Called to Serve - Part 1

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My daughter is blogging at present. It's a pure joy to see the wisdom she has, although she is only in her twenties .. and me at her age .. well, she's a lot more grown up than I was. I was still a child then, with children, she being the youngest, and her older brother. A child raising children .. but isn't that the way?

Thinking of the actions of children led me to remember my favourite chapter in 1 Corinthians, number 13. It tells us what love is, and what it's not, and then says

"When I was a child,

I spoke like a child,

I thought like a child,

I reasoned like a child;

when I became an adult,

I put an end to childish ways.

For now we see in a mirror, dimly,

but then we will see face to face."

Face to face - so many people are seeking what they 'are supposed to do' in this lifetime. So few of them think they find their true calling, or even recognise it when it is staring them in the face. They are so busy looking for 'grand adventures', but sometimes God simply wants them to do small things often, in kind and gentle ways.

When I was seeking I already knew my 'calling', but I was frightened to confront the reality of it, in a society that looked down upon people who were 'different', and I am very different ... though I can laugh about it now. I wanted to be like other people, not see things that others didn't, or know things they didn't, or have experiences that would frighten the hell out of most of them, but to me became part of the 'norm'. Or part of the normal. Because I wanted to be normal.

What I had lost in all that 'wanting' was that I had never been what I wanted. Being normal was not something I could go 'back' to, since it had never been there. What I was confronting was accepting that some of us are 'called to serve' in different ways, and that we have to ignore society's norms to help people who are caught up in things 'they cannot understand'. So whatever you are called to do, if it sits well in your heart, and makes you happy, then do it.

"Sits well in your heart" does not mean 'feeds your ego'. We should not glory in harming others, but in being of service to each person we meet, because this service is what is lacking in society now, so focused as we now are on 'serving' ourselves.

The ego is a child demanding attention. A frightened, lonely child who is only 'happy' when the being it governs obeys its commands, stays 'safe' and doesn't venture out of the appropriate behavours that make the ego feel protected. This is the child who spoke, thought and reasoned .. but when did we stop growing up?

Now that I am an adult I put an end to childish ways - or did I? I admit there are moments when I am hurt that I can act in childish ways. Hurt my feelings and I will 'turn the other cheek', but eventually even I run out of cheeks, and then I will say 'no more' in various ways. Sometimes simply by no longer talking to the person that has hurt me. In that way I do the least amount of harm, and I am here to do exactly that. Let me do no harm.

Every person on this planet was created to serve God (call it Spirit or Allah, or any other name that you think appropriate). Ignoring this knowledge is not going to benefit anyone. Oh, I know there are plenty of people who think God doesn't exist, and that's fine, as long as they are doing good, taking care of themselves and other people, I don't see a God in a fiery chariot coming down to smite them, just to prove s/he exists. Nor, for that matter, does 'God' smite those who do wrong .. regardless of what people are actually expecting. Sometimes I think we would all learn to be better adults if s/he did smite a few of us once in a while. But that is just an observation, and I, like the rest of humanity, know I deserve a smite or two.

Did you realise that being kind to other people was serving God? Think of it this way, there is a part of God (Holy Spirit .. or just plain Spirit) inside every person. An act of kindness to another is a way of showing love to that person, and to God. Pretty simple. God's ways are simple, clear and precise .. if what you are learning isn't, you'll know a human got to the information and complicated it. We are good at that!

My daughter asked me to write about being 'called to serve'. This is what came of the request. Expect more in part 2, but not today. LOL

Love & Peace
Ama

Spiritual Soapbox

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Good God its afternoon again. What happened to the morning .. oh I know, I spent a large part of it trying to change the background pictures on this site, and my other 'sacred gates'. I succeeded finally, after abandoning any hope of uploading my own favourite pictures. I settled for the wood of a crate for this one .. very appropriate given its new title. Yes, the site will still be about God, Spirit, the angels, demons, elementals, and hopefully a tiny bit of wisdom that I have been trying to acquire over the years. I noticed I succeeded in not writing a thing here since 11 March 2010. That didn't mean I wasn't writing .. believe me, I was .. there are reams of Allexpert.com (paranormal) pages to prove it, and then there was the meetup group .. which turned into more of a struggle than it was worth .. so its gone, but some of us remain - quietly hidden (lol) away at yahoo and facebook. In summing up the year I have to say the rest of it was a struggle - a mood swing and hot flush and other joyful symptoms of peri-menopause one .. so before I go any further, for those who also suffer, the Australia Menopause Centre is wonderful. Check them out. They have been my saving grace! http://www.menopausecentre.com.au/online/index.php

In the last nine months I have made many attempts to write a blog or two here. I even started a couple of other blogs with the same results .. no words were forthcoming on any particular subject, because most of the time it was my frustrations I wanted to express, and not the joys. When I sat down this morning I 'clarified' my thinking, which Spirit had been asking me to do for some time .. I deleted two of my blogs and settled down to keep just these two. I intend to try and write in each each day, but if I don't .. you'll know there's a very good reason. Call it my new year's resolution. I usually resolve not to resolve anything, but not this time. Things have got to change! :-) So this site is for expressing the challenges in life, and sacred gates will be for the joys.

Having spent at least an hour under the clothes line hanging clothes and talking to myself, everything I wanted to say here has vanished .. so I'll sign off for now and flip over and write something cheeful at Sacred Gates. The link is there on the right if you want to follow.

Have a wonderful day, have a wonderful year, and most of all, have a wonderful life,
Love & Light
Ama (who is very happy to be back!)'

I do wish that I was wise

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If I was wise I would know the right thing to say in the right situations without wondering if they were 'right', without having to double-guess myself. When you work with Spirit you don't automatically become wise, you still have to work on it, on a day to day basis. And the lessons can hurt, because your ego is very much involved in your everyday life - and when you want to become a good person, free of fears and phobias, you have to face those fears and learn their source, and let them go. And letting go can be one of the hardest things you ever do - for often the foundation of your life, of who you believe you are, is based on those fears.

Spirit asks me, from time to time, who do you become?

Who do you become? Who am I becoming with my choices and beliefs and attitudes? Where is God/Spirit in the process? The Christians say 'what would Jesus do?' in any given situation, or they are supposed to? What do the new agers say? What do I say, perched, as I am, between the two?

What would 'love' do? What would a loving person do .. in any situation? How do I react from Love, even when I want to react from anger? What do I learn in the process?

If I was wise I would know the perfect answer to these questions. But as I am a growing being, I am still learning, them, and many more.

So my question to myself is always 'who do you become'?

Love & Light
Ama