John Morton often shares at the yearly MSIA staff retreat. Here is one Q&A from a recent retreat.

Question: I love being on this retreat, and when I get home part of me goes, “Darn, I’m back here again.” So I’m just trusting that the Traveler sees what’s going on.

John Morton: Well, isn’t that like Soul travel? “Darn, I’m back here again.” Bodies are like that. Worlds are like that. And whoever was taking account of the creation said that there are “worlds without end.”
Spirit transcends that and relates to all things in an equitable way. It’s all beautiful. It’s all full of grace. Sometimes that matches up in the physical, and you get a nice reflection of it in the world. Our encouragement to you is that when you have those enchanted, beautiful, glorious, transcending moments, go with them. Enjoy them for all they’re worth.
Don’t go, “Gee, is this going to come to an end shortly? Because these always come to an end, and I’m always frustrated when they end.” What are you doing to yourself? You’re checking out before you’ve had the ride. Enjoy it while you can.
There is a rhythm in the world: what goes up must come down. And there’s also a rhythm that what goes down must come up. At this time of year, the days are getting shorter. For me, I want to get that over with because I prefer the days that are getting brighter and longer. My practical mind says, “It’s going to be colder after the days get shorter.” This is part of how the cycles run in this world that I enjoy the least, that it’s not over yet. So what?
I win because I endure to the end. This, too, shall pass. That applies to whatever you don’t like about “this place,” whatever that is. There’s also something else to consider: There’s a worse place than this, and I don’t care where you are. The consciousness that holds up the worst place is the negative power, so that place is already taken. The least, the lowest, the most negative is already taken, so you don’t have to take it. You’re free to go now.
The Traveler represents going up now, a turning point, an opportunity. It doesn’t inflict. It doesn’t make you go, but it certainly invites you to go. It also invites you not to go into what you don’t need to go into. But, again, it doesn’t make you. So if you want to go into depression, irritation, resentment, or a free ride with the negativity, it’s your choice because it’s your consciousness. Haven’t we all done that? I think the answer is always, “Yeah, I have done that, and once was enough. But I don’t know how to stop myself from doing it again.” That’s right. People are habitual creatures.
Love your habitual nature. Love it. Nurture it so it is done and releases. Sometimes it takes all the wisdom and determination you’ve got to keep yourself from going into a disturbed reaction, to be able to say, “I’m doing everything I can so I don’t plunge into another episode of whatever you call your reaction.” That’s right.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the way you work is for the last time? “I won’t get that low again. When I pull that level up by finishing the karma, I finish it. I’m done. I’ve completed whatever was there for me to experience and learn.” There are all kinds of ways of completing. It can be in some little episode that you don’t understand. It’s clearing, and clearings aren’t always convenient, pretty, or of enjoyable aroma.
And if we’re around or near that clearing, there’s often an opportunity to minister, to extend to another at their time of need, when that person is buckling inside because the negativity is erupting and is on them. It’s easy for us to say, “Oh, that person’s losing it. They’re blowing it. They’re having an unnecessary episode.” So? What are you doing about it? Are you judging them, criticizing them, putting them down, making it more difficult for them? There’s karma in doing a judgmental response.
“Well,” you might wonder, “where is their uplifting karma?” Love them.
“Does that mean I have to get in the middle of their stuff?” No, but then again it might. In the Bible (Genesis 4:9) is the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer I always got was yes, because God is the ultimate keeper. So if I want to play at that level, then I tend to my brother and my sister, whatever the form is. And I’ve often found that this comes to me not on my terms, not when I want it, not when I like it; but whenever it comes. And I get to find out how willing I am to drop my agenda on a selfish level, a petty level, and attend to somebody else’s need.
Maybe you’re back here on the planet just so you can take care of your brothers and sisters and, in that way, assist yourself in finishing the job so you’re no longer needed. Wouldn’t that be nice? If you’re counting bodies, just bodies in this world, and you only had to do it for this many bodies gathered here and not all the bodies living on the planet, that’s a short term, relatively speaking.
And there’s a quality that comes through the Spirit and into the Soul and into that expression that loves the least of them. So if the least one of them in your life—the one that would test you the most, confound you the most—is here, that’s good. Work it out. Sometimes that may even be a process where you get down on your knees and say something like, “I don’t know how to get along with you. I don’t understand you. You just turn me upside down, inside out. I’m at your mercy.” That might be an amazing moment, just to come into a surrender where you’re confessing that you don’t know how. That’s a great time to get the Lord in your midst—where two or more are gathered in the name.
What’s the name? You might ask, “Is it my initiation tone?” That’s a really good way to relate to it. But when you get on to what your tone is doing for you, what it’s bringing to you, it’s an experience of your Soul in the Spirit that vibrates in love and vibrates in truth. And it has a way of showing that everything—all things—are of God’s glory.
When you see your “enemy” that way, that your enemy is God’s glory brought into your midst in a form you did not recognize, in a form you doubted, judged, or fought, that’s humbling. But it’s the kind of humbling that sets you free. And ultimately, the mirror will reveal all along that you’ve been struggling with yourself, that it was never anything or anybody else; it was always your own upset with yourself. That’s the only thing that’s been keeping you from knowing the glory of who you are. So be thankful for anyone or anything that in some way disturbs you, because it’s teaching you where you’re hung up and allowing you to be more aware that your liberation is at hand and awaiting your choosing.
Baruch Bashan.