Mary Hath Chosen The Better Part
from The Rhythm of Creative Work
Uranda August 9, 1953 Class
As we consider together the basic principles relating to our responsibilities in sharing God's creative work on earth we need to go through a process of conditioning. The mass consciousness under which human beings are influenced until they learn to yield to the power instead of to the pressure is one of the great conditioning factors which tends to compel men and women along a path which leads to destruction. Circumstances, experiences in the fallen state, both those which we experience individually and those which we observe, tend to condition human beings for a state of slavery, degeneration and death. This process of conditioning is, in the world as we now know it, virtually automatic. One does not have to seek such conditioning, it is present wherever one may turn, and because of this conditioning which has been at work since childhood in each one, the individual must deliberately seek and accept conditioning for the Kingdom of God at hand.
Our Master touched this point in a very beautiful and vibrant manner when He said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”; but human beings do not believe it. They may say they accept the truth of the statement, they may say with their lips that they believe it, but note the pattern of action when any circumstance arises, any situation, even here. The tendency is to feel that one must somehow get what one thinks one wants, that one must somehow take a deliberate stand with respect to material attainments. Every circumstance which arises wherein there is a question of choice, every problem which confronts us which must be answered, gives a new opportunity for us to prove as to whether we believe what the Master said. Seek first the kingdom of God and right action in that Kingdom, and all other essential things, including the things of the Kingdom itself, shall be added unto you. We recognize that there are certain things which need to be done, and some people need to be stimulated to action, action in season at least. Some do not readily accept personal responsibility in relationship to that which needs to be done. Others tend to become over-involved in the necessities of physical action.
We remember the illustration which appeared in the Master's experience in this regard, for on a certain occasion He was visiting the home which He loved in Bethany, where dwelt two sisters and their brother, Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And Mary accepted the opportunity to be with her Lord, to listen to the words that He had to say, to rest in the spirit of His presence; and Martha, much concerned about having everything just so, ignored the opportunity. Of course she was to be commended because she wanted to have such a nice dinner for the Lord and she wanted to have the house look just so. She wanted so many things to be just so, and she was so busy making everything be just so that she forgot that she too had an opportunity to share what the Lord offered by His Presence. And she became distraught and she wanted the Lord to rebuke Mary and tell her that she should get busy and help Martha with her much doing. The picture of that moment is something which I would like to see impressed deeply into the mind and heart of each one; for the Master looked at Martha in that gentle yet so firm manner which He had and He spoke a very simple sentence, “Mary hath chosen the better part."
“Mary hath chosen the better part.” If we are going to share God's creative work effectively and be doers of the Word and not hearers only, it is vital that we begin to have a deep realization of the significance of this particular picture. In this particular instance our Master was there. The Presence of the Master was something very special and very important. There were two ways of interpreting proper action with respect to that importance: one was to be so busy trying to prepare a meal that would presumably please Him, that the one involved had no time to listen to His Word, to give heed, to share the spirit of His Presence; the other, recognizing the reality of true greatness, realized that a display dinner would make absolutely no impression on the Lord, that a banquet feast would not in any sense please Him. Why was He there? His body was weary. He had been working. He needed a time of rest. He needed an atmosphere of peace in which to relax. He needed the spirit of communion with those who understood, and Mary, out of the greatness of her heart, sensed the need in His great heart and chose the better part.
We must recognize the basic fact that Mary was sharing the Master's creative work and Martha in her great busyness was not. I have heard people say that they were rather inclined to sympathize with Martha, that they rather felt that the Master's rebuke had been a little on the harsh side, considering the fact that, after all, she was trying to do something to make it so pleasant for Him. Why was the Master there? Seeking a sumptuous meal? He would need, in season, simple food, yes, but why was He there? He was there to find someone who would share in His responsibility in carrying on the creative work for which He came into the world—a place where His own body could be refreshed. Did you ever find a banquet refreshing? I never did. It is a wearisome thing. Did you ever find a simple meal in pleasant, unhurried company refreshing? I have. What is the better part? The better part is to do those things which permit one to share God's work on earth, whatever that work may be in any moment.
We need to learn to follow the lead of the spirit of God. It is necessary that we do many things. Even here we have not yet found the balance point in this regard, the balance point where we could come to rest, so that our work would no longer for anyone be labor. When man fell from his point of balance in the creative field his work turned into labor—labor by the sweat of the brow. That is not to suggest that man did not work before or that man is not supposed to work. Work brings great satisfaction and all right things come in the range of true work. If you are functioning correctly in this moment you are in this moment working, but the pattern of work in this moment is different from the pattern of work in some other. But no one can know joy or happiness or satisfaction without working. He who seeks to escape from work destroys himself and prevents his own fulfilment.
And yet there are those who fail to comprehend what work is. Sometimes human beings, recognizing the necessity of work, allow themselves to be trapped in a desperation pattern, where they begin to labor on a self-active basis, trying to force things to be thus and so instead of letting the creative power of God cause them to be thus and so according to the Divine Design. With those who are alert it is not a question as to whether or not such and such a thing needs to be done—the question is: How shall it be done and when, and perhaps by whom? The manner of doing. If we are functioning according to the Divine Design we never labor. If you ever find yourself beginning to labor, shift gears and go to work. If you are driving a car up a hill in high and the motor begins to labor, if you have any perception of the mechanical factors involved you shift gears and let the motor go to work to take you up the hill; perhaps not quite so fast as you thought you were going to go but much faster than you would have gone if you had forced your motor to labor. A motor which labors is a motor which is being destroyed, but that is no sign that a motor should not work. The same is true of man. It is not necessary for anyone to labor anywhere. Human beings will labor until they return to a pattern of attunement with God and recognize that anytime a basic principle is stated in the negative it can be restated in the positive. If the human being is responding to the wrong thing, has negative response to the wrong thing, he will labor; if he accepts the positive reality of his true polarity, so that he has the right negative response, he will not labor but he will work. There is no such thing as true living without working.
But what is work? The doing of all things essential in their proper season. If you try to do an essential thing out of season it will be labor. If in the current of the spirit you do the essential thing in the right season, it will be creative work. Creative work brings happiness, and without creative work no human being can be happy. No one, young or old, can be happy without creative work. It cannot be done. Therefore the things which are essential, which need to be done, need to be accomplished in a pattern of creative work rather than in the pattern of labor. If one functions on the basis of labor one will become weary indeed, not so much from the activity as from the attitude one has toward his labor; but if the individual recognizes the seasons of action, of right action, there will be creative work, which brings joy, satisfaction, true happiness.
Sometimes people fail to realize that there are times or seasons when our work requires that we give special acknowledgment to the Presence of the Lord. We reach a point where we do all things in a realization of function within the Kingdom, living within the hedge; but there is a process of transition as human beings begin to recognize their responsibilities, under the Divine Command, with respect to the Garden planted eastward in Eden, that man was to dress it and to keep it. Dress it, give it form, and keep it in manifestation. Once we begin to realize the rhythm of creation, we recognize the moment of rest, the moment of pulsation, the moment of rest, the moment of contraction, withdrawal, the ebb and the flow. But there is a moment of rest between each section of the pulsation as it manifests through the heart, the physical heart through which flows the blood, which is the lifestream. The life is the thing, symbolized by blood, yes. But life is the thing and there is a pulsation. As the heart in the physical sense is the center of the physical life as seen in the bloodstream, so is God—brought to focus for man according to the patterns of focalization at the proper point—the heart for the lifestream which functions in any given part.
That which rests within a particular focalization has a centering in the heart. The focalization is the heart, and correct function in relationship to the centering of the lifestream within the particular pattern of manifestation provides exactly the same thing: a moment of rest, the ebb and the flow spoken of as the pulsation. That little moment of rest enables your heart to continue action. If you function correctly your heart is so constructed that your physical body could live a thousand years as easily as it could ten years. If the correct pattern is in control it is renewed every month according to the perfect design, a new heart every month. If that part was renewed according to the perfect design each month, all other things being equal, your body could easily live for a thousand years. God designed your body so that it could live a thousand years or more. Only through abuse and misuse is the body brought into a condition where it cannot live for any required length of time.
This moment of rest. The completion of one cycle, rest. The beginning and the completion of the next cycle, rest. And another, and rest. But the moments of rest get all mixed up when the human mind interferes with the correct season of action; and when the moments of rest become mixed, work becomes labor, and labor becomes wearisome. And labor is not creative. Labor does not bring happiness; work does. Creative work is the absolutely essential pattern for those who would know happiness; there is never happiness without it. One can labor and not be happy; one cannot share creative work and fail to be happy. In the pulsations of the heart we find a rhythm, and there is always a rhythm in relationship to true creative action, true creative work—a rhythm. The cycle of action may be longer than the pulse beat of the physical heart, but whatever length of time may be involved there is always a rhythm in creative action which includes its proper moment of rest. We see this in relationship to the creation of the earth itself, for after the first six cycles there was a cycle that was spoken of as the day of rest, rest from that which was completed in the first six cycles. Actually there was a moment of rest between each of the cycles, but there was a particularized pattern of rest as the seventh cycle. This is true of creative rhythm, and until we begin to feel, to sense and to appreciate creative rhythm, we cannot begin to truly live.
Rhythm is important. Rhythm has its proper place, and rhythm can have its influence in bringing about great joy and satisfaction. The joy in creative work depends to a high degree upon the reality of rhythm. Human beings do not know what pleasure is. But there is the necessity of rhythm, true rhythm, and one of the functions of rhythm is to establish a pattern of timing which relates to the sense of the fitness of things. One of the values of rhythm relates to rest; one of the values of rhythm relates to coordination; one of the values of rhythm relates to unification—Oneness. The purpose of rhythm is to develop Oneness. Now in the general world pattern I would not suppose that each person wanted to achieve the common concept of oneness with everyone—a mixing and a messing of vibrational factors which breeds disease, physically, mentally and emotionally; a disregard of things sacred and holy, which brings destruction; a promiscuous mixing of vibrational patterns without regard to living, without regard to true joy, without regard to true unification, without regard to the goals of true Oneness to which each one should aspire. And then, when one has established enough vibrational chaos through labor when one should be working, one wonders why one's life goes to pieces, why the joys and the satisfactions of life vanish away, why so much futility, why so much failure, why the sense of desperation, which causes human beings to feel that they just have to get some fun out of life somehow. Get some fun out of life?—yes indeed, some fun! People act as if they expect it to be fun to go through the process of dying, because they give precious little attention to the process of living. Pleasure!
God likes pleasure too. God is as much interested in pleasure as you could possibly be. One of the pleasures of God is to give us the Kingdom. “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom,” give you control, the reality of the design, the opportunity to share creative work in the rhythm of living. We might recognize that one of the rhythms which God has provided for us is found in the pattern of day and night; the day for action and the night for rest, the rhythm of day and night. One of the factors of this rhythm is revealed in the moon, in its changing patterns. We see rhythm in nature all around us, and yet man has not truly recognized the value of rhythm to himself—rhythm in action—rhythm in speaking—rhythm in thinking—rhythm in living—rhythm in all creative cycles. Once we begin to appreciate the fact that all of God's action, all of God's doing, carries a current of rhythm, a pattern of rhythm, we can more easily learn to follow the heavenly lead in relationship to earthly action. It is a matter of getting in step with God. He is the partner in the invisible realm; we are the partner in the so-called visible realm, visible according to our vibratory pattern; that level is visible according to its vibratory pattern too. But in any case, rhythm in creative action.
When the Master came on that particular occasion to the house of Mary and Martha, Martha failed to recognize the Master's lead in the rhythm of creative action. Mary saw it, felt it, sensed it, and followed His lead. She accepted the moment of rest physically speaking, which was in turn a moment of work or action mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Sometimes our best mental moments of rest are found in physical action. Sometimes the physical body needs to rest while we have mental or emotional action. The level of action needs to be recognized, and the rhythm of the pulsations between spirit, emotion, mind and body need to be recognized. A moment of physical action may provide a moment of mental or emotional rest, but if when we are physically active in labor our minds are tense in rebellion against the necessity of labor and our hearts or emotional patterns are keyed up in the same fashion, there is no rest—the rhythm is broken and no delight or happiness or satisfaction results. Moments of action appear in conjunction with other moments of rest. The physical rest, the mental and emotional action—both necessary to the function of the Spirit. Until we begin to realize the vital importance of these interrelated facts, principles and truths, we cannot begin to feel, to recognize and know the patterns of rhythm that are at hand, available to us in relationship to beginning the processes of living, that we may turn the tide from dying.
The better part: the moment of physical rest which provided an intensification of vibrational action in creative magic. If there is no magic in the individual's life, no magic in the process of living, if there is boredom, if there is lethargy, if there is any failure to function with joyous aliveness, the individual has failed to rest, even when he was being lazy. He has failed to sense the rhythm. He has failed to share vibrational creativeness. Creativeness must be vibrational before it can manifest in physical form correctly. The rhythm of creation requires that we begin to sense and know happiness, which is the spark of the magic of living in the process of creative work, even when the body is not in action.
If you come here and listen, merely trying to learn and remember what is said, you will have failed in your acceptance of an opportunity. Whenever you come here to share an hour of Meditation with me I am giving you an opportunity to share a creative act in the rhythm of creative living—not just hearing, not just learning, but creative action. Once we begin to know the Fatherhood of God's Love, the Motherhood of God's Truth, the gestation and birth of their Child, which is Life, we begin to sense in the Shekinah Pattern of Being a constant rhythm, a constant pulsation, carrying action in relationship to rest. And we can begin to share living with the One Who Dwells, as we connect up through the Shekinah reality on the basis of the rhythm of God's creative action.
“Mary hath chosen the better part.” We must deliberately act, seeking first the Kingdom of God and His right action. Without action there is nothing; there is nothing actionless anywhere, at any time; for even when the body is dead the action of decay continues until all the substance of the body is released into the pattern of action normal to the elements of the mineral kingdom. There is action. Anything that tries to cease action or to avoid action reduces itself to a lower level where it cannot escape from action. We can rise to a higher level through action, or by action we will be reduced to a lower level where we cannot escape from action. He who tries to escape from action on the level where he is, not only denies himself the pleasures of the higher level but he destroys himself by reducing himself, or the substance of himself, to a level where it cannot avoid action or escape from action. To try to escape from action is to reduce oneself to that which is lower than oneself. Creativeness includes a process of the ascending cycle where each becomes more fully the revelation of the higher realms of Being, as day by day he shares creative action, and in action we find that magic which gives the spark to the joy or happiness of living, creative living.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
