To Sing a Song of Gladness

“Ages have passed since creation began, and still you have not learned the lesson of the birds of the air or the flowers of the field.  Two thousand years have passed since you were told to observe this lesson.  The lilies of the field neither sow not reap and yet they are provided for.  The birds of the air live to sing a song of gladness.  So do you.

“God’s will for you is happiness, and never has it been otherwise.  (A Course of Love, 9.32 – 9.33)”

Affirmation:  “I would live as the lilies of the field, the birds of the air.”

Reflections:

1 – An Ideal

How do we respond to this ideal, for it is an ideal?  We know that we have to do things in this world to provide for our families and ourselves, and so how can Jesus be serious with us when he invokes this long-ago parable?

2 – Effortlessness

We can work in a way that is effortless, for when we have given all to All, we know peace and joy in the midst of the most hard work.  We are not fooling ourselves at such times.  It is really possible to know ease in the midst of great work.  Work with ease, and we will live a long and fruitful like that will allow us to feel very much like the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.

3 – Calm and Centered

Do I say this on blind faith?  No.  When we are calm and centered, collected, the hardest work seems to be a “breeze.”  But when we become agitated, even the simplest effort becomes a chore of the greatest proportions.

4 – Attitude

We need today to ask fot the help that we need to do our necessary work with ease and delight.  If we are not where God would have us in our work, ask to be led elsewhere, and He will oblige.  But do not think that a change of venue is always what is needed.  Attitude makes a huge difference.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to be calm and collected today in all the various tasks that I think I have to do.  Some of these tasks may not be necessary, and I ask You to guide me to delete those that are unnecessary.  Be with me for the necessary ones.  I know that You will be with me, for You are always.  And for that I thank You.

Help me to remain calm and collected at all times, now and into the future.

Amen.

An Ecstasy of Unspeakable Joy

“To continue to identify love incorrectly is to continue to live in hell.  As much as highs and lows of intense feeling are sought by some to be avoided, it is in the in between of passionless living that hell is solidified and becomes quite real.  You can label joy heaven and pain hell and seek the middle ground for your reality thinking there are more than these two choices.  A life of little joy and little pain is seen as a successful life, for a life of joy is seen as nothing more than a daydream, a life of pain a nightmare.  (A Course of Love, 2.7)”

Affirmation:  “I choose a life of joy.”

Reflections:

1 – Give Up the Drama of Hell

This passage discusses the drama that all of us, to one extent or another, need to give up.  We do not need a middle way, a way of muted feelings.  But we do need to give up the drama of hell.  We do not need a passionless living, because this is the real hell.  But we need to choose, again and again, the high ecstasy of joy in daily life.  That is the only way that we can be happy.

2 – Life without the Ego

A life of joy is not a daydream, though here (in this passage) we hear that we think a life of joy is a daydream.  We can truly know lasting joy, when our attitudes are straightened out and we are on the pathway home.  We need to let the ego wither away, and in A Course of Love, we find that we are well on the way to reaching that epitome.  Life without the ego (as defined by Jesus) is a glorious gift.  And it is builds upon the “happy dreams the Holy Sprit brings,” as defined in the Workbook of A Course in Miracles.  Now we are living more fully from our depths, or, if you will, our higher Self, the Christ in us.  This is Christ-consciousness, and this blessing will be present intermittently until it is made a sustainable state.  Nobody, according to ACOL, has sustained Christ-consciousness as a steady state always–yet.

3 – What is “Success”?

We would not have a life of little joy and little pain, and call this a “successful life.”  This will never do.  We are meant for better than this, we as children of God.  Let us ask Him today what He would have us do to live the best life that He can envision for us.  And let us trust that, in the silence, He will speak to us of unspeakable joys that await.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

When we live a day of contentment, we know joy.  But when we live a day of ecstasy, we touch heaven.  We would not choose a passionless life, and a passionless life is not the same as a life devoid of drama.  The two may sound similar, but they differ, and we would eliminate the meaningless drama without dropping passion from our lives.

Be with me as I seek to do this, to drop the drama but to keep the passion.  I would know the ecstasy of a life led according to Your dictates.  There is no better way to live, and I ask You to help me find this blessing today.

Thank You.

Amen.

Is It Likely that Jesus Would Fail to Keep a Promise?

“Remember his [Jesus’s] promises, and ask yourself honestly whether it is likely that he will fail to keep them. . . .Would the greatest teacher be unavailable to those who follow him?  (M-23.3)”

Affirmation:  “May I hold Jesus’s hand today.”

Reflections:

1 – Jesus

Jesus is still with us, and we do not have to be students/teachers of A Course in Miracles to believe this.  Many people of great faith in other traditions believe the same.  In ACIM, he says that he will come with a single “unequivocal call.”  And elsewhere he says that we can imagine that he is holding our hand, and that this will be no “idle fantasy.”  Such words as these are blessings indeed!

2 – Metaphysical Truths?

How can Jesus be everywhere at once?  Doesn’t that sound a little bit like Santa on Christmas Eve (if we are skeptics)?  I do not know, but I do believe that there are metaphysical truths that our science is much too rudimentary to discover, and perhaps beyond our realm of physicality, there can be no rigid “proof.”

3 – Forgive and You Will Come to Understand

Do not be caught by ideas that seem too farfetched.  Just turn to the Holy Spirit for confirmation.  “Forgive, and you will come to understand,” was a statement I read in my college books, and I have remembered all these years.  Certainly forgiveness of ourselves and others is the central tenet of A Course in Miracles.  And with this forgiveness comes the understanding that has heretofore eluded us.

4 – Be with Jesus Today

Jesus is not the only teacher, but he is ours, if we choose to follow either/both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love.  Seek him in your heart today.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I choose to accept the words that I read in A Course in Miracles as true, even when my intellect balks.  Certainly we all know that our science is still learning, and there are laws of which we are currently unaware.  So I will choose to imagine, from time to time, that Jesus holds my hand as I walk along.  Thank You for this benign imagining.

Be with us as we seek You today.  Jesus can help us, and I do ask for his help.  May all of us contemplate the vast metaphysical truths that we are as yet only able to contemplate in imaginings.  May I let my imagination show me a new world, and may this new world be in Your Hands always.

Amen.