Do you long to share your journey with those who understand because they are on a similar journey themselves? This is a normal desire. It is not good for man to be alone. No one else can take this journey for you, but you can’t take it by yourself either. I know you need companions. How can you find them? Radar was invented to detect airplanes beyond visual range, and is still in use for this purpose today. Is there a human equivalent? Do you find yourself aware of and drawn to those who are at a similar stage on their spiritual journey? Have you ever been wrong about this?

Good military commanders and good business managers care about the morale of their people. Do you think I care about yours? You are familiar with the passages about rejoicing. Is it enough to be given a command to rejoice? This isn’t a command that can be given arbitrarily. Isn’t it also necessary to be given conditions favorable for rejoicing? How hard do you have to look for reasons? You live in the same world as everyone else, and I make the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike.

When my disciples wanted me to take a more aggressive public stance I told them that my time had not yet come, but that their time was always ready. Do you see this as a universal principle for my followers, including you, that you are always on duty? Have your most effective opportunities to serve me been those that you have staged and arranged, or have they happened in a moment when you least expected them? And so you are charged to be instant in season and out of season. You don’t know when you will cross paths with someone who is receptive to your message of life.

How do you deal with the concerns of others? Do you evaluate them by your own criteria and let them know if you think it is a trivial concern? It may be to you, but they wouldn’t bring it up if it was trivial to them. Other people don’t like being dismissed any more than you do. If you can truly alleviate their concern by insight and wisdom then you have released them from fear. Would you expect to have the opportunity to do this without showing the empathy and compassion of taking their concern seriously?