A Comradely Attitude — Feed My Sheep
Uranda August 20, 1953
The vibratory turmoil, the rushing to-and-fro, the tension and the misery, the sufferings of humanity which are so evident in untold ways—there are so many human beings who are subject to futility, who have reached a point of hopelessness, of not caring. We need to have a still deeper appreciation of our privilege and responsibility, a dedication which cannot be caused to waver for even a moment, to the end that we may as effectively as possible serve. We have been considering many things with respect to service, what it means to serve and how to serve. We are here on a basis of dedication to service. But I was wondering if tonight we might in our togetherness gain a deeper realization of the significance and the opportunity, yes, and the means by which we may serve.
Sometimes familiar things tend to take on an appearance of sameness. We tend to take them for granted, and we tend to assume that what we hear of familiar words has been heard before, and the mind and the heart seek for something new—the Divine Word is, “Behold, I make all things new.” But we have old problems with us: problems of the social order, problems of government, problems that take on a political pattern, problems of human relationship of every sort.
Our approach is to seek to find something that is right, a point of health and strength in a body that has illness, so that we can increase the health and the strength in the body, that the illness may be crowded out. The same with the mind and the heart. It is easy to look for what is commonly called evil, or sin, and condemn people for it. Looking for the right things, looking for the starting points, is our business. Most human beings exist on a basis of a deep conviction with respect to what is wrong, both with themselves and with others. This difference of approach is something which requires an educational program before human beings can begin to see its value.
We need to remember that we are a part of this world family, this world body, with all of its parts, with all of its ill conditions, with all of its suffering. We cannot consider ourselves as being separate from it, and if we are not separate from it and we think too much about all the tragedies and the sufferings and the ill conditions, the injustices, we will tend to become subject to them. We need to face the facts and then pause to consider what it means to be Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven right here on earth. How much does it mean to us?
When we see all of this misery in the world, when we recognize the tremendous problem before us, the human tendency is to feel that it cannot be done, that it is too big a problem, and to become fearful. And yet your body was made to let the Spirit of Life manifest on earth, your mind was created to let the Spirit of Truth have meaning on earth, and your heart was created to let the Spirit of Love have meaning on earth. We cannot say with respect to any of you that the manifestation of life through you is perfect. Your body is not yet a perfect instrument for the manifestation of the Spirit of Life, but it is moving in that direction. Your mind is not yet a perfect instrument for the manifestation of the Spirit of Truth, but it is moving in that direction. Your emotional nature is not yet a perfect instrument of the manifestation of the Spirit of Love, but it too is moving in that direction.
If we start looking for that which is right we may be forced to recognize that with many human beings in the world it is just too late. With many human beings there is no way to help them. We have recognized that there must be basic integrity. Sometimes it is covered up, sometimes it may be hard to find; but if there is a basic integrity, that is the first point. And the second is, the individual must be not only willing to be helped but must eagerly seek and accept help. In this pattern of dedication to service, we recognize that some people will not let you help them. Therefore as long as there are people in the world who will let you help them we must not waste time trying to help those who do not want to be helped.
There are so many who are ready to be helped, looking for someone who can help them, those in whom we can inspire or uncover a starting point of integrity. If you have these two things in any human being, regardless of his problems, regardless of difficulties with habits, alcoholism or dope or anything else, if you can find or uncover these two things, you can do something. If you cannot find or uncover or inspire these two things, you cannot help that person no matter what you do.
If you are trying to do something but are not actually doing something, can we classify that as service? We must not confuse trying to help someone with the actuality of helping, trying to serve with the actuality of service. If we see this distinction and recognize it clearly in relationship to ourselves, we can see that, regardless of intent or ability, regardless of purpose, unless we actually do serve someone in the sense of helping them, our effort is not service.
In the world there are many service organizations, there are many people deeply interested in helping their fellows in various ways—church people, ministers and laymen, all sorts of approaches to this problem of helping others. I have seen many a minister who genuinely wanted to help someone, who was looking primarily at what he conceived to be the sins of the individual whom he sought to help, and he took a more or less condescending attitude, a perhaps halfway tolerant, halfway judging attitude, where there was no meeting point established. If the minister is as righteous as he wants to appear to be, and if he is dealing with and seeing the sins and the evil in the people whom he is trying to serve, there is no meeting point between the two. The individual feels that there is a self-righteousness; he does not feel a contact and he feels that he is not really being appreciated, just more or less condemned.
If your function is of reality, you cannot have a meeting place with others on the basis of their unrealities, and unless there is a meeting point between two human beings, they are not going to really, in any direct sense, influence each other's lives. It is our business to influence the lives of people in any way that rests within our ability on a legitimate basis—to influence the lives of people toward a constructive expression of life. But what is our meeting point? The ill conditions, the sickness? Not to exaggerate it, but many human beings simply do not know how to have a meeting point with another person except on the basis of sickness, illness, operations, misfortunes, tragedy, and if we are going to find a point of relatedness with that person we may be forced to touch an acknowledgment of something of that nature, but we must not dwell on it. What is our meeting point? The righteous condemning the evil? No. If we are functioning on the basis of reality we are looking for that which is right.
All too often this thing that is called service, that people render to others, is not service. It is something that takes away any bit of dignity that there may be left, anything that allows the individual to recognize himself as having any meaning. We need to see that service, if it is to be really rendered, needs to be on the basis of that which is, and not on the basis of that which is not. If we are functioning in reality we do not have attunement with that which is wrong, with that which is sick, with that which needs to be changed. If we are functioning on the basis of reality we need to look for that which is right, the point of integrity, to inspire the willingness to be helped, to seek help.
The body is designed to let the Spirit of Life have meaning on earth, that the mind was designed to let the Spirit of Truth have meaning on earth, and the heart to let the Spirit of Love have meaning on earth. In one of those three levels, surely, we can begin to find something. If we just give a person an attunement and don't say even a word for the mind, not a gesture of love for the heart, what have we done? We need to be able to bring these patterns into alignment.
We reach the point where we can feed the hungry. “Feed my sheep.” The Master repeated it three times when He was talking to Peter. Peter denied Him three times. “Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep.” Feed the body, feed the mind and feed the heart; feed the three phases of being in those whom you do serve, and be alert to ways in which you can feed them.
I have seen so many starving people treated as if, well, it was their just desert to starve, and I do not mean just physically starving. People that were hungry. When we look for that which is worth feeding—not to condemn, not to find fault, not to try to treat what is wrong, but to feed the hungry, to serve—how do we do it? With ostentatious display? Or with a comradely attitude, a meeting point, something that reaches into the heart, something that arouses gratitude, something that puts you on the basis of meeting the one whom you serve? I wonder. What does service mean to us? Are we alert not to force something upon someone but to feed the hungry and let the pattern work out, let the cycles completely clear in the true expression of service? To feed the hungry.
It seems to me that if our peace here in this little valley, if our privilege of togetherness, is to have any meaning at all we need to meditate upon these things in relationship to a starved and hungry world, a world that is starved for God's Love, a world that is starved for the Water of Truth, starved for the Bread of Life—a world that is starved. And yet how are we going to feed people? Go out and try to drag them in? No. We must see clearly enough, we must have perception enough, to see what needs to be said or done at the right time, just the word, just the gesture, just a little something that begins to create confidence, assurance, a sense of relatedness, a sense of trust, a sense of a meeting point. Build those things first, the meeting points, and the rest will follow.
And remember, as God has been patient with us, let us be patient with others. And we will find that there are many who are eager to help us build the form of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
© emissaries of divine light
