Waves Rising from the Ocean of God

The mystical transformation that carries you from feeling yourself to be a disempowered little drop of foam on the edge of a wave to the sense of freedom and empowered living that flows from the Mind of God through you to express only beautiful creations filled with majesty, power and miracles is willingness. (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Lesson 4, Page 49)

Jesus compares us to waves rising from the ocean, with God being the ocean. We are no more separate from God than a wave is separate from the ocean. We are a part of God.

The willingness mentioned in this quotation is called just a “little” willingness in A Course in Miracles. When we give ourselves to God, He takes our bending to His will and grows it tremendously. We may have heretofore felt thwarted in some of our projects. If we give the details of our lives, even the practical details, over to a Higher Power, we will know a success unexpected in common hours. And we will know God.

It is through knowing God that we know what next step to take. When we have walked far along the way, knowing becomes a most intimate part of ourselves. We don’t have to stop and think. We just know what to say and do. We act in innocence in our world. If our initial impulse would hurt anyone, then we need to go within and recognize that our response is not, in fact, from God.

When we, children of God, act on His side, what we say and do is not harmful to anyone. It is permeated, through and through, with the innocence that is our very being.

Never Give Up

“I tell you this not to discourage you, but to encourage you not to give up. Your purpose now is the holiest possible and all of heaven is with you. All that is needed is your continuing willingness. All that can cause you to fail is giving up. I give you these examples that will make you say, “It will not be easy,” but I tell you neither will it be hard if you but remember this: your willingness is all that is needed.” (ACOL, C:10.8)

I need to feel this willingness today. And so do all of us. Sometimes when we fall back on God and “give up,” we find that the Arms hold us up. And this is another way of thinking about “giving up.”

Jesus, though, is not thinking of giving up to God. He is saying that we tend to give up—period. And this won’t do. We need to depend on God, and with this willingness to keep at it, we do depend on God to see us through.

We sometimes need good cognitive thinking to get us through, and Jesus is offering that today. Our attitude makes quite a difference, and when we have the attitude of being willing to keep going, God is able to step in and lead the way. Jesus points out the way; God takes us to where we need to go.

Pray for this willingness to keep plugging away. Jesus knows that we don’t perceive that the way is easy, but other passages in A Course of Love indicate that the way IS easy. Effortless.

Let us be willing to walk this effortless way today.

On Free Will and Willingness, by Ivor Sowton

On Free Will and Willingness. ..This Chapter 11 is going deep for me. I am getting into a practice of applying the latest chapter Mari reads for us (endless gratitude, Mari!) DIRECTLY TO MY LIFE RIGHT NOW.

I’ve had a lot of issues in my life with “I’ll be good if I can just do this and that and thus, and by the way so many other people already do these things far better than I can, so I’ve got to try much harder and maybe in some far distant future time I will have improved enough to make the grade.”

Can you relate to this? But if I try to drop all that and just be more present with the current Course of Love chapter and apply it to my actual present experience, then that’s really helpful. So, here goes! The theme of the chapter that I’m feeling now is about how I almost desperately hang on to MY will, in spite of the fact that it’s clearly not bringing me the Peace of God. The old ego pattern is to maintain a safe distance from direct experience of others in relationship and sharing. So mistrustful. So used to feeling less than. So not trusting that benign lessons could be being freely offered me by others who are actually trying to help me in a true spirit of friendship rather than put me down.

So in this chapter Jesus is so personally encouraging to me to offer that “temporary willingness” He recommends. So masterful He is here! For if He demanded total willingness I would be pushing myself to come up to too high a bar, trying to grit my teeth and demand that of myself immediately– and I would get discouraged. Instead He is helping me grow in trust, in baby steps if need be, gradually coming to trust God more and more. I feel very very lucky in that I have developed more trust in Jesus over the last few years. That is a wonderful relationship we can all form, I really feel. Or maybe for some it is another great Master; but chances are that if you have taken the trouble to join this Group and are sincerely trying to open up to A Course of Love then your relationship with Jesus is pretty deep also, right?

We are SO blessed in this. For me even in the dark times, which remain frequent for me, I am praying to Jesus, on a spectrum of entreating Him for help right down to complaining to Him or even being mad at Him for not lifting me out of whatever mire I’m sunk in–but in a way I know He doesn’t mind….And now to conclude with the last paragraph in this great Chapter 11: “…Love is the unity you seek. In having chosen separation over unity you but chose fear over love. When you let go of fear and invite unity to return, you but send out an invitation to love and say you are welcome here.” I am right now willing to try that out, in small doses if need be, pacing myself to the trust level I can handle now. Thank-you all!!!

If Our Heart Is in the Right Place

“These calls go out from love to love. It is not the words of your mouth that will be heard or the language of your mind that will be responded to. It is the love within your heart that will sound the call. And when it is heard and your brother or sister reaches out to you, all you need ask for is a little willingness. All you need do is open the door through which love can enter. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 20.16)”

Affirmation: “I will ask for a little willingness for others to listen to the love in my heart.”

Reflections:

1 – If Our Hearts Are in the Right Place

If our hearts are in the right place, we will manifest love. And if they are in the wrong place, nothing that we try to do will turn out right. When we are on the beam, on the beam of love, then all that we need ask of others who encounter us is that they open their minds and hearts with a little willingness to see the love. And we can join with Jesus in asking that they be blessed by our encounter.

2 – Ego

Be certain that this type of behavior does not call to the ego. Be certain that the impulse to love is genuine, and the call to others to respond to us is likewise genuine in love. There is much chance here for the ego to once again gain a toehold, for it sounds very nice to say that others will respond to us, to the love that we emanate. And that makes us feel good, or at least it makes the ego feel good, which is the false sense of self that has perhaps been reinforced.

3 – Oscillation

Let us leave behind the foolishness of the ego forever. We were not made happy by anything that ever called to the ego in us. We had flights of joy, but these flights were balanced by drops into despair and unhappiness. Always there was an oscillation. And we know that we don’t want this pain and suffering any longer.

4 – Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself

So love others, with the selfsame love that we give ourselves. For if we don’t love ourselves also, with a pure love, not of the ego, we can’t give to others. We wouldn’t know what to give. It is just that simple. These are paraphrases of words of Jesus in the New Testament. And it is true that much of what Jesus says now was presaged in the New Testament. Not to mention A Course in Miracles.

5 – Be Good to Yourself

Be good to yourself by loving yourself and others with a pure love, an egoless love. The joys will continued indefinitely then. And we will be well on our way Home.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I hope to offer love to those who surround me, even when these individuals seem remote. Help me to do what I can, and then let You do the rest, dropping any questioning about the encounter from my mind and heart.

May I love others with an egoless love. When I am tempted to reinforce the withering ego, may I know that this is not what I would have. A weak ego will soon dissipate. And I want my ego to dissipate so that I can feel Your presence in an ever-expanding way.

Thank You.

Amen.