Ordinary People Living Extraordinary Lives

“While this would seem to leave some without hope, it will leave no one without choice. It will make the one clear and only choice evident. It is a choice to live in truth or in illusion. There are many ways that can still be found to come to the truth. But a way of getting to the truth will become so attractive that few will be able to resist. 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 extraor¬dinary, and miraculous, and observable lives.” (ACOL, T3:19.16)

The final sentence of this quotation is much beloved by readers of A Course of Love. It is also easily memorized and used as a mantra. “Ordinary” people living “extraordinary” lives. And that means us! Just us, ordinary people with the promise of a better tomorrow. Ordinary people who will follow guidance to create a new (and better) world. Ordinary people, living day to day with the inheritance from God our Father of an inner Christ-Self Who will make all things wonderful. This is how outstanding this promise is. This is what awaits us, as soon as we go beyond glimpses of Christ-consciousness, beyond maintenance of Christ-consciousness, to sustainability of Christ-consciousness. God makes the decision of when this is to happen to us (said in A Course in Miracles also), but we can do much to remove the blocks to the awareness of love. And then simply be accepting of who we are. Being who we are, accepting ourselves rather than an “ideal” self, is what is required for this blessing to descend upon us (though nobody awake in the world knows exactly how this miracle happened).

We are drawn by joy—to the truth of who we are. This call to joy, as ACIM calls it, is so attracting that the ego just dissolves in its wake. The call to joy is a call to be God’s children again, and not just in name only, but in service to ourselves, God, and our brothers and sisters in this world.

Make the choice today to be happy, regardless of whether we are one of those who have been visited with “every calamity” (as said in the quotation). Suffering is a choice, made by us, so that we might have a reason to push God aside. Pain is a choice also, but a choice that we don’t always have a way to avoid. We live in a material world that has germs, diseases, growing older, pesticides that damage our health, etc. We do create our own reality, but we simply don’t have the answer to the why of pain. We choose to be compassionate, to ourselves and others, rather than blame anybody. This is the way that Jesus points out in A Course of Love. And this is the way we ought to follow.

Determine today to live an extraordinary life. Just as we are. As Christ-Self personified, showing the world a personal self that has been redeemed from egoic preoccupations and egoic fears.

Prayer

I fall in line with the great promise that You made for today. I know that this will be a great day if I keep this mantra in place. Be with me to ensure that all will go well. Help me to open myself to Your blessings.

Thank You.

Amen.