“These lessons could not be taught while blame remained within your thought system. No victim is to blame for the violence done to them. No sick person is to blame for the illness within them. But you must be able to look at and see reality for what it is. Just as we are telling you that new beliefs and ideas will lead to a new reality, old beliefs and ideas led to the old reality, a reality that will still exist for some even after it changes completely for you. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 19.12)”
Affirmation: “I would change my reality to the better today.”
Reflections:
1 – Needlessness of Suffering
We see in this passage for today the needlessness of suffering, the fact that we are not to blame the victim—but to recognize that he/she is innocent of the trouble that has come about. We also recognize that individuals who are suffering do not need to carry this cross, but that their degree of enlightenment may be hindering them.
2 – A Victim Mentality
There is a problem with this interpretation, because it leads to the false conclusion, perhaps, that if a person were stronger, more enlightened, these bad things would not be happening, and so he/she is made to feel a victim of his/her own struggle to grow in faith. If his/her mind and heart were right with God, would bad things happen?
3 – Higher Self
There is a mystery here that needs to be cleared up. The higher Self makes the decision about which circumstances we move through. Not everyone is ready to learn through rewards; for some, the enlightenment that comes through passing through suffering is a good thing. For some, not for all. But if we are to understand the plight of ourselves and others when we suffer, we must recognize that our own thought processes play a role in what we experience. We can rise above the suffering and diminish it into simply “pain.” We don’t have to exacerbate the problem by saying something to ourselves about “poor me.”
4 – Out of Control?
We all too often think we are out of control in the reality that we create. We are not. We create our own reality, but this is the reality that the Christ Self wants us to have. The little, or personal self, does not know nor see the whole picture. And with our limited understanding, we think that the more enlightened suffer less.
5 – False Understanding
I think that this is a false understanding. Many choose suffering still, not sure of the value of choosing rewards. Many are enlightened individuals who have chosen a path other than A Course in Miracles or A Course of Love. Jesus takes us where we are, and then he enlarges that vision. Never make the mistake of thinking that another’s pathway is wrong. We don’t know enough to say that.
6 – Ego
But we do know enough not to blame the victim, however tempting this solution might be to the still-present ego.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
I know that no full answer will be possible about the problem of suffering. I know that we do not have to learn through pain, but the fact remains that many of us do learn through pain. I can ask to learn through rewards, though, as Jesus bade, and I do ask that today.
May the stumbling of the problem of suffering and the evil that it seems to indicate be ended. I live in a good world, and I would not misuse my mind by dropping into doubts about the joy that is available here for the asking.
Amen.
MIRACLES EACH DAY 