© 1997 Earlene Green
© 1997 The Fellowship for readers of The Urantia Book
| Faith Makes All Things Possible & Love Makes Them Beautiful | Winter 1997 — Vol. 6 No. 9 — Index | The Urantia Book in Lithuania |
By Earlene Green
“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and be led to glorify your Father who is in heaven.” The Urantia Book UB 140:3.13
George Bernard Shaw wrote: “All the world’s a stage and we each must play our part.”
Visualize with me, if you will, our planet in space. We are looking at ourselves from out there; me — looking at myself on Urantia through the lens of our telescope; I’m a speck of light among billions of little lights. There are tiny shimmering lines which connect each light to another and to each other, and I can faintly detect the brilliant halo which encircles the planet and upholds the billions of little lights. Some lights grow dim and disappear; brighter lights immediately take their place.
We all glow, move, and have our being in this web of oneness which is God. I can see that we are all connected, that each of us has value in the universe scheme of things, that we are truly “the children of one God. . . and brothers of one blood and members in one worldwide family of God.”
What I have just said was written before the opening of the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia in July. Many of you witnessed the ceremony on TV and saw the incredible light show, as shown from aerial cameras, especially focused on the many thousands of citizens of Urantia from nearly 200 countries, each person symbolically letting his and her light so shine to the rest of us who were not physically present but, nevertheless, elsewhere glowing and shining with love for humanity from wherever we were and feeling our connection through God’s spirit in each of us. These were glorious minutes and an indicator of the perpetual joy that can be experienced when we consciously pursue in our daily lives the manifestation of the brotherhood of mankind.
Ordinarily for the individual, it may seem strange or feel a bit odd to identify self as belonging to and being connected to a worldwide family of people. The author Kennedy Shultz put it this way: “Our neighbors are not just the folks next door with the loud stereos and dreadful children. They are all the people with whom we share this planet. Loving all of them as ourselves simply means giving them the same respect and freedom we would expect a good neighbor to extend to us. This is a huge and valuable gift which costs very little to give. It is a gift given in spite of the fact that we may prefer the company of people who are very much like us or who like us very much. It is given because we know in our hearts that God is just as much at home with people unlike us and people who may not like us at all, as with people we think are just fine.”
But the reality for many is that it’s safer to think of self as being just another member of the human race, no kin to those folk over there and especially not kin to those darker ones back there, and forget those folk who call God by some other strange name. Well, you already know that you’re not alone in your way of thinking because reality demonstrates on a daily basis that this color dilemma is a worldwide problem, created, imbued, and passed on from one generation to another from as far back as 25,000 b.c.
This prejudice about color remains and the mixing of the races continues. The problem about color is a negative distraction and it slows the advancement of our planet’s progress toward the spiritual goal of light and life. It taints the mental atmosphere wherein the conscious mind forms ideas and makes decisions.
As readers and serious students of The Urantia Book, we have been told that ours is an experimental planet. We have been given a general outline of the progression plan for the human race; that ultimately it will come to pass that “God has made of one blood all the nations,” and that his Son “has made of one color all peoples.” (UB 52:3.7) So who are you and who are we to presume to interfere and actively thwart universe plans for mankind here on Urantia? Common decency demands that we make room in this world for all God’s people. This means more than “giving them their space.” It means allowing them a place at the table. We are all here as part of the experiment.
Problems, a technique for growth, are encountered and await our personal or group solution. We have been given the tools to remedy problems — the mind (intelligence), the body, this planet and all of its resources, and the spirit within to give meaning and aid us in this ever expanding growth process. And the most magnificent teacher of all, Jesus, shows the way. And Jesus said: “Ganid, no man is a stranger to one who knows God. In the experience of finding the Father in heaven you discover that all men are your brothers…”
Now we have the reason to willingly participate in this grand experiment. My experience is that when you search for God, you find yourself; and when you find God, you have found everything. Experience is obtained during the process. The use of one’s intelligent mind determines if the process is joyful or otherwise. “It is not so much what you learn in this first life; it is the experience of living this life that is important.” (UB 39:4.13) A dictionary definition says experience is direct participation in events; something personally encountered, undergone, or lived through.
Each of us, by our own free will and with the help of our Thought Adjuster, has determined the role we are playing in this unfolding drama of the Family of Man. In the whole scheme of things, our time in this drama is no more than a dash — as seen in print. This dash can be viewed as a minus sign or add a vertical dash through it and see it as a plus sign.
We do make mistakes, mostly of the tongue, and most of the time have the opportunity to make amends or try again. An Old Testament saying goes like this: “He who guards his mouth saves his life.” An admonishment in The Urantia Book quotes Jesus, “The human tongue is a member which few men can tame…” (UB 146:2.13)
Let me tell you a story about an old preacher who decided to sell his magnificent riding horse. There was Bob who loved horses and had always admired the preacher’s horse and wanted to buy it. The preacher said to Bob: “Now hold on a minute before you make a decision; this horse only understands spiritual talk. To get him to go you say, ‘Praise the Lord.’ To get him to stop you say, ‘Hallelujah.’” So Bob said, “I think first I’d better try this horse.” Bob mounted the horse easy like and gingerly said to the horse, “Praise the Lord.” The horse took off on a slow trot. Bob felt good in the saddle so he said more confidently to the horse, “Praise the Lord!” And the horse took off in a gallop. Bob and the horse were moving comfortably across the countryside when Bob noticed the end of a cliff just ahead and his mind, somewhat slowly, found the word he was to say, “Hallelujah!” And the horse stopped just eight inches from the edge of the cliff. Bob slumped. Relieved, he took his finger and wiping the sweat from his brow, he said: “Whew, praise the Lord!”
Bob had a spiritual attitude toward riding that horse, but his tongue was not tamed. In reality, we should use our spiritual attitude about any parts we play in interacting with our fellow man. In the process of riding out human problems, one can experience real joy without fear of there being a precipice ahead by trusting your intuitive nature to reveal anything you need to know in order to avoid placing yourself in harm’s way. This is living faith.
Experiencing spiritual growth is as difficult or as easy as the intelligent free will individual makes it. There is a universe pattern of growth and again Jesus shows the way. Jesus is a Master Son. He experienced seven incarnations, one of them as a mortal of the realm. He encountered problems and he had adversaries. Lucifer was one of them. It was Lucifer’s use of his free will that landed him the role of an antagonist on a different stage of life. The repercussion of Lucifer’s folly is felt all the way down to you and me in this day and time.
This universe pattem and the challenges of growth apply to each of us. Many individuals consciously choose not to grow, and many individuals have embraced the role of adversary. This role in our unfolding drama may appear to be antagonistic to others but let us consider with a broad view that the role is catalytic to sharpen or finetune a value some other person needs to become competent in.
Consider the following quotes from The Urantia Book: “All evolutionary creature life is beset by certain inevitabilities … is courage — strength of character — desirable? Then must man be reared in an environment which necessitates grappling with hardships and reacting to disappointments.” (UB 3:5.5)
Personally, I don’t care for physical hardships based on my reality of it. But if the statement also means spiritual hardships, then indeed that is a hard place to be. How about altruism — service of one’s fellows? Then, The Urantia Book goes on to say, must life experience provide for encountering situations of social inequality. And, of course, all normal-minded humans who know the truth most certainly desire the other inevitabilities like hope, faith, love of truth, idealism, loyalty and unselfishness.
You should first contemplate your own level of possession of each of these qualities and determine your evolutionary standing in the scheme of the plan for progress on this planet. It is possible, and desirable, to rise above the role of adversary. It is unbecoming to a spiritual countenance.
The author Kennedy Shultz further says: “…love is not optional to decent living. It is essential because when we are not relating to each other in love, we risk falling into contempt for each other. Justifying our contempt for other people by pointing out their supposed faults only blinds us to our own challenges and helps to perpetuate them. Out of this error comes the notion of our own superiority, closely followed by the belief that we are divinely authorized to harm others or limit their freedom in the name of God…”
But there is still that nagging question of how to deal with our wayward brother or sister who would harm your person. Webster’s Dictionary defines heathens as strange, uncivilized or irreligious persons. These are the ones who “know not the truth.”
And why do the heathen continue to be angry? Some problems have been imbued and passed on from one generation to another within certain segments of the world population. Although spiritual endowments are uniform, some people profess God’s lot only within their own identity group. This leaves very few true values to pass on to succeeding generations. How unfortunate it is for those who know not the truth to nurture their inheritance of fear, self-doubt, and mistrust when proven healings and life’s good offerings are available to all through acceptance of the truth — that God loves all of us.
This negativity is not a malady peculiar to just one racial group; nor, in most cases, is the malady necessarily violent in its nature. It could be viewed as a culture of spiritual indolence, “ … for religion is a way of living as well as a technique of thinking.” (UB 92:7.10) Many wonder: “What can I do? Is this my responsibility? Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Each of us has that ability of answering those questions to the satisfaction of our own soul. What is going on inside of you reflects on the outside. Let us tend our spiritual gardens, let us share our capacity to love, proceed at our own pace, and naturally give and receive the love of others. Spreading love is infectious. And this infection will ultimately be the salvation of our global family. This infectious love will extend to the care, concern, and upkeep of our beautiful planet, bringing it, along with ourselves, in the progressive march toward light and life.
Jesus went on to say to Ganid: “To become acquainted with one’s brothers and sisters, to know their problems and to learn to love them, is the supreme experience of living.”
I’ll close by leaving with you this stanza from a favorite hymn:
In Christ there is no East or West, in
him no South or North,
But one great fellowship of love
throughout the whole wide earth.
Join hands, then brothers of the faith,
whatever your race may be,
Who serves my Father as a son is surely
kin to me.
| Faith Makes All Things Possible & Love Makes Them Beautiful | Winter 1997 — Vol. 6 No. 9 — Index | The Urantia Book in Lithuania |