ON MISSING FINAL JEOPARDY

God is always offering the perfect answer for and to each and all of us. It is our job to tune into him to receive his perfect words. Goldsmith compares it to a radio or TV which comparison I like...both are always giving information in one form or the other but we cannot hear it if we don't tune in.

The tuning in is what takes discipline...just like a TV program that we really want to watch. We eagerly wait for the time to turn it on, get ourselves all set to watch, then spend the next half hour running our minds on a personal problem and miss the program entirely. Or we fall asleep. I watch "Jeopardy" every night it's on and miss the final the majority of the time...and it's not my fault, of course. They have that way too long commercial break after Double Jeopardy right before Final Jeopardy, and all the applause wakes me as they sign off.

What's really irritating is that I know what I  need to do. I need to get up from my comfortable chair, go do something...anything...until I hear the end of the commercial, come back and catch the final.

Here's my thinking almost every night: I should go ready the coffee for tomorrow morning. But I don't want to get up out of my comfortable chair. It is really comfortable...really, really comfortable. I'll just run my eye over the newspaper here which I've already read. Then...loud applause. Final Jeopardy is over, and I've missed it again.

I repeat: The tuning in is what takes discipline. And right there is the core of the problem...just saying it again is not a solution. Doing it is the solution. I can say it again till my face falls off...while I nap.

Here's my take on the removal of all personal defects that we have finally recognized as defects not assets. We wear our brains to a nub either trying to think of a way to remove them or trying to think of the exactly right words to pray so God will understand what he needs to do to remove them.

Wearing our brains to a nub is our comfortable chair...our really, really comfortable chair. When, in fact, the solution is in practicing the presence of God...moment by moment. Too hard? Wearing our brains out spinning them uselessly just seems so much easier?

Here is the flat fact answer: "You have only to close your eyes, get quiet for a moment, and God will solve your problem." [Joel Goldsmith, "The Heart of Mysticism," at p. 1042]

Can it get any easier than that? But...the big hold-back but...it takes discipline. Self-discipline. Which means that only we each alone can apply the necessary discipline for our own self.

I look forward to missing Final Jeopardy again tonight. But tomorrow I'll....

Thank you.