Greetings All –
Step 232 - My calling in
life requires the development of others. (MP3)
[Open in Drive or copy to
your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]
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| My calling in life requires the development of others. Step 232 |
FOR YOUR CALLING
TO EMERGE IN YOUR LIFE, it is not merely your own development that is
essential, but the development of others with whom you will be directly
engaged. Because your purpose in life involves your engagement with others, it
is not a singular pursuit. It is not an individual fulfillment. In reality,
there is no individual who is completely separate from other individuals
because individuality has meaning only in terms of expressing that which binds and
joins all life.
THEREFORE, THIS DAY
DEVELOP THE WISDOM and the understanding that your true accomplishment is
dependent upon the accomplishment of others as well. Think not that you know
who all these others are, for you have not met them all yet. Some are in this world,
and some are beyond the world. They may not be in your personal sphere at all.
HOW, THEN, CAN YOU
PROCEED when your accomplishment is partially dependent upon others? You
proceed by giving yourself to your preparation. The power of doing this will
strengthen those with whom you will be engaged in your life’s calling. Because
your application strengthens one another, you are already in relationship; you
are already influencing one another. The closer you come to that point where
Knowledge emerges, the closer they will come as well. The more you hold
yourself back, the more you hold them back. You cannot see the mechanism for
this while you are in the world, for you must be beyond the world to see how
this works. But you can understand the idea that all minds influence each
other, particularly those minds that are meant to be engaged specifically with
one another in life.
THEREFORE, YOUR
ADVANCEMENT IS DEPENDENT upon your own efforts and the efforts of others. Yet,
the efforts of others are supplemented and strengthened by your own efforts. Therefore,
your achievement is very much given to you to accomplish, and yet your achievement
will join you with life and will deepen the content and experience of relationship
beyond what you were formerly able to experience.
IN YOUR HOURLY
REMEMBRANCES and in your longer meditations in stillness today, allow your
efforts to supplement the efforts of others, which will supplement your
efforts. Allow the combination of your mutual dedication, then, to be a source
of strength which you will experience this day and which will be experienced by
those whom you have not yet met in this life.
PRACTICE 232: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.
A rare continuity of picture themes Step to Step. Might
the arch be symbolic of the calling? Yesterday’s picture:
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| Step 231 - I have a calling in this world. |
This is a serious Step. We have been responding to
“The Call,” in our own way, whether we know it or not. In my youth, living in
Two Rivers, Wisconsin, a mostly Catholic town, where I was Lutheran, I was
familiar with the goal of every family to have a priest and nun go into the
work of the church. My friend Jimmy, at age ten, had that goal. In the Lutheran
tradition, one was to be alert to “the call to ministry.” Another friend of
mine went to Lutheran seminary while in high school. One exercise he told me
about was, that of each student copying by hand the bible. Maybe that’s where I
got my idea of writing out passages from Steps and the GCS books. Jesus began
his ministry at about age 30 and it lasted for two years. After passing age 32,
I wondered if I would ever get a call. Steps gives a new perspective on this.
From the Journal:
5:50
a.m. March 3, 2000
231
"I have a calling in the world". When I said "Here am I, send
me." I didn't know what was to be done. I will continue to follow my
intuition through the confusion and wait on the emergence of my calling.
6:31
a.m. My work is to call forth awareness of regional community.
6:52
a.m. As I went into the stillness – Nightshades was playing a CD in about the
planets – era of global cooperation and unity and now music was playing a part
in this movement.
I
sensed the issue of "local" and "regional" music going
global. This is also happening with food, autos, – All artifacts of our
culture. → going from
local to regional to global, that change of venue/scale alters the experience.
Settlement of an area is done through localizing/governing/populating
In
the middle of my meditation my mind was generating ---
8:32
a.m. The day goes forward. There is much to do.
10:55
p.m. The step today: "I have a calling in this world."
I
wonder what it might be. --- I was called by Sarah at work. She was fighting
the urge to go back to Lloyd. I told her she needed to be strong. M.E. just
called to say Sarah left and she's locked her out.
I
got some reinforcement from At (de Lange). He suggested I read Jan Smuts – it
was encouraging of my "deepening."
I
will remain cool. I will stay centered of necessity. This earth place is a
challenging maelstrom.
Let us continue so that we can figure out “The
Call” in our lives.
NNC
Journal second time x2
Step 231. 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.
