2012-06-07-Value of Teamwork
Lightline #361
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Value of Teamwork
o 1.2 Group: Lightline TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: 0802-AB-Jack, Charles
o 2.2 TR: Gerdean
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Lesson
3.2.1 Teamwork
3.2.2 Sustainability
3.2.3 Support
o 3.3 Dialogue
3.3.1 Teaching Mission
3.3.2 Spiritual Pressure
o 3.4 Closing
Topic: Value of Teamwork
Group: Lightline TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: 0802-AB-Jack, Charles
TR: Gerdean
Session
Opening
Prayer: Father God and Mother Spirit, our Eternal Parents, thank you for Life, and for the companionship of our siblings in this grand family, for the experience of learning Life from the ground floor up, for all these opportunities for adventure, exploration, learning, study, teaching, preaching, rejoicing, traipsing along after Your lead and the lead of those who would assist us in our walk and in our ministry. Be with us this evening. Send the teacher or teachers that you feel we are most responsive to or ready for, and thanks again for Everything. Amen.
0802-AB-JACK: Jack here. Midwayer Jack coming in to put out some fires, cool the heat of anxiety, and commence to set the stage for an evening of camaraderie and companionship in the Spirit. Yes, Charles is here with us this evening. There are others as well. As you know, we all find this type of event to be of interest. All the universe observes your development. They don’t perhaps all tune into Light Line, but when your light is on, when there is an indication that you are at home and welcoming visitors, many are happy to stop by, to pause in their busy efforts, to appreciate the ground floor efforts of you here … and me too. So they like to come and see what we’re up to. Let me turn you over to Charles. I think everyone seems to be ready. Is everyone ready?
Lesson
Teamwork
CHARLES: Yes! I’m ready. This is Charles. Good evening, everyone. How gracious of you all to turn out. I am pleased to see so many interested in how we might advance light and life on this planet, how the efforts of kingdom-building are coming along and what we might do to catapult this planet into a new phase of existence. It is of course a process. I won’t bore you again with the lecture on how it is all this takes time, but launch instead into a discussion about what needs [to be] done and you can think about ways we might go about accomplishing those changes that are necessary.
I believe we have already discussed the idea of segregating yourselves from those who would — what is the phrase? — “take advantage of your peaceful predilections.” [Who would] undermine your efforts to live an ideal life? Who would tear down what you so carefully and lovingly built up? This is not to say you don’t like people, or want to have nothing to do with them, but it does have to do with establishing certain temporary boundaries so that you can get accomplished what you need to get accomplished. I believe most of you realize that you can get more accomplished when you work together than can be accomplished when you work individually, independently.
There are those who would argue that point. I am not going to argue that point. Otherwise, what’s the point in learning teamwork if we cannot assume that working together will accomplish our goals better than not? Teamwork, however, requires a great deal of modification, compromise, review. A great, great deal of things go into establishing a good team. And yes, of course, the co-creative units that are being discussed are essential. The Deities and their helpers are and have been busily engaged in gathering together those of like mind who can and will quickly do those things that must be done, even though the configuration may be without purpose immediately upon fulfilling the task. There will be many of those.
What did I just say? I just said that the social architects will bring into being those people who have a like mind about a certain project. That project can be done quickly and efficiently because everyone involved wants to do it; and when the task is done, the people disburse. The problem you have is that when something works, you don’t want it to stop; you don’t want it to end. You want to hang onto that working paradigm, thinking that if you do something. Modify it, add fuel to the flame, add something, it will continue and it may not be intended to continue. It may be intended to be short lived, but it does feel good in harmony with others. This kind of synergy that is being suggested is as enjoyable as Saturday Night Live.
(Thank you, Gerdean, for the phrase. I am not sure what Saturday Night Live is, but I can certainly understand a good time.)
CHARLES: Another advantage to these quick conclaves is that it doesn’t have to go through the committee, the democratic process, which often takes time and energy away from the work itself. There are times when a committee or a democracy, a democratic approach is appropriate but not always. So my point is that there will be short-term efforts required as well as long-term efforts and we are certainly all familiar with the long term. No matter how young or old we may be, either in the finite sense or in the infinite sense, a long time is a long time is a long time. But even a long time is relative, right Jack?
0802-AB-JACK: : Yes, sir!
Sustainability
CHARLES: Alright then, what else can we do with you here to get things moving along to help establish a new way of life for the new epoch that we are seeing unfold before our very eyes? The conditions as you see them, as you know them in the world today, are not sustainable — as you have heard many times before. I believe I have told you myself that this country is not sustainable as it is now — and so what do we do in terms of the future? All the many years of the Teaching Mission there has been a thread, a theme that has run through your discussions, that being: this system is falling away while a new one is coming into being, just as your old values and conditioning falls away and you are being recreated with new values, new habits, new formats.
And so, focusing on that which is your goal, is important, even as the flesh is a fact, you need to make a living, you need to have a roof over your head, and whatever many of the other trappings are that are a part of your societal configuration, but that does not mean you need to dedicate so much to maintaining the old system that the new is made to suffer. It therefore behooves you to have some idea of what the new system, the new structure, the new values represent, what they will look like, so that you will have some idea of what to do about it, how to participate in it.
Here is one thing that I am sure you all know. I will put it on record here. The planet is being seriously abused, in terms of pollution, and the effects of this abuse is having a negative impact on mother nature – the water, the air, the animals, the bees, the fish – and thus your food supply – your crops and your health. It is not something to leave to chance, although much of it at this point is out of your hands, out of your control. So rather than spinning your wheels on what you cannot do something about, turn your attention to what you can do something about and recognize that you have contemporaries, peers, coworkers in the same boat and of the same mind, those who regard the planet as their home and they have an attitude of stewardship over it, who treasure its balance and won’t further contaminate the world with poisons – fertilizers, chemicals and the like, which threaten humanity, which even threaten the family.
If it is not good enough for your young child, it is not good for anyone. So begin to approach your world as something that needs to be good enough for your young children. What do you want for them? It is too easy for those who have lived through abuse or hard times, who have experienced war or prison or famine or plague, to have developed a crusty exterior, even a hard heart as a result of their difficult experience, to say, “I did it. I survived it. You can too. We don’t need to raise any softies. You got to be tough to survive in this world.” Well, a certain toughness is required, yes, but it doesn’t mean you have to become toughened toward experience … just toward certain experiences. It is appropriate to establish certain boundaries for you and your family.
Even though something may be in vogue is no reason for you to succumb to it, just because everyone is doing it, but to stand up against the status quo, the collective consciousness, or the powers that be, does require fortitude. It will mean you will need to find others who think as you think and [who will] reinforce your values that you share with them, never forgetting that love is more powerful than hate, that goodness has much more strength than evil. Instill these values into the home unit, not through a series of “Don’t eat that! Don’t touch that! Don’t do that! Don’t go there!”
No. But by sitting down in an intimate family setting and learning how to share with one another the concerns you have about the almost overwhelming problems we all face. There are those who say that children should not be drawn into adult problems, but when a child is in a position to choose, the child is old enough to be a part of the process of looking at the choices he or she makes. If a child is allergic to peanut butter, for example, to peanuts, it behooves that child to not eat peanuts, and to advise those who intend to feed him peanuts that he cannot eat peanuts because he has a fatal allergy. This can be respected because the child has integrity, and is honest and sincere about his circumstances. This is not that difficult to do. You could all do this.
The example comes to mind of someone who wants you to join them for Happy Hour on Friday night when you know full well that if you join them for Happy Hour, you will not then feel like going home to cut the grass as you promised yourself you would do. And the promise you made to yourself reflects on your self esteem with your home members and your neighbors. It may also infringe upon your schedule for tomorrow, or the next day. You have obviously established that [cutting the grass] is something you want to do. Don’t undermine yourself now by taking the “easier, softer way.”
The same [situation exists] with so many [other] things in your life. Everything you do requires a choice. And in the back of your mind, because of who you are, and your understanding of the time in which you live, is going to contribute to whether your world continues to sink into a quagmire of disease and greed or if it is going to emerge from the darkness of bad habit, selfishness, short-sighted thinking, unfortunate nationalism, economic quirks, or whatever it is that moves the wheels of your current paradigm.
It is recommended, and has been recommended from the beginning, that you support yourself and others by coming together in this gridwork of participants in kingdom-building, in creating a new way of life for your children and your grandchildren, for the planet of your birth and the birth of Christ Michael. This does not mean that you need to live in the same house, that you need to live on the same street, in the same town, even in the same state, but if you have a conclave of like-minded brethren with whom you can bond, you are far ahead of the game. You have power you have not yet begun to realize.
Support
This power that you have inherent in you is feared by the powers that be. The power that you have is divine. It comes from Paradise. It speaks to you, it guides you, it directs you; it is upheld by angels, by billions of beings throughout the cosmos. The divine conspiracy is on to uplift you, to uplift all of humanity, as many as will come, into the light of truth – the truth that we are sons and daughters of the living God and our destiny is to be perfect in our sphere as God is perfect in His, and so you have been mandated to be perfect in your sphere, in your intention, in your dedication, in your interpretation of deity, of godlikeness, of the nature of the highest reality.
That is a big support system. You need it. You need the celestials, you need the Father and you need each other. You know the saying, “no man is an island.” Everyone has to go through it by themselves, yes, but they don’t have to do it alone, if you get my drift. There is someone behind you, beside you, beneath you, constantly — assisting, encouraging, luring, enabling — always upholding those values that we provide the Supreme. So when you stand and say, “No, I don’t want to live like that. I don’t want to accept that for me,” you may be alienating yourself from millions of people, but at the same time you are aligning yourself with millions of beings.
When and as you choose good, you are assisted and reinforced. God is love, and love is the desire to do good to others. To do good to others may be to represent those values that you have fought for, that have to do with a peach that is not afflicted with toxin, or a tomato that takes like plastic, or a plum that was picked too soon and never, ever ripens because someone is such a big hurry to market the food supply. This has been done on your world many times, such as boycotting lettuce, or grapes, and the people speak loudly when they gather together.
It is the people, working together, that change the course of destiny. And we have laid out some new paths for you. We are laying them out even now, as we speak. Thus we advance. We work towards all that this epoch has to offer. And what a thrilling opportunity it is for you to put your mark on the architectural renderings of the world that we create by and through our choices.
No, I am not saying we are creating an architectural sphere. This is an evolutionary world. But as an evolutionary world, those of you who have been born of the spirit, who are touched by grace, who long for the fruits of the spirit, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who demand justice and mercy for all, are the new leaders.
Each generation provides a new set of leaders and only you can determine whether you are just starting out, whether you are at the peak of your experiential sojourn, or if you are an elder statesman by now, available for counsel and consolation, but surely the work goes on. It is no time to become complacent. There are just too many opportunities in store to allow life to crystallize and become a habit, to march in lock step behind someone who tells you what you will eat and when, what you will work and how, what you will think and why.
I have lectured. I will subside in my remarks now and invite you to come forward to discuss either our points from this evening or from earlier discussions, from yet other discussions, other teachers, or anything that is on your mind, as this is the occasion, the Light Line, for you to interact with Teachers, you who do not have a group in your neighborhood to attend. Let’s get personal. To open the channel, press star six. Come forward. Are there questions?
Dialogue
Teaching Mission
Geoff: Hello, Charles.
CHARLES: Yes, Geoff.
Geoff: This is Geoff, in Texas.
CHARLES: Greetings.
Geoff: Greetings to you. I just wanted to thank you for that very practical advice. I also wanted to ask you—I’ve noticed that there are no international participants on this call. I was wondering why that was, and I ask because I’m contemplating going back to my home country, which is Wales, in the British Isles, and I don’t want to lose contact with this group, so I was intent on trying to continue being part of the call, even though it would be at some strange hour of the morning. But I just wanted to get that bit about the international situation. And when you talk about bringing people together in community, all that has to be done locally, and I’ll make every effort to do so wherever I find myself, but I was wondering how the international community was coming on, if you could address that.
CHARLES: Let me give this question to Jack who has more knowledge than I have on local affairs.
Geoff: That would be great. It would be wonderful to talk to Jack again.
0802-AB-JACK: : Jack’s back. We have had international callers, listeners. It has been very exciting to the home team to hear calls coming from Paris or Germany or England. Even now we have quite an extensive range of listeners from all over the United States, including Hawaii, and yes we are eager to have people call from all over the world. The problem, of course, is international calling is costly, particularly for those countries that are still backward in terms of technology.
Geoff: Indeed.
Spiritual Pressure
0802-AB-JACK: : And so you are rather fortunate here to have done what you have been able to do. We are certainly happy about it, and you are more than welcome to stay in touch from Wales, although it will be your inconvenience, no doubt, to have to get up in the middle of the night to call a motley crew on the other side of the world, as it were, but there is merit to it. The fact is, the planet is becoming smaller and technology is having a great deal to do with that. But even more to do with that is the spiritual pressure that is being applied. And when I say “spiritual pressure being applied,” I don’t mean that God is standing on someone’s foot or has their head in a vice, no, that’s not the kind of pressure I’m meaning. I am meaning that the Thought Adjuster(s) of these people are relentless! And this relentlessness has leaked into the social fiber; it has begun to manifest on digital clocks!
As people see the numbers they begin to experience “spiritual pressure” and so people are becoming more and more aware that there is something going on, something spiritual afoot — if not spiritual, at least metaphysical or paranormal or out of the ordinary and since the ordinary is in so many ways distasteful or unfruitful, it is the kind of thing that captures people’s attention.
The thing is, about the spirit, it will guide and direct your spiritual growth. All you need to do is manifest an interest and the spirit will take it from there. It has all the qualities it needs to guide and direct your spiritual career. We just want to help turn the light on, get the ball rolling, get the thing moving and shaking a little bit. There are some who would rock the boat; it’s not that we’re after those kinds of persons — just regular folk that go about living their regular lives, raising children, going to school, going to work [in] the factories, the fields, but who are beginning to sense there is more. There is something more. And this wonderful inclination is an effect of the fifth epoch.
The time has come to step forward into greater reality. The Urantia Papers have been delivered to educate you as to the circumstances of your existence here, whether or not people around the world have read the book, the world is nonetheless is responding to the fifth epoch reality. There is no turning back. It will not be long, Geoff, before the toys and tools of technology will be available to more and more people at affordable rates. In many cases these things will end up being relatively priceless, that is to say without cost. Already there are millions of people reaching out and connecting without costing them anything because they do it on someone else’s time, someone else’s machine, someone else’s nickel. There are still going to be those who have not the benefit that you have and they provide yet another field of opportunity for service to go into those realms and be the spirit of truth as you pass by for others to learn of the presence of God in themselves and in their loved ones, even “among their enemies.”
There is still work to do, in other words. Having a telephone does not mean we have attained light and life. We are only looking at the equipment that helps our communications take place. Think, as you sit around this telephonic conference, of the days when Jesus taught with his apostles. They were on foot and they came together in the evenings around the campfire to do exactly what we are doing here this evening. We are looking at the needs of the people, how they have been betrayed and misled, how there are those who use people who are lost, and those who come to the aid of those who are exploited. Go among the people and bring your truth to them. Bring it by being who are and by standing up for those things that are true and beautiful and good as we discussed this evening, that which is healthy for you and the rest of the planet. You need to think on these things, discuss them with your peers, and proceed accordingly.
Geoff: Thank you, Jack. I was hoping that might have piqued your interest. Excellent advice! And I will, of course, serve in the best way that I can. That’s my intention, anyway, whether or not I am on a conference call, but I must say I look forward to these calls so much that I will miss them if I am not able to keep that contact, but I will find another way through. Thank you very much for that advice, Jack. I will take it to heart.
0802-AB-JACK: : Thank you, Geoff, for your testimonial. I do want to reiterate what you said, that being, listening and being a part of an actual group, even if it is a cyber group like this, is considerably better than simply sitting alone reading a transcript. God knows the transcripts have been a bounty and we are happy to see them distributed far and wide, feeding people and whetting their appetite for truth. But the camaraderie and the immediacy of these live sessions are something that you can experience, and so it affects you viscerally, not just academically, and to be in an actual room with persons that you can reach out and touch and break bread with and worship with and share in a T/R session with a supernal teacher is truly a gift we have been given. It is a real tool, a real technique of making contact with another dimension, a dimension that is uplifting and stabilizing, reinforcing and encouraging, reality-izing and morontia-izing all in the process.
Closing
0802-AB-JACK: We have come to the end of our hour.
Geoff: Thanks once again, Jack.
0802-AB-JACK: Thank you, Geoff. I will speak for CHARLES and the others who have been here enjoying our repartee this evening and say thank you for attending, for hearing us, for taking these concepts into your heart and your mind and considering them as having value and potential in terms of what we might do to further light and life on Urantia … not only far, far down the line, but today, in your life, in your world, in the universe that exists between your ears. Thus we begin. Later!
