I ask in deep concern and with a passion to know.
How long, Lord? Why, Lord? When Lord? and again, How long, Lord?
I make my requests known.
I pray for understanding and seek to find.
I ask, being an expression of yourself, do you not feel the pain?
Do you not feel it as I feel it?
Is not my loneliness yours?
Do not my tears flow on your face as yours on mine?
Is not my aching heart your own, seeking to express love and be loved?
Tell me, life, is this not true?
I ask you. Give me answers.
Man must learn all problems have right answers.
I realize the answer is not in the problem but in the equalizer that brings a solution.
Standing on the edge of time, I announce my hunger for knowledge and guidance.
Crying and hungry, I stand, waiting to be fed.
I see before me a sleeping, slumbering world, hypnotized by its own detachment; too selfish to become involved; immune to the needs of others.
The world forgets our need is but her own need to make a contribution.
People talk much and present a number of philosophies yet they will not make a commitment regarding what they believe.
Man surveys the many fields of endeavor but never enters the field to reap the harvest.
Living on the fringe of life, man is afraid to be a creative witness to it.
In a human way, we have been lured into avoiding responsibility and have robbed self of the fluid of spirit that flows as universal energy.
Is it any wonder the body dries up and decays?
Fill yourself with His presence.
Let His vitality move through you, as you. Catch the song of the Psalmist who sang to his Lord in this manner, “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy f ingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?” (Psalms 8:3-4)
Life, I ask you.
Tutor me in ways of understanding that the soul does not remember and has not yet learned.
My mind must remember or the path I have traveled serves little purpose.
Life’s map not only delineates the route of the journey but the destination and plan of return.
Life, I am ready, I am receptive, and I am responsive to your instruction.
I no longer resist that which you choose to send through me even though at times the pain seems more than I can bear.
I have shared experiences with many people in life’s school.
They have hurt in not knowing life is a distribution center of understanding.
Life, I accept your strength as my own and move forward under your vitality and guidance.
I recall the Psalm: “When Thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” (Psalms 27:8)
Teach me, Oh, greatest of teachers.
Hold me in the womb of Your mind, that I too, might share in the conceiving of ideas and give birth to You as the truth of my being.
Let Yourself be made manifest through me as I open my being to let You flow through me. I know Your law and strive to be obedient to it.
This You said, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)
Man in ignorance and disobedience to this law has given power to disease, unhappiness, lack, and death through his dual nature.
The freedom of choice has been given to man, and it must be guided by wisdom and supported by love.
In our transgression of this law, death comes to free the spirit so that it may renew itself and prepare for a new body.
Then, again, it will take up the search for understanding.
The law does not change; it stands absolute, rendering total justice.
Teach me well.
Life has gorged herself at the feast of information but I stand ready for pure instruction.
I am Your pupil.
Remember, I am a product of Your thoughts and made after the image of Yourself and like You in all ways.
Help me to realize this truth.
You, great universe, are my mother and father.
I stand now, naked, ready to be clothed in your eternal truth. I am willing to shed the coat of man colors of understanding and step into the seamless robe of pure truth.
Yes, prepare me to wear the garment of Christ, “The Seamless Robe.”
I wait in silence, no longer mesmerized by man’s world.
The fields of competition are for those struggling with self, who are afraid, unsure and insecure.
Like in the Parable of the Rich Fool, man prepares, only to be lost in the preparation.
Richness of living is in the present tense—not something to be put off.
Self-preservation is folly, for we must learn the truth: self is indestructible spirit substance perfecting its own cause.
Gradually, we are seeing the flaws in man’s world.
Yes, I am aware of his unscrupulous methods and cagey techniques.
The carving knife of ambition cuts a sharp edge but dulls with time and is worn thin to breaking.
Let it not be so with me, life.
Hear me, life, I beg you, hear me!
The journey has been long and traveling informative.
We are all world travelers in spirit, and life has given generously of herself.
Follow My pattern, You say, “Ask for light, seek illumination and use My ideas intelligently. Have faith in yourself as My son thinking through you. Stir your imagination into activity and see that which I have established for your welfare. Be not afraid of your dreams, for they are My dreams. Through you, I will establish My kingdom and peace shall endure because you have learned to be peaceful. Did you not hear the angels’ message, hundreds of years ago, when they proclaimed to a sleeping world, ‘Peace on Earth, good will toward man?’”
Yes, I was there.
Faintly, I heard the message.
Yet, in traveling too fast, we forget.
“Take time, son, to remember. Take time to listen. Take time to realize Me. Take time!”
I now remember.
I have always been with You, God, and have my true existence in Your eternalness—yes, in the realm of Your own Mind.
I have been alerted to the fact: I have been here since time began—since the foundation of the world.
Yes, Teacher, my soul does remember.
* * *
You say, “Was it yesterday?”
God once said that a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.
Why then should time be one of our concerns?
Just what is time?
Some have tried to define it but are unable to give a suitable definition.
Events have been recorded to justify man’s growth and evolvement as he passes through the stages of reincarnation.
The world presents a list of chronological happenings and calls them past civilizations.
These accounts have brought us to where we now stand.
Our calendar becomes a system by which man regulates his life.
It is a system of control and pushes man into a race against himself, building feelings of limitation.
Panic sets in as the push becomes greater and the race takes on a frantic, breathless pace.
The struggle for survival becomes a satire on living, for in truth man survives in spite of himself.
The calendar suggests a limited number of days broken up into weeks, divided into hours that melt into minutes which are the children of seconds.
Time effortlessly and relentlessly moves into years.
Time becomes a gauge by which man rushes into living but fails to grow.
With all this explosive pressing, man lives by a false concept and puts self in bondage to it.
Time is greater than weeks, months, or even years, for it is eternal.
* * *
There is talk about seasons, but what are they, but part of the whole?
Seasons are part of the plan and serve their purpose without making rash claims.
Seasons are made for man not man for the seasons.
* * *
From Genesis to Revelation, page by page, we have traveled.
We live in His garden of abundance; we have been put to tilling the soil from which we ourselves came and which one day will reclaim us.
We have walked with Patriarchs and with Prophets.
Yes, we have lived with kings, marched in vast armies, fought many battles,but self is the final battle.
Victory is within our reach. Grasp it!
© 1972, by Richard Dale Billings
All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
