1. Everyone who is sent to you is a patient of yours. 2This does not mean that you select him, nor that you choose the kind of treatment that is suitable. 3But it does mean that no one comes to you by mistake. 4There are no errors in God’s plan. 5It would be an error, however, to assume that you know what to offer everyone who comes. 6This is not up to you to decide. 7There is a tendency to assume that you are being called on constantly to make sacrifices of yourself for those who come. 8This could hardly be true. 9To demand sacrifice of yourself is to demand a sacrifice of God, and He knows nothing of sacrifice. 10Who could ask of Perfection that He be imperfect?
2. Who, then, decides what each brother needs? 2Surely not you, who do not yet recognize who he is who asks. 3There is Something in him that will tell you, if you listen. 4And that is the answer; listen. 5Do not demand, do not decide, do not sacrifice. 6Listen. 7What you hear is true. 8Would God send His Son to you and not be sure you recognize his needs? 9Think what God is telling you; He needs your voice to speak for Him. 10Could anything be holier? 11Or a greater gift to you? 12Would you rather choose who would be god, or hear the Voice of Him Who is God in you?
3. Your patients need not be physically present for you to serve them in the Name of God. 2This may be hard to remember, but God will not have His gifts to you limited to the few you actually see. 3You can see others as well, for seeing is not limited to the body’s eyes. 4Some do not need your physical presence. 5They need you as much, and perhaps even more, at the instant they are sent. 6You will recognize them in whatever way can be most helpful to both of you. 7It does not matter how they come. 8They will be sent in whatever form is most helpful; a name, a thought, a picture, an idea, or perhaps just a feeling of reaching out to someone somewhere. 9The joining is in the hands of the Holy Spirit. 10It cannot fail to be accomplished.
4. A holy therapist, an advanced teacher of God, never forgets one thing; he did not make the curriculum of salvation, nor did he establish his part in it. 2He understands that his part is necessary to the whole, and that through it he will recognize the whole when his part is complete. 3Meanwhile he must learn, and his patients are the means sent to him for his learning. 4What could he be but grateful for them and to them? 5They come bearing God. 6Would he refuse this Gift for a pebble, or would he close the door on the savior of the world to let in a ghost? 7Let him not betray the Son of God. 8Who calls on him is far beyond his understanding. 9Yet would he not rejoice that he can answer, when only thus will he be able to hear the call and understand that it is his?