsible’, without “having to be”. The invitation will not be withdrawn. You just have to accept it, over the doubts and uncertainties that you learned early, from your culture. Accept yet another caplet.

As I warned you at the outset, the analogy is a partial one only. You may well experience physical pain as your life (7:22 / 8:17) goes on into these final periods. This doesn’t translate to losing relationship with Me. It just emphasizes that there will be challenges to your enlightened view of life, in the earth and beyond, like unto some discomforting pains. Yet I am the One who overcometh such “detours”, and I have great powers to reduce pain, bodily pain as well as that afflicting the spirit.

It’s just another instance where you have to “get out of the boat”, the theme of the service last Sunday. It isn’t a matter of trying or concentrating, any more than this that We do together is. You have full confidence now that as you come to Me in this “way” that We have established I shall teach you, about many aspects of earth and spiritual life. If you develop such confidence in My capacities to manage pain you could have Me instead of… or as a special form of… caplets. (8:27 / 8:33)