All Lessons Are Gifts

“Acceptance of what is, is acceptance that whatever is happening in the present moment is a gift and a lesson. What comes as a lesson may not seem like a gift, but all lessons are gifts. . . .They will not be lessons that you find difficult or distressing if you accept them as lessons and realize that all lessons are gifts. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 10.6)”

Affirmation: “I would accept my lessons as gifts today.”

Reflections:

1 – Everything a Gift

When something good happens, we can readily see this as a blessing and a gift. When something bad happens, we bewail our fate, and sometimes we blame God for the unfortunate occurrence. Yet everything that happens, according to what Jesus channeled in this passage for today, is a lesson that is a gift. Even the bad things.

2 – Scary Things

Does anything ever have to be truly bad? Of course, here on this earth we interpret scary, frightening happenings as bad, and we recoil from them. We think that the world chaos is deplorable. We ask how a loving God could so create, and could so place us in this world. Yet this is not the right question. We have free will, and this free will means that sometimes bad things will happen. This includes illness, for physical bodies partake of the imperfections of our world as well. We never need to blame God for our misfortune.

3 – Dreams

Of course, when we dream the happy dreams that the Holy Spirit brings (from the Workbook of A Course in Miracles), we see far more blessings as gifts—for the happenings that occur to us are fortunate and blissful. These are easy to accept as being from God’s Hand. Are they always? Yes, for we have aligned ourselves with Him and His will (which always is our own real will as well).

4 – Struggle

Accept gifts today, accept lessons today. The lessons may entail struggle, but we will hone character by struggle. And we will grow thereby.

5 – Grow, Grow

Marianne Williamson often tells a Jewish parable about a blade of grass, always looked over by an angel who says, “Grow, grow.” We can see this parable as applicable to us. God would have us grow. And He does, I believe, send His angels to help us along the way.

6 – Prayer

So may we pray that our lessons be gentle, but may we accept them also if they are harsh. They will be less harsh when we do not have an imprisoned will (from ACIM), the type of will forged by the illusory ego. Turn to the inner Christ/Self, and see if the lessons that we all experience do not immediately seem more benign. And then we can recognize those lessons as the gifts that they are.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would grow today, even if there is struggle. I do not believe that struggle is inevitable. When we align ourselves with You in toto, we walk a smooth path. And that is what I would do today. Be with me to make it so.

I would accept all things that happen as a gift from Your hand. I do know that some things surely happen that are not optimal, that You allow but do not condone. But traditional Christianity often talks about what You “allow,” even when this allowing does not seem good. And surely You do stand aside so that our free will is not violated.

Be with me today as I seek to do Your will, which ever is my own.

Amen.

Gifts of God

“All gifts of God are given equally and distributed equally.  It is your belief that this is not so that causes judgment.  All who believe they have ‘more’ fall prey to righteousness.  All who believe they have ‘less’ fall victim to envy.  Both ‘fall’ from grace and limit their ability to receive.  (A Course of Love, 20.40)”

Affirmation:  “God grants gifts equally to all.”

Reflections:

1 – Depression

We often think, in our egoic mind, that another is superior to us in some way, and this activates the depression of the ego in its deflation.  All egoic thoughts work this way.  There is a great deal to be said for depression as the result of the ego being undermined at every turn.  And what other way could work to turn us from the ego?  If it made us happy all the time, our salvation would be impossible to reach.

2 – Gifts Are Given Equally

God gives all gifts equally and distributes all gifts equally.  When we feel “less than” another, we judge; the same, when we feel “more than” another.  It is true that in this world gifts appear to differ, but one day all will know that everything belongs to all, and in equal measure (from A Course in Miracles).

3 – Righteousness / Envy

We would not fall prey to either righteousness or envy.  We would give up these deplorable attitudes.  Instead, we would welcome our brothers and sisters as the students/teachers of the Way that they are.  We are all equal in God’s sight.  And when we humbly accept our lot in life, to be improved as God’s grace shows us, we will be living a more desirable life.  We can strive to achieve, but not for egoic reasons.  The ego always loses in the end, and if we seek to prop up our weakened ego, we will lose all the blessings that A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love are seeking to give us.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I do believe that the rain falls on the saved as well as the sinner (so to speak).  I do believe that the gifts of God are a free gift, that He wants to help us walk through life.  And I have had the mystical experience that proved this, at least to me, and this happened many years ago.  I have not doubted that God’s gifts are a free offer of help in all the years since.

Thank You.

Amen.

You Must Ask for Gifts

“The Bible gives many references to the immeasurable gifts which are for you, but for which you must ask.  This is not a condition as the ego sets conditions.  It is a glorious condition of what you are.  (T61)”

Affirmation:  “immeasurable gifts are for me”

Reflections:

1 – Ask in Specifics

Sometimes we feel greedy when we pray for something specific.  This is not, however, the way of either the Course or the Bible.  Here we see that asking is the way to receive.  Actually, asking for something specific is the intended way for us to receive.

2 – You Will Receive

If we are not specific, the Holy Spirit will need to lead our minds and hearts to know what it is that we really want.  This takes additional time, time that we do not need to waste in such a fashion.  If we want the “immeasurable gifts,” we need only ask.  The Bible says, “Ask, and you will receive.”  This glorious promise is in line with the teaching of the Course as well, as we see in this passage.

3 – Personal Experience

I remember, as a child, not wanting to be greedy.  I don’t know where this trait came from, but I remember having it.  My mother has told me that she and my father often had great difficulty knowing what to give me for Santa Claus, because I would not ask for anything.

4 – Faulty Reasoning

This type of thinking is actually poverty-driven.  Instead, we are bade to ask for what we want, of the Holy Spirit.  If the desired gift is not in our best interests, we are asked to seek guidance so that we ask aright.  We may be able to have anything that we want, but this must be a seeking that gives us good things.  A Course in Miracles says that the Holy Spirit protects us from asking for that which will harm us.  We know, inwardly, when we are to  avoid a prayer for something that would be bad for us.  This is the advantage of listening to intuition.

5 – What Gift Would You Like?

What gift would you really like to have?  If it is in line with our best interests, we can have it for the asking.  Elsewhere Jesus points out that our Father does not give gifts that are not good to His children; He protects us from our own misunderstandings.  So do not be afraid that you will ask amiss.  Pray for His will, and the blessings will always be good.

Prayer:

Dear Father,

Help to realize that asking for Your gifts is not greedy.  And I must ask if I am to receive.  Guide my asking in line with Your will.

May the Holy Spirit inform my choice about what to ask for.  Then may I thank You for those manifold blessings.

Amen.

What One Gains Is Given unto All

ACIM Workbook Lesson 319 – for Tuesday, November 15. 2011

Affirmation:  “I came for the salvation of the world.”

“The ego thinks that what one gains, totality must lose.  And yet it is the Will of God I learn that what one gains is given unto all.  (WB460)”

Reflections:

1 – Jerry Jampolsky

This passage is well-examined in a book by Jerry Jampolsky, a book (Love Is Letting God of Fear) which delves deeply in the ACIM truth, “Whatever I give is given to myself.”  Jerry means, basing his discussion on A Course in Miracles, that the joy, love, peace that we give to others comes back to us as these qualities are multiplied.  It is only the material things of life that seem to diminish when given away.  And the material things are never what we want for long; we will find more and more wants that remain unsatisfied, because the material gains are frequently props for the ego.  And the ego is never satiated.

2 – Totality Does Not Lose the Things of God

Totality does not lose when we gain the things that are of God.  And we are told in this passage that it is the Will of God that what one gains is given unto all.  This is a great blessing!

3 – Why Are We Here?

What did we really come for?  The lesson for today says that it is the salvation of the world.  Edgar Cayce, an early psychic, said much the same thing.  In metaphorical language, he indicated that the Sons of God came to rescue the daughters of men on this plane of earth.  And Ruth Montgomery, also an early scribe of “Guides,” indicates that we will none of us find our way home until we have led all to home.  In ACIM, Jesus seems to indicate that we must lead our brothers and sisters home, even though it may take millions of years.  Time has been saved for us when we practice ACIM.  Each one of us save a thousand years and more (a Text tenet).

4 – Let’s Do Our Part Today

So let us do our part today.  We can, after all, only do our part one day at a time.  Let  us not backslide now.  We need to save time, as the world is worn and very weary (paraphrases from the Text).  We know that the ending is sure (an ACIM tenet), and if the way seems long, we have started on that way.  It is enough.  It will always be enough.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

The gifts from You which we receive are never for ourselves alone.  When given from us to others, these gifts but increase.  Help me to realize the truth of this glorious promise.  I know that Your gifts are often intangibles, because material things may seem to diminish if shared (something of note that may be illusion).  Even with material blessings, we are bade to understand that You can bring increase there as well.  Individuals who tithe their income, however small, quickly learn that their material blessings in this world do increase abundantly.  Thank You for the many testimonials that I have heard and read about this puzzling miracle.

May I walk a green earth today.  Your Way is always the best way, and Your way will help not only myself, but my brothers and sisters as well.  May I be generous with my time and my gifts, intangible and material.

Thank You for the gift of A Course in Miracles.  Thank You for leading me to these magnificent volumes so many years ago.  Thank You for the writings that spoke to me before ACIM was published.  May all of those individuals I encounter today find the truths that they need to live a happy life.

Amen.