LECTURE
FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS
© The School of Truth
Source p. 335, Dec 2007 / Jan 2008 - The Path of Truth
We are so often advised - and wisely - to aim at the stars, with the promise that, if we do, we may hit the tree-tops.
But have you ever seen a fellow-being so stricken by a sense of failure and the loss of self-confidence - which is, after all, God-confidence, through repeatedly failing to reach his lofty goal, that he has temporarily given up the challenge?
I have. And I found it demanded new humility, renewed and greater faith in the constant guiding presence of the Father, to show us the way through the dark place my friend had come to in the forest of life.
Perhaps you are low in spirit at this moment - although I trust that you are not. Perhaps you are wondering why you should TRY to hit the stars, when your aim appears to consistently fall far short of the tree-tops.
In case it may help you, here is the lesson we relearned through recent shared experience.
We began by taking our problem to God in prayer. Sitting in silence we deliberately let fall from us all the fears, doubts and anxieties that had crowded in upon us, blinding and deafening us to the Light and the Voice.
"How can I possibly 'be still' when there's such a clamour of fear and anxiety sounding inside me?" my friend had asked me.
"Try thinking a Psalm" I suggested from experience. "The Lord is my Shepherd...," or "Unto the Hills I raise mine eyes..." If your mind can't leave its dark thoughts and follow the words at first, don't worry. Just keep saying the Psalm over and over, and eventually it will raise you out of the darkness so that you can hold it in your heart and mind.
We could actually feel the tide of dark thoughts subside, and slowly but surely we were borne high above them by the Everlasting Arms.
Whenever a dark thought tried to raise its head we vanquished it by repeating the single all-powerful word "God," or "Good," or "Love." In disciplining the mind these words are invaluable. You will find that by repeating any one of them quietly over and over in your mind, it is impossible for any ugly, cruel or negative thought to survive. Such thoughts wilt and die away as though touched by the flame of Truth.
Out of the Silence and the Quiet Mind which we gathered to oursevles through repetition of the Psalms, and the gentle hammer-strokes of the word "Love" when wrong thoughts intruded, we came to a new understanding of the truth that all we are expected to do is to live - really live - one minute at a time.
We aren't expected to perform heroic actions, which seldom if ever do reach the stars anyway.
"Lead me, heavenly Father - one step enough for me."
Spectacular successes, in all the eyes of the world, are so often failures in the all-wise eyes of our Father. The stars and the tree-tops can be such different things when measured by man and by God.
We again found food for thought in those words of Thackeray: "Sow a thought, and reap an action. Sow an action, and reap a habit. Sow a habit, and reap character. Sow character and reap destiny."
From small beginnings great things mature - from right thought, love and selfless actions. Life isn't a competition of man against man, or my God against your God.
Life is surely a succession of careful upward steps towards the goal that has been set for us in this day of life we are now experiencing. Our way will be made plain before us if we take it one step at a time, without turning to look back in sorrow or regret, or straining to see too far ahead.
We must just sow a thought, take one step, and know that what is judged defeat by the world is, very often, a lesson learned, a victory in the sight of God.
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