To Enjoy!

“Start enjoying the journey of life.”  COL bk.2, 8:IV

Yes!  It doesn’t make any sense to make ourselves miserable, even when times are tough, and tough times come to all of us.  The journey of life is meant to be a healing adventure in which subconscious, fearful thoughts give way to love.  When we open up to love in our lives, we know all the difference.  And we start to enjoy what we are experiencing.  What a difference this makes!

We can start right away.  There is no need to wait for a rainbow to appear in our lives.  We can offer our thanks for the many blessings that we have, and the act of doing so will enhance our experience.  Just saying the words throughout the day will actually make the blessings grow.  We will see all manner of things, good things, that we have overlooked before.

Ask to enjoy our lives.  We may have many lives, but we experience each one only in the Now.  And if we rue the Now, we rue our lives.  Negativity also kicks in, and with it the law of attraction, which says that what we focus upon grows.  We can get ourselves going downward in spiral of lamentable happenings.  This we don’t want.

So the advice to “enjoy” our journey is solidly based in a law of the universe.  God’s law.  And it behooves us to take heed and do what we can to lift our spirits on a constant basis.

Turn any fretting over to God.  He is much better equipped to handle it than we are!  And He is not burdened by the fretting, as we are.  He will take our current state of mind and heart and lift them to new heights.

Just enjoy the scenery on our journey through life.

Walking a Mysterious Pathway

            Given the fact that the A Course in Miracles links the idea of our unique role with our brother, more often than not we will find that unique role in one or more brothers.  And we must realize that we may not always recognize our function even if we are in the midst of carrying it out. 

In my own case, this phenomenon kept me on a particular pathway for years, but I was a reluctant walker. Only in retrospect did the pathway seem illuminated, the walk make sense.  Yet I never seriously considered abandoning my pathway; whenever the thought came up, I was given a self-authenticating word from God that I was to remain true to what I had perceived His Will to be.  And I yet do not know the whole of it, though I followed that particular pathway to its conclusion and found a blessing, in unexpected form, at the journey’s end.  It is very likely that I will not fully understand in this lifetime, but as I review my life eventually from the other side, I will know.  For now, I know all I need to know of a journey that seemed incomprehensible much of the time.       

            And is my experience not true for most of us?  We see only dimly, but when we take our brother’s hand, we fulfill a function that is bigger than the two of us.  It is always by way of our brother that the mission comes.  One does not do “great things” in the world without the cooperation of first one, and then another, and another, brother.  Salvation is still borne one mind at a time, and so it behooves us to place our interpersonal relationships next to God in value.  Indeed, it is frequently in our brother only that we are able to see and love God.

–from Out of the Maze, an e-book by the author of this blog.

End of Our Journey Is Certain

“But I can promise you, if you will take up such a path—simply, joyfully, gently, patiently—the end of your journey is certain. If you choose a path filled with magic and many complex strategies, the end is not so certain. The way is easy and without effort:

“I am already that which I seek.

“I need only allow it to guide me.

“While this body lasts, I will allow it to be a communication device that extends the treasure of perfect Love, perfect safety, and perfect peace to all who enter my house.

“And your house is your field of energy, the expanse of your presence.” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 10, Page 131)

Jesus is here warning against those who would seek to “teach” enlightenment through magical means. His way is simple; in fact, it is here already. We are just too blind to see.

We have only imagined that we walked away from, separated, from God. Actually separation from God is impossible, for He dwells within, with us being a part of Him. But we can imagine ourselves anyplace that we want; this is free will in action. Imagining that we no longer know God has occupied us for eons.

Has being without God been good for us? Has this imagination borne good fruit?

Of course not. Walking away from Him Who is our Center could only bring pain, pain that often turned into an illusory suffering. We think that we could exercise our free will only by refusing to be a part of God any longer. We don’t know what we have effected, for the very words are meaningless. We have retreated into madness.
Now we need a cleansed and healed mind. Let Jesus guide the way to our healing. Having taken the pathway himself, he is in the best position to help, especially when we can’t help ourselves at all. If we could heal the separation without aid, we would have done so long ago.

Extend Love to our house, our field of energy, and watch the mind emerge from darkness into light, into happiness.

Herein Lie Hell and Heaven

“It is impossible that the prayer of the heart remain unanswered in the perception of the one who asks.  If he asks for the impossible, if he wants what does not exist or seeks for illusions in his heart, all this becomes his own.  The power of his decision offers it to him as he requests.  Herein lie hell and Heaven.  (M-21.3)”

Affirmation:  “May I ask for only what is true and real.”

Reflections:

1 – Personal Experience

I have been lost in illusions through one particular period early in my adult life.  My “prayer of the heart” was answered, and I was asking for what did not exist and was asking for illusion.  And they both came.

2 – Not Real

But was this real?  Indeed, no.  And God would have us to ask only for reality, the real world.  He will be there to see that we get the real world.

3 – Lost in the Ego

We are largely lost in the ego when we ask for what does not exist and for illusions.  Certainly I myself had, toward the end of my illusory journey, had discovered A Course in Miracles.  And within six months I had emerged from a 14-year illusion.  This miracle did not come of anything that I did.  I do believe that the Divine came into play.  And I have been mightily grateful for God’s action ever since.

4 – God Will Protect Us

I did not ask for anything that was bad for me.  I learned a great deal in that 14 years.  A Course in Miracles says that God will protect us when we ask for what is bad for ourselves.  It is no more than what a loving earthly father would do for his children.  (Paraphrases from ACIM.)

5 – A Kind of Hell

But we can make a kind of hell for ourselves when we ask for what does not exist or for illusions.  We need to test our prayer of the heart, to see that it is the right prayer.  And only a heartfelt desire to know and to do God’s Will will accomplish this miracle.  Especially when one’s force of will (informed by the ego) is very strong.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for walking with me through that 14 years in my early adulthood.  You knew what was best, and You, for the vast majority of the time, did not give me the “green light” to pray for what I wanted.  And so I didn’t pray for this dream, except for a brief three days, when the green light came through–not important in a 14-year journey.  Thank You for leading me to the very real life that You did plan for me.  And I have no regrets.  Part of what I was living was something that You authorized.

Be with me in the twilight years of my life.  Be with me for excellent physical and emotional health.  Help me to help others, and to attract to myself only what is Your highest and best.  May my thankfulness for the wonderful life that confronts me be something that You can see and acknowledge.

Be with all of us as we walk through the day, as we take journeys without distance, and finally find our home in You.

Amen.