Gloria to God:

Dear God, after such deep wonderful recent questions, my thoughts seem small.

God:

And perhaps they are. But what do you really want to say?

Gloria:

Okay, I still have concern about my health. I don't have the faith in Your curative powers that You deserve and that I would like to have.

God:

Have faith then in that I know what I am doing. Do not make decisions for Me, dear one.

Gloria:

Godwriting is my great pleasure, dear God, and I know that service to you does not rule out illness, for even saints have had illness.

God:

Do you think only unholy people should have illness?

Gloria:

I wonder if I don't think that.

God:

A state of serenity does not mean there are no waves on the water.

My children must stop thinking that illness is a punishment. It is part of a process. Call illness a school. How can one of My children help another when he doesn't experience life? How can you?

Now, at the same time, when all the world is right-thinking, illness will vanish. All irritation comes from thoughts. But illness may not come from your own thoughts.

Gloria:

Can someone's hostility cause an illness in another?

God:

Someone's hostility can take the form of an illness in you. More likely your reception of the hostility, conscious or not, is the factor.

We come back to the question of control here. You are less vulnerable to the control of others when you yourself do not try to control. When you are out of the control mode, other people have less influence on you.

My children are accustomed to thinking of everything as good or bad. You nominate one thing as good and another as bad. But those are your surface impressions. Life is lived on more than one level.

Nonresistance is surrender. And it is to Me that you surrender.

Gloria:

Dear God, although I can kind of see that we cause our own illnesses from our thinking, it seems too easy to blame an illness and its symptoms on the person who is going through it. It seems to me that it always seems innocent when someone has an illness of any kind. Illness makes no sense to me, God. At the same time, if everyone is innocent of creating illness, then it becomes just fate, and I don't like that either.

God:

There is not just one cause for any illness. In some sense, it is choice. So it can be said that everyone chooses an illness just as he chooses his life. But he chooses for a reason. In one sense, all illness is the same. In the bigger picture, a purpose is served with illness.

We could say that everyone chooses his fate, Gloria. But it is not random choice. There is something going on that is beyond the body and beyond what it appears.

Illness is as much illusion as the body itself.

Do not be so attached even to health of the body. To you it is all-important, but it is a minor thing. It is not everything, you know.

Some people have spanking-new luggage. Some carry worn suitcases. Some carry duffel bags, and some carry briefcases. But it matters not so much what you carry as what is in what you carry. It matters not so much what your luggage looks like as it matters where you are going with it.

It is a belief that would say illness is bad. It is a belief that would say it must be cured. It is a belief that would say that a person in health is a better person than one in sickness.

Blame comes only when you think something is wrong. So illness is blamed on Me, sin, poor living etc. Why does it have to be blamed on anything any more than you have to look for a place to put blame when the sky rains or give credit when the sun shines?

If relative life is an adventure, it is an adventure. On adventures, everything is not all laid out. You may have a map, but if everything is predicted, it is not an adventure.

On this adventure, are you better when you are on the sea or in a forest? You are you wherever you are. You are an adventurer in any case. You are an explorer. You are a pioneer. You find out things. You have surprises. You survey the terrain. You walk on it. You go up mountains and you climb down. But there is always something new ahead.

If you would think of life as an adventure rather than a penance or an imposed sentence, you would have more fun.

Life isn't just something to get through. It isn't just something to hold on to while you disdain, despair, or disparage it. It is not a tug-of-war.

You know how in fairy tales, the brothers set out to seek their fortune? Their travel is symbolic for the course of life, and it is interesting to see how it plays itself out. Find out what is going to happen next.

* * *

Diane to God, Gloria, and Jona:

What exquisite wisdom in the September 26 Heaven! "Do not be doorkeepers to Heaven, be door openers." Amen!

Nancy O. to Heavenletters:

Hi Gloria, in the September 24 Heavenletter, God's very beautiful answer, in my opinion, needed to stay together with Marianne's question and not be separated by a day. I thought Heaven's mission is to give a letter from God everyday.

God's work in Heavenletters is changing people's lives. I know I have signed up with God for some hard changes in my daily behavior.

God to Nancy O.:

My answer cannot be separated from the question, anymore than I can ever be separate from you. I am in the question. My answer is inherent in the question.

Marianne's question stirred the depths of others' hearts. Her question prepared other hearts for My answer. My answer will always come. You will never be left without Me, My dearest Nancy. Know that.

Know that, at the same time, I am delighted at your impatience to hear My words. I would say you are in a good place. I would say, yes, indeed, you have signed up with Me.