Fresh Thinking, Inspiration, and Vision on the Process of Spiritual Transformation

As many of you know, there’s been a gathering here at Sunrise Ranch over the past five days, called the Servers Gathering and Congress. That time ends today; we had a check-out earlier this morning. We bring forward a generation of substance from that gathering into this room, to be joined by what you bring.

In the opening ceremony of our time together, we had an opportunity to write on a piece of paper a quality or character of creativity and love that we would bring into the circle, and we placed them in that bowl (indicating the golden bowl on the stage). Mine was “Delight.” Now that could seem to be a bit presumptuous, because you may not think I’m very delightful! And maybe I was looking at it more from my perspective—that it was my delight to be here.

To bring a bit of that energy into this gathering this morning, I’d like to read a piece that the members of the Servers Gathering were asked to consider prior to the gathering. This is from a service given by Martin Cecil, entitled “Passionate Devotion.”

“And divine men and women are passionately proud of what they divinely are. They refuse at any time to belittle it themselves, and they refuse to be subject to those who would belittle it…. To have passionate pride in that which one divinely is doesn’t require defensiveness, because no one can change the state of affairs; there is nothing that anyone can do to make that which one divinely is any less than it is. If we are passionately devoted to the service of our Lord we are passionately proud of having a part in it.” (from “Passionate Devotion,” Martin Cecil, October 3, 1964, TSS 16:76)

I’d like to take the opportunity, as I’ve been given permission by the angels that you and I are, to speak to the capacities through which you express…”I am proud of you! I am proud of you for what you are willing to do in service to your angel. I am proud of you for being willing to hear the things that don’t feel comfortable to hear, and to not be moved out of your rightful place. I’m proud of that courage that you show, of that love that you show to your angel. And, there’s more to be done. But don’t ever forget that your Father loves you and is grateful for your presence here.”

I was considering what that means to me, to my capacities, to have the Lord proud of me—to be proud of the things that I’m doing and being potentially proud of the things that I may do in the future. And I was wondering how I accept the responsibility of letting that pride move through me and out into my world. We all know the phrase about not hiding our light under a bushel, and I find that to be very current in my experience—that if I am proud of who I divinely am, I can’t hide it. I can’t even be passive about it. I don’t know what “passionate passivity” looks like, and frankly I don’t care, because it doesn’t sound all that much fun. But being divinely proud of who I am, and knowing of the mission for which I came, I look for every opportunity to demonstrate in a fitting way that which I love.

A couple of little stories came to me as I was thinking about this. They’re small, but I love them. They’re about people declaring who they are. I’m going to mention two names—you may know one of them, you may know both, you may know neither. It’s not really important. The first one was a fellow named Kurt Johnson, and Kurt was on his way to an Art of Living seminar at Rainbow Farm, in Indiana, back in the 1970s. And whatever it was that he was doing in the airport, it caused this young woman to come up to him, someone he didn’t know, and say, “Who are you? Where are you going?” And in that moment, keeping the time frame in mind, he said, “I’m going to a school for Jedi Knights.” On my honor, she said, “I’m going too,” and she wound up at Rainbow Farm. It was an opportunity to be proud of his divinity and to share it.

Here is another one, in a little different way. A lot of you here know our good friend Craig Sarbeck. Craig told the story of how he came in touch with the Emissaries. He was bike riding in Yosemite Park. He had stopped at a little rest area and there were a bunch of people around. He saw this guy sitting on a stone wall, and whatever it was, it was attractive to Craig. Craig was a pretty outgoing kind of guy anyway, and so he walked over to this fellow (whose name was Carl Romaner) and asked, “Where are you from?” Carl got a big smile on his face, looked Craig right in the eyes, and pointed upward! Craig followed him for two days on that bike, hoping to learn what Carl meant. Craig’s next stop was Sunrise Ranch.

One of the things that we’ve considered during our time is this matter of consciously using every circumstance for service. This was a theme that was brought up in our time together—being in the moment, using every circumstance for world service.

Through a set of circumstances initiated a couple of years ago, I now find myself in this room, looking at a friend of mine, Lisa Grunden, who just moved to Colorado. Not too long before moving out here, Lisa spent a year and a half participating in a Transformation Group I hosted in Madison, Wisconsin. I trust she was drawn to participating in that group, in part, because I was willing to be who I truly am. I was proud of my divinity and I was unable to contain myself from letting that pride show.

This in fact is what we’re all here to do. I guess you’re supposed to say, “I believe…”—right? Okay, then…I believe I know that this is what we’re all here to do. I also believe none of us would have it any other way! Would we want to be anywhere else but here and now? I wouldn’t. I’m so grateful for this opportunity to be here with all of you, and I look forward to bringing you all back to Madison, carried in my heart. I look forward to allowing this energy that we create in this moment to be held and blessed, and then offered as a blessing to the broader world.

Somebody mentioned in our time that the thirty-three of us in the Servers Gathering represented over one thousand direct relationships. Well, there are twice as many as that in the Dome this morning—over two thousand direct connections! Are we showing ourselves fully to all of those people? Do those people feel the pride we have in our divine natures? Think of the power of that—and that’s just a start! Let us each be aware that in every moment life asks us to be present and to take that opportunity to serve the world, to take that opportunity to do the thing we came to do, which is to let the light of who we are come through these capacities in such a powerful way that people can’t help but notice. That’s what I’m interested in doing, and I’m interested in doing it with you.