[Quiet time]

Okay.  Tonight we need to talk about Family.  We need to talk about Brotherhood.  We need to talk about the practicalities of Love and how they get translated into expression in the world with each other.

When you look at the world today, you see a world calling out for help.  It looks like people in distress doing the best they can to overcome inequities.  And you know what?  You all do watch the news, and you do recognize that “this” is an awful situation, or “that’s” a terrible one, or another is “unprincipled,” and the inclination is to throw one’s hands up and give up.

But everyone who is screaming for help in various languages of expression is asking for one thing:  They’re asking for you – everyone who’s hearing my voice at the moment – they’re asking for you to cover their back.  They’re asking for someone, to use the vernacular, to “cover their ass” – to stand behind them with commitment, to witness for them and to witness for them with commitment.  In other words, they want to hear you say, “I am covering your back and you can depend on it!”

It’s called “a bond of Brotherhood.”  It’s called the real expression of Family.

It’s your function to cover your Brother’s back.  It’s my function to cover my Brother’s back.  It’s Paul’s and Susan’s and Chris and Judy’s function to cover their Brother’s back by making commitment to me and to everyone I speak to and communicate with – and to do it dependably so that you can count on it.

It isn’t a show I’m putting on to make everyone be in a place of wonder.

No.  It’s my function because I’m part of our Family.  And I am in the process of covering your backs – teaching you that it is your function as well – so that you understand that the benefit of knowing the Truth will never be a private benefit for you and you alone, that will get you and you alone into the Kingdom of Heaven while Joe down the street or Mary in the next city will find their way to be inspired into Awakening into the Kingdom of Heaven.

The call is involvement, because that is the Meaning of Family.  It is a commitment to Love.  It is a commitment to make the Gift of Love.

Now, I’ve said that it’s everyone’s responsibility to cover their Brother's back.  And if you’re not careful, you might become preoccupied with looking to see who’s going to cover yours.  And the minute you do that, you’re in the wrong frame of mind.

Love is giving, not getting.  And when you attend to your function – not being concerned whether so-in-so is attending to his function – you will make the Gift that sets into motion . . . transformation, healing, regeneration, redemption.

Now I’m mentioning this . . . I’m bringing this up, because what I am teaching and what I have been sharing for over thirty years through Paul with the devotion and help of Susan and Christopher and Judy, is the “Pearl of Great Price.¹”  I am sharing what empowers each one of you, not as an ego, but by illuminating for you how to release the ego and reunite with your Father, claiming thereby your Birthright that has always been your Birthright, so that you might abandon the orphan mentality of “getting” and shift into the holy Son of God or the holy Daughter of God mentality of giving.

This is the real meaning of covering your Brother's back:  “I’ve got your back and you can depend upon it.”  “I am here for you and you can depend upon it, because I am abandoning the quest for getting help from others and shifting into my natural capacity to give the inspiration that I get by practicing the two-step – by wanting to know what the Truth is here so that I might share the Truth instead of complaining about my need, so that those who are still complaining about their need might hear what allows them to abandon their obsession with it and their fear of it.”

Now it’s very simple:  Paul and Susan and Chris and Judy have a long-standing, ongoing commitment to making the Gift, to listening to me and doing whatever it takes to extend It.  And they have done this and done this and done this and done this.  They certainly are not . . . what shall I say . . . providing “entertainment” on the Internet for those who love to surf the Internet for interesting things to share with others to be amazed about, but not be changed by.

The Course is a world-changer.  The Course is that which expresses the truth that sets everyone free.  It clearly states the freedom message in today’s language.  And we – myself, Paul, Susan, Chris and Judy continue to expand on that.  It is an effort worthy of attention.  Why?  Because what is extended is actually transformational . . . actually does provide the committed involvement that constitutes covering your Brother's back.

No one should be taking it for granted.  And no one should be treating it lightly, simply because it is so incredibly transformational.  And I’m inviting everyone to look at whatever opportunities you have in front of you to make the Gift . . . to say to your Brother in one way or another, “I’ve got your back and you can count on it!”

But I’m also specifically asking and encouraging everyone to take a look at what Paul and Susan and Chris and Judy are engaged in with me, and not treat it lightly.  It is significant enough for everyone to honor significantly, and support significantly.

At the present time, support is insufficient.  Needs are not being met.

There are those who consistently, lovingly and with commitment support the work financially – making contributions, responding when a need is expressed, without hesitation.  That is what keeps things going.  Because, . . why?  Because it supports an ongoing commitment from Paul and Susan and Chris and Judy.  An ongoing commitment of the extension, dependably – of voicing the truth and being there for you, and being there for you at any time of the day or the night on the Internet, covering your back.

One can  say, “Well God will take care of them” or “I don’t have to be clear with great focus about this.  My general positive attitude and  support of everything they’re doing is a prayer in itself.”

But if you’re not moved to action, your Brother's back isn’t covered.  And the dependability of your covering their back is meaningless.  And it needs to come into play because it is inseparable from Awakening.

When you are finally willing to abandon your great independence and say “Father, what is the truth here?” and by the acknowledgment that your Father is your Father, you are acknowledging that you are His Son or Daughter, you are, well, for lack of better words, beginning to take yourself seriously in your holiness, in your presence as Love, Whose function is the spontaneous Gift of Itself, dependably.

Now, as I said, the world is crying out.  It appears to be a world of distress, but it is Brothers and Sisters saying, “Will someone cover my back in a way that I can depend upon.  I am suffering from the lack of Brotherhood.  I am suffering for the absence of the meaning of Family.

“And you know what?  I want you!  I don’t want your spiritual thoughts.  I want you recognizing me and standing with me and witnessing for me.  And of course, that means I want That which is divine in you to stand with and witness for That which is divine in me.  And I want you to do it with strength and courage because our Brotherhood is unexcelled, our Brotherhood is an infinitely meaningful thing and we deserve to be experiencing it together.

“Please come off of your high-horse.  Please come off of your air of superiority.  Please come off of your independence and let That which is Real in you stand with – backing up – That which is Real in me, so that we might be able to stop being afraid of each other and defending ourselves against each other and crying because of the misery of such a state of affairs.”

Now, I’m telling you the God’s honest truth.

There is much more that Paul and Susan and Chris and Judy could be extending if it weren’t for the time taken up coping with lack.  There is not a day that goes by that a trip is not made to the Post Office to see if there are contributions and then to the bank to deposit what’s there.

This is not what Paul and Susan’s life is meant to be for.  There is no sense of home.  There’s no sense of a peaceful place in which to make the extension.

Now, Paul can look at Chris with me and see his indispensability, and see his devotion, and to see his unwavering support of not letting anything get in the way of making the extension.  It is obvious:  The incredible fit together that makes this a team which has not been subject to the ego variables that usually accompany “a partnership.”  This is very uncommon.  And I am very grateful for it.  And everyone else should be very grateful for it as well.

Now, one might say, that I’m laying a guilt trip on everyone.  But I’m not.  I’m not asking anyone to do anything that he’s not feeling.  But I am illuminating what things there are to have feelings about so that everyone might take a look at them with fresh eyes, joining with the Holy Spirit to ask, “What is the truth here?”  “How can I cover my brother’s back dependably, because I’m there for him with commitment?”  “How can I do that when that isn’t something I’m really used to?”  “I have been raised and taught to be independent, to not be needy, and certainly not to burden others with my needs.”

And yet, in your lack, you do cry out, just as the world is, very visibly.  And you cry out for someone to be there with you to cover your back dependably with love – to cover your back because they love you.

I cover your back because I love you.  Paul and Susan and Judy and Chris have commitment to the extension of my Love and theirs with commitment, even when it’s been awkward or not easy. 

Now the simple fact is that there is insufficient support to do the work.  But here’s the thing:  Neither Paul, nor Susan, nor Chris, nor Judy are going to stop making their commitment and extending.

In other words, the apparent impossibility of things is not a governing factor.  They will persist.  Here we are tonight, persisting – persisting by illuminating what will refresh the Movement, what will put everyone into alignment with the expression of love, and of valuing what is important, . .  enough to stand behind it and to stand behind those who are committed to sharing it as they have unswervingly for thirty years.

They have no idea how they can continue, but they’re going to.  And with that kind of commitment, you might say that “the energies of Movement” can configure behind them in support of it.  And that’s the way it always works.

Engaging in the two-step, practicing the holy instant, provides an environment and the energy of truth which, for lack of better words, the Universe can get behind, and cover your back.

You might say, “Well, why are you and why isn’t Paul doing that themselves instead of laying a trip on us of responsibility?”  Well, because it’s not about concepts.  It’s not about practicing little obediences that fit a structure of “how things ought to work.” 

Right now that which covers your back and covers Paul’s and Susan’s and Chris’s and Judy’s back is me saying exactly what I’m saying.  You see?  Doing something else is not what constitutes the Movement of God right now in this situation.  And so we’re not reading from the Course tonight.  And I’m not talking about how everyone can go on their little independent way and somehow find wholeness and healing and redemption.

I’m talking about the need, and the meaning of Family and Brotherhood, because those Realities need to be felt.  And in the feeling of them they will elicit expressions, actions of Love.  And everyone’s back will be covered, dependably if one does not swerve from the commitment to such a simply premise.

Now, that was the unfolding of the Father’s purpose this evening.  This was the miracle of these moments we have spent together.

I thank you for listening and I love you all.