Problems, Problems…

THURS., OCT. 31, 1996, 2:25 PM
MARRIOTT, ST. LOUIS

Here you are again at a professional health meeting, and, again, you have heard much, in this portion of a day, about problems. Your profession seems to focus on problems, your culture identifies and bemoans problems, and… the world seems to be even more full of problems. What do I, Holy Spirit, have to say, this day, about problems?

First, I’ll reiterate to you, yet again, that from My perspective there aren’t many real problems. In two days you’ll be watching a football game. Someone not acquainted with the game could describe and lament many “problems” – a pass knocked down, a block that prevents a tackle, a tackle that causes a fumble… many, many “problems”. But to one acquainted with the game this is all just “part of it”. This earth, and every culture in it, is for spiritual growth of humans. Some of you grow because others regress. If there were no troubles there would be fewer opportunities for spirit to increase. And from My perspective “peace” of this sort would “not be worth it”.

I… and you… should be sad as you hear about out-of-wedlock pregnancies, often with disease as another factor. Drug abuse seems like a problem. Kids born in these undesirable circumstances seem to have greater chances for sexual problems of their own, low self-esteem, drug abuse, and alienation from family. Such a picture brings forth two comments: despite the numbers and percentages presented many youngsters grow out of such circumstances and lead lives of love, service to others, and allegiance to Me. I see these and am pleased with what this “problem-environment” can and does produce. The second comment is a challenge for you to imagine what draconian measures would be necessary to eliminate these problems completely and prevent their further development.

Consider that if your university and city police would have shot dead each person who was seen damaging property or, even, defying rules and authority. The property destruction would have been less, and chances for further damage would have been minimal. But would Carbondale thus be a better place to live and your university a better place to study and be?

According to the Holy Scriptures I, as Almighty God, acted in this “enforcing” way, in My “younger days”. I told Lot’s wife not to look back as I destroyed a city for its sinfulness. She, otherwise a pretty good woman, looked back, and for this disobedience (even if it was curiosity) she was turned into a pillar of salt, by Me. My chosen people, the Jews, were led out of slavery in Egypt by Moses, but they were not sufficiently appreciative of My power, so I declared that they all would die before they could enter the promised land. (If you knew My Scriptures better you would recognize more relevant examples).

Most “problems” simply go away without being directly and purposely solved. Or something else now seems worse, so the original “problem” is left to fade.

You were interested in the excerpt from old but perceptive Michener’s latest book predicting, from past history, that your culture would begin to lose its “greatness” by the middle of the next century. In many ways I like your culture, but its strengths may also be its downfall. I love diversity, and I have told you this almost more often than anything else, but too much diversity can make a culture ungovernable. Thus, like some other great powers you may collapse from within rather than be defeated from without.

I see some souls who have been part of cultures that have perished or at least lost power come into similar, but later, earth life situations. Some have learned and are, because of spiritual development, able to use that learning to help some in the culture in the transition. Others have not learned much, and make mistakes, yet again.