The balance of serving and not working yourself to the bone is not always come by in the material world. You are not to erase yourself. You are a person worthy of care. You cannot always put yourself last any more than you can always put yourself first. There is not sacrifice in this interaction that We call service.

It is a tricky balance for you. Until the Great Ones became Great, it was tricky for them. As their awareness expanded, it was no longer tricky. How did they do it? How did they preserve themselves and yet serve Me through others with such aplomb?

The Great Ones ate food and slept at night. They did not give away their lives. How did they serve Me at every moment and yet not abandon themselves? They kept themselves intact. How else could they serve?

Two things:

First, they came to a state of consciousness that served and healed without effort. The Great Ones could be walking along to their immediate destination. They did not stop. They healed as they headed where they were heading. They healed, and yet did not stop their journey. Oh, maybe a pause for a moment. You can be sure they were not anyone’s lackey. They never even had to think of it. Their secret was their consciousness. One glance, one word served many. They were always serving. With every breath, they served. There was no sacrificing anything, you understand. The Great Ones would not know what sacrifice is.

Of course, I don’t mean that they would never go out of their way. If they did, it was not out of their way. They did not think like that. In that case, where they went was on their way.

If one were a Great One who sat under a Banyan Tree, he did not leave his life at another’s beck and call. We can compare the Banyan Tree to this very state of consciousness I mention above. The Great Ones did not put their consciousness aside.

Secondly, the Great One’s high state of consciousness shone on those around them, and, thus, the Great One’s own light shielded them from petty requests. In their presence, the petitioners could not, for instance, ask the Great One to stay up all night to type a term paper or such requests that may encroach on the one who serves. Anyway, whatever the Great Ones acceded to was what they wanted to do. Never a sacrifice. And no one would ask of the Great Ones anything insignificant.

And if someone did, unlike you, the Great Ones would know a few words to say that took care of it. You see, even in a word or two, the Great Ones served. They spoke Truth, and their audience’s hearts were filled.

The Great One’s radiance was so great that audiences’ mouths could not open, could not make a needless request, just as you might come into My Presence with a whole long list of requests, yet, at the exact moment, you could not ask them. No longer was there need. You saw the questions for what they were, a call for attention, a call for love, and there love was before you, and your heart no longer needed to ask what had earlier seemed important.

We could look at it this way. An employee of a top executive of a big company in the world is not going to ask the CEO to babysit. The employee may have a desperate need for a babysitter. Needless to say, even as he may stand right next to the CEO, he will not ask him to babysit, know what I’m saying?