Willing To Be Led - a Christmas reading

Those who are in a state of innocence wish to be led by the Lord and not by themselves.  They love what is good & find delight in what is true.  They live content with their own,  whether it be little or much.  They receive just as much as is good for them – those receiving little for whom a little is useful, and those receiving much for whom much is useful.

This slightly condensed wording of the 12/01/12 Christmas reading – Willing to be Led – would have frustrated & confounded me a few years back, maybe even just a couple.

Now, I get it. 

My view is not of little or much wealth, but talents.  Look around – it’s clear that some people are endowed with an abundance of personal gifts & talents, while others have far fewer. 

Lori Soneson Odhner absolutely astonishes me with the number of talents she’s developed over the years, at their range & depth. 

Dave & Candy Zeigler are another example of friends graced with a variety of talents, which they’ve developed over the years. 

Lori and Dave & Candy do work that the larger world recognizes & values, but my guess is they’d do what they do even if it didn’t. 

The question isn’t, has never been, whether or not you’ve been graced with little or much.  We have what we have.  What we do with it, how well we develop what we’ve received so that it becomes a gift back to the Giver – that’s what all this taking up space on the planet is all about.  

The reading went on that those who love to be led by the Lord (All That Is), who realize that all their blessings flow from the Divine, “whatever they hear from the Lord (All That Is) – by whatever means – they do not store up in the memory, but instantly obey it; that is, will it and do it.”

Wow.  That’s a strong statement.  Once they’ve heard something they know to be true, there’s no dithering or dilly dallying – they put it into action.

Theresa of Avila  wrote, “Christ has no… hands, no feet on earth but yours.”   

That lays down quite the responsibility on us to put the truth we see into action – our lives literally manifest the Divine.  And when we don’t do what we know to be true, when we store it up in memory without living it in our lives, every day in every way – what does that say?

The reading got into some interesting, mind-stretching areas for discussion.  It describes as a “potent platform for good success – a willingness to dutifully do what the Lord (All That Is) wants us to be doing in our lives.” 

Powerful statement – but how do we KNOW what the Divine wants us to be doing in our earthly lives?  What does it mean to be “content” with what they have? 

At the how-did-I-get-this-old age of 60, “content” doesn’t mean what I once thought it did, at least not for me.  I’d say that Dave & Candy are content with what they have; doesn’t mean they sit on their hand & appreciate their talents & interests, but that they go out & express them, expand them, increase them.  I dare say they are, hopefully, more than content with who they are, but totally buzzed about it, too.

Same with Lori.  Never struck me that she keeps designing new quilts & coming up with new “marriage moats” & composing new songs because of some almost mechanical over-drive, but because doing expressing her talents is a celebration of the Divine.  They are content, not complacent.

I look at where my friends have gotten in their life work, and I see people who “hear & instantly obey by willing it & doing it.” 

When I’m around the three people whose lives I brashly (without permission!) used to illustrate my thoughts, I truly do get I get the feeling that they have an “abiding sense of peace, contentment, and safety in their lives.”

It’s typically not the most gifted “people person” who becomes a top marketing representative or the brilliant scholar who becomes a great writer or scientist.  It’s the one who honors whatever talents she has & uses them wisely & well.  Same with us all, whether we have been given much or a little.    Do we dilly dally over what we’ve got, complacent with our talents?  Do we dither away the hours, days, years debating with ourselves our next step?  Or are we open to being Christ’s hands & feet on earth, and when the next best step makes itself evident, willing it & doing it – aka ACT?