[tmtranscripts] Ham on being grateful for our weaknesses

[David Schlundt]

08/24/2003

Ham: Greetings, my children, I am Ham and I welcome each of you here 
this evening. This evening, we shall discuss the slow and steady process 
of understanding yourselves more completely. No human being is born or 
presently lives in perfection. All individuals carry many different 
obstacles to growth. Most of these obstacles are borne unaware. It takes 
time for human beings to be unafraid of themselves in order to examine 
their imperfections. But this very process is the engine of spiritual 
growth. Without imperfection to overcome, human beings would not have 
the foothold to propel themselves forward in growth.

Each human being has personal weakness which manifests perhaps in vanity 
or pride, envy, things which have traditionally know as venial sins. 
These are the handholds and footholds of growth. They are the rungs of 
the ladder you climb. As you step closer toward God, you must step over 
these personal weaknesses recognizing and overcoming them in some sense.

Life is designed in order that seeming obstacles can become footholds 
once they are recognized and acknowledged. Each person must, over the 
course of a lifetime, recognize these little weaknesses within 
themselves and once recognized, once accepted, they are transformed into 
the propellant for growth.

The Master always encouraged living life fully in full social contact, 
full engagement with the arena of life for this is the only way 
imperfection can be seen. His later followers who cloister themselves 
and isolate from the world actually have great difficulty with growth 
and can live an entire life like a struggling seedling in need of 
nourishment and light, barely growing at all. And so their usefulness in 
the world is very limited. Outer piety cannot take the place of the 
rough and tumble existence life affords.

Many times people who live a sheltered existence become completely 
dominated by weakness. Those who are shown their weaknesses through 
failure and defeat learn to take hold and keep going, they learn to 
change and grow. In the unforgiving arena of commercial life, any 
weakness can easily create failure, and I am speaking of things like 
pride, vanity, things that can project self-satisfaction but hide a lack 
of self-awareness.

For each human being, there is not one Achilles heal, one overwhelming 
tendency that bespeaks immaturity. No, for most human beings a 
combination of things working in tandem creates those obstacles and also 
opportunities. It is therefore incumbent upon the faithful to feel 
overwhelming gratitude for these human failings. Without them, you would 
have nothing to overcome, nothing to get a foot hold on.

It is exactly the little failings which can lead to great spiritual 
success. Also I don't want you to magnify your supposed failings in your 
own minds. These are small things. These are part of your path and the 
way in which you overcome these things can lead to great moral victories 
and set you upon greater paths than you have known before.

Be unafraid of who you are right now, this moment. Be unafraid to admit 
your failings honestly and openly for this is all part of the way and a 
very important part of the way. Be grateful for your imperfections, but 
be ever more grateful for the Father's plan of perfecting.

Would you say that you are still engaged in this process of uncovering 
your own perfections.

Yes, all ascending sons are likewise engaged. I would say that over time 
these things grow more subtle and more insidious. As you know they are 
even found among such highly created beings as Lucifer was.

But they weren't ascendent beings.

Ham: Yes, that's my point.

Q: It is hard to understand how we act like we are more when we feel we 
are less. It seems like a high created being like that, pride is always 
a lie.

Ham: The sons of that order you must remember are created to function in 
the realm of the ascending sons. Therefore, they are not created in 
perfection as on the higher worlds, created directly from the Father of 
from the eternal son.

Q: The point I have always puzzled me, I understand how people, pride in 
people, overcompensation for low self esteem, but those other, do you 
see what I am saying.

Ham: Well, yes, but pride has dimensions you have not explored.

Q: It is kind of pretending.

Ham: Yes, it is a kind of delusion. All human beings have their 
delusions, it is safe to say that none are without them. When 
personality and mind interact, there is then a personal aspect of mind 
that is individual and within this realm are many different delusions 
which are personal colorations of perception. Character is the 
willingness to let go of delusion. Human beings are under a delusion in 
general that the morontia and spiritual realms are peopled with perfect 
beings. But this is untrue. Perfect beings are found in Havona and 
scattered throughout the universes one finds them. They are perfect, but 
they are also incomplete. They are limited in their experience. Only the 
Father can be said to be complete, absolute, as well as perfect. His 
creation must be fragmentary in some way. Even your indwelling adjusters 
are sub-absolute. Though they partake of the Father's absolute nature, 
they themselves are a fragment of him. Their experience gives them 
greater and greater completion over time. And this is the Father's plan, 
this is creation. This is existence. And this is the Father's great love 
for his creation, that he would personally indwell the lowliest will 
creatures and partake of their experience in time and space. No, the 
universe is not perfect immediately upon leaving this world. You will 
find imperfection all the way to paradise. But remember, the universes 
are perfecting and the Father's command is "Be you perfect, even as I am 
perfect".

Q: Is it ever our business to discuss with someone else their 
shortcomings as we perceive them and if it is, how do we go about that, 
how do we do it if it is ever our business?

Ham: Yes, of course, it is fine to discuss spiritual struggles. Remember 
the Master could teach through questions as well as providing answers. 
Human beings are engaged and open when asked a question but often are 
closed when receiving an answer.

Q: The awful ordeal of listening.

Ham: Yes. It is wise, as much as possible, to follow the Master's model 
and to help others through the asking of questions before you dive in to 
here's what I think your problem is mode which always causes the other 
person to throw up barriers and not to listen. Take your time, don't be 
in a hurry to change someone over night, and you will grow ever more 
skillful in planting seeds of thought. Coming at someone with too much 
harsh truth can also be a manifestation of vanity, I know and you don't 
kind of thinking, and usually it falls on deaf ears. But, guiding 
someone into self-realization can be a very rewarding experience, one 
where both of you will learn a lot.

Q: Do you have any counsel for me this evening?

Ham: Certainly, my son. You are doing very well. Be at peace with 
yourself. Give each day and each job before you your honest full effort. 
Be careful not to bite off more than you can chew, in other words be 
increasingly honest in your self-assessment. Pray for those around you 
who need spiritual comfort and pray that they find spiritual comfort 
rather than material comfort which masks and postpones the need and the 
search for spiritual comfort. Remember that the human beings who search 
in the material world for something that can only be found in the spirit 
must eventually come to and end of that search, a crisis point. This is 
an immutable law of the universe, it cannot be changed. Remember that 
their own indwelling spirit is seeking that crisis point, that time of 
turning when the person will turn to the spirit rather than the world. 
Cooperate then with their adjuster and their angels rather than being 
sucked into their material search which will only lead to increasing 
pain before the crisis.

Q: May I ask for a message for Jim please?

Ham: Certainly. Be at ease my son, you are well. Remember that you can 
serve only one master for some times the things of the world, the 
material world, can be a seductive lure. Every time you have a conflict, 
remember the simple words the Master repeatedly spoke, "It is my will 
that your will be done". This is a psychological method of freeing 
yourself from ego involvement and of allowing yourself to be lead and 
releasing the burden which you keep picking back up, the burden of 
figuring things out, being in charge of your life. It's OK sometimes not 
to be "in charge" of your life. It's OK to drift with the Master's 
leading. Be at ease my son, that is all.

Q: Do you have anything for Rebecca?

Ham: Yes, my daughter. Your way right now is turning, changing and you 
are also feeling that drift, that not being in charge which is a help 
for you right now in your desire to let go of control. You are finding a 
way to move forward and a new and unique way to use your wisdom and 
skills. Place your hand firmly in the Masters and he will show you all 
that you need and give you guidance at each step. You are growing with 
the inner strength you will need rather than the outer strength you have 
heretofore relied upon. Abandon one for the other and your way is clear.

Q: Jarad?

Ham: Yes my son, you too are going through some inner change relying 
less and less on the old props and finding greater and greater inner 
truth. This truth will blossom and your inner strength of character 
continue to solidify around it. Your way is also clear as your reliance 
on the Master's hand grows more complete. Trust in that relationship and 
allow him to provide those things necessary for the journey. Be at 
peace, you do well.

Q: Do you have a message for Joan?

Ham: Yes, of course. My daughter, you do very well. You are continuing 
to grow and to find your way in the spirit. Remember that the Master's 
spirit is always with you. He is an ever present friend and a willing 
helper in your life. Be at ease, you will find the way is easier than 
you think.

Q: Do you have a message for Norbert?

Ham: Certainly. My son, you do well. Have patience with yourself. Do not 
try to move too far too fast. Do not be distressed as you go through the 
inevitable difficulties of life for you will have everything you need at 
every step of your journey. Have courage and confidence for all is well.

Q: Do you have a message for Charlie B?

Ham: Certainly. My son, take heed of this lesson. Do not be hard on 
yourself or rather let go of your need for self-punishment and 
criticism. You are a person with a complex mixture of these little sins 
we talked about. Like all people, you will not be able to sort 
everything out at once. Be careful to be a student as well as the 
teacher. Become the child as well as the father.

Q: Do you have any feedback for me this week?

Ham: Yes, my son. Also take heed of this lesson. There are parts of your 
personal nature which are quite fragile and have been protected for a 
long time but which can use and honest airing and open examination. In 
many ways you are stronger than you think you are weaker than you think 
you are in other ways, just like all people. See how the strengths can 
be weaknesses and weaknesses strengths. Be unafraid of yourself. Be 
unafraid to be a human being with human failings and human problems. 
Being a teacher has forced you to project a persona of confidence and 
assurance. Examine this, how it is a help and a hindrance, in your 
spiritual life. You do very well.

Is there anything further at this time? Very well then, until next week 
my love and my prayers are with you each. Farewell.


-- 
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David G. Schlundt, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Vanderbilt University
301 Wilson Hall
Nashville, TN  37203

Phone: (615)322-7800
Fax: (615) 343-8449
Email: David.Schlundt at Vanderbilt.edu
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Beauty is that which attracts the soul,
and that which loves to give and not
to receive

Kahlil Gibran
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