Spiritual Challenges

FRI., APR. 1, 1994, 3:20 AM
FARM, STUDY

Your life has not been devoid of spiritual challenges, but this is a rather unique bunch of such at this Easter season. It is earlier than you would normally be here in a listening mode with Me, because one of your challenges is continued functioning with only a few hours of sleep. This aborted sleep pattern stems from pain in your foot, and this seems to have “settled in” as a part of your present body response.

Even in aggravation, however, I want you to remain as positive as possible, so let’s balance challenges with challenges. The pain that awakens you or that prevents sleep from returning is bothersome, but certainly not severe. Your challenge is to live positively with an aggravation rather than with attention-commanding pain. Overcome it when you can. Succumb to it if you must. Appreciate the unique nature of the flashes and splashes. It is a minor challenge to deal with, but not one demanding your whole attention. You can still hear Me and can write as the localized bombardment continues.

Another positive challenge is the ideal quality of your work. Your courses are ideal, and you have alternative presentations for each one. The challenge is to retain the enthusiasm you have and to communicate this to each class group. For your own benefit include some variation as some new learning approach in each term. The challenge to your spirit is to see each course and each class therein as a grand opportunity for guiding learning. It seems as though another three years after this one shall be about right, but I want you to be as avid a teacher in your last class as in your early years.

I’ll also reiterate the challenge of naturally including the spirit as an important dimension of health and as an obvious part of each course. Spirit is overarching and unifying, just as your model shows. Continue to teach this in a gentle, natural way.

Your present walk is the walk of one crippled. The toes on your right foot are prevented from functioning as they should, and so, unless you are extra attentive, the picture you present to observers is a crippled one. The challenge is to show forth a positive spirit to negate the physical dysfunction. Joke about your condition… smile a lot… be all you can be so that you show forth health, more than balancing the physical shortcomings.

You are not one to appreciate colleagues and friends who talk excessively of their problems. Hence a challenge is to keep talk about your conditions to a minimum. As you would that others would do to you, do you even so with them. Resist temptations to give details and linger long over alternatives. However, some openness can make you the recipient of experiences others have had, and offers of help in various forms. The challenge is to maintain the best balance in sharing with others.

The greatest challenge is to discern both what your priorities are and the consequences of each sort of action and non-action. Will surgery achieve, for you, the complete return of function, with no side effect? Will present inaction bring on a worsened condition? There are many possibilities, with consequences galore. How to decide?