Today: Step 346 - I am in the
world to work. (MP3)
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| I am in the world to work. Step 346 |
YOU ARE IN THE WORLD TO WORK. Work is what you want
to do. Work is why you have come. But what is this work that we speak of? Is it
your current employment, which you resist and have difficulty with? Is it the
many tasks that you think are your own and that you assign to yourself? Your
true work may be expressed in any of these activities, but it is truly greater.
It will be your happiness and your fulfillment to carry out each step of your
true work. Your true work in the world is to discover your Knowledge and allow
it to express itself through you. Your true work in the world is to respond to
your specific calling, which engages you with certain people in certain ways so
that you may fulfill your individual destiny in the world.
THIS IS YOUR WORK. Do not think at this moment that
you can understand what this work is and do not try to give it definition beyond
what we have given you. It is all right not to know fully what this means. It
is all right to apprehend the mystery of your life without attempting to make
it concrete.
YOU ARE IN THE WORLD TO WORK. Therefore, apply
yourself so that your application may reveal to you the source of your purpose,
meaning and direction. It is through your work and meaningful activity that you
will experience your value—the value of your individual life and the assurance
of your true destiny. Your true work guarantees you all things of value and
provides you escape from all things that conceal you and render you helpless
and miserable.
REMIND YOURSELF OF TODAY’S IDEA upon the hour. In
your two deeper practices, once again engage your mind actively in considering today’s
idea. Consider how you view work itself and all of your associations with work.
Review how you have responded to work in the past—your desire to work, your
ambivalence concerning work and your resistance to work. Recognize how all
desire to escape work has really been a desire to discover Knowledge. Realize
that Knowledge will engage you with work with new purpose, new meaning and new
direction. Examine your thoughts. You must understand your thoughts, for they
are still very effective in influencing your perception and your understanding.
When you can become objective with your own mind, you will be able to allow
Knowledge to shine upon it, and you will be able to use the power of decision
to prepare yourself and to work with the content of your mind. This is effective
within your range of participation, for it is not given you to determine the
purpose, the meaning or the direction of Knowledge, but to become the recipient
of Knowledge, to experience Knowledge and to allow Knowledge to express itself
through you.
THUS, IN YOUR TWO LONGER PRACTICE PERIODS engage
your mind actively. Concentrate on this one idea. Recognize all the thoughts
and feelings that are associated with it. In the last portion of each long practice
period, allow all thoughts to leave you. Re-enter stillness and receptivity so
that you may come to know. Knowledge does not require your thinking when you
are experiencing Knowledge itself, for all thinking is a replacement for
Knowledge. Yet, Knowledge will direct all your thinking to serve a greater
purpose.
PRACTICE 346: Two 40-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
This Step takes us again to “Spiritual Family” and “inclusion in relationship” which “can
only be experienced.”
We are also: “to
serve those who have sent you.” The
notion of Spiritual Family had been given me before this Study. In fact, along
with my own spiritual name, I’d come up with a Spiritual Family name. These
were confirmed in a reading later, but I’m not 100% sure.
The greater notion for me is the confirmation that
I am here by choice and, being here, I am to serve the Creator. This expands
the nature of service.
In the margin I wrote: “Here am I send me!” This is a reference to Isaiah
6:8:
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom
shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. King
James Version (KJV)
Chapter 6 begins with Isaiah saying: In the year
that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
This is a story that is often the basis for
sermons, so I’d been exposed to it often. The question is: Where I in that
situation, would I remain silent or, like Isaiah, call out to the Lord: “Here
am I, send me."
I'd often felt that I would do that as well,
answer: “Here am I, send me." This Step seemed to be making that sort of
request, so I responded in writing.
The journal has a few thoughts:
9:35
a.m. Monday, July 30, 2001 – Ramada Inn – Morgantown. A sad angry morning. I
must return to the world of work. I remain confused. I wanted better for my
kids. Why did I feel so. I need better for myself – a little better – to do my
work. The last week has been lazy, comfortable – and therefore fearful. There
is so much in the world that is good…people doing their best – Knowledge
everywhere, yet perspective is lacking. I remain willing, though a poor
student.
4:25
p.m. Home…it feels good to be home. Other homes? UW Madison, Chicago,
Indianapolis, Columbus, Frostburg – this is where the world was revealed so…it
feels like a place to stay.
Where
am I? Need to catch up on mail – messages – call home and the kids.
6:44
p.m. Practice #2 complete. "My Knowledge is my gift to my Spiritual
Family".
Feelings
– my earthly family relies upon me for peace – Mom for 40 years, David and
Sarah – is it too much?
What
does it take to carry a civilization forward? All I want to do is isolate. My
ideas get more powerful, but I'm less able to be in the world. I retreat. The
time away is not always productive. I'm still distracted…yet ideas come.
So –
which family do I serve? My Spiritual one or physical one? Are they not the
same?
11:15
p.m. Father, Mother, God – Jesus and the prophets, Spiritual Family and Guides
– I ask that Knowledge be strengthened in David Thomas Christoffel and Sarah
Marie Christoffel…that their lives will emerge from the pain they've created
for themselves from fear, ignorance and self-hate. In the name of the Creator I
pray – Amen and Amen
In
this practice, one can pray for the emergence of Knowledge in others. I did
this for my children. Let us continue.
NNC
Note: If you’ve some interest due to this or other
Steps, you should go to the beginning blog post. From here you will learn about Steps to Knowledge
and can begin it on the day that makes sense; then progress as needed. You can
use the posts on this blog as a companion if it helps. They will remain in
order in the archives - one post per Step.
Often it takes 18 months to get through the Steps
once. For this blog, the pace is one-a-day, but it really makes no difference
how fast you do it, only that you begin, persist and repeat. Posts here provide
a trail that may let you have a virtual companion when and if you want one. One
may have to study alone, as I did in the beginning. There are other Steps
students blogging their experience and you might find a person more like you as
a companion, or use a number of such Steps journeys. There are options as well
through the Free School of the New Message.
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