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Twelve worn-out men climbed a mountain having agreed not to mention a single one of their troubles.
My brethren, you must all learn the value of rest and the efficacy of relaxation. You must realize that the best method of solving some entangled problems is to forsake them for a time. Then when you go back fresh from your rest or worship, you are able to attack your troubles with a clearer head and a steadier hand, not to mention a more resolute heart. Again, many times your problem is found to have shrunk in size and proportions while you have been resting your mind and body.
Late in A.D. 27 or early in 28, while Jesus and the twelve were passing through Samaria, the record describes a state of great nervous and emotional tension among the apostles. They were still learning to live and work together, they were having trouble keeping peace with John's disciples, and contact with gentiles and Samaritans was a trial for these Jews. Andrew, the apostolic chief, was almost beside himself and took his problems to Jesus. Jesus told him he would not participate in these personal social difficulties, but he would join them for three days of rest on Mount Sartaba. Andrew went privately to each of the eleven. Hardly a word about their troubles was said on the way up the mountain. At the top, Jesus seated them around him and spoke.
The record is specific about what each man carried up that mountain. Andrew's head was full of problems. John was perplexed, James troubled, Matthew short of funds, Peter overwrought and temperamental, Judas in a periodic attack of sensitiveness and selfishness, Simon torn between patriotism and brotherhood, Philip nonplused, Nathaniel less humorous, and Thomas in the midst of a severe season of depression. Only the twins were unperturbed (143:3.5). Against that inventory Jesus said that the best method of solving some entangled problems is to forsake them for a time. He did not solve the problems for them. The account has him telling Andrew plainly that he would not participate in these personal social difficulties (143:3.1). The next day he assigned each apostle a topic unrelated to their work, and the record notes they were momentarily shocked when he even neglected to give thanks aloud over the noon bread (143:3.4). On the third day, coming down, the record says a great change had come over them. They had discovered that many human perplexities are in reality nonexistent, that “many pressing troubles are the creations of exaggerated fear and the offspring of augmented apprehension” (143:3.6). Their return marked the beginning of greatly improved relations with John's followers, and many of the twelve gave way to mirth at the change in everyone's mind (143:3.7). Rodan of Alexandria later pointed to this same practice in Jesus, the habit of going off by himself to commune with the Father, and described its result, in words the record gives restated in modern phraseology, as “that relaxation which renews the mind” (160:1.12). Rodan ties the habit to Jesus' purpose, to breathe in sincerity the Master's favorite prayer, “Not my will, but yours, be done” (160:1.11).
anxiety · burnout · rest · overwhelm
Fifteen situations. Each one gathers lines the record spoke into that same situation, printed word for word, with the person and the place they were said to. A path names a situation. It does not prescribe.
Choose a situation. The lines that follow were said into that same situation, to a named person, in a real place.
A new scene on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Six weeks, then the library begins again.
A fatherless young man hiding from people, convinced he is helpless.
A young person who keeps leaving instead of facing what is in front of him.
A team so frayed and overwhelmed that its leader cannot think straight.
Someone whose ambitions have stalled and whose pride is bruised, asking why happiness comes so easily to others.
A young worker stuck under an unjust boss, wondering why nobody in heaven does anything about it.
A woman running a small business whose days have become drudgery.
A successful professional whose career is outpacing everything else in his life.
A person whose job is to decide other people's fates, and who has to be fair about it.
Someone whose venture has failed and who is working hard to make it look like success.
Someone facing a decision who has not yet admitted what the real problem is.
A father in Egypt teaching his son about money, honesty, and fear.
A wealthy man unsure what to do with his money.
Two brothers fighting over their dead father's property.
A wealthy young man who wanted the job but not the price.
A husband who lost his temper and attacked his wife in public.
A mother who refused to leave until someone saw her sick daughter.
A young man hearing how his parents' love and wisdom shaped him.
Two friends who could not agree about how forgiveness works.
Two young people leaving a hostile family, with a hiding place already prepared.
A father coming home to his family after thirty days alone with his mistake.
Someone asking why a good person is suffering.
Staying loyal when the people in charge have gone bad and no help is coming.
A skeptic who wonders whether his doubting disqualifies him.
A committed man whose cause is collapsing in front of him.
Someone facing the consequences of a terrible mistake that cannot be undone.
Someone holding a grudge, or stuck brooding after a hard loss.
Anyone asking why life has to be this hard.
Someone lying awake over things that have not happened.
Someone deciding how to respond to a person who has treated them badly.
A capable, ambitious man giving up the plan he had built his life around.
AN, the Sumerian sign that stood before the name of a god, stands here before the book’s own words, and only after the line has been checked against the text at its citation.
KI, the earth, stands before the observation: what the text does in that place, on that day, to that person. Never what you should do.
The series takes its name from a guardian seraphim’s testimony on Salvington: “Such a life on such a planet!” (111:7.5). Every line on this page can be checked by anyone, in one click, at /verify.
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