From Celia’s Images in a Reflecting Pool: Journal Entries Inspired by A Course in Miracles. Copyright 1995.
I am gradually giving up my habit of taking on more – more – more. And then having to pull back.
A Course in Miracles says that the first obstacle that peace must flow across is the desire to get rid of it. (T-19.IV.A.1:1)
How true!
“While the personal self is the subject of the next Treatise, this is my invitation to you, specifically, to enter into a holy and personal relationship with me, specifically. While you are here, you have a persona. While this persona is no longer an ego-self but a Christ-Self, it is still a persona. This is the “you” who laughs and loves and cries and shares with friends in a world now different than the one you once perceived. I know of this world and I am here to guide you through it. I, too, am friend to you.” (ACOL, T2:13.3)
I could make of this blog posting a personal witness to the happiness that comes from a relationship to Jesus. I have long believed the assertion in A Course of Miracles, an assertion that invites us to imagine that Jesus walks with us, holding our hand. And ACIM says that this will be no “idle fantasy.”
I would like to believe that my imagination has not been playing tricks on me, that imagining Jesus holding my hand through life is not an “idle fantasy.” I have often imagined dialogues with Jesus while writing in my journal. I have an entry from myself, followed by letting my imagination have free rein and writing how I think Jesus would respond to my words. And I write in my journal frequently, keeping a window on my laptop open to my journal and my dialogue. When writing on the laptop, I do often shift gears and journal for a bit. I learn a lot that way. I invite you to do the same.
A Course of Love, which many believed was channeled by Jesus, holds much reassurance for those of us who want a personal relationship with Jesus. This will be welcome news for the many who have been reared in traditional Christianity. Now we can imagine that revelation is giving us an extension of the tenets we learned in Sunday school as a child. Revelation from Jesus. Is this really so hard to believe?
Jesus will purify our persona, though he will not ask us to change into something that we are not. We can believe, as he says, that he accepts us just as we are—the persona without the ego, for he tells us that we have indeed left behind the ego. We may still respond to patterns of ego belief, but this belief is not the illusion in which we once believed. It is an echo of things from the past, and it will be gone from us sooner if we just gently turn aside rather than resist. We are OK just as we are; this is the reassurance that comes to us in the Second Treatise of A Course of Love. What more could we really wish to hear?
All too often we don’t believe this reassurance, for we have only a belief in forgiveness, but we have not fully forgiven ourselves. This belief is not enough, for the guilt will linger. We need to truly forgive ourselves for what we did not actually do in the illusion.
And a personal relationship to Jesus is a good way to begin. Dialogue with Jesus in our journals. The rewards are great, the pitfalls illusory. The imagination is meant to teach us much. And now, with the Christ-Self coming into ascendancy in our persona, we will be in a much better position to learn anew.
And to forgive.
Prayer
Thank You for this good day. Help me not to do anything or say anything that will rue it. The blessings are mighty when we set ourselves up for a good day, and with Your helping, how can we miss?
The day looms long and full. May I slowly rest in Your care, hurrying not at all. Hurry is not necessary, and it is likely of the ego. No need to rush about, to struggle so. Thank You for A Course of Love, which tells me this.
Amen.
MIRACLES EACH DAY 