1999-01-31-Be Of Good Cheer, Joy, Poise
Pittsburgh #74
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Be Of Good Cheer
o 1.2 Group: Pittsburgh TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Tomas
o 2.2 TR: Gerdean
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Lesson
3.2.1 Joy
3.2.2 Poise
o 3.3 Dialogue
o 3.4 Closing
Topic: Be Of Good Cheer
Group: Pittsburgh TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Tomas
TR: Gerdean
Session
Opening
TOMAS: Good afternoon, students. I am Tomas, your teacher.
GROUP: Good afternoon, Tomas.
TOMAS: I am also your good friend and I am here today for a review of our Master’s admonishment to “Be of good cheer” so I bring you good cheer and conjoin with you in good cheer.
Lesson
Joy
TOMAS: I would like to discuss being of good cheer. Indeed your discourses this afternoon give rise to a tendency, on the part of you mortals, to take yourselves and your beliefs and your opinions so seriously as to preclude the possibility of genuine good cheer. Jesus also was known to be firm and to speak in strong tones on occasion, but even so, he was, as a rule, a man among men with uncommon grace and fortitude.
Let us look at your culture, at your place in your culture, in terms of good cheer. I am reminded of our early lessons long ago having to do with character, and how it is in your society that you perhaps comprehend character as being characteristics of a witty fellow (“What a character!”) instead of the more deep and genuine quality of true character which is developed as a result of your on-going efforts to spiritize your thinking and your way of life.
Now let us look at good cheer and ascertain what that means in terms of your culture and your society, and is it not true that, generally speaking, someone who is of good cheer has a constant and steady smile pasted upon their face and/or one who is filled with biting wit, a constant jokester, alleviating any hope of seriousness or of sincerity. In your culture many times he who is of good cheer is a bore, and yet you subscribe to the machinations of such a personality, indeed you pay him or her great sums to entertain you in the hope that you will feel as if you belong to this value level which has become skilled and adept at avoiding that which will in fact create bona fide good cheer.
There is the manifestation of joy that is contagious, and that embraces your fellows. This joy, this radiant good cheer is a result of a love-saturated soul and cannot cause dismay or chagrin to anyone. There is also a kind of good cheer which is artificial and “appropriate” but which is grating and activates a sense of irritation. When someone looks at you superiorly and suggests that you “Lighten up!” or that you “Don’t worry. Be happy!” it is manifesting an attitude which is insensitive to the relative perfection attainment of that person with whom you would seek to conjoin in fraternity of spirit.
Poise
TOMAS: I would like for you all to think of an example or a situation that has occurred in your life that you are familiar with, wherein you have noticed an artificial good cheer. Perhaps employees who are ordered to smile cheerfully for “the customer is always right” even when they are dishing out abuse. Perhaps you’ll think of the child who is unhappy and is admonished to “stop crying” and to get happy quickly or they’ll “get something to cry about!”
It is no wonder that you on Urantia find it difficult to accept that Our Father is so loving, for how have you been able to discern this truth from your perspective? It is vital that your perspective be enhanced and enlarged to realize, from deep within you, the genuine good cheer of the association of that which is true and beautiful and good. In having that confidence of being a part of divinity, no matter how small, your immediate fruit is to feel enervated and exuberant and of genuine good cheer in your good fortune to be breathing the breath of life as it is inhaled in and through the fragrance of the divine and perfect Rose of Paradise.
In the aura of this Flower of Perfection, you can well afford to be loving, to be gracious, to spread beauty. In being a Rose in the Father’s garden, in giving of a genuine fragrance of good will, you will always understand, as will they who know “a rose is a rose is a rose” also has a thorn, and there is a purpose therein. But you do not have to lead with your thorns, you do not have to threaten or demand that others look good and deny their own thorns. No, I am not talking politics. I am speaking of a quality of being of good cheer, knowing you are protected and loved and nourished and fostered by a loving God in a loving universe.
In that knowledge is great joy. And it is in that perspective that Jesus went around doing good and admonishing his followers to “Be of good cheer”. When you are of good cheer, now, and when you are in a situation of being pricked by thorns, look to see if you have gotten too close to someone’s rose. Withdraw into the fragrance of the Stillness and the sustaining power of creation, for your own poise and your own fragrant effervescent manifestation of Father’s beauty, Mother’s love, Michael’s mercy. My cheerful daughters, how are you all this afternoon?
Dialogue
CELESTE: Fine, thank you!
HESTER: Just top of the evening!
RACHEL: We are all of good cheer today!
TOMAS: Indeed.
HESTER: We had a good day today.
TOMAS: You had a good study, yes. It is amusing – and I do not say that in a disparaging way, but it is appreciated when you apply yourself with earnestness to assimilate some of these difficult concepts which give rise to a big mental exertion. You must remember that you are students and that before you go to college you have to go to high school and before that you have to do elementary school and indeed you have to begin by learning your letters.
CELESTE: That’s just about where I am.
RACHEL: Learning our letters!
HESTER: Today we were in the A-B-C’s.
TOMAS: Well, today I would say you were learning your numbers, but it’s true, it is elemental, and yet these foundations are being laid in your thinking process such that when you next absorb another truth having to do with energy, matter, power and the like, you will have more to work with, more will stick to your ribs, and you will get these concepts one day. Your efforts are pleasing to behold and your tolerance of your own inadequacy as well as the ignorance of your peers is understood, appreciated and endearing.
Well, what shall we do today? Are there questions? Is there anything you would like to discuss? Where have you been in your development in this long dark hibernation of the winter season? My, my, how wonderful it is to become mobile again and to be privy to the rays of the sun! to be out into the glorious atmosphere of fellowship and commerce!
RACHEL: It’s a breath of springtime in our winter.
TOMAS: It is indeed.
RACHEL: I’ll comment where I am. I guess I’m in a sort of state of acceptance, good cheer. I’ve digested a lot of things. I see some changes in myself. I haven’t a worry in my little head. Well, not big ones, anyway. I feel good. I feel anticipatory for a change, of what I don’t know, but that’s sort of where I am!
TOMAS: You have described good cheer very well! You have an attitude of a faith daughter that all will work out according to divine plan and you are part of that.
RACHEL: I was going to say – I suppose it’s a state that I moved out of an intellectual understanding that I was being taken care of into a more of a feeling that I am part of something.
TOMAS: And this is a major step. A big leap of faith that will allow you to use a different perspective and appreciate a different set of ground rules.
RACHEL: Definitely. I’ve swallowed some things I haven’t been able to swallow before! But good things!
TOMAS: Part of the growing up process as spirit children into spirit adults, is learning how to chew a civilized mouthful, and children often think they can cram a whole concept in their mouth without choking, and as you become better mannered, you discover that one fork full is adequate to chew. Even when you are made to feel that you have to eat in a hurry, you will only give yourself spiritual indigestion if you attempt to assimilate too much too soon, but consider you have now gotten your molars and you are able to chew on some of these concepts, on some of these challenges, in order that you may break them down into something which is not so hard to swallow and which you know in fact to be good for you and which will help you become fat and sassy and of good cheer in your next phase of growth.
RACHEL: Well, I’m ready! That’s all I can say.
TOMAS: May your enthusiasm compensate for your naivete.
RACHEL: Thank you.
CELESTE: Tomas, while you were talking, I was thinking about people who lose someone and you go to the funeral home and those very people who are suffering this terrible loss, are really trying to make everybody that comes into that funeral home, or wherever, feel better. I see that time after time and they are so nice and gracious and kind to the people that come and you almost can’t see their own despair.
TOMAS: It is a good example you have brought forward, Celeste, and again it makes my heart ache for the human condition, inasmuch as each death is an individual drama in the life of the livers and sometimes it may be a blessed relief that the loved one has gone on. Many times it is a travesty. Many, many, many, many reactions and responses are in the private recesses of the individual, but the conditioning is such as to be a hostess, and to withstand the loss with aplomb.
There are, in other circles, in other cultures, other situations, other scenarios such as the professional mourner who helps to bring about the grieving process, loudly and emotionally, so as to bring on the onslaught of grief that the mourner may come to grips with it quicker. There are as many ways of dealing with death as there are dealing with life. And finally, it is an attempt (these people who smile so radiantly), an attempt to manifest their faith that there is a hope of eternal life, that the Christ who died on the cross and was risen, indeed brought forth a message of hope.
And so all of these many Machiavellianism performances of good cheer at the time of the death of a loved one may or may not represent the same thing. It is very difficult to look beyond a facade when you are comfortable with the facade, but those of you who search for the opportunity to see with eyes to see, will be shown ways to enter into that moment of truth, enabling our God to plant His seed of eternal love into the heart of that person who would be fed by the Eternal Light.
My words to you are simply a way of investigating your cultural response to death. In due course you will evolve, quietly at first, singly, and then more and more, into a people who will realize the truth of the resurrection and a faith that gives rise to a confidence of a hereafter, indeed, a loving God who is embracing His child in spiritual arms. These indications of a divine plan and a living God are en route, and it is a very important way in which you who are enlightened may be of service to your fellows in ascertaining the truth, beauty, and goodness of the moment so that you may spread good cheer to the heart of those who remain on Urantia. There is tremendous good cheer in being released from this cocoon of an existence.
CELESTE: When you carry the love of God in your heart, you can’t help but feel good. It’s constant good cheer.
TOMAS: It is indeed constant good cheer, as long as you remember to stay connected. You cannot presume upon the Father to such an extent as these become crystallized belief systems, for they will fail you when you find yourself being absorbed into the troubled waters of emotional turmoil and darkness of those who have yet to find the Father within.
CELESTE: I think we are learning how to stay connected just by being with you so often.
TOMAS: It is very true I have helped to enable you to develop a couple of good practices, but it is incumbent upon you, my dear, as you well know, all of you, to develop your own spiritual discipline so that you can carry on and spread the word and be fishers of men whether I am here or not, whether I am manifested through these words or not. It would be error for me to allow you to become so dependent on me and my function here with you that it interfered with your own grasping for spirit reality. I would not be doing you a favor if I were to interject myself as some new kind of priesthood, for your relationship with Our Father is intact and encouraged. Do not let me become a substitute for your own spiritual experience!
CELESTE: Well, I think you have turned our motors on and I think that if you decide not to come any more that we would decide to keep …
RACHEL: … plugging away.
TOMAS: If I felt otherwise, I would indeed go on a sabbatical in order for you to be, once again, enamored of the reality of your own personal religious experience, and your most blessed family ties in this grouping, these fellow religionists.
CELESTE: Do you feel that we’ve been maturing at all? Especially since you’ve been here with us?
TOMAS: I see great growth in each of you individually and as a community, yes. I have said as much before and yet it is difficult for me to specify, but I want you to once again be made aware of your very real growth into morontia reality. It has made my work much easier. It has made your garden far more fragrant. There is less anxiety that you will err and more confidence that The Father will be able to work with you and through you. The loyalty that you have developed as sisters and as brothers is important and will never be reversed.
CELESTE: Oh, that’s good.
TOMAS: And so yes, indeed, you have contributed greatly to our work in the mission, your work in your own evolution, the development of our community and indeed the Evolving Supreme.
RACHEL: We have to ask, Tomas, because it’s so hard in this world to get any good news, of anything productive. It’s working towards a better society, they give us bad news. Nobody ever wants to give us – I suppose every now and then we want a progress report on how the world is and how we are doing in it.
TOMAS: I have given you somewhat of an update then, but I will remind you that it behooves you to maintain a sense of balance. If you are out in the world, in the field, a lot, and being pelleted with negative news and downdrafts, then you need to see to it that you balance yourself with purpose and poise, serenity and sublimity. You cannot work in the field without having fueled yourself or you’ll run out of gas.
RACHEL: It’s exhausting.
HESTER: Yep.
TOMAS: You need to indeed take care of yourself – that’s the little s and the big S. RACHEL: To go home and run to The Father.
TOMAS: Do not ever feel too grown up and dignified to disallow yourself, indeed, from running home to Father, and to the lap of Him or the Mother and crying on their shoulder as to how some bully tried to beat you up, for He will and She will succor you and give you courage in order that you may go again to play in his fields on the morrow.
CELESTE: It’s good to know that.
RACHEL: I’ll never be too old to not want to sit on His lap.
TOMAS: Children are automatically of good cheer. If they find that their environment is too difficult or too painful, they will lapse into their imagination and create a reality which enables them to withstand the temporary circumstances of their habitation, and you are invited to create for yourself also, in fact co-create with Father and His most loving agents, that which will give you an occasion to realize how well you are loved and how much you can do within your own framework to bring to yourself an environment wherein your own good cheer can be nourished and fostered. You don’t have to subscribe to the dominant reality if it’s not a good reality.
CELESTE: Just to know that you love the Lord lets you know that life is a joy.
TOMAS: Yes, indeed. I sense that we have reached a saturation point.
RACHEL: I’m saturated anyway!
TOMAS: I sense that you have been filled.
HESTER: I have a question, Tomas, but I don’t have the words.
TOMAS: Would you like to give it a try, my dear?
HESTER: (Distressed)
TOMAS: I can see that you are NOT of good cheer.
HESTER: I am, but I’m not.
TOMAS: You have been overtime in the field. You have subjected yourself to great abuse, and I say “subjected yourself” NOT in order to give you the responsibility, but to commend you for your ability to survive in the face of such tremendously difficult odds against good cheer. Indeed, you are such a soldier! You have fought the good fight of faith so long and so hard you are collapsing now into the arms of your spirit Mother and allowing her to take away some of this burden.
The understanding of Our Father/Mother in your life has been your sustaining force; it has been your power and your Rock of Gibraltar, but it has been your ONLY strength in many instances, and it has caused, for you, an uncommon burden of responsibility for finding joy in this mortal existence. Your blessing is that you have indeed led yourself into the lasting embrace of the Eternal Parents for your strength and the sad side of that is that you have received so LITTLE comfort and succor from your human existence, but even so, my child, your heart is full with the love of the Lord and He will make you ready to approach tomorrow with Him.
Your reward has been His loving embrace, and your stamina, your strength is a testimony to your most noble efforts, even to the point of debilitation, but you have gotten up courageously and loyally and battled on for your very life and for your spiritual life to boot. You will find rest, my child. This too shall pass, but your Source of good cheer remains that which bonds us and unites us in our purpose and in the joy of knowing Him. How can I help, daughter?
HESTER: I’m dealing with Mac being murdered.
TOMAS: It is not your responsibility, Hester. It is not your cross to bear. It is a matter you must release. It is not for you to be the judge and jury nor the victim here. It is none of your concern. Our Father has His mansions under divine control and the souls of those who dwell therein. Let it go. It only contributes to anger and more resistance and more pain. Knowing that Our Father is at the helm is all you need to know to let go and let Him take control. Let it go.
HESTER: I’ve known this for three years now and I’ve got to face it.
Closing
TOMAS: You’ve got to let it go. And I, my charming children, have got to let you go for the afternoon.
CELESTE: Thank you for coming. It is always wonderful when you’re here.
TOMAS: It is always wonderful to be with you. I hope those of you who are inclined will find great joy in the game that is being played this evening Super Bowl Sunday and that the victor and the vanquished will find good cheer in the experience.
RACHEL: We can only hope!
TOMAS: See you next week. Amen and farewell.
GROUP: Farewell, Tomas. Thank you so much.
