Gloria:

Dear God, I would like to ask You more about control versus neutrality.

There are two people recently I've bumped into, and I think they are trying to control. They may not know it, or, do they?

They ask me for advice, and then sort of run me around in circles. Each seems to have money (lack of) as their central issue, but they're slippery. Their "reasoning" slips into another gear, and I feel I am dealing with a kind of "madness". Their brakes are screeching, and they won't notice.

Karen, my wise and very-connected-to-You-friend, makes the observation that each is trying to control — in this case — me, and each of them is stuck in their own control and can't move on.

God:

You can look at control as a game-play. Mostly unconscious, but beneath that unconscious aspect is a vague unpalatable self-awareness of trying to defend their reality.

Gloria:

So manipulating and control are the same.

God:

Yes. Manipulating, defending, holding on, disguising, repressing are all forms of control. Your two acquaintances are too frightened to shift their reality, and instead of being honest, they find one excuse after another.

When you are honest, you are not controlling. When you live this moment, you are honest.

Control is a hard word for most of My children because they cannot let in what it is.

Honesty is an easier word to swallow. We are talking truthful with yourself, others, and Me.

When you are in your truth, there is no difference. There is oneness.

People play games with Me as well, but, in truth, all games are with yourself.

That gentleman who told you he wants a God of Mind, not a God of Heart, is trying to control what I look like!

If he were in his truth, he would say: "I am afraid. I prefer to keep my own view and my control intact. I have protected my heart for a long time, and I'm not going to let go of it now."

Or My dear children who agree with Me in part, and who disregard the remaining, hold up a standard of their own making against Mine.

Ego is control. Protecting is control. Tension is control.

Control, seen by those who are doing it, seems honorable, necessary, and valid.

Truth, on the other hand, is simple, innocent, and needs no proof.

Truth does not jump ahead nor hold on to the past.

Gloria:

Karen also said that one of these two people is lost and has to ask others because she thinks that is how to get love. In both cases, they make excuses to stay where they are and not change and move on in life. She said they created their problems so they can have control, and, look, now they stay stuck. Karen also told me to laugh when someone tries to get me to take their stuckness seriously. I wish I knew how to do that.

God:

Staying stuck is a form of control. Yes, all look for love from somewhere. That is small. Look to find your own love to give. That is bigger.

A form of your own control, dear Gloria, is to go along with someone's game, to take them seriously when you really don't!

When you start to feel blocked around someone, odds are they are trying to set you up. Perhaps they want to play King of the Mountain and topple you. It is a game, so laugh.

Who is the most humble uncontrolling man you can think of? He served Me and he served man. He served humanity. He serves you still.

He was the greatest truth-seeker of them all, and the greatest truth-giver. Can you imagine his playing games, putting one over on someone or himself?

Yes, it is a good idea to laugh at jokes, Gloria, and to laugh at your own.

Neutrality, nonattachment, equanimity allow things to be as they are without effort to change them. Bearers of neutrality walk through Heaven and earth and witness the splendors and the mud, and come out on the other side the same.

They can do that because they know they carry a torch of truth and God within them. They see change for what it is.

It rains, it snows, the weather changes, the sun shines, and the rain and snow and sun roll off the neutral man's back because he is not attached.

What do rain or snow or sunshine and flowers have to do with the realized man who knows Me and carries Me in the front of his heart?

Ask of yourself, what rules your life?

This is a good question to ask yourself when you are ready to ask it.

What rules your life? Fear, duty, deception, panic, love, God, peace, joy?

What star do you steer by?

Joy is your duty.

Turn your life over to Me. That does not mean to transform your life all at once. It doesn't mean you have to give up anything except your presumed control. You don't have to change your residence, your career, your clothing.

Be who you are, and you have no choices to make.

Turning your life over to Me means to stop dragging your feet. It means to let go of the insecurities. It means to let go of the chains you have been holding on to.

My children think that everything they hold on to is a life raft, but they hold on to the very things that hold them under water.

Gloria:

But, dear God, how do we do this?

God:

Let go of dissembling. Ask Me to help you. Ask Me to help you know truth. Ask Me to help you know where you want to go. Ask Me to help you see truth and be truth.

Carry a flag of Me in your heart.

Simply remember I am with you.

Don't ask too much of yourself. Ask of Me.