© 2014 Meredith J. Sprunger
© 2014 Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d'Urantia
When we truly believe in something, we act upon it. Anyone who has had a momentous experience with truth, beauty, or goodness must share it with others. Living faith invariably creates a highly active personality. We may be reserved and objective about our social theories and religious philosophy, but we become missionary evangelists of those spiritual values that have transformed our lives. An individual who is dedicated to spiritual ideals lives and works to realize this inner directive. A religious person transforms faith into daily practice. Such tendencies of activity are indigenous to the divine plan of human development. God the Supreme requires growth and accomplishment in our lives. The main channels through which this evolution of personality unfolds are in our relationships with other people and in activities that provide for the necessities of life.
Love and fellowship are the fundamental acts inspired by spiritual experience. We are social beings who need the community, support, stimulation and love of other people. Although we, as children of God, recognize all people as our spiritual brothers and sisters, our finiteness limits the realization of this universal relationship. We are able to engage in concrete working relationships only with a relatively small number of people. The family is not only the most important human institution, but it is the ideal model for all social relationships. There is an atmosphere of love and communion in group interactions where spiritual values are dominant. It is the extent of our love for the people with whom we are associated that concretely measures the spiritual quality of our mind.
The most important activities in our lives are family relationships and friendship. To develop spiritual character, human nature needs the stimulus and fellowship of social interaction. Real joy and happiness cannot be experienced in solitude. It is through family relationships and small groups that we learn most. Just as members of a family do not think or behave alike, members of larger social institutions should learn how to debate, disagree, and yet be sympathetic to other points of view and support people with different lifestyles. Unity of purpose can be experienced amidst the diversity of methods by which we realize our collective ideals. Individuals working harmoniously together for social purposes are far more effective than the sum of their efforts. Unified action results in a geometric culmination of achievements for the common good. Historically, the most innovative discoveries and contributions to society have been made by small groups. Small, homogeneous groups of people united in common projects constitute the growing vanguard of culture and civilization.
Service is the culminating aspect of all family and group activities. It is the spiritual goal of human life. The sincere aspiration to contribute to the well-being of individuals and society should be the divine desire of all human beings. It is the spiritual quality that binds and builds marriage, family life, and social institutions. Such service produces the fruits of the spirit regardless of rewards or oppositions. We love, support, and reconcile ways of living that strengthen individuals, reinforce social institutions, and make our world a better place to live.
In addition to the fellowship and service we provide to our fellow human beings, our greatest contribution to life and the kingdom of God occurs in our working lives. Whether at home, outside, or in a larger society, we spend a large part of our lives in the social economy. If we are lucky, this work is a creatively rewarding as well as financially rewarding activity. Unless we have found a pleasant and well-defined work in life, it becomes aimless and unsatisfying. It is by looking deep within ourselves that we discover such a purpose that is essential to our holistic development and also stimulates the blossoming of our abilities.
The Inner Spirit of God has an ideal plan for our lives. This plan is not associated with a specific vocation, but with the progress and enrichment of our moral, mental and spiritual level. It is concerned with the total development of our personality. Each person has a configuration of his aptitudes and his inclinations towards certain types of activities and achievements. Our growth and maturation depend on our ability to discern and follow this divine plan by using these natural talents.
As we meditate on inner creative guidance, we gain a sense of God’s will for us from which we can formulate goals and intentions. The true character and substance of our personal development begins when we actualize these spiritual desires into specific life plans, which ultimately take the form of a life plan. This plan, this sense of calling and partnership with God, gives meaning and direction to life and with it a new source of energy and strength. We feel that we are in the right place, of service where we are. As we grow spiritually, we are increasingly able to solve personal, social and economic problems. We learn to use the energy of spiritual power to harness the material and intellectual mechanisms of achievement.
The possibilities for service are as great as the needs and interests of humanity. The uniqueness of service is the result of human creativity. Although every culture shares common knowledge and values, the individual experiences a different combination of facts, meanings, and values; and as they are assimilated into the process of life, each person achieves a new and creative expression of universal values. The quality of our creativity is proportional to our abilities and spiritual attunement. Creative activity is our ultimate inherent response to the presence of God in our lives; it is a superb advancement resulting from the enhancement of reality. We are at our creative best when we immerse ourselves in a greater cause and reality. Human creativity develops the soul, increases our awareness of our personality, and makes a contribution to the world.
Although creative service is an intrinsic activity which we enjoy as an end in itself, all professional tasks and other occupations have forms of activity which we do not enjoy but which must be performed. These monotonous and tedious routines can become rewarding and almost enjoyable when associated with the deeper intention of our life. No work should be considered “common labor” for every extrinsic activity can be considered worthy as service to our fellows and to God, by its association with the main purposes of our mortal career.
Helping and supporting service is one of the main goals of spiritual psychology. It is a dedication of our lives to help others; it is a contribution to truth, beauty, and goodness on our planet; the accomplishment of which will make our world a better place to live. Humanistic workers may achieve valuable social results, but spiritual servants generate spiritual fruits that transform individuals and society. Secular sociologists look at human problems and leave people virtually unchanged. For spiritual workers, knowledge is only a means to an end; they focus on transforming people, correcting error and injustice, and straightening out society. Service is both the channel through which we realize God’s will in our lives and the most important source of human happiness and fulfillment.
Following the leading of the Spirit is never easy. The tasks set by the Spirit challenge us to our limits. The leading of the Spirit requires hard work, struggle, conflict, determination, persistent effort, and indomitable faith. Spiritual pioneers are always faced with disapproval and opposition. As we respond positively, wisely, and aggressively in facing the frustrations and harassments of progressive life, we become more resourceful in our service. Kingdom creators endure the inevitable trials undaunted; difficulties invigorate their efforts, and obstacles motivate them to make important decisions.
Our responsibility is to act; the consequences are in more influential hands. Loyalty to spiritual vision leads us to optimistically plant young trees whose shade we will never enjoy when they are grown. Long-distance runners do not seek immediate rewards or results. They live within the evolutionary frame of reference of the Supreme and visualize by faith the fulfillment of their labors. Having the courage to be and to act, they are nevertheless rewarded with unforeseen discoveries and unexpected accomplishments. They live in the certain assurance that eternal truth, transcendent beauty, continual goodwill, and boundless love will conquer the world!
Help and support of service are the main goals of spiritual psychology. True religion requires doing something. Our Inner Spirit has an ideal plan for our life. The main requirements of this plan are loving fellowship and creative action, both of which find their highest expression in service. Following the Spirit’s direction is never easy; it challenges us to our limits. Our responsibility is to act; the consequences are established in the divine overcontrol of creative evolution. Eternal truth, transcendent beauty, continual goodwill, and boundless love will conquer the world!
Meredith J. Sprunger