“I am entrusted with the gifts of God.”
All things are given you. God’s trust in you is limitless. He knows His
Son. He gives without exception, holding nothing back that can
contribute to your happiness. And yet, unless your will is one with
His, His gifts are not received. But what would make you think there
is another will than His?
Here is the paradox that underlies the making of the world. This
world is not the Will of God, and so it is not real. Yet those who think
it real must still believe there is another will, and one that leads to
opposite effects from those He wills. Impossible indeed; but every
mind that looks upon the world and judges it as certain, solid,
trustworthy and true believes in two creators; or in one, himself
alone. But never in One God.
The gifts of God are not acceptable to anyone who holds such
strange beliefs. He must believe that to accept God’s gifts, however
evident they may become, however urgently he may be called to
claim them as his own, is being pressed to treachery against himself.
He must deny their presence, contradict the truth, and suffer to
preserve the world he made.
Here is the only home he thinks he knows. Here is the only
safety he believes that he can find. Without the world he made is he
an outcast, homeless and afraid. He does not realize that it is here he
is afraid indeed, and homeless too; an outcast wandering so far from
home, so long away, he does not realize he has forgotten where he
came from, where he goes, and even who he really is.
Yet in his lonely, senseless wanderings God’s gifts go with him,
all unknown to him. He cannot lose them. But he will not look at
what is given him. He wanders on, aware of the futility he sees about
him everywhere, perceiving how his little lot but dwindles as he goes
ahead to nowhere. Still he wanders on in misery and poverty, alone
though God is with him, and a treasure his so great that everything
the world contains is valueless before its magnitude.
He seems a sorry figure, weary, worn, in threadbare clothing,
and with feet that bleed a little from the rocky road he walks. No-
one but has identified with him, for everyone who comes here has
pursued the path he follows, and has felt defeat and hopelessness as
he is feeling them. Yet is he really tragic when you see that he is
following the way he chose, and need but realize Who walks with
him and open up his treasures to be free?
This is your chosen self, the one you made as a replacement for
reality. This is the self you savagely defend against all reason, every
evidence, and all the witnesses with proof to show this is not you. You
heed them not. You go on your appointed way, with eyes cast down
lest you might catch a glimpse of truth, and be released from
self-deception and set free.
You cower fearfully lest you should feel Christ’s touch upon
your shoulder, and perceive His gentle hand directing you to look
upon your gifts. How could you then proclaim your poverty in
exile? He would make you laugh at this perception of yourself.
Where is self-pity then? And what becomes of all the tragedy you
sought to make for him whom God intended only joy?
Your ancient fear has come upon you now, and justice has
caught up with you at last. Christ’s hand has touched your shoulder,
and you feel that you are not alone. You even think the miserable self
you thought was you may not be your identity. Perhaps God’s Word
is truer than your own. Perhaps His gifts to you are real. Perhaps He
has not wholly been outwitted by your plan to keep His Son in deep
oblivion, and go the way you chose without your Self.
God’s Will does not oppose. It merely is. It is not God you have
imprisoned in your plan to lose your Self. He does not know about a
plan so alien to His Will. There was a need He did not understand, to
which He gave an Answer. That is all. And you who have this Answer
given you have need no more of anything but this.
Now do we live, for now we cannot die. The wish for death is
answered, and the sight that looked upon it now has been replaced
by vision which perceives that you are not what you pretend to be.
One walks with you Who gently answers all your fears with this one
merciful reply, “It is not so.” He points to all the gifts you have each
time the thought of poverty oppresses you, and speaks of His
Companionship when you perceive yourself as lonely and afraid.
Yet He reminds you still of one thing more you had forgotten.
For His touch on you has made you like Himself. The gifts you have
are not for you alone. What He has come to offer you, you now must
learn to give. This is the lesson that His giving holds, for He has saved
you from the solitude you sought to make, in which to hide from
God. He has reminded you of all the gifts that God has given you.
He speaks as well of what becomes your will when you accept these
gifts, and recognize they are your own.
The gifts are yours, entrusted to your care, to give to all who
chose the lonely road you have escaped. They do not understand
they but pursue their wishes. It is you who teach them now. For you
have learned of Christ there is another way for them to walk. Teach
them by showing them the happiness that comes to those who feel
the touch of Christ and recognize God’s gifts. Let sorrow not tempt
you to be unfaithful to your trust.
Your sighs will now betray the hopes of those who look to you
for their release. Your tears are theirs. If you are sick you but withhold
their healing. What you fear but teaches them their fears are justified.
Your hand becomes the giver of Christ’s touch; your change of mind
becomes the proof that who accepts God’s gifts can never suffer
anything. You are entrusted with the world’s release from pain.
Betray it not. Become the living proof of what Christ’s touch
can offer everyone. God has entrusted all His gifts to you. Be witness
in your happiness to how transformed the mind becomes which
chooses to accept His gifts and feel the touch of Christ. Such is your
mission now. For God entrusts the giving of His gifts to all who have
received them. He has shared His joy with you. And now you go to
share it with the world.
Britney Shawley added:
The gifts are yours, entrusted to your care, to give to all who chose the lonely road you have escaped. They do not understand they but pursue their wishes. It is you who teach them now. For you have learned of Christ there is another way for them to walk. Teach them by showing them the happiness that comes to those who feel the touch of Christ, and recognize God's gifts. Let sorrow not tempt you to be unfaithful to your trust.
