The New Year Cometh

WED., DEC. 29, 1999, 4:18 PM
FARM, STUDY

Today was the remembrance of 5th son, Matthew’s, birth, 36 years ago in California. This event was close to the New Year when it happened, and, not strangely, it is still just as close. Then it was 1963, and you were into the new house on Casanueva, with the knowledge that your time would not be much longer, as a professor at Stanford. Matthew’s birth gave you a nearly 10 year span in the ages of your sons, and you knew, even by then, that there would be some struggles ahead, with 5 little boys, with teenage sure to follow. You have felt that you weren’t as good as you wanted to be, as a father, but you are quite pleased, now, with how each is, as a man. Now all but Matthew have your father role, to teenagers, now upon them, with a number of years before they shall “emerge.”

You have no great dramatic plans for this New Year. It shall be interesting to see how this Y2K danger plays out. You have some apprehension, but no real fears. I know, of course, how it shall turn out, but I am not micromanaging all of the interactions. There shall be some problems… that’s all I’ll say. There is no reason for you to know, in advance, how people… and nations… shall react to some computers’ response to 1-1-00. Any troubles will be just recompense for the desire of some persons and institutions to be “modernized” too quickly, without consideration of all of the consequences. As you humans are into this next century, with opportunities for similar, and more complex, speed and efficiency, there will be more of such glitches. You may have more of “these” to deal with… OR… your position, on only the fringe of complex technology, may be a safe and appropriate one… for you.

This, of course, is the century when you shall drop this body and move back into the “right” portion of the spirit world, for you. But all of that is not immediate. You still have some “crucial living” to do, “crucial” because it shall involve living with increasing weaknesses and losses, with increased temptations to focus on these losses and your weaknesses, rather than continuing to see life, of the human sort, as a positive, fun experience, no matter what the circumstances.

No great changes and challenges should be yours to experience, so you hope… and assume. Yet you also are aware that almost any sort of challenge to your predictable comfort could be a means of spiritual growth… or spiritual loss. You have done well in this life, as Bob Russell, but you are not yet ready to give up your individual soul for a merging back into Me. And remember that you have little chance to “fail,” but some diverse opportunities to “increase in wisdom and in stature and in favor with Me.” These will be diverse, some recognizable… and some – less so.

Your number One priority shall continue to be… to hear Me, on a regular basis, writing down what you hear… as Teachings. This is not onerous, by any criteria, for in this way I help you understand the earth scene, as you experience it… what is the meaning (or meanings) of what you are experiencing, in this time, which is both a new, promising century and the last portion of the life of Bob Russell, with increasing chances to grow or to regress. I shall continue to help you have mostly growth experiences.

You’re not sure how your church life will be, with the coming, expected changes. On the one hand I’ll say that the challenges of this time of increasing and redoing your building are potentially good ones, but, on the other, I’ll warn that there could be a diminishing of true spirit amongst your fellow Presbys… and you will have to determine, with honestly, how, even where, you should be and what you should be doing and not doing.