[Chapter 18 – The Message]

So…how do I become a ‘sigma gamma’ – part of the holy club?

Well, there is no such club in the kingdom. It is the kingdom of the childlike, not the kingdom of the status-seeker.

When you step on others, or manipulate them, or try to twist their ends to your goals … you’ve stepped outside the kingdom. When these old ways – the ones you have always depended on to make things ‘right’ – are the ones you turn to in a pinch, then you have turned away from the kingdom.

Cut off those ‘assets.’ They will only take you down the wrong road. You cannot work against the true kingdom for long – those strategies only work in the trumped up ‘reality’ of a misbegotten view of the world. A child can lead you forward, if you can learn to see through their eyes, and be guided by their angels. They live in the world that is eternally real.

The kingdom is not about great numbers – it is about one – every one. So, attend to every one you deal with. Each is deserving of the love that can flow through you from God. Every one can blossom in that love. Every one. (Yes, even that one.) Sometimes that means an honest conversation, but it never means writing the other off. Hold yourself to honesty – in your conversations with others, and in your conversations with yourself. Stick to the simple truth and let it show. Then make a prayer of it – so God can join you in what really is.

So, how many times do I need to forgive? Only as many times as I wish to be forgiven.

[chapter 19]

[photo by Pranav Yaddanapudi per cc 2.0]