Collapsing the Need for Time

“There is not a period of waiting or a period of time between giving and receiving. There is not a time lapse between the recognition of needs and the meeting of needs. It is accepted that giving and receiving occur in unison, thus further collapsing the need for time. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Nature of Unity and Its Recognition, 7.20)”

Affirmation: “I will all day give and receive.”

Reflections:

1 – Solution Is with the Problem

This passage for today emphasizes a kindred idea in A Course in Miracles: recognizing needs and the meeting of needs (A Course of Love), and the solution is with the problem (ACIM). This idea is particularly encouraging to me, for when I ask, internally, for guidance on anything, most of the time I get an answer within a short time, even immediately upon occasion. The idea comes to me from my own mind and heart, but I would like to think that the personal or “little” self is informed by the larger Self.

2 – Time

It is auspicious to note that time is actually collapsed when we see a need and ask for a solution. Jesus has more to say about time in other parts of the texts. He indicates that he will arrange time to allow us to perform miracles. Nobody here understands how this is possible, but we can listen with the heart and not seek for intellectual confirmation. The heart knows when the mind balks. The malleability of time is a law of physics. And religion and physics seem to be coming close together in recent years.

3 – Needs Met

If we have a need, and we ask for the meeting of that need, we will normally be reassured. The answer may not come in the form that we expect (or even that we want), but it will come, and the answer will be even better than what we thought we wanted. I know this from personal experience. The ways of God do not have to stay mysterious. We can know much of the mind of God from internal searching of our own heart and Self.

4 – Giving and Receiving

If we give, we will receive in kind. This means often that the Golden Rule to do unto others what you would have them do unto you is a very good response. In addition, the laws of karma are triggered here. Cause and effect still reigns. But grace can mitigate the worst results of wrong thoughts and actions.

5 – Grace

We do not hear much about grace in ACIM and ACOL. The word itself is not important, but the idea is. We are saved from ourselves by God Himself (a personal interpretation), and we can then reach out to aid others. We do not have to wait to do a good deed or to spread kindness. Our days will blossom into truly desirable hours if we follow the recommendation from Jesus that we give and receive, allowing time to collapse. It is important to let time collapse, because our brothers and sisters, along with ourselves, are caught in this world now. And the world winds on wearily, and suffering continues. Jesus would change all of this, and we are his hands and feet to do so.

6 – Reach Out

Reach out to just one other person today, and test the truth of giving and receiving as one.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for the fact that time will collapse if I recognize a need and find the need met. This is such good news in this weary world. It helps us to live in a world of dreams–still–but happy dreams. I long, though, for reality to filter through. And I ask for more glimpses of the real world today. May I do nothing to hinder the real world’s emergence.

I ask for Your presence in my life. May I feel You with me. And thank You that I sense You right now.

Amen