2001-05-13-Motives, More

Session

Opening

Evanson (Jonathan TR): Hello, Evanson speaking. I'm happy to meet with you again, to share in company. It is my purpose today to address you on the topic of intention.

Lesson

Intention, Stillness

You understand the importance of motive and how the outcome of action is not weighed for or against you unless you take into account the motive that initiates the action, for good motive, even while resulting in action that brought error, does ultimately reveal lessons learned that purify the application, the method you use to express your motive, and thereby you have grown and become more skillful in promoting the intention of your expression.

Let us for a moment twist the word "intend", reverse it and call it "tend in". It probably would become apparent to you that the practice of stillness is a valuable undertaking to clarify intention. This intending is a mode of preparation for any individual who desires to minister to fellows, not to discount the extremely high value of communion with the Father. The benefit of this stillness is this time to become prepared, and this helps to enlarge the arena of activity that is stillness. It allows you to use study, intellectually oriented lines of thinking, as well as the more obvious forms of prayer and worship and quieting of the mind.

Every football team huddles before the play is enacted. Every orator organizes prepared notes before the first phrase is spoken. A repairman gathers tools before heading out on a job. A musician organizes the sheet music before beginning the song. These preparatory actions are not displayed before those who receive the service or any given action, but they are vital in the outworking. They are the composition of intention.

In spite of all this preparation, and you are familiar with this through experience, what plays out does not always conform with your prior organizational efforts, just as when the ball is hiked in a particular skirmish, and the play pattern is attempted by the offensive team, the unpredictable responses and actions of the defensive team create variations in the intended pattern, and adjustments are made in an effort to make progress.

An orator, a musician, an actor all have encountered this same variable unpredictability that departs from the intended form of delivery. To one who seeks to be of service to the Father and encounters apparent failure in reaching to another individual must allow this breadth of unpredictability that will contribute rather than detract from your intention.

One of the meanings, the underlining truth, of the phrase, that you give and thereby receive, is woven into this dynamic of intention, the unpredictability of receptivity in your surroundings. The lesson you sought to reveal, the ministry you have sought to foster, is adjusted. The lesson is received; the ministry received short of, perhaps, the intention, but superimposed upon your targeted action is a reciprocal lesson or ministry to yourself. A good quarterback knows that, while the opening of the offensive moves may contain several plays in sequence to obtain the goal, that after each pattern has been outworked and adjustment is made, a new play pattern is called based on the reactions of the defensive team. This adjustment is the act of wisdom that is capable of quickly discerning the current configuration and applying prior knowledge, prior skills, to the immediate situation. This wisdom is not stubborn. It does not bullheadedly go forward with three or four sequential plays that were previously desired in spite of alterations in the environment as the plays have been run through. Wisdom, though always adhering to the principles of truth and goodness, must always adjust and accommodate to the variables of environment, and this is very true on a world like Urantia.

Often we speak of the dual qualities of worship and service, and many of my teacher fellows have expressed that this is in reality one activity that oscillates between an expressive service and an inward experience of worship. But as I have sought to illustrate today, that one's intention in service is derived from the preparation found in worship, of inward study, as refreshing and invigorating to the soul that it is, worship is also a form of service, for you are becoming strengthened, clearer in mind, and deepened in purpose. The very act of drawing closer to your Creator fosters this development and makes you better capable of addressing the needs of your fellows. True, you could, and throughout the mansion worlds you will, attend courses wherein you will gain skills at external forms of ministry. But the best preparation and the best preparer dwell within you and occur within you.

Now I wish to provide some caution, and that is regarding motivation. If you do spend a good amount of time -- which I do not mean a lengthy duration at one occurrence but repeated applications of time -- in stillness, in tending, you can apply yourself and do no harm. But to neglect this inward assessment, confusion can enter and motive can be clouded by lesser goals, lesser purposes, and harm can result. Though no damage is insurmountable, given that you will take the time to undergo this inward visitation with the divine, correction will follow, adjustments are made, and better results ensue.

I have placed emphasis upon stillness as a means of developing pure intention because it is part of the same coin when it comes to alleviating the distresses of your fellows, but let me take a moment also to divide yourself into an internal and, in a sense, an external duality. This period of intending also works to great service of yourself. The health and well-being of mind and body is enhanced through this time, this inner visitation. The Master spoke of the truth, that it is not what goes in that defiles but what comes out of a man that defiles. Even if you stop short of exiting your own personal arena with what is expressed and consider only within your arena, your body and mind, what comes out of you, has great benefit or detriment to your own personal well-being.

I will close with one final note and that is on the importance of this time of inward communion as a method for, in a sense, selecting "reset". In the activities of your life many things are pulled out, scattered around, and left in upheaval. Stillness becomes the means whereby you may reset, regroup, and reorganize, and refresh to begin anew being about the Father's business.

I am happy to have addressed you today. I can field questions if you are interested; you are welcome to comment. I am not alone here; you may request others if you desire.

Dialogue

Tom: Thank you for your comments. We haven't heard from Jessona for some time. Would she have some comment?

Jessona: Greetings. I stand ready. Is there a topic you wish that I address?

Tom: Whatever you think needs the most attention.

Appeal

Jessona: I will follow upon Evanson's comments and branch into the subject of "appealing".

When it is hoped that one can be of benefit to another to minister to needs, to bring spiritual upliftment, the subject of appealing comes into play. There are varieties of this desire to appeal that fight with each other. There is the desire to have the receiving party favorably take to your actions or comments. There is the desire to feel self satisfied in saying or doing exactly what you wanted to do whether or not consideration is made about the value of its receptivity to the other, that appealing urge to have won the argument, let us say, as example and the desire to have done good for our Sovereign Son in fostering his gospel. Throughout a dynamic situation it is difficult to discern clearly these multi-faceted elements. I would offer to you to take the approach that the comfortable feeling of appealing, that attractive sense, be secondary. Let it be as your left hand that knows not what our your right hand is doing, for it may be necessary to displease the one to whom you make comment temporarily that the truth may be received.

It may be necessary to discover that your actions were not necessarily pleasing to your Creator Son, that you may then derive the growth experience that matures you in soul and betters you for ministry. Likewise, you may leave a situation feeling rotten about yourself for having approached with good intention in the wrong manner. This, too, works for the good if you are willing to pass through the displeasure and emerge on the other side with decisive approaches for improvement.

Finally, on this note of appealing, always appeal to the spirit within the one to whom you minister. As Evanson has expressed, your intention can be intending toward the Spirit Fragment that dwells within the one to whom you wish to reach.

I have commented. It is now your turn.

Tom: That was good, thanks!

Jessona: You are always welcome.

Trust

Darid: As the group is small today, I likewise will step forward. I am Darid.

I wish to interject and emphasize trust, for it can be confusing to attempt to discern the correctness of intention, the source of motivation, and the form of gratification desired through the feeling of appealing, that pleasure, that receptive quality. Trust comes only, well, let me put it this way: It comes in two forms: One is a strong and close relationship with the divine within you, a trust that is linked with the understanding of divine love and compassion, of concern and care for your well-being, of the greatness of the knowledge and wisdom of the Father who is capable of preparing you, of teaching you flawlessly. And trust is the result of application, of stepping forward, executing a desire, experiencing the results, making an adjustment, developing a new technique, and deriving confidence. This trust is the result of experience.

Since the nature of the human soul is growth, trust will ever be necessary, for as you become experienced and accomplished, a new level of the inexperienced and the unattained rises before you, and trust must be reapplied. So I offer that one not fall into thinking that trust will ever be gained, but trust is always a gaining experience, ongoing.

Perhaps a little picture would be a nice addition. The trust of the Father that one develops is much like letting the Father be your bicycle mechanic. As you work together to inflate the tires, to tighten the spokes, to adjust the handlebars and seat and oil the chain, you develop a trust in your ability to bicycle, for your vehicle is tuned up. But the trust of experience comes from having ridden this bicycle up a hill, down a hill, over gravelly roads, through mud, over smoothly paved roads, and to realize that you stay up, to realize that when you fall you can get back on, and you have the same skills and you have learned how better to negotiate your course. I hope this is something that can be overlaid upon my comments.

Evelyn: You all three have done a good job of touching on topics we were talking about earlier.

Tom: You spoke in a lesson some time back on forgiveness not being a one time thing but also being growing. Love also. Most of these spiritual qualities we are studying are ongoing. You don't get them in a single episode.

Darid: Your insight is profound and will develop in its profundity as the ages pass. Again, another ongoing experience.

Evelyn: I see both of those forms of trust being antidotes to worry. Not that there won't be worrisome situations, but if you trust both your experience, your ability to act in a timely and an appropriate manner, as well as trusting God with things too far around the corner to see, you can alleviate a lot of worry.

Darid: Quite true, and I would repeat what I have said many months back, that I perceive not trial and error but trial and adjustment. Trial and error can sow the seeds of worry, for error is something disliked. But trial and adjustment sows the seeds of trust, for it implies the ability to correct and to move on.

Evelyn: Recalling your lesson from years back on liking and disliking not being important, looking back on our experiences we often dwell on what was unpleasant. When we see looming situations, first to jump to mind are unpleasant memories rather than how to do it right this time.

Tom: Mistakes, embarrassments serve as a fence. Accomplishments, too. No success like failure, and failure is no success at all.

Darid: I would summarize both your comments by bringing back the main topic of intention. Regardless of success or failure or whether it is likable or disliked, the main reevaluation that one can take is the purity of intention and the accuracy of intention and to make an adjustment in this arena. The likes, the dislikes, the successes and failures are only indicators for you to discern what truly must be adjusted for better results.

Closing

The time passes. Each of us has enjoyed our contact with you. I would conclude this meeting today and express what you already know, that the Father loves you deeply, the Son cares for you continually, and your Mother Spirit is likewise embracing you at all times. Farewell.