DIVINE DEDICATION

When I was about 13 years old, I made a promise to my elderly Sunday school leader. The incident happened this way.

I attended Sunday school regularly at my local Methodist Church during my Primary school years in Ghana. One Sunday, the leader and I waited for about half an hour but nobody came. The old man was even dozing. When I woke him up for us to begin, knowing nobody would join us, he said to me after a deep breath, “I will always come here until God calls me, ‘Thomas,’ ‘Thomas,’ ‘Thomas,’ as he called Samuel.” This old Methodist leader was called Thomas.

With strong conviction, I also solemnly pledged that I will always come to sunday school until God calls me, “Abraham,” “Abraham,” “Abraham.” I did not at that time know what the real nature of Samuel’s calling was. I thought God lived in the material building of the church. The old man also told me, “Never forget God throughout your studies and through all your earthly life.”

Then at the age of 27, 1 found the Rosicrucian Fellowship and Max Heindel’s wonderful Western Wisdom Philosophy. With some of my National Service income, I bought The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception and decided there and then to become a vegetarian. The only problem I was pondering about was how my aged parents would react to the news. I was the only one among eight children to break tradition. My chagrin turned to delight when they said after I had told them, “We would have joined you had we been younger.” How encouraging! At that moment this thought came to me, “What! Are they also students?” By their fruits we shall know them.

The Fellowship has been with me during the difficult but spiritually rewarding journey thus far on the path. Truly, “Wisdom is crystallized pain.”

Now I’m nearly 45, and still trying. I am very grateful to the Fellowship and its teachings. Love, faith, and selfless service will always lead us on the true path. God also helps those who persevere under all circumstances. He is no respecter of persons. Please let us spread the teachings in our own special way with humility. The old man passed away a long time ago, but what transpired on that day will be in my consciousness forever.

“Loving Self-forgetting Service to others is the shortest, the safest and the most joyful road to GOD.” ❐ —A Probationer

This article was first published in the Rays Magazine 2002.