Let Miracles Be a Way of Life

“Although many more fears might prevail upon you, we will consider only one further fear, the fear of making the wrong choice in your choice of miracles. This is the same as a fear of scarcity. For surely the working of one miracle would be a fluke anyway. Proof of nothing and easily discounted and explained away. Surely to believe that where one miracle worked another might be possible would be to have ideas of grandeur not meant for you. Here your thoughts might stray to the performing of many miracles. What a media circus that would be. You would be in demand to end so much suffering in so many places. Surely you wouldn’t want that even if it could come to be. Indeed this would require the auspices of a saintly soul and not one such as you.” (ACOL, T1:3.23)

Jesus is speaking paradoxically here, saying what we are thinking, but he, of course, doesn’t mean that he is agreeing with us. We need have no fear of scarcity and thus no need of fearing that we would make a wrong choice of miracles. Keep in mind, though, that Jesus is leading us on an exploration of our attitude toward miracles; this is the whole purpose of the discussion. And later on he says, definitively, that he has not asked for a specific miracle to be requested. Our minds have gone to specificity because that is the way that the ego-mind thinks, and we are used to its dynamic. The question is left open whether or not Jesus actually wants us to follow through and choose a miracle that we would like to see answered. He indicates that the urgency is great that we change our minds, that we combine mind and heart in wholeheartedness, that we unite with our real Self. And he is using the example of a miracle to move us closer to those blessings.

When we recognize that miracle-readiness is a way of life, our confusion will end about what Jesus actually means. He says that the miracle and prayer are the same, and we are more accustomed to prayer than we are to believing that miracles are our due. We are here learning the art of thought, which is also described as being the miracle, and also being prayer. Jesus’s reasoning is keen in this Treatise, but he is not easy to follow. It is quite possible that only a wholehearted way of viewing his words will ever work. And that is the miracle to end all miracles, his gift to us.

Dear Father/Mother,

I would eliminate the specific as I think of a miracle, but I would move into realizing that miracle-minded thinking needs to become my way of life. Thank You for the many hints that Jesus gives in his discussion of the art of thought. He would have us to commune with our Self, Who is a part of You, and in this communion finally come to understand what prayer is all about. You are within, and that is where I can find You. I don’t pray to a god outside of myself anymore. And I don’t pray out of fear, which will not work. Prayer that works is gentle and quiet, and filled with the miracle of full surrender to You.

Be with me today as I seek to follow guidance without stubbornness to go my own way.

Amen.