Trust Fully in God’s Love

“Being alert in favor of love means trusting fully in love—God’s love.  This is no idle clarification about trusting in the active love of God. Trusting others to solve what you think of as your problems constantly leads to disillusionment.  Two similar beings cannot have in each other what the other lacks to solve their apparent problems.  If this were true, one would have to be incomplete and another not, which would annul the equality of the children of God.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 3:II

I don’t think this means that we can’t get advice from other people.  If neither one has a clue, though, this quotation does make sense.  We can’t trust other people to solve our problems, because the problems are our contract, and for help with problems, we need to get quiet and go within, to God.

We have all we need to solve problems, but this idea will remain elusive to us until we depend on our one Source, God Himself.  Often we muddle along with a problem for weeks, months, years, never asking for help.  This makes no sense whatsoever.  But there it is.  We need to go immediately to our Higher Power when something puzzles us.  Ask for clarification, ask to be shown the light.

And we will be.

Blessings

“The days go by and it may seem that the problem has not been resolved, but then you realize that what you saw as a problem was a blessing, a blessing that you did not understand at the beginning.  It may have bothered you just as it bothers a child when a loving mother gives medicine that may taste bitter but is good for health.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 3:I

Our problems are not always to be lamented.  They may be blessings.  If we remember that the problem and solution are always found together (a tenet of A Course in Miracles), we will ask that the solution be shown to us, and we will be encouraged to ask, time and again, in the future.  When problems come up, we need to realize that, blessing or not, God has allowed it, though He did not cause it.  This allowing is one of the hardest things we have to accept.  But it is the way out of every quandary.

God means us well, but our free will makes for difficulties in our world.  And free will is one of our greatest blessings!  But we don’t know how to use it now, and so we, and others, suffer.  God would not be doing us a favor if he revoked free will when things get tough.  And this is something He understands completely.  He will never revoke free will.

Like medicine that is bitter, our blessings are not always recognized.  Ask to see the better part of any lesson that seems difficult in our world.  Ask to be shown the blessing.

And it will be so.

Abide Where We Are—Differently

“The Way of Transformation absolutely requires that you be committed to living differently.  For is not transformation a change from the status quo?  How can you experience transformation if you do not use time to think and be differently?  Crying out to me will not do it.  Reading a thousand holy books will not do it.  One thing and one thing only will bring you into the transformation that you have sought—the willingness to abide where you are, differently.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 13, Page 157)

We sometimes think that if everybody else would change, our problems would go away.  It takes a personal effort to change, though, a very personal effort. 

We project our experience of reality, and this projection makes for our perception.  An oft-quoted assertion from A Course of Miracles is that projection makes perception.  It may be hard to believe, but there is no “out there” that is separate and apart from us.  We are One with the whole.

Wayne Dyer used to joke that if we would round up all the people who are causing us problems, take them to him for counseling, that he would treat them, and then we would get better.   We easily recognize the joke in this, but in day-to-day life, the joke is on us.  We want everything and everybody else to change so that we will get better.

In times of difficulty, we often experience conflict in our intimate relationships.  Stress creates anger, which creates more stress.  And all we were saying is that we want to be loved—and safe, and that we are scared that we can’t make it on our own.

We need each other, but we need to function a new way in our world to take advantage, in the best way, of the cooperation that we seek from others.  We need to realize that the change must come first of all from our own essence.

When we make the determination to live differently, we will find that our experience of reality changes accordingly.  We do get help to make these changes, and the biggest source of help is our heartfelt, intimate, talks with our Maker. We do get some glimmer of solutions, then, though, as always, the solutions may take time in the working out. God gives us ideas that will help sustain, regardless of the difficulty. He may not take away the pain, but He inserts into our beleaguered minds the glimmering of solutions.

Be Calm

“Beloved friends, The Way of Transformation rests on exactly the same thing that all of your dreams rest upon—the decision concerning what you would be committed to.  For you cannot dream a dream, that is, you cannot create an experience in the field of consciousness, without being one hundred percent committed to it.  It may appear that this is not the case, but I assure you that it is.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 13, Page 154)

Today I am beginning consideration of the second part of The Way of Mastery, about the transformation which we all seek, some without knowing it.  We are dreaming a dream, and right now in our world it very much seems that we are dreaming a worldwide nightmare.  We can, though, often make our experience better by what we choose to focus upon.  We create experiences for ourselves that we are committed to—that is what this quotation says.

Let us choose to commit to the good reaction of many good people in our world at this sad time.  If we choose to focus on this, the good reaction that does sometimes make the news, our dream will soften.  Our fears will recede, and with a clear mind we will begin to see solutions.  The solution is always with the problem, though right now that doesn’t seem true.  In our daily life, though, solutions do appear when our mind is calm.

May we do what we can in our little world, our circle of intimates.  May we stay peaceful, as much as possible, so that we can be of help to ourselves and the others we see and touch.

Collapsing the Need for Time

“There is not a period of waiting or a period of time between giving and receiving. There is not a time lapse between the recognition of needs and the meeting of needs. It is accepted that giving and receiving occur in unison, thus further collapsing the need for time. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Nature of Unity and Its Recognition, 7.20)”

Affirmation: “I will all day give and receive.”

Reflections:

1 – Solution Is with the Problem

This passage for today emphasizes a kindred idea in A Course in Miracles: recognizing needs and the meeting of needs (A Course of Love), and the solution is with the problem (ACIM). This idea is particularly encouraging to me, for when I ask, internally, for guidance on anything, most of the time I get an answer within a short time, even immediately upon occasion. The idea comes to me from my own mind and heart, but I would like to think that the personal or “little” self is informed by the larger Self.

2 – Time

It is auspicious to note that time is actually collapsed when we see a need and ask for a solution. Jesus has more to say about time in other parts of the texts. He indicates that he will arrange time to allow us to perform miracles. Nobody here understands how this is possible, but we can listen with the heart and not seek for intellectual confirmation. The heart knows when the mind balks. The malleability of time is a law of physics. And religion and physics seem to be coming close together in recent years.

3 – Needs Met

If we have a need, and we ask for the meeting of that need, we will normally be reassured. The answer may not come in the form that we expect (or even that we want), but it will come, and the answer will be even better than what we thought we wanted. I know this from personal experience. The ways of God do not have to stay mysterious. We can know much of the mind of God from internal searching of our own heart and Self.

4 – Giving and Receiving

If we give, we will receive in kind. This means often that the Golden Rule to do unto others what you would have them do unto you is a very good response. In addition, the laws of karma are triggered here. Cause and effect still reigns. But grace can mitigate the worst results of wrong thoughts and actions.

5 – Grace

We do not hear much about grace in ACIM and ACOL. The word itself is not important, but the idea is. We are saved from ourselves by God Himself (a personal interpretation), and we can then reach out to aid others. We do not have to wait to do a good deed or to spread kindness. Our days will blossom into truly desirable hours if we follow the recommendation from Jesus that we give and receive, allowing time to collapse. It is important to let time collapse, because our brothers and sisters, along with ourselves, are caught in this world now. And the world winds on wearily, and suffering continues. Jesus would change all of this, and we are his hands and feet to do so.

6 – Reach Out

Reach out to just one other person today, and test the truth of giving and receiving as one.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for the fact that time will collapse if I recognize a need and find the need met. This is such good news in this weary world. It helps us to live in a world of dreams–still–but happy dreams. I long, though, for reality to filter through. And I ask for more glimpses of the real world today. May I do nothing to hinder the real world’s emergence.

I ask for Your presence in my life. May I feel You with me. And thank You that I sense You right now.

Amen

Indescribably Happy

“If you could accept the world as meaningless and let the truth be written upon it for you, it would make you indescribably happy. But because it is meaningless, you are impelled to write upon it what you would have it be. It is this you see in it. It is this that is meaningless in truth. (W-12)”

Affirmation: “I would be indescribably happy today.”

Reflections:

1 – Preconceptions

How do we let go of our preconceptions about this world? We have written our own meaning upon it. That is all. We need to accept that the world itself is meaningless, and then let the truth be written upon it for us.

2 – Passive

This attitude is essentially passive. But we do contemplate, read, study, and pray. And in these actions we come to understand more fully what this world really means. We do not add our own meaning to it; we accept what comes to us in such moments of reflection, essentially waiting for God to speak to us.

3 – God

And He will. We all too often think that God is remote from us, but instead He is the deepest part of our being. When we turn within, we will find Him. And we will also find the answers to our questions.

4 – Solution Is with the Problem

Remember that the solution to the problem is always with the problem–at the very moment. And frequently we get an answer immediately. Unfortunately, when our emotions are turbulent, we cannot always hear the answers. We don’t get the solution, and so we need to calm down, relax, commune with our deepest nature, and then take the steps that come to us, intuitively.

5 – Problems

When we contemplate in the most serene way, our answers come to what is troubling us. And if the answers don’t come, perhaps this is a problem that God is holding out to us as a learning exercise. Ask, instead, what this problem is meant to teach us? And the answer will dawn, sooner rather than later.

6 – The World

We do not stay with the idea that the world is meaningless, for to believe this would be demoralizing. We let God write its meaning upon our hearts, and then we are at peace.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

The solution is with the problem. Thank You for that knowledge–a great blessing! When problems come up, if I remember to listen to guidance, the answer does come. Invariably. But my emotions must be calm for the guidance to come through. Help my emotions to be calm today.

I would be indescribably happy today. There is no better way to follow You, and no better way to live in this world. Happiness is a worthy goal, for we are of much better use to others when we are happy. And happiness is a witness to what salvation offers. May I never forget this.

Be with me today as I seek to pray for others whom I know are in crisis. Praying to You works, a very practical technique for healing.

May this day, as all days, be good.

Amen.

Eliminating Perplexities

“While you will at times doubt that you have received an answer or that the answer you have received is correct, you will soon learn to trust this quiet process of discernment.  You will know you have succeeded when you truly feel as if you have ‘turned the question or concern over’ and allowed it to be responded to in a new way.  (A Course of Love, 25.23)”

Affirmation:  “When I have a perplexity, I turn it over to God.”

Reflections:

1 – Perplexities

Perplexities do not have to remain perplexities.  There is a quick solution, as I said yesterday in this blog:  The solution is with the problem (an ACIM tenet).  We are learning better what that means as we read A Course of Love.  We are learning to turn inward, where all is quiet, to our heart, and thereby to receive an answer.  This is an elaboration of what A Course in Miracles teaches, which seems to be another indication that what we have here in ACOL is actually a sequel from Jesus.

2 – “Basket Case”

I read recently from an inspirational writer of one of his family members who came up against severe problems at various junctures in her life.  She would, in his words, be a “basket case.”  But this did not last long.  When he would visit shortly thereafter, she would be calm, though the difficulty was still there.  She would reply, in response to his comment that all seemed well, that she had “turned that over to God.”  The emotional reaction was much more muted.

3 – Turn It Over to God

If we can learn to do this on a constant basis, we will live a much calmer and saner life.  We will not be lost in insanity, the state that all of us exist in until we come to know better.  We leave behind anger and attack, we turn our lives over to God, and we are rewarded by a peaceful life, with the “peace that passeth understanding” (from the Bible).

4 – Heart and Mind = Wholeheartedness

A Course of Love constantly appeals to the heart, and only toward the end do we see that a blend of mind and heart is actually the way for us.  We have to let go of egoic notions of the mind, though.  And the emphasis upon the heart, in the opening pages of ACOL, is exactly what we need to hear in the beginning.  We will come to know better when we give up asking for tangible proof.  The heart already knows.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I quickly turn any perplexity over to You.  You want to help me.  It is a free offer.  Surrender works.  Thank You.

May I be good company today with my brothers and sisters, and especially with those who are my significant others.  May this be a good day.  Help us to know how to turn perplexities into solutions.  This is something that we all need frequently.

Be with us today and always.

Amen.

Needs Are Met at the Point of Need

“In creation, all needs are fulfilled the instant they become needs, which is why there are no needs.  If everything you need has been provided, having needs makes no sense.  (A Course of Love, 19.14)”

Affirmation:  “I find answers as soon as I have needs.”

Reflections:

1 – Needs vs. Wants

All needs are met.  All wants are not.  Why?  What we need is accurate, but what we want may actually hurt us.  God protects His children, and He does not give what will ha (from A Course in Miracles).  How do we explain the pain of this world?  We have free will (not a tenet of either ACIM or ACOL).

2 – Adolescents?

The pain can also be explained by an A Course of Love passage that notes that we have been like adolescents in rebellion, and so God “let go,” much as parents let go their teenage children who are trying to assert their own identity.

3 – Point of Need

It is important to note that needs are met at the point of need–immediately.  Of course, we can note in everyday life that we don’t always recognize that our needs have immediately been met.  We are slow to see.  But see we will, sooner or later, and we can pray that our seeing may be sooner.

4 – No Problems

This passage is akin to the ACIM passage that indicates that we have no problems, though we think that we have.  The solution is always placed with the problem–immediately.  And so, when we are tuned in, we get our solution as soon as we articulate the problem.  And articulating the problem is important, for otherwise we exist in a kind of mind fog.

5 – We Are Protected

May we pray today that our needs, being met, will trouble us no longer.  We are prepared for, we are protected, and we have safety.  There is a loving God Who does all of this for us.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for reminding me today that my needs are always met, and not just met sometime, but at the point of need.  This is akin to knowing the solution is always with the problem, and that actually we have no problems (though we think we have).  Our “wants” are not always met, and perhaps that is a good thing.  We often ask amiss.

I would have no part of an adolescent rebellion today.  That is to stay in the past.  I would welcome Your guidance on a constant basis.  That is really the only way to live smoothly.  Thank You for given me a right spirit within when I ask for it.  

Be wtih me today, aso that I have patience.  I need patience, as do all of us, with our loved ones.  I am perhaps more impatient than I would like to think.  I thought that my life situation gave me a lot of patience, but perhaps that is a fallacy.  Be with me today as I see my patience tested.  And may I know that true needs will be answered immediately.

Amen.

I Am Affected Only by My Thoughts

ACIM Workbook Lesson 338 – for Sunday, December 4, 2011

Affirmation:  “I am affected only by my thoughts.”

 

“His thoughts can frighten him, but since these thoughts belong to him alone, he has the power to change them and exchange each fear thought for a happy thought of love.  He crucified himself.  Yet God has planned that His beloved Son will be redeemed.  (WB471)”

 

Reflections:

1 – God Within

This passage builds on the message from yesterday, spelling out what yesterday’s passage implicated.  Our frightened thoughts come from a mind not united with the God within, but they are unique to ourselves and can be changed.  When we let our minds merge with the God Who resides within, then do we truly know peace of mind for the first time.

2 – No More Fear Thoughts

We exchange our fear thoughts for thoughts of love.  Let us always remember that we are doing this unto ourselves; we are not plagued by other people, and we are especially not plagued by an angry God.  God is as we have always been taught by the New Testament, and now by A Course in Miracles, as a God who loves us unconditionally.  We have crucified ourselves by our imagined imprisonment by a will not our own.  We have endured this imprisoned will because we made the ego, the symbol of our separation from God–a separation that could not happen in fact, but which could seem to be real, causing what seem to be real effects.

3 – The Resurrection

But God had a plan to redeem us.  It is not the focus on the crucifixion that much of modern Christianity believes, but a focus on the resurrection–that we too can rise above the suffering of this mad world and know God’s greatest blessings.  The plan, we are told in the Text, was placed in the mind of God’s son/daughter as soon as the mad idea took hold, and seemed to cause real effects.

4 – The Solution Is with the Problem

The solution is always with the problem.  If we keep this in mind, we will not often find ourselves in troubled conflict.  We will reach a higher level of mind where the problem has already been solved.  Ask with the assurance that your prayer will be heard, and that the Answer to Your conflict has been given in the Person of the Holy Spirit.  Ask for guidance to solve life’s varied problems, and then rest in surety for the Answer to come.  We will not have to wait long.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I thank You most importantly today for the fact that the solution is always with the problem.  I can give any problem over to the Holy Spirit and then know that the answer will pop into my mind at the right time, almost always sooner rather than later.  We do not have to suffer in silence.  And we do not have to run ahead of the Holy Spirit, making problems after He has already given us the solution to the one problem that we are facing at the moment.

Increase my trust, My Father.  It is enough for me to know that answer will come quickly.  I do not have to make things tough on myself.

Thank You.

Amen.

A Happy Outcome to All Things Is Sure

ACIM Workbook Lesson 292 – for Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Affirmation:  “A happy outcome to all things is sure.”

“We thank You, Father, for Your guarantee of only happy outcomes in the end.  Help us not interfere, and so delay the happy endings You have promised us for every problem that we can perceive; for every trial we think we still must meet.  (WB444)”

Reflections:

1 – The Solution Is Always with the Problem

One reassurance from A Course in Miracles that I return to when comforted with a problem is the statement that the solution is always with the problem.  And solutions do not wait; there is an answer coming, and it is quick to arrive.  When we find ourselves cornered, supposedly, by insoluble problems, we need only relax and ask what we need to do.  An answer will come into our minds shortly.  If not, then we are too emotional to hear the answer.  We need to relax, take our minds off the problem, and get involved in some kind of distraction.  Sometimes prayer helps, but if we are too worried, I have found that my mind will lose the prayer, and I will returning to worrying.  But after a very short while, a next step will appear apparent.  And then the next and the next steps.  We are only shown one step at a time.

2 – We Will Not Have to Wait Long for the Solution

The solution always comes.  Sometimes I find that over a day or two, one thought will occupy my mind in regard to the problem.  If it is a solution, I have come to believe that this is the action that I should next take.  Of course, I can misinterpret, and if the answer is not loving, I am listening to the fears of the ego.  We need to test out our interpretations, lest we mislead ourselves.

3 – Trials

We sometimes think that we have trials ahead, when in actuality we are making the difficulty by our own reactions.  This is especially true if one magically thinks that worry will protect against the thing about which one is worrying.  Forget not that this is magic, and ACIM warns repeatedly against magical thinking.  If we just keep in mind that no problem comes without a solution, right with it, then we will be alright.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I realize that when I am healed, when there are no trials in place, it is my mind that has been healed.  Suffering and pain are never truly of the body; they are of the mind and the choice of the mind.  We would not live this way.  Let us turn to You with our pain and suffering, and wait, only a brief time, to see our attitude change.  The attitude toward pain and suffering is what is amiss.

What of the pain that may be physical?  It is still the mind that must be healed.  We must open ourselves to You and Your healing, and accept that it is ourselves that have chosen the pain–for whatever insane reason.  May we adopt the love in our attitude that will assuage any and all suffering.  Thank You for helping me to do this, and to do this today.

Amen.