Dear Friends,
This week's quote is from spiritual awareness class CQA 17, which will soon be published in Volume 10 of The Living Light Dialogue. The CQA series of classes were question and answer periods that, for a time, were part of the devotional services of Serenity. This quote begins with a question from one of the members of the congregation. As with most of our publications, questions and statements spoken by students are italicized, while words spoken by the teacher are in roman font.
"Long ago you made a short sentence. You said something that stuck with me and I can’t remember how it goes, but it had to do with helping people and having it be a detriment. This is kind of . . .
Yes. Thank you. In reference to helping people, we must be still and honest with our self, for the motive of any intent, the motivating force will dictate the law that is established for us. Ofttimes we look out into the world and we see people in different straights. Some are hungry. Some are cold. Some are uneducated and some seem to have the wealth of a world of creation. But we must pause in our thinking and in that moment, in that pause, enter the light of reason. We must see clearly the Law of Personal Responsibility. We have entered this earth realm, into earthly forms, in keeping with the evolutionary laws of life and according to the laws that we, in our previous lives, have established. We have come to this Earth, the planet of faith— the principle that governs the Earth planet—we have come here to once again face the lessons in life that we, putting it bluntly, have flunked before. Here, we have the opportunity to pass the grades of school that we are in here and now. If we do not make that effort, we guarantee the repetition of the lesson again, and again, and again.
So we look out into the world and we see the suffering and the struggle, but in that moment we must question the laws established. It is our duty to place our hand and help a soul that is sinking. It is our personal responsibility, if they are stronger than us, to save our own soul. That is our personal responsibility. And having accepted the personal responsibility of duty to one’s own eternal being, we accept that right for others. Remember, we cannot grant to another what we have not first granted unto our self. If we have granted unto our self the Law of Personal Responsibility and we see the struggle of others, we are impressed often to help them to help themselves. If the effort is not being made by a person to help themselves, then we are instruments of misunderstanding and we only help them down, instead of up. It is one thing to feed a person until they have gained their strength to feed themselves. It is very detrimental to feed them until they are no longer able to feed themselves.
We must all face the responsibilities in our life. We do not help people by doing things for them. We help people in the sense that we are the living demonstration to show them the way. To do things for people does not serve a useful purpose, because by doing for them, we deny them their right to do for themselves. A crutch is designed to help a person to strengthen their legs to walk again. Glasses are designed to help a person; they are not designed to take the place of our eyesight.
It is the abuses in life that cause the problems. It’s not the uses in life. All things, all people are designed to serve a useful purpose. If things and people are not serving a useful purpose, then they are not beneficial to themselves, nor to others. Now we would not use a dinner knife for a screwdriver when we know that we have designed the dinner knife to serve the purpose for our dinner. But unfortunately in our life, ofttimes we abuse the thoughts that enter our mind. We do not use them to serve the purpose for which we truly desire them to do.
And so we help people by helping our self, for the physician must first heal themselves that they may be the living demonstration. We, by being the living demonstration, are a light into the world that they may see. But to do it for them is to deny their right to their goodness and their life. I hope that’s helped with your question. Thank you."
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Sincerely,
Russell Fitzgerald
Vice President Serenity Association
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