2/14/15

Step 45 - Alone I can do nothing. (MP3) Entry for Step 44 - I wish to know my own strength.


Greetings All –

Step 45 - Alone I can do nothing. (MP3)  [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

Alone I can do nothing. Step 45
ALONE YOU CAN DO NOTHING. Nothing has ever been accomplished alone, even in your world. Nothing has ever been created alone, even in your mind. There is no credit to be received by doing something alone. Everything is a joint effort. Everything is the product of relationship.

DOES THIS DEMEAN YOU AS AN INDIVIDUAL? Most certainly not. It gives you the environment and the understanding to realize your true accomplishments. You are greater than your individuality, and thus you may be free of its limitations. You work through the individual that is you personally, but you are greater than this. Accept the limitations of a limited self, and do not require a limited self to be God or you will give it great burdens and great expectations and will then punish it for its failures. This leads to self-hatred. This leads you to resent your physical life and to abuse yourself personally, emotionally and physically. Accept your limitations so that you may accept greatness within your life.

THEREFORE, IN YOUR TWO PRACTICE PERIODS TODAY, with your eyes open, concentrate now on your limitations. Recognize them. Do not judge them as good or bad. Simply recognize them. This gives you humility, and in humility you are in a position to receive greatness. If you are defending your limitations, how can you receive that which transcends them?

PRACTICE 45: Two 15-minute practice periods.



Picture:  Urban Up New Community Development, Milan, Italy. Such projects require the work of many.



Desired, but not easy.

From the Journal:

7 A.M. Monday, August 30, 1999

On the shore at Lake Bridgeport for my S2K meditation "I wish to know my own strength." I could only go 19 minutes. I felt last night the strength of my will in the meditation. "My will is to know God." I could see/feel my will extending through my life as it sought to Know God. The seeker/search for God has been my motivation. The strength of my will I felt yesterday before today's practice about "strength."

I am finding this much more powerful and useful than the books about it could convey. So - the lessons run - 

- Urantia - We are here to do God's will
- ACIM - God's will and my will are the same.
- RUOW (Right Use of Will) - Will manifests Spirit
- S2K - I can Know God's will directly (?)

Sorting things out as I go. This is, I expect, common for students. 
NNC



Journal 2nd Time Step 44.  This is for those who have completed Steps once. Doing Steps with only the texts, messages and your life experience, including what you may have studied and practiced is your journey. I’m showing Step comments after the Step, so as not to influence you in advance. It is a wilderness trek to be left to your own wits, but then you can also listen more closely for guides, angels and teachers, always first saying: “I surround and protect myself with the Love and the Grace of God.” Thankfully, I was taught this practice in 1989.


P.S. 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.