“What will make this choice so attractive will not be martyrs and saintly souls stricken with every calamity and yet remaining to tell those who would listen about the glory of God. What will make this choice so attractive are ordinary people living extraordinary and miraculous and observable lives. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 19.16)”
Affirmation: “I would choose that extraordinary life today.”
Reflections:
1 – Negativity
There is a bit of negative thought in this passage, even from Jesus. He seems to realize that those of us who hear testimonies from people who are leading tragic lives, and yet praising God, find that those testimonies fall a little hollow on a heart too long removed from God. We do not want to suffer tragic lives, and if this is prerequisite for finding God, maybe we would decline.
2 – To Reach God Easily
But here Jesus is saying that the lives of ordinary people who live with God can and do become miraculous lives. Extraordinary for ordinary people. And this phenomenon will lead others to God easily. They will want to emulate what these people have.
3 – How to Find God
Let us be one of those people today. May we realize that, while tragic lives can nevertheless be a powerful witness for God, we do not have to look there for our inspiration. We can realize happiness and lead extraordinary lives in everyday life. We do not have to walk through shadows to find God.
4 – Do You Believe This?
Do you believe this? We think of the martyrs of the Early Church, and those who over the years went to their deaths rather than recant their faith. Surely their message is good. But we are not often in danger of our lives when we profess our faith. So we find it hard to identify.
5 – Courage
May we know that most of us will not be asked to follow Jesus’s example to the death. Most of us are too cowardly to walk that pathway. Salvation does require courage, though, and we will walk a happier path if we walk with courage. And then the extraordinary lives that we will model will become evident to all whom we encounter.
6 – Jesus
That is what Jesus holds out to us in this passage for today.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
Thank you for this promise that I need to be courageous, but not overwhelmingly so, to reach salvation. I would be an ordinary person living an extraordinary life. And so would I see this in my brothers and sisters. Be with all of us to effect this change.
Is it good to be ordinary? Certainly the ego is not pleased with the decision to so live. But I am not appealing to the ego today. I am appealing to You to request some of that extraordinary living that we all seek to have. May the ego drop away as I, once again, bid it go. May the extraordinary that is promised do nothing to enhance a false image of myself. And may I embody the ordinary self that You say is beneficial now.
Amen.
MIRACLES EACH DAY 