Heaven Is Where We Are Living Now

“Within your self is a place where you can read God’s purpose for you.  There, in the sacred precinct of your holy will, resides truth, love, and Heaven.  It is where we are living now.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 7:III

We often wonder what we are here for.  This quotation tells us that we simply must look within to find the answer.  Of course, we can still get ourselves all tangled up with superficial answers that are coming from either the ego or (later) the patterns of the ego.  We can still confuse ourselves.

The way to be certain that we are reading our purpose correctly is, in my opinion, to look back over our life and see what we have been doing that seemed “right.”  When we have really been on the beam, we have known it.  Our joy has been full, for joy is an indication that all is well.  God intends us to be joyous, even in the midst of living in a difficult world.  God’s joy is an indication that we are in our purpose.

I think we have an overall purpose, all of us, to heal ourselves, and our brothers and sisters.  This purpose obviously takes many forms, and it is these many forms that we need to focus upon—to know what is the particular form that healing takes in our lives.  A Course in Miracles has a good affirmation, “I am here only to be truly helpful.”  And in the healing that we will do, we will be truly helpful.  We don’t impose on another our own will, though.  We let healing occur through our connection with God.

Heaven resides in this inner place that we are accessing today.  As the quotation says, “It is where we are living now.”

Enjoy heaven today.

Purpose

“In the depths of your heart is inscribed the purpose of your existence.  Knowledge of that purpose is what we call the wisdom of the heart, an essential part of yourself.  All carry it.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 7:III

May we all reach deep today, inside, listening to our heart, to discover the purpose for which we came to earth.  There is one overriding purpose, though I think there may be different aspects demonstrated over time. 

Help us to discern rightly.  Help us to align our thoughts, feelings, and actions with the will of God (which A Course in Miracles says is the same will that we possess).

If we listen to our heart, we will be well served.  Listening to our heart is the only way to live well.  And the heart functions in love, something we all need to do.

Love

“To the extent that you allow your consciousness to live fully in the truth of who you are, the love that you truly are, to that extent you fulfill your purpose.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 4:I

Who we truly are is just – love.  And when we live love, we are on purpose.

We often don’t realize how much a simple decision to love more deeply will effect change in our daily life.  And this change is all good.

This is not a sentimental love, a love that overlooks bad things in an effort to make ourselves feel better.  We may still express negative emotions, when we feel them warranted, but we will find them unwarranted far more often than we realize now.  Love is a sold feeling, something substantial to cling to in uncertain times.  It is never a tame thing, but the hardiest sense of coming into our own.  We do nobody any favors when we let other people walk all over us.  This is a false way of viewing love that has turned people off all too often.

Love can be and is strong in the face of provocation.  Love is gentle in the extreme, but the gentlest feeling is the most powerful.  It is not a two-edged sword that can be turned against us.

Ask to be shown what love really means, because we have not known.  We have not known what it means to say that God is Love.  We have been in the dark about this, as about many things connected with love.  Love is many-faceted, solid, substantial, a Force to Whom we can cling.

Let God speak to our hearts today about this matter of His Love and what it means to us.  Give God some time to get through by spending some time in quietness. 

God speaks in the silence with sudden insights that warm the heart.

Always & Only Love

“This message invites you to remember that your function is to bring love to the world.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 14:I)

Life would be so much simpler if we just realized most of the time that we are meant to bring love to the world.  A single, all-embracing purpose such as this also gives meaning to our lives.

Unfortunately, we have heard “love” mentioned so often in this context that we zone out because it seems like the same concept, over and over.  If we had taken this concept to heart, this might be understandable.  But the problem is that we have not taken this concept to heart.  We “play” at love, often special love, an inferior rendering to love that has plenty of drama, including low points.  Our holy love, one to another, will save us now.  It is the only thing that will save us.

I have found that if I focus on just giving my husband love in this time of isolation, I am walking a green earth.  We are happy in the midst of quarantine.  May we take this knowledge with us, out into the world, when the quarantine is over.

A Course in Miracles says variously that forgiveness and happiness are functions for us.  But Choose Only Love makes it simpler for us.  If we focus on love, the forgiveness and happiness will happen all of its own accord.

What more could we ask?

What Do You Want to Do with Your Life?

“Illusion has at its base a false cause and so no effects that exist in truth. Now your every thought and action will have effect and the choices that lie before you will be choices of where your thoughts and actions will have the greatest effect. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 20.1)”

Affirmation: “I am living in reality now, in truth.”

Reflections:

1 – Mari Perron

This passage for today helps to explain why the scribe of A Course of Love, Mari Perron, believes that once we have walked the pathway, we are not lost in illusion any longer. Now our thoughts have effects, for our thoughts are lived in truth, in reality, in the real world. So we must choose where our thoughts and actions will have the greatest effect. What do we want to do with our lives?

2 – Happiness and More

Maybe we want to be happy. Is that laudatory? Yes, it is, but it may not be enough. Jesus calls to us to lead other people to him, the selfsame call that has followed people through the ages. How might we lead others to Jesus without proselytizing, which we have been told is not desired? We can lead by an informed example, but we must be careful that the ego does not rear its ugly head when we seek to be a good example.

3 – Being Religious

I sometimes think that religious people have a greater calling to lead a good life than anybody else. Who would want to emulate us if they see our clay feet? If we are dishonest, then we dishonor the God whom we serve. And we will not draw others to us. They will see through us, and they will see that we do not walk the talk.

4 – Guidance

Choose today how we would follow Jesus. Let us make decisions about how we will live, knowing all the while that good intentions are never enough. We need guidance, and let us first ask for that guidance when we seek to know what we want to do with our lives.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I seek your guidance today. What specific ways would You have me live my life today and every day in the future? What goals would You give to me? I try to be Yours. And I need Your assistance in knowing how to go with the flow in everyday life.

Help me to truly give up on the ego. I cannot follow You well if I am consumed with how everything is affecting my personal self. I would live the way that my Self would indicate, and for that I need to respond without ego to the people and places in my life.

Be with me today. Take fear from me, for surely fear is an indication that I am still kowtowing to the ego. I know that Jesus has said in A Course of Love that the ego is gone. Give me that reassurance today, as surely as I seek to drop egotism from my repertoire of emotions.

Amen.