This Mysterious Arithmetic

Addressing small details. This mysterious arithmetic.There is something I find curious about Steps to Knowledge, the book of spiritual practice of the New Message from God. It is the relative lack of explicit connections made between the various steps. There is a particular instance I’m considering.

This mysterious arithmetic

Step 192 (out of 365 steps) of Steps to Knowledge is “I will not neglect small things today.” Based on the context, I consider “small things” to mean “things which promote health, relationships and work.”

Much later in Steps to Knowledge, Step 312 says “There are greater problems for me to solve in the world.” The idea is that in the process of solving greater problems, the small, pathetic, personal problems over which I am obsessing will either be addressed or rendered irrelevant.

But it seemed to me to be particularly useful to put Steps 192 and 312 together, yielding “I will not neglect small things today, because there are greater problems for me to solve in the world.” This could be considered simple concatenation. This could be considered as simple addition, “putting two and two together.” This could be considered as the construction of a conditional. “If there are greater problems for me to solve in the world, then I will not neglect small things today.” I find this helpful, because in the past, I believed there were greater problems for me to solve in the world. But because of that belief, I neglected small things to my detriment.

I take great comfort and encouragement in the connection of Step 192 and Step 312. From time to time I wonder, “How is what I’m doing now going to turn out any differently from what I’ve done in the past?” One answer I have for this is “Because in the past, I hadn’t considered Step 192.” I hadn’t considered that addressing small things was part of the price of admission, as it were, for working on solving greater problems.

Marshall Vian Summers recently said this as part of the 2015 Steps Vigil:

“It [Steps to Knowledge] is a gift from the Creator of all life through the Angelic Assembly. It is being presented in a pure form as it was received. It has a series of steps that work both practically and mysteriously to re-engage you with the deeper intelligence that God has put within you which alone holds the truth about who you are and why you’re here in the world at this time, and what you’re here to achieve.”

Marshall says the Steps to Knowledge work practically. I believe he’s referring to the numerous steps that help people to slowly back away from damaging mental and emotional patterns, such as judgment, blame, assumption, etc. Perhaps this mysterious arithmetic of putting together Step 192 and Step 312, putting together addressing small things with solving greater problems, is one thing he means when he says the Steps work mysteriously.

* * *

Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.