The Server and the Served

God said:

When did serving get a poor reputation? When did it become touted that it is better to be the one served rather than the one who serves?

Is the one who dines at a fine restaurant more honored than the waiter who serves the food? The world would say so. I do not. Serving and being served are the two ends of one seesaw. Both are primary. Each serves the other.

It is a fine thing to be a diner who makes it possible for another to serve. And it's a fine thing to be a waiter who serves food to the diner. This is a noble interchange.

It is a fine thing to be someone who cleans, someone who sews, someone who rakes the leaves, shovels the snow. Start thinking of the honor it is to serve. It is not a cursory thing to serve, nor is it cursory to be served. You have every right to serve and to be served.

You know by now that the one who serves another is ultimately serving himself, yes, and also serving Me. You are My hands. Through you, I give.

And through the person served, I am served. Inasmuch as I am the One ultimately served, then you are served as well. Server or served, you stand in for Me.

Serving and being served are of one motion. How intertwined are Heaven and Earth, you and I, I and you, whomever I am speaking to.

He who is served also serves. Who is a greater Server than I?

And, on Earth, does not the king serve the most? When service is given and received with a good heart, service is equal.

The kindergarten child who paints from his heart is not less an artist than a famous artist. They are equal givers. From my vantage, which is much like the vantage of the mother to her child, the child's painting is just as dear as one the world calls valuable.

The teacher serves the student. The student serves the teacher.

The pen that writes serves the paper it writes on. The ink serves the pen and the paper and the writer serve the reader. The writer serves the reader, and the reader serves the writer.

In the world of love, what is separate, My beloveds? In the world of love, all is One, one single motion of Oneness, the way a saw saws a board.

Your hand serves you, and you serve your hand, and your hand serves Me as I serve you.

In the world, no one owns anything, and everyone owns all.

No one partitions the sky and says: "This is mine. It's not yours."

No one says, "The air is mine and not yours." .

No one says, "You can step on this square of sidewalk, and not on that one."

No one says, "If you pass by my lilac bush, you are not allowed to breathe in its sweetness."

No one quibbles with the idea that the sky and air and sidewalks belong to all. No one is selfish about these matters. If they wanted to own the sky and air and sidewalks, there isn't a way for them to own them. Sky and air and sidewalks are not ownable. May it always be so.

And yet food is divided. Space is divided. Other people's love is even separated and owned. "You can love me but not that one."

There is no beginning to the service of love, and there is no ending to the service of love. Love cannot be clutched in the hand. Love is still free and not to be held onto. Love is given in service to the Universe.

Read Comments

Placeholders

Wonderful, stimulating, enriching words!

I spend most of my day in the world of medicine and delivering medical care, so it is most immediate to me and I will frame my response through its images.

My patients serve me. Without their confidence in me I would have nothing to do. My training and education would be for naught. It is a true honor to me for someone to come to my office and enter my exam room. They also teach me and I serve them as well.

Wow! What a thought to hold in my mind! We all stand in for God! My patient is God sitting on my exam table. As I go about my work, I stand in for God in comforting and relieving pain.

Yes, we are all Oneness, but seeing each other as stand-ins for God brings it that much closer and somehow more intimate.

Chuck takes God's pulse

Chuck takes God's blood pressure too but then Chuck discovers it's always the same as his own.
My exam today was really good. The little pain in my groin was supposed to be my prostate cancer growing but it was a small hernia of no consequence.

Life's a kick! We get to choose the goal posts. Both ends belong to God so you can't miss. It's always win, win.

George

a saw saws a board

What strikes me most about this Heavenletter is the picture of the saw and the board as a picture of Oneness.

In the world of love, what is separate, My beloveds? In the world of love, all is One, one single motion of Oneness, the way a saw saws a board.


 
As long as I don't think about it, the one single motion of Oneness can be clearly felt in this sawing. Of course, in the world of love nothing is ever called love or being loved, serving or being served, sawing or being sawed. Sawing and being sawed do happen, but it is one single motion, one single action of sawing.

How less than love can arise in the consummate loving and serving of Oneness, I don't know. It has to be a game, I can think of no other reason. But once it arises, it's not difficult to understand this:

When did serving get a poor reputation? When did it become touted that it is better to be the one served rather than the one who serves?


 
This happenes when we starte experimenting with states of consciousness that are (or at least appear to be) less than love. In less than love, the concept of advantage and disadvantage arises – "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail" (to stay in the carpenter's workshop). With the concept of advantage and disadvantage, taking advantage is born, and soon you will have people who are pressed into service, being exploited by others who for some reason or other are better at the advantage-disadvantage game. And the ones that are being taken advantage of will resent it.

So this, I believe, is how we know we are approaching love: we realize we want and need advantages less and less, not the big ones and not the small invisible and seemingly innocent ones that are so poisoning. In the end, we will be love again, not caring whether we love as board or as saw.

love and peace

daer heavenley father,
am reley glad your explanition your messeges to day,
and also what am thought wholdaylong what can i do for God,
to reserve hem and am think i have more reserve more to the other
it onley the way i can reserve God, whith all my hearth to reserve
thank God all your explaniton today, now i fell peace of mind
thank you for your answer me your words today,
love and peace

THE SERVER AND THE SERVED

DEAREST MAESTRO, GOD-CREATOR AND LOVER AND GREATEST SERVER OF ALL
AND LOVING SERVER TO ALL

This reminder in today's HeavenLetter is so beautiful. You ask " Who started the idea that it is better to be served than it is to serve?" And then YOU ask once more, "Is the waiter who
serves you in a restaurant less honored than you who are served?". And YOU say, The
world would say "yes, the one who's served is more honored, but that is not Heaven's way, or
YOUR WAY, MAESTRO! .

YOU LOVINGLY REMND ME THAT THE ONE WHO SERVES IS ULTIMATELY SERVING
HIMSELF. AND OF COURSE,GOD , WHO IS A GREATER SERVER THAN YOU ARE?
AND IN YOUR WORLD , NO ONE OWNS ANYTHING, BUT EVERYONE OWNS ALL.

THERE IS NO BEGINNING, IN A WORLD OF LOVE, TO THE IDEA OF SERVICE, FOR TO
LIVE AND TO LOVE IS TO SERVE YOU, MAESTRO! EACH OF US BREATHES THE FINE AIR,, AND WE DON'T SAY, THERE'S ONLY SOME AIR THAT'S YOURS, SOME
OF IT IS MINE!!! THAT'S INSANE! WE BREATHE TOGETHER IN LOVE, WE SERVE IN
LOVE AND THE WORLD IS ONE THAT BECOMES LIKE HEAVEN WHEN WE ALL OWN
ALL THE AIR, ALL THE SKY ALL THE SIDEWALKS. TODAY WE HAPPILY SERVE OUR
BROTHER, OUR SISTER AND THEREBY SERVE OUR SELF. WE LOVED WATCHING
A FILM LAST NIGHT CALLED "THE BUDDHA" ABOUT A MAN CALLED SIDDHARTHA
WHO REACHED ENLIGHTENMENT BY REALIZING THAT TO SERVE IS TO ULTIMATELY
FIND ENLIGHTENMENT. THANK YOU, MAESTRO!

How do you tip God when He serves you?

Mastercard, about 100% is about right. Pat HIM on the back. Oh, He doesn't have a front or back; that's right. Well, smile at Him. You got to mean it or you'll be sorry, but then you should be sorry anytime you smile and don't mean it. Life's like that.

George

You know by now that the one

You know by now that the one who serves another is ultimately serving himself, yes, and also serving Me. You are My hands. Through you, I give.

Thanks for this wonderful Heavenletter !
Berit

1 Heavenletter Haiku for

1 Heavenletter Haiku for you

Hello Friends,

God said Beloveds
All is One single motion
In service of love

Love, Light and Aloha!

Server & Served

Thank you, God, for this beautifully-written letter. I was especiallly enlivened with imagery when reading the part about the way a board is sawed...fresh wood smell, shavings ~~~ a fast, clean cut...

Also reminding me of my own sanity was "In the world, no one owns anything, and everyone owns all." Just the other day when strolling along I spied several "tossed out" concrete bricks laying in a field. I placed one inside of my backpack and brought it home.

Ego, like a pesky fool, made me doubt Self. Cringing for a moment I thought that I had stolen something.

"There is no beginning (or ending) to the service of Love." YEs, amen (to that.)