You have to stretch to make room for what the world calls success. It is such a little thing, success in the world, and yet you feel stretched to meet it.

It is like you get ready for a play, and you are immersed in stage fright. Here is your big moment. You have a line to utter. Your throat is dry, and your legs tremble. You have waited so long for this moment, and now that it is here, you would hide from it.

What you have to know is that nothing is changed. The world's acclaim or disclaim has little to do with you. It does not touch your interior being. You, acknowledged or unacknowledged, are still you. Part of you, as then, as now, as always, moves on the surface of life, and a larger part of you steers through the world untouched.

There is a rudder (call it God) that propels you through life. You are not rudderless. And you who are ruddered are not changed by the assaults or acclaim of the world. What the world says or notices has little if anything to do with you.

Pans and praise are made of the same ilk. They are opinions, true or false, uttered by the surface of life.

And now you ride a high wave, and now you know, how insignificant success is, and how little it has to do with you.

You sail into certain waters, and you are acclaimed as hero. You sail into other waters, and you are not even seen, or not yet. But you are that which you are whichever waters you sail on or into. The self-same rudder keeps you firmly on your path, and whether the crowds cheer or not cheer is immaterial to your course through life. Your course through life is your course through life. Cheers are on the side. They are not the leaders of you.

Be neither dampened nor exalted by the attention of the world. It is a passing thing. And you are a passing thing in the world. Passing things are not of such import. The world is not the bellow that blows you up or lays you down.

World recognition is a little thing. It is not much. So do not worry much, or at all, about your perceived performance in it. You do not perform for the world. You perform for Me. Not all know that, but you know that.

All the applause in the world is never for an individual. It may seem so, but the applause is for the wonder of Me and what I have created. What I have created is evidenced through an individual. Whether the world remembers that or not, you will remember, and you will be untouched by the favor or disfavor of the world because you know from whence what matters comes.

Arms reach up to the Heavens in appreciation, and hands clap to make a noise that resounds through the universe. The world applauds creation. The Human world applauds the beautiful divine strain that runs through it. Emissaries of God applaud the messages of God through other emissaries. Human shoulders are not big enough to take the applause as their own without falling over.

So, those of you who applaud, and those of you who are for a moment applauded, know that all applause is for your Holy Maker, and that it has come from Me as well. My applause you always have, for I am the Recognizer of you, whether you are on stage or in the audience. I am the Applause and I am the Applauder, so nothing is changed when the world gives you the nod.