Global Community Communications Alliance Member Profile
Clistine
I wake up early on a cool March morning and first remember to commit the day to God. Then I look around me. I'm in a small white walled bedroom. Around me are a few of the remaining beautiful things I have been given or collected over the years. Apart from these things, I own nothing any more. I have no bank account, and I work nearly seven days a week. I look out of the window and see the clear Arizona sunlight already bright above the red rocks across the road.
What am I doing here? If I had woken up on a cool March morning five years ago, I would have found myself in a beautiful cedar-sided cabin, on a fringe of woodland that overlooks the sea, on an island in British Columbia. I would have then got up to go to work in my "successful" well-paid job, just a ferry ride away. Or maybe I would have been preparing for a visit from some of my children and grandchildren for the weekend.
Why did I move away from a life which I had slowly worked for, close to those I wanted to be with and in my favorite part of the world? First of all there was a major flaw in that life. The life-style on the island I lived on was an alternative one. Many had ended up there, like me, trying to escape the decadence and pollution of the towns and cities, to be close to nature and follow their inner dreams. There were many "new agers" there who held their different meetings and workshops. There were classes on couples relationships, protecting the environment, how to be prosperous, how to heal yourself, and many others. There were shamans, astrologers and self-appointed psychic counselors. Some of this seemed potentially helpful, and some of it was distinctly on the crazy side. While white people were giving sweat lodges and espousing the "Rainbow" tradition on the north end of the island, there was a band of Native Indians on the south end of the island, living in their own village, who were experiencing a high percentage of alcoholism and having a hard time adjusting to the non-traditional life we had foisted upon them. While there were workshops on subjects such as "Finding your twin flame," I was sickeningly aware of the worsening plague of spouse abuse and sexual abuse. At that time the government had cut the funding to Women's Centers, and I had stepped in as fund-raiser for the Women's Center in the town just across the water. The latest government statistics of wife and child abuse were horrifying, and it became clear to me that the results of the rift between so many men and women was undermining the family structure of our whole society. Later, when I worked as a life skills coach for high-school dropouts who couldn't find or keep a job, I became deeply aware of how, even outside of the big cities, we had failed our young people, many of whom had hit the streets and were in despair. For every young person who went through our agency, thousands upon thousands out there would give up hope of ever finding a life. Then commercial interests started to invade the island big-time. Despite protests, our beautiful forest lands were being hacked back all around us, and new housing developments, that no-one wanted on the island except the developers, were threatening the depletion of our well water supply.
So it was not possible to escape to an island. The inadequacies and injustices of our social system were too close to home. Even if we could have succeeded in creating a small Utopia, this would only have been for the escaping self-seeking few. The bigger picture beckoned me. But what could possibly be done when greed and self-interest motivated the ones with power, and when so many people had already given up hope of any significant change? And then something very unusual happened that gave my life greater purpose, meaning, and a much better opportunity to help change the world.
But to give the background to this event I first have to go back in time to when I was quite a little girl in England. I never really felt "at home" except in nature and was always thinking about why things "were". I developed an early interest in trying to find God—and through the years I looked in many places. My desire to go to a conventional church lasted about a year at the age of twelve. At seventeen, I discovered yoga. At eighteen, I attended meetings of the theosophical society. Next, I became interested in the teachings of Krishnamurti, who confessed to believing nothing, yet who somehow seemed to be in touch with the truth. I turned away from regular society because it didn't seem to have any of the answers I was seeking, and about this time I lost my job at the BBC because I refused to work on a program extolling the virtues of missiles. I continued my inner search until at the age of twenty-nine I became initiated in a form of meditative yoga embracing the inner sound and light—and the East Indian guru I then followed for five years was indeed a wonderful example of goodness and humility. But in spite of this, something was missing. I had a sense of destiny that wasn't just bound up with doing spiritual exercises for my own inner development, but was to do with helping other people in some way that I didn't yet understand.
Throughout my married life in Canada, during the time of raising my three children, I still went on searching—I became interested in Rudolf Steiner's teachings, actually attended some of Krishnamurti's talks in California. I read the Course in Miracles, became very interested in Native Indian beliefs, and eventually took a course in TM. Somewhere along the line I had acquired The URANTIA Book, but had dipped into it only slightly. My contact with it was enough, however, to deeply awaken my sense about the one who we call Jesus Christ and how he is truly the most dynamic approach to God that we can ever have in this world, even though we often cannot find him in traditional "Christianity".
Well, about five years ago I set off on an adventure in a small camper across the high desert lands of the American southwest. It had all happened it seemed "by accident", after certain well-laid plans for which I had quit my job and rented the cabin had been thwarted at the last minute. I was therefore free to travel. Eventually I came to Sedona, Arizona and was taking a stroll along Oak Creek the day before departing north.
That's when something very unusual happened. As I walked along picking up little stones that appealed to me, I fell into a reverie, experienced an exceptional sense of joy, and had a vivid sense of having "come home". So much so that I stopped a passer-by and got into conversation with her, hoping I would find out why. It turned out that she was part of a religious community which read The URANTIA Book , and also studied something called Continuing Fifth Epochal Revelation. I was not looking for a community. I was not expecting that any religious teaching could now be "the one" I was looking for. I had already come to the conclusion that I would have to be content with a potpourri of religious truths from here and there. I had also started to accept that my "destiny" was perhaps not as defined as I had once believed.
But I was wrong! I stayed at this community for a few days, attending classes and getting to know the people there. I was so impressed by their loving behavior, their outgoing friendliness, their humor, and what I could only describe as their "balance". They were quite individualistic and yet they were essentially living together in harmony. The longer I stayed and the more I found out about what these people believed in, the more I felt that deep down this was the place that God wanted me to be. I was very impressed by their leaders, Gabriel and Niann, who radiated benign warmth and a sense of eldership that was combined with genuine humility. But the most important thing was that this was a family of people who were totally dedicated to serving, and were creating ways that could bring about global change. I realized then the folly of trying to do this in one's own small way, and could see instead the enormous value of working in a unified group. If this unified group is trying to tune in to the will of God, then true progress can be made.
So I made the decision to become part of this Cosmic Family. I began to learn Ascension Science—which offered me more profound and extensive cosmic teachings than I had ever been able to find, and which gave context and validation to what we were doing at Global Community Communications Alliance. And then I began to have an opportunity to do in the community those things which I had always greatly enjoyed doing—for which I have had training and practice, and where my talents seem to lie—teaching, writing, and using various art forms as a means of communicating what I have been learning. Recently I have been writing and directing plays and dance-dramas. I know that part of my "destiny" is now to take inspirational teaching messages out to the world in this way. And here I have a place and the means to do this, as well as people to do it with.
As we all learn here, it simply is not enough to have the concepts and the theories—we have to learn to live them in association with each other. This is, of course, what Jesus taught so many years ago. It isn't easy, of course. Here we must be mountain climbers, facing new challenges and accepting new (and possibly uncomfortable) opportunities for growth each day. Above all, we try to tune into God and so extend our capacity for doing his will. We are slowly learning to develop our personal relationship with Christ Michael, who we now know is not only Jesus of Nazareth, but the Creator Son of our local universe. Yes, he has a plan for this presently dark planet, and we're part of it! We now know that the more we can grow here in the light together, the greater the nucleus of energy we will have for outreach to the needy places of the earth. We long for others to join us who share our dream and vision of seeing this planet come into Light and Life, and who wish to commit their lives to the service of others.
So when I wake up in my small white room and look around each day, I feel privileged.
I know I was guided to come here, that I have all I need, and that I want to be
nowhere else. Where else could there be such fulfillment of soul and purpose?
Clistine,
Minister
Vicegerent First Assistant
to Gabriel of Urantia and Niánn Emerson Chase and the Mandate of the Bright and Morning Star
I have now been at Global Community Communications Alliance Community for nearly ten years. Since I first wrote my Profile I have undergone various changes. These have been due to my continuing to live in this exceptional environment, and my desire to become a better person. What used to be highly acceptable theory has now become daily practice. The first change is a deepened awareness of what I personally need to do to become a more useable change agent. Age-long negative habits, no doubt accrued in other lives as well as this one, have come under the microscope of my awareness, and I am engaging in the constant effort to overcome them. The second change is a heightened sense of the validity of all that is happening here and the power and truth of the Fifth and Continuing Fifth Revelation which we are studying. And interwoven with these changes is a closer and more dynamic sense of the presence of Christ Michael. I could not be realizing nearly as much or be struggling with my own prideful shadow so consistently if I had stayed in the mainstream. Our cosmic family, under the devoted leadership of Gabriel of Urantia and Niánn Emerson Chase, is a superb spawning ground for altruistic impulses. As we freely open our hearts to one another we become closer and closer knit. All this gives us the support to grow. My previous desire for "enlightenment" was too much based on the idea of growth through meditation along with a secluded life-style instead of on an active idea of service, inter-dependence with others, self-evaluation, and, of course, prayer. I might have carved a little philosophical niche for myself and avoided the rough path of daily trying to overcome my lower self! How strange that we can readily accept the principle of putting God first and yet resist as soon as our self-interest is threatened!
So my view of life continually expands. I see that the Lucifer Rebellion, which
is taking such a terrible and painful toll on our world at present, cannot continue
for long. These are truly what have been dubbed as the "end" days. But after the
"end" comes the new beginning of Light and Life, just as Spring follows Winter.
This is our sustaining hope. This is what we are here for…to serve in the capacity
of light bringers in whatever ways we can under a new and higher way of living.
And just as the external rebellion is doomed to crash, so is our own internal
rebellion if we just keep on working at it. This is the real stuff, the real adventure!
It's more potent than the "The Lord of the Rings" and all the mythic tales of
good versus evil because it's happening at this moment and Christ Michael is our
leader! He needs us, the humans in the eternal tale, to pull together now for
the sake of this planet. The climb is steep, but it is a great honor to be on
it and the growing vista is breath-taking. Many "brave hearts" are needed… Do
you feel that God is calling you to join us here?