RIGHT OR HAPPY?

Note: Published in MIracles magazine (Jon Mundy, publisher).

by Celia Hales

“Seek not outside yourself. . . Do you prefer that you be right or happy? . . . No one who comes here but must still have hope. . .that there is something outside of himself that will bring happiness and peace to him.  If everything is in him, this cannot be so.”  (ACIM, T-29.VII.1:6, 9; 2:1-2)

“I asked within A Course in Miracles: Would you rather be right or happy?  For happiness can only be the result of perfect trust.  And perfect trust emerges from perfect loyalty.  And perfect loyalty emerges spontaneously in the mind that has rested in surrender.”  (“The Way of Knowing,” WOM, Lesson 31, Page 353)

“Your mind might still prefer to be right rather than happy, so it is important that you let your heart lead in making this new choice.”  (ACOL, C:10.18)

            Jesus comes right to the point when he asks the question, “Do you prefer to be right or happy?”  He knows that a large part of our difficulty is found in our stubbornness in special relationships, special relationships that he would ask us to transform into holy ones.  We ask for friction when we prefer being right.  We move to a conciliatory frame of mind when we let the heart feel love, and then let the heart lead us to a better type of interaction.

            This is simple psychology.  Secular psychology, but it points to the spiritual in the manner in which Jesus discusses it.  We are asked to trust, and this trust comes about automatically when we surrender to God—and to love.  Our way back home, according to ACIM, is found in our relationship to our brother [and sister].  These significant relationships heal us, and a large part of the healing is in our own attitude—an attitude that doesn’t cling obsessively to our own point of view. We turn within to find happiness and peace.  And these cannot be found if we are intent on being “right” in relationships.  Turn aside from the ego to let our heart speak.  Our heart will then inform our mind, and we will understand how our function can be happiness, salvation, forgiveness, and giving miracles.