It’s a deep pleasure to be joining you and everyone online in choosing to serve God this day, in this moment—with words, with our capacities, with our conscious presence and agreement. We have made that choice and here we are together.

It’s a deep pleasure as well to be continually discovering that the divine design is in fact an intelligent design. The universe is an intelligent entity. I’ve been reading a number of books recently which, in scientific terms, are beginning to come up with proof to this end, and I have to admit to some pleasure in reading these things. It’s not that I don’t already know that this is the case, and it’s not as if I need scientific proof. But there is some pleasure in celebrating the fact that others are awakening to this in their own way.

I’m also increasingly aware in these days that the emerging design on this planet includes what I might call a “steadying presence,” a body of people who have awakened to, and accepted responsibility for, providing a stabilizing influence through the choices they make, moment by moment. In my case, and from what I observe in my friends and in my world, it’s not a flawless thing. There are some slips that happen in the provision of stability, in the quality of presence and in the remembering of who I am. But the divine design is an intelligent design, and there are reminders. There are challenges; there are circumstances that clearly need my steady hand. And there are friends who provide those reminders, often when they’re most needed.

What I have referred to as the steadying presence was referred to by T. S. Eliot, in his poem “Burnt Norton,” when he described most beautifully “the still point of the turning world.” This still point is universally present in the very largest dimensions, and in the very smallest. The still point of our turning world, this beautiful planet, at a conscious, deliberate level, is provided by the presence of God emerging through the capacity of consciousness of those who have chosen to let it be so. Certainly, at a personal level, there is plenty to be steadied in my internal and external worlds at this time, starting with my own capacities.

I woke up this morning with a thought running through my mind, and it was a simple question: “Will the center hold?” Will my center hold? In the midst of the circumstances, the moment-by-moment challenges and opportunities that come, sometimes in intense ways, will my center hold? Will our collective center hold?

I have wondered if we here in Johannesburg, South Africa, at High View Gardens, really understood what it was that we were setting in motion and what we were undertaking when we visioned and declared this place a center for transformation. It takes something to begin to consciously and deliberately provide a space for transformation. What it most importantly takes is a steadying influence, a safe place held in such a way that allows and promotes transformation to happen. The primary place is in the capacities of mind and heart of those who have accepted that responsibility and continue to discover what it means to provide that in this place and, beyond that, into our larger worlds. Something was set in motion by just setting that intent, and we continue to discover the implications.

When we look out on our world, it’s a given that there is no way that we can hold all the details of everything that’s going on, provide a steadying influence for all of that at a specific, conscious level. There’s just too much happening. Certainly my mind is not capable of encompassing all of what’s going on in my world at the level of form and circumstance. I guess the point is that it doesn’t have to. If I accept the requirement to provide a stable core for my world, and accept the same requirement collectively with my friends here at High View Gardens and my friends on this line, then I and we must allow heaven to be present. That’s what’s required: just ensure that heaven is present in my experience and in expression into my world.

I have to admit that, at times, my attention does get taken up with the forms of my world, to the exclusion of an experience and expression of heaven. Sometimes it all seems to be too much; and anxiety, and even despair, creeps in. How can I deal with it all? How can I possibly provide what’s needed? How can I understand what it is that’s mine to bring? And sometimes I really don’t know.

I was paging through a small poetry book that I rediscovered on my bookshelf, called The Way of Life According to Lao Tzu. He had these words to say:

The surest test if a man be sane
Is if he accepts life whole, as it is,
Without needing by measure or touch to understand
The measureless untouchable source
Of its images,
The measureless untouchable source
Of its substances,
The source which, while it appears dark emptiness,
Brims with a quick force
Farthest away
And yet nearest at hand
From oldest time unto this day,
Charging its images with origin:
What more need I know of the origin
Than this?

So, in the very clear invitation contained in the words of a recent “Pulse of Spirit” meditation, it’s a matter of heaven received without condition. Martin Exeter, in that excerpted service, said human consciousness is meant to be open to the invisible heaven of truth. This is what Lao Tzu was referring to in his poem—the measureless. This consciousness is not designed to hold fixed opinions and assumptions, and certainly not to understand everything at the earthly level. It is designed to be open to receiving heaven and all that that brings of healing, blessing and creativity. The truth is accepted and revealed as there is the openness to receive heaven into consciousness.

Certainly, reaction to what I deem to be wrong in my circumstances and in my world does not bring what’s right, and certainly doesn’t fix what’s wrong. Only openness to the truth brings what’s required.

In David Karchere’s words of a recent meditation, he said, “It takes courage to say what comes from the divine. It takes more courage to act on it.” So, in these days, that courage is required to make the choices to be open and available to the spirit of God, to the heaven that is all around us and, when we allow it to be, all the way through us. It does take courage. I believe that courage is present in these days; and, because of that, there is transformation, firstly in consciousness and then evident in our worlds. There is the emergence of a new world because there are those on hand to steward its coming.

So it’s a pleasure to share these thoughts and energies that are moving through my heart and mind at this time.