Divine Destiny
from The Decision-Maker
Martin Cecil November 14, 1965
I always find it very pleasing to look upon you as I come to service. But I'll tell you something. I have the impression that a few of you, anyway, do not have any really vivid sense of destiny. Perhaps there is a lack in my vision in this regard, but I wonder if it might be wise to consider this matter. It is tremendously important that if you are present in the Chapel at a service, or whatever it is that is being undertaken, there should be a keen sense of interest and consequent participation. I would far rather have two or three people who were really interested than a Chapel full of lukewarmness. This real interest, so necessary, relates to the experience of a sense of destiny, as I have called it. One has a keen sense of responsibility for the right fulfilment of the creative purposes of God. One's whole being is directed toward this.
This comes to a particular point of focus in our Chapel, of course. It is more easily seen in its focus point, or should be, than anywhere else. We are not, after all, when we come into the Chapel, busy with our responsibilities in the external field of daily function in the ordinary sense. We're not cooking, or keeping books, or washing dishes, or whatever the things we do may be. Therefore our whole attention can be brought to focus with respect to the true purposes to which our sense of destiny directs us. If it doesn't occur when we have a clear field in this sense, it is not likely to occur when we are out there doing other things. If it does occur when we are together, when we are all really participating in that which is being brought to focus, then when we do move out in the field of our daily affairs those external activities will not dominate our viewpoint. We will not ignore them, we will not neglect them, but they will not be primary. They will be the means, the important means, by which we are enabled to serve and to direct the creative expression of our beings into the field where the power of God is required. So it is in these times together that we have the greatest opportunity for developing this sense of destiny. In other terms we could call it a sense of real meaning, Divine meaning. A sense of meaning is very important to a person if there is to be experience of living in any vibrant sense. As soon as we begin to lose that, we're on the way out.
There is this matter of keen interest, then. From my standpoint I would far prefer to have a few people who are vitally interested and right there than a collection of droopy, dozing people. From my standpoint I prefer that if a person is going to sleep, he go to bed and do it where he should be doing it. If there are those who feel that they are not interested, or not going to be able to be interested—I don't know what that means, exactly—then I would prefer that the individual didn't come. Perhaps if he didn't come he might discover the fact that he wants to be there, or he might be quite content not to come, in which case that individual is on the way out. These things will prove themselves out in that fashion, because we really have something to do and we need to do it. There needs to be developed a keener awareness of the reality of what I call destiny.
There have been individuals who have moved through the pages of history who obviously had a great sense of destiny. Of course the most outstanding one, the only completely true revelation in this regard, relates to Jesus, who clearly had a keen sense of Divine destiny. He not only had this but He acted accordingly. Now there have been many others who have had a sense of destiny, but for the most part it has been a limited or distorted thing—a human pattern and not a Divine one. There is nothing wrong with the compulsion of this sense of destiny. What goes wrong is the individual's translation of it in his own consciousness.
What would our sense of destiny cause us to say of ourselves? “I am Divine man,” perhaps, and in this sense, “I am mankind; all mankind depends upon my sense of destiny.” I wonder how clearly defined that is in our individual consciousness. We take responsibility presumably in our spheres of function day by day. Sometimes there have been little points of failure even in this, haven't there? But for the most part we have learned to be responsible in this regard. However, there is the inclination to look upon what we do as being this much, contained in our field of responsibility, and we have consequently what might be called a rather puny awareness of our destiny. If our destiny merely relates to what we happen to be doing here at 100 Mile House, even though we hold responsible positions in whatever it is, this is not adequate at all, is it? We need to have an awareness of a far greater destiny, which relates to all mankind.
“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,” our Master said. They was not exclusive in any sense. He included all people in that statement. To what extent do we have a consciousness of destiny in this regard? We have used words to indicate something, by saying, “I came into the world to save the world”; but for the most part, I think this has tended to be just words. There must be something inside oneself which knows this to be true. I am not suggesting that there should be the development of a human sense of self-importance. Nevertheless it is right and proper that there should be, underlying one's function, a deep awareness of one's own Divine importance.
It is true of so many, isn't it, that they don't really have very much consciousness in this regard, because individual human beings tend to feel, “I won't be missed,” and they say, “No one's indispensable.” I suppose in one sense that could be said to be true, but in the Divine sense it isn't true, is it? We are all absolutely necessary. No one is dispensable. If any aspect of Divine Being is missing, the whole of Divine Being is rendered meaningless, because God is One God. If there is any part not there—this is impossible, but supposing—then the whole thing is dissolved. From the Divine standpoint everything is in place, and we all have destiny in this sense. Very often the word destiny is used in the human way, to indicate some sort of fate. It was Judas Iscariot's destiny to betray our Master, in the view of many people. It wasn't his destiny at all; that was his human choice. The destiny of which I speak is the Divine Destiny, the true purpose for being. We need to have a consciousness of this, whether we have the specific awareness of what that destiny is or not. It is not as though we could prefigure it, but in our moment-by-moment living it needs to be present in us, so that all our actions, all our thinking, all our speaking, is conditioned by this awareness of one's own Divine importance—an absolute thing. Then we're not depending upon anyone else.
I mentioned something about the lack of interest, the tendency to be only partially present, shall we say, which sometimes appears in different ones. This is an indication of the fact that the individual is not participating, not playing any part. If you are in a position where you are the only one, and there is something to be taken care of, you know darn well that it's going to be taken care of by you or it isn't going to be taken care of. Yet if there is more than one, the human being tends to lose this consciousness. He thinks, “Oh well, it doesn't matter. Someone else will do it.” In other words there is no real sense of worth. One is saying of oneself, “It doesn't matter; I might just as well not be here.” Well why don't you cut your throat then? You might just as well, if it's true that it doesn't make any difference whether you are here or not! It makes, actually, a tremendous difference from the Divine standpoint—but we need to have a consciousness of the fact that it does make a difference.
We can't be meaningful if we have no sense of meaning within ourselves, if we are, so to speak, apologetic for our presence. Mind you, there are times when perhaps we need to be a little apologetic about something, when it is the sense of the fitness of things that brings forth what is expressed. Let us not be apologetic about being ourselves—but let's not always be apologizing for ourselves. Now I don't necessarily mean coming out in words and saying so. I'm talking about an attitude. One should have a keen awareness of the fact that if you are not in place, everything is going to collapse.
Now, of course, that can be carried to an extreme too, from the standpoint of human ego, which doesn't wish to allow anyone else to carry any responsibility. We are willing to carry our own responsibility, and we are willing to let others carry their responsibility, rightly; but from the standpoint of our own responsibility, this is a vital factor in the whole. If it is not there, the whole pattern is going to be spoiled. Yet people take the attitude that it doesn't really matter whether they are present or whether they are not. Of course, when a person is taking that attitude, in one sense I suppose it doesn't matter. But the individual is not being true to himself when he takes such an attitude, because there is the reality of Divine Being, which is not dispensable at all. So it is important that we should have this sense of destiny, of our own Divine importance. We're not, because of that, going to thrust ourselves in and say, “Look how important I am; you've got to take note of me.” No, there is humility, there is a sense of the fitness of things, but inside oneself there needs to be this rock which knows. And that state of consciousness is tremendously important. Without it we can't go very far.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
