© 2007 Phil Taylor
© 2007 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Science Fiction for Agondonters | Volume 8, Number 1, 2007 (Summer) — Index | The Kingdom and the Supreme |
Fifteen years ago I made a decision to serve. I had volunteered as a construction manager with Habitat for Humanity for a period of one year, a fulltime job for four dollars an hour. I was a carpenter making much better wages elsewhere but I decided to take the job for one reason; after prayerful meditation it became apparent that such was the will of my Paradise Father. The thought that had entered my mind was that such an opportunity would provide me with valuable leadership training; and seeing this thought as an insight from my adjuster, I took the job. I was not sure yet how I was going to pay the rent; but if it was the Father’s will, then I knew something would work out.
Well, it was a great training experience. I learned to manage the construction of several major projects at once and also plan for the activities of more than one hundred volunteers who came to work on the houses each week. But what I had learned more than just the training was the real value of this experience—how to cultivate a habit of loving service.
Attendant upon my own spiritual awakening, I increasingly desired to refresh and uplift the souls of my fellows. But as odd as it seems, I didn’t really know how. Spending that year in service to others began my journey in cultivating service-mindedness. I began to find at every corner of my day, an opportunity for me to reveal God’s love to others and perchance share with them some of God’s truths as well.
I remember leaving the Habitat worksite one evening just as it was getting dark. I had locked the security fence and started the drive home when I saw one of the neighbors outside his house struggling to repair a front door that was falling apart. I pulled the van over, got out, and asked if he needed some help. Seeing the frustration in his face, I pulled out my tools and helped him make the repairs. As I was working with him he asked me, “Why are you stopping to help me? It is late, and you have worked all day on building houses in the neighborhood. Why did you not pass me by?”
I had to stop for a moment and think for a reason because at that point I didn’t know why I had stopped I just did. It was second nature. Then looking into his eyes, I smiled and found my answer. “I stopped because this is my religion. You are my brother and how could I pass by a brother who is need of help?” He stopped to think for a moment and then remarked in his pleasant Spanish accent, “that is a good religion my friend.”
The great value in my one year experience working for Habitat wasn’t the fact that I was able to build homes for those who previously had none. It wasn’t in the fact that I was able to repair a neighbor’s front door. The great value in this year-long experience was that it helped me to cultivate the practice of coming into close intimate association with my fellows so that I could reveal God’s love for his children by my serving them. To my mind, that was the real service opportunity, not the work of building houses—that was just a bonus.
It was upon reflection on this incident that I began to see the religious power and spiritual might of a life revealed in loving service to God and man. I have spoken at length about spiritual ideals and religious truths, and I have effectively taught about the revelation to those who I have passed by. But I have never had such influence or power in teaching the Gospel as when I have approached my fellows in loving service. My actions spoke for my words and never have I found revealing or sharing the truth so easy, so effective, and so rewarding.
Our culture is so overwhelmed by competing religious philosophies and divisive ideologies where church doctrines and theological beliefs are mass marketed to the weary minds of a spiritually thirsty society; and yet how refreshing it is to see men and women not speaking of their religion, but actually living it in such a compelling manner. Then their fellows can not help but ask them about their religion.
“The world needs to see Jesus living again on earth in the experience of spirit-born mortals who effectively reveal the Master to all men.” [UB 195:10.1] But in order that the world may see this return of Jesus there must be men and women willing to make themselves available to all through the opportunities of loving service. We must be available.
Said Jesus, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all who are in the house. 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.” [UB 140:4.4]
It was not necessary that I dedicate a year of my life to have the opportunity to serve others. The fact is, it matters little what we do for there is always a call to serve in any capacity. A full-time mother has just as much opportunity to come into close association with her fellows as does a service volunteer who has taken a year of his life to build houses. At whatever station in life we are, there is abundant opportunity to live a life of loving kindness in such a way that all men will be attracted by the fragrance of our spiritual living. This is as equally true for the ditch digger as it is for the doctor, just as it is true for the home maker or the homeless.
It is just such a service-minded attitude that transforms a common-place life into an ennobling service adventure that is re-experienced and renewed each day. No matter what occupation we hold or what material duties we must tend to, there is always time for the opportunities in our lives to render the monotony of daily living into a recurring episode of thrilling, loving experiences. A life of service transforms the mundane, monotonous daily grind of living into a spiritual treasure hunt where each day is an opportunity to find the reward of creating another perfect experience of revealing God to our fellows.
For a while after I had departed from working for Habitat I continued to practice this habit of ministering to the needs of my fellows. But somehow I regressed, and I became distracted from the goal of love ministry by a greater desire to impart higher truths to my fellows. I began to overlook the primacy of loving-service to achieve the secondary goal of truth ministry. As a result, I found myself growing less effective in ministering to my fellows as I passed by.
I remember sitting down in prayer and talking with the Master. I asked him why was it that I was not being very effective in my service ministry. The thought that came back to me revealed that I was becoming so desperate to share the truth of God that I had begun to over look the love of God. It seemed as if the Master was saying love comes first. True service is loving service; and this love flows from the Father through you to your fellows, and enables you to impart the truth. But love comes before truth.
What Michael was teaching me was that I was not to worry about sharing the truth, I was to concern myself more with finding the opportunities to show loving-kindness to my fellows; and this would open the door for the sharing of the truth. I then realized that the gospel is the gift of good news wrapped up in the actions of loving-service.
Upon reflection of my service experience at Habitat, I recognized that I had developed an unconscious habit of doing nice things for other people—just simply loving them because they were children of God. This was the most valuable lesson on service. Service must be done with love. I had learned to practice love in action, and this practice of love ministry prepared me for becoming a better teacher of truth—truth ministry.
Now that I look back, it is this very life of service that provides me with the engine of spiritual growth that positively pressures me to develop greater spiritual habits. I have begun to realize that loving service is the classroom of spiritual progress and that I have grown more under the spiritual pressure of service than I had ever grown fostering an intellectual appreciation for the truth. And it was because of this same spiritual pressure that I have begun to learn the greatest lesson of all—that I am dependent on the Father to guide me through all these service episodes.
The contact of the mortal mind with its indwelling Adjuster, while often favored by devoted meditation, is more frequently facilitated by wholehearted and loving service in unselfish ministry to one’s fellow creatures. [UB 91:7.1]
If there is any doubt, let it be said that The Urantia Book Fellowship is a service organization. As the Master has loved us, so are we to go forth and love our fellows. As he has served us, so too shall we serve others.
I lived my life in the flesh to show how you can, through loving service, become God-revealing to your fellow men even as, by loving you and serving you, I have become God-revealing to you. I have lived among you as the Son of Man that you, and all other men, might know that you are all indeed the sons of God. Therefore, go you now into all the world preaching this gospel of the kingdom of heaven to all men. Love all men as I have loved you; serve your fellow mortals as I have served you. [UB 193:0.5]
The challenge that lies before all who have come to posses this great revelation is to find those means and methods to continue to disseminate the Gospel and the higher truths found in The Urantia Book. These are advanced teachings that we have come to possess, and they will not persist in this culture of and by themselves. This progressive revelation needs to be anchored down and made real in the lives of those spiritually dedicated men and women who will embark on the path of loving service. And by so living, these men and women will reveal the fruits of the spirit so that those with whom they come into contact may inquire about what they have come to possess.
Our culture has been bombarded and saturated with the name of, and doctrines about, Jesus; and many have become numb to his great name. It is the privilege of those who walk with Him to sober these inundated minds by the refreshing presence of Jesus as he lives through us in loving service.
Next year The Urantia Book Fellowship will host the 2008 International Conference. The theme of this conference is “The Thrill of Loving Service.” But what we, the Conference Committee, are striving to do is more than just to produce a conference. We hope to glorify the ideas and ideals of loving service so that our readership can more fully embrace this service injunction that has been handed down to us by our Creator Son.
Phil Taylor has been reading The Urantia Book for fifteen years, and serves as vice-president of the Urantia Association of New England. He is a member of the Fellowship General Council, and is currently working with Susan Cook to involve younger readers in the planning and presentations of workshops at The Urantia Book Fellowship International Conference in 2008.
| Science Fiction for Agondonters | Volume 8, Number 1, 2007 (Summer) — Index | The Kingdom and the Supreme |