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Effort In Relation To Evolution

A Chapel Talk

by Allyce Cay-Bothmann

        A philosopher may wonder about the effects of time on progress.  We know that the cosmos hastens slowly in its demand for perfection.  What determines the magnitude of one glory over another?  The fount of creation, just as the generation of human beings, has a foreordained, all-encompassing, completed plan in its whole or holy center, which radiates through the organized levels and boundaries.  The magnanimous gradations of intelligences finally extend to the seventh and final level of existence where we mortals dwell.

        Although we may be of a low level, still we have risen above the mineral, plant, and animal stages and are now experiencing the results of what we have gained to this moment—according to God’s design for each person’s destiny.  This runs up against the question: what does a mortal have to do with his destiny?  Those who are not as striving toward spiritual progress, although gaining wisdom and expertise in fundamental practices, must reach a certain inner realization before even a slight understanding of the higher goals of being seem important enough for the struggle.  Later, devoted effort is attained which places a foot upon the upward path of character perfection.

        It is most daunting for an ordinary person to face such a vista.  Even those who are inspired by the beauteous scheme of the progressive globes of Ariadne’s unwinding thread are not balanced in achievement.  They have gained on the one hand, but they realize they are considerably deficient in several virtues. 

        [Editor’s note:  Ariadne, in Greek mythology, the daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and Pasiphae, daughter of Helios, the sun god. The hero, Theseus, came to Crete as one of the 14 victims that the Athenians were annually required to offer to the Minotaur, a monster—half bull, half human—that was confined in the mazes of the Labyrinthe. When Ariadne saw Theseus, she fell in love with him and offered to help him if he would promise to take her back to Athens and marry her. She then gave him a ball of thread, which she had obtained from Daedalus, the designer of the labyrinth. Fastening one end of the thread to the door and unwinding it as he went along, Theseus was able to find and kill the Minotaur and then escape from the maze by rewinding the thread.

          Taking Ariadne with them, Theseus and his companions fled over the seas toward Athens. On the way, they stopped at the island of Naxos. According to one legend, Theseus deserted Ariadne, sailing without her while she was asleep on the island; the god Dionysus found her and married her. According to another legend, Theseus set Ariadne ashore to recover from seasickness while he returned to the ship to perform some necessary task. A strong wind then carried him out to sea. When he was finally able to return, he found that Ariadne had died.]

        Much of an individual’s progress depends upon precluded factors.  Each of God’s creatures is graded most precisely by the status it has attained.  We remember the Master’s words that the Father knows of a sparrow’s fall, and various scriptures account for God’s vigilance in every moment of a child’s life.  Our mortal minds, even with the beam of intelligence of our great teachings, do not as yet accommodate enough of the love, wisdom and power of the upper realms, and the intricacies of their bearing here in the human environment.      Appraising people in the Twentieth Century when governments took over more and more of what used to be a citizen’s responsibility, is not this erosion of democracy an indication of the caliber of spirits being given their opportunities in this age?  They do not compare to those who built and sustained a great nation.  So many today have not learned how to reason, and with nearsighted interest, actually create their own ruin.  Before long, they fall into the demise of their nonfunctional society.  These younger spirits come from state-imposed lock-step education and fractured homes.  It is the wisdom of the elder brothers that metes out the experiences that confine in order to teach these evolving children.  They have all that they can handle, and with the limitations of socialism and even communism, they have to rise to a level where they can earn personal and national freedom.

        There have always been those who are of less energy or who do not conform to a work ethic.  They have the attitude that they are owed a living.  Others prey on the vulnerable and softhearted; still there are some who are really not able to take care of themselves. 

        One of Aristotle’s ten virtues is that in order to manage one’s life, one must work hard.  If a person desires to advance in a job, for example, he must toil long into the night.  In other words, he must prepare himself for better and more complex abilities.  Thus effort is born.  As in the earthly sphere, so it is in the inner life of spiritual progression.  In life we see all kinds of workers—from the ones driven only for the extrinsic rewards to the malingerer to the workaholic.  A few are discovering that the best investment of their time is for the soul’s improvement, and they are discovering the great importance of implementing other virtues.  Some people are greatly blessed with abundant energy and so spin their wheels for even lifetimes until evaluating toward eternal rewards. 

        In civilization today there are those on various levels of consciousness, and they are qualifying themselves for whatever goals they set.  As we accumulate experience and develop in the light, we come to a stage where we not only do well personally, but we also become ready to take our place in a hierarchy for a joyous labor of love—a contribution to the holy. 

        We likely know persons of indefatigable energy—some of us in our youth, full of vigor and enthusiasm but with misguided ideals; we spent years gaining little.  George Bernard Shaw said Youth is wasted on silly young people.  Yet it takes so much ignorant behavior to build up a bulwark of wisdom and with the diminution of mistakes comes right action and with it the energy and will to production, hastening us slowly along the path of wisdom and inducement to service.

        For those nearing this phase of progress it becomes, at times, a challenge to be patient with the lazy and seemingly incompetent ones who expect sustenance, charity, and all manner of help from their brothers.  Nevertheless, by sacrifice and self-denial these kind and assisting ones labor to their own self-perfection, increasing in love and compassion for their fellow man.

        Always, judgment is needed in order to descry the many great and small differences among those with whom we live and work.  Moreover it is easy to assess wrongly those who are supposedly a burden on the city, county and state.  They could be very young spirits, the disabled, the struggling or the stragglers who willfully lean wherever they can.  How are we to tell other human beings’ state and destiny?  The Infinite has reasons for everything.  We are to serve and appreciate what we have and can do.

        In the middle of the next globe, Max Heindel tells us that there will be a great division between those who are qualified to go on and those who must wait, perhaps eons, for another chance to make up the efforts for their next grade.  He also states that those who now feel they are doing well, but may rest on their oars, will be surprised to find that some who were behind have caught up and passed them.  This life is such a work in progress that we must not take whatever we are given for granted.  Let us donate our energies back to our Creator; let us be grateful for what we have—especially our ability to perform the hardest work, which is rightly evaluating ourselves; let us worship and concentrate on self-observation toward inner improvement.  Can we do this at the end of our day without criticism, condemnation or complaints of others?  God gives us a body, a world—everything we need—to use the virtue of hard work to achieve and attain ever more light and love in our reflection of Him as the noble sons and daughters that we are in His Kingdom.  We pray that we motivate and cultivate our efforts unto His glory from whence all comes!  Thus we evolve faster than it appears, and with the incentive of the virtues produced by our efforts we will live successful and joyous lives as modeled by our Lord and inspiration, Jesus Christ. 

Allyce Cay-Bothmann