Service is the ultimate ambition.
Service moves us past personal obsession.
Personal obsession is a necessary phase on the journey to mastery. That much focused energy is needed to break away from social norms, past patterns and belief systems.
Liken the process to building a house. First you need to decide to build a new house. (This is that moment when you first experience the Divine moving in your life, and agree to follow its urgings.)
You might need to prepare the site first by clearing away old structures, clutter, etc. (Recognizing areas or circumstances in your life that are no longer working for you, and choosing to release them.)
Planning and effort are required to build the new house. (Books, workshops, new teachers and friends show up to help you envision, and begin to create, a different life for yourself.)
The hard work of actually building the home, however, is yours alone. This takes extraordinary effort, requiring nearly all of your focus and attention (and why personal obsession is necessary and expected during this time.)
However, there comes a time when self-exploration and reconstruction is complete. At some point you have to move into your house and live there. As any homeowner knows, there will always be a renovation project of some kind on your ‘house’ but the focus shifts from building to residing.
Residing can also be called ‘Expression of Purpose’. Your energy and focus change direction. Instead of the inner concentration needed to reconstruct your life, it now turns outward, as a gift to others. It is a time of learning to use the gifts you have been given, use the gifts you have mastered along the way. To be an instrument of Divine Will, the perfect tool for the job.
Some people are ‘multi-tools’, able to express or use different gifts in different situations. These people are very versatile and valuable to the work of Divine Service, and can be a very powerful, positive force in the Universe. However, they must have first mastered the art of Surrender (Lesson 2).
Entering this phase of Service requires moving beyond the goals of, and drama of, personal ambition, agenda and ego. We eventually come to realize that none of the ideas we dream up in ego will amount to anything. The hammer may dream of nails, but it only can strike them when the Master Carpenter uses it so.
Service can take many forms, and can change from day to day, moment to moment. Being an Instrument requires being tuned in to Guidance 24/7. It requires an understanding that Service will often take on different expressions and directions than we expect. And so it requires that we suspend expectation and embrace ‘going with the flow’. It requires staying sharp, listening to, and acting on Guidance without question or argument.
There is no shame in being the child learning, in personal obsession. You will always be a child, one who yearns for knowledge, wisdom. The terms ‘Mastery’ and ‘Service’ may sound very much like a graduation, or a special title. They really aren’t. They simply mean that you have
learned enough along the way to offer some of that wisdom to another who follows behind you.
It has been said that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. It also works in reverse. When the teacher is ready, the students will appear. Be attentive to those who come into your life. If appropriate, offer them some of the bounty of your life for their nourishment.
Aho.
