Richard Mallett
2012-01-05 00:13:25 UTC
I have facilitated a 3-d Course group for several years at a wonderful
venue, For Goodness Sake in Truckee, California. If any of you are
ever in the neighborhood, we meet on Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:00.
We generally discuss the lesson of the day and find similarly-themed
sections in the Text and Manual to discuss. Depending upon needs of
the group, we can plow thru a lot of material or spend most of the
evening discussing just a few pages.
In observance of the New Year, we facilitators were asked to develop
programs of an introductory nature for this week's meetings. I
facilitate a Course meeting, but there are 10-12 meetings a week of a
spiritual nature. The reading and discussion was perfect. We read
"what it says" from the preface, the intro to the Text, the intro and
the prologue for the Workbook, and the intro to the Manual.
We have 8-10 Course students who attend on a regular basis and the
"introduction" brought in 3 people who'd heard of the Course and were
curious. Who knows if any of the newcomers will come back. Ultimately,
it doesn't matter.
I am reminded of gym memberships, especially at this time of the year.
New Year's resolutions will fill the place, but resolutions are easy
enough to rationalize away a day at a time. Sometimes, our work with
the Course can be like that; okay, when convenient, but giving time to
God can take a back seat to other, more pressing matters.
If the Workbook, with it's direction to keep a lesson in mind several
times a day or at the start of each hour demonstrates anything, it's
that we have more important things to do. And, by becoming aware that
we rather do almost anything (especially suffer in some way) but give
time to God, we can begin to see the cost of our avoiding Him.
R
venue, For Goodness Sake in Truckee, California. If any of you are
ever in the neighborhood, we meet on Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:00.
We generally discuss the lesson of the day and find similarly-themed
sections in the Text and Manual to discuss. Depending upon needs of
the group, we can plow thru a lot of material or spend most of the
evening discussing just a few pages.
In observance of the New Year, we facilitators were asked to develop
programs of an introductory nature for this week's meetings. I
facilitate a Course meeting, but there are 10-12 meetings a week of a
spiritual nature. The reading and discussion was perfect. We read
"what it says" from the preface, the intro to the Text, the intro and
the prologue for the Workbook, and the intro to the Manual.
We have 8-10 Course students who attend on a regular basis and the
"introduction" brought in 3 people who'd heard of the Course and were
curious. Who knows if any of the newcomers will come back. Ultimately,
it doesn't matter.
I am reminded of gym memberships, especially at this time of the year.
New Year's resolutions will fill the place, but resolutions are easy
enough to rationalize away a day at a time. Sometimes, our work with
the Course can be like that; okay, when convenient, but giving time to
God can take a back seat to other, more pressing matters.
If the Workbook, with it's direction to keep a lesson in mind several
times a day or at the start of each hour demonstrates anything, it's
that we have more important things to do. And, by becoming aware that
we rather do almost anything (especially suffer in some way) but give
time to God, we can begin to see the cost of our avoiding Him.
R