Miracles News
Spring 2005

We Live in God

by Rev. Myron Jones

In God, we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) That is the reason all things are possible in God. All things are possible because we are in God. Why is that so hard to believe? If we are in God, why do we seem to be so unhappy much of the time? Why do we experience pain and fear and guilt? Why does there seem to be so many miserable people leading sad lives? The circumstances of our lives seem to argue against God, or argue for an insane God.

The answer is simple. We dream in God. Genesis tells us that Adam (who is representative of all God’s children) went to sleep. Nowhere does it say that he awoke. We still sleep, and we dream. We dream that we left God, that we turned our back on Him and walked away. We dream that we recreated ourselves and instead of one we became many, separating ourselves into man and woman, into different colors, different personalities. We kept dreaming separation dreams until the differences became endless. We splintered our one holy Self until it seemed impossible to even discern the child that God created, much less put it back together.

And in our dream of abandoning God and our true nature by walking out of paradise, we experienced the crushing fear and guilt of turning our back on our Creator. We became afraid of our loving Father, and afraid to wake up. So we chose to forget that we went to sleep and dreamed.

But God, Whose love for us is all encompassing and endless, put His Voice in us as a gentle reminder of our true reality. We call the Voice for God the Holy Spirit. This Voice is always available to us and will lead us back to God when we are ready to listen; when we are ready to wake up.

So, wake up! Wake up to the joy of who you are. Wake up and know the peace of God which passes all understanding. Wake up and know your oneness with your Creator and with each other. Do you feel lost? Do you feel so distant from God that you cannot imagine that you are in God? Do you sometimes feel so crushed by a life time of disappointments that you cannot imagine living a life of pure joy? Have you made mistakes? Does the weight of those mistakes seem awful, so smothering that you can’t see yourself lifting the weight of that guilt from your shoulders?

Well, take heart! All you need to do is wake up. God placed within us the means to wake gently and surely from this nightmare. The Holy Spirit speaks to us of our Father and the Home He has prepared for us. He tells us of our Father’s endless and unwavering love for us. He gently reassures us and reminds us that we don’t have to remain in this bad dream any longer than we want to — that our Father waits patiently for our return. God doesn’t condemn us. He doesn’t believe in our “sins.” He is the loving Father, joyfully awaiting the return of His prodigal children.

Could this be true? Could it be that simple? Is there truly hope? If so, how do we awake? How do we come out of this dream? In my guilt and fear I have worked hard to block out the Voice for God. Perhaps the same is true for you as well. Rest assured, God would not have given us His Voice if He did not mean for us to hear It. He made it easily accessable to us. The first step to returning to our natural state, which is Heaven, is to recognize that the world has nothing to offer. This is also the hardest step. I experienced a huge resistance to this, and still experience resistance, though the resistance is not as strong as it used to be.

I argued against the idea that the world has nothing to offer me because it seemed to me that, with all the bad, there is a lot of good as well. I asked the Holy Spirit about love. What about falling in love and wanting to spend the rest of your life with that person? This is the knowing I received from the Holy Spirit. Love as the world offers it is conditional and temporary. It is uncertain and fragile. Like everything the world offers, it is like a beautifully wrapped box with a bomb inside. No matter how lovely it is at first, it has the potential to blow up in my face. So even while things are going great, somewhere deep in my subconscious, I am plagued with dread of losing it. What kind of gift is that? Is this happiness?

So, does this mean that love is not a good thing, and that I should not seek it? No, because there is a way to love, even in this dream, that is of God. If I choose God instead of the world, love comes without conditions, and it is eternal. In fact, when I choose God and only God, love is all there is. Special love is of the world. It is for some people and not for others. It is different depending on circumstances. There are many conditions which must be met before it can enter, and it can easily be lost.

oly love is from God rather than from the world. It knows no bounds. It doesn’t love one person more than another, nor differently. There are no conditions on its presence. How a person acts doesn’t change the love. It has no limits and is steadfast. It never changes nor can it be lost. Love from God is the very fabric of life. It is the raw material from which all else flows. We can block God’s Love from our awareness of it, but we cannot change or destroy it. Can we love each other with the love of God? Yes! We certainly can and in fact, that is what we are created for.

All things the world has to offer are temporary at best and are always dual in nature, there being a good side and a bad side. All things in the world lead to loss. The most beautiful sunset ends. The lushest forest dies away or is destroyed. Even while it exists in all its beautiful magnificence, it contains the potential for loss and so the pleasure one feels at its beauty is tinged with the certain knowledge that it will end.

In our creation we had total peace, complete joy and love such as we can no longer even imagine. We traded it for dreams of elusive and uncertain pleasures. We could have the peace of God, and instead we choose our little dramas. We could have absolute joy, and instead we choose illness, pain and fear. We could have unlimited and unchanging love, and instead we choose a pale imitation. And we call this life and revel in the next emotional high, all the while waiting in dread for the inevitable plunge into darkness. This is not life. This is death by degrees.

All we need to break free of this vicious cycle is a little willingness. We don’t even need complete willingness, just a little willingness. We can say, “God, I am willing to entertain the thought that I want your gifts, instead of what I have given myself. I am willing to consider that there might be a better way; that life doesn’t have to so closely resemble hell.” When I have done this, I have opened the door of my mind just a crack. I have peeked through that crack and invited God in. He will take full advantage of even that small bit of willingness on my part. His radiant Light will begin to flow in through that small opening, lightening the dark places in my mind. His angels will slip through to support my every small effort with their strength. His Voice will become more distinct in my mind. The change in my life that results from this small effort on my part will motivate me to open that door wider.

Once I have decided to turn my back on the world with its pathetic offerings, and have decided to place my faith in God’s gifts, it is only a matter of staying vigilant for God. The world will continue to tempt me, offering unlimited distractions to regain my attention and my allegiance. Jesus experienced this, too, in His forty days of temptations. The world and all its “glories” were laid at his feet, and all he had to do was accept them. Jesus saw them for the pale imitations they were, and turned his back on them.

And so must we, if we seek a spiritual awakening. God did not leave us alone to find our way home. We have the Holy Spirit to turn to when we are unsure how to respond to anything the world offers. Some of its gifts seem good and some of them seem bad, but they are all the same if they do not come from our Father.

We live in the world and so we need things, but there is a way of having them that will not hurt us. A course I took put it like this: “When we ask for things of the world on our own, we are asking for hell whether we realize it or not. When we let the Holy Spirit guide the prayer of our heart we are returned to our natural place in Heaven.”

It is not hard to learn to bring all thoughts to the Holy Spirit for his interpretation. It only requires practice, and life provides plenty of practice opportunities. I had a chance to practice this quite recently. My daughter, Sheryl had surgery that became infected and she had to go in for more surgery. During this ordeal, the world offered me great drama. I could feel perfectly justified in spending my days and nights in fear. After all, who wouldn’t under the circumstances, considering the pain my daughter was suffering and the potential danger.

In fact, that is exactly what I chose, at least at first. I recognized from my loss of peace that I had chosen against God. I gave myself some quiet time, and I brought all of this stuff to the Holy Spirit. I told Him how hard it is to put my fears aside, but that I was willing to do so. I told Him that it was hard for me to imagine feeling any differently in the circumstances, but I was willing to see this in another way. I gave the Holy Spirit what willingness I had, and asked Him to heal my unwillingness. It seemed, at first, that it was just too hard to release my fears to God, but that is the miracle. I only need to be willing to do so. I don’t have to heal my thoughts. That is the Holy Spirit’s job. He heals my mind and gives me another way to see.

The Holy Spirit gave me a new vision. He showed me the whole and perfect child of God behind the weak and vulnerable person I had been seeing. He reminded me that I have a purpose and that purpose is to keep God’s Vision of Sheryl. What we focus on grows and becomes stronger. The longer I held God’s Vision of Sheryl, the more real it became for me. Soon, the fear and anxiety began to melt away as their cause faded from my mind. I began to have dreams of healing rather than dreams of death.

I contacted friends and asked them to hold this vision with me, and also to see me as strong in my purpose. As we join in God’s work, we become stronger. Remember what Jesus said about when two or more are gathered in His name. And so, in His name I gathered strength.

When my eyes were drawn to the picture the world was offering me, I returned my thoughts to the Holy Spirit and asked Him to renew God’s Vision for me. When I thought, “But what if she gets really sick?” the Holy Spirit reminded me that no matter what seems to happen in the world, Sheryl rests in God. God is her strength and her safety.

As I chose God over the world, all the fears and anxieties continued to dissolve, and were replaced with certainty and love and peace. Each time I was tempted to look at what the world seemed to offer, I repeated the process. Each time I accepted God’s gifts instead of the worlds, I became stronger in my commitment, and it became easier to do.

Probably we have all experienced turmoil and chaos in our lives. Some of us have experienced grief. There may have been moments when you have felt abandoned and wondered where God had gone. Well, know this: God has not gone anywhere and neither have you. You are in God where He placed you, and nothing can change that. You need only awaken to His love and His care to bring this awareness back into your life. “In God, we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)

Rev. Myron Jones is a Pathways of Light minister living in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Email: revmyron@hotmail.com

Jesus Is Alive and Well In Us

by Rev. Barbara Kraetsch

Jesus lives in me. How often do you think about this statement? Do you think about it at all? Some may not think these are very important questions. However, these questions hold the key to peace and the feeling of security in our lives. The Son of God lives as us. We are one with this energy, this power of God, in a very real way. It creates our real life. How could we not think it was important to look at how often we consider what our real existence is.

So many people get caught up in the details of physical life. There is the commute to work, job stresses and deadlines, mulish co-workers, angry bosses, the commute home, the needs of family, home maintenance, and the list can go on and on. These details seems to make up our “real” life. We feel intimately connected to them most of the time because it appears as if we can never escape them.

They do not appear in our minds as activity worthy of a Son of God, part of the Christ Self. We relegate that supposed activity to work or lives that we deem other worldly, perhaps ministering to the poor or sick, religious life, or something, anything other than the mundane details of a relentlessly busy life to get by or make ends meet. These details take on a lot of importance in our minds when there are bills to pay each month.

For some, the thought of the living Christ comes to mind at Sunday worship services. For others, there is daily prayer or meditation time in which they allow Christ to live in their minds for a short time. These times bring a deeper awareness of peace, but then soon seem to be forgotten in the performing of worldly functions. After all, there are schedules, deadlines, paperwork, emails, and the family requires dinner. There is the satisfaction of knowing that at least an effort has been made to pay attention to the spiritual component of life. And one can remember these experiences from time to time during the day or week as a help to be kindly and forgiving.

The question is, is this sufficient, and the answer is no. This is not sufficient. It’s not even close, unless we want to walk the world like zombies or robots, devoid of real joy and happiness, but subsisting on substitutes of mechanical body pleasure. Zombies walk half alive. The robot’s battery wears out regularly, and it needs a “fix.” This isn’t life. It’s wandering the world in search of fulfilling some purpose that seems to be just out of reach, just beyond our grasp. If only there were more time or energy, most people whine, so that I could do what needs to be done. Is this kind of life sufficient?

There is only one answer to a life that is sufficient, a life that meets our purpose for being alive. That goes back to the statement of truth that Jesus lives in me, and to the question about how often we think of this. We find this answer inside ourselves and then take it with us wherever we go. To the extent that we can remember that Jesus is alive and well and lives in us and through us, we can be at total peace in all we do and everywhere we go. This, of course, takes more remembering than once a week, or once a day, or even several times a day. It takes remembering all the time. As a practical matter, remembering as often as we can goes a long way to making for a more peaceful and joyful life.

Remembering is not so hard, if we commit to practicing. There is the practice of brief daily meditations or prayers, certainly at the beginning and ending of the day, and often throughout the day. Little post-its or reminder cards can remind us to take just a moment to remember that Jesus is alive and well in us. This need not be fancy or formal, just a simple little reminder at our desk, in our car, on the refrigerator, to give our lives over to God. Perhaps we play some music with a spiritual theme, or listen to a book on tape as we drive or work about the house. Any reminder to take a moment to think of God will do. These are not difficult if we are willing.

A commitment to remembering God more than we do now supposes that we think it is important to do so, that it is just as important as the every day functions and deadlines at work, or getting meals on the table or the laundry done for the family. And if we do think that remembering God is important, just as important as the laundry, then why do we not have a reminder on the washing machine and dryer to take a moment to thank God for the blessing of being alive to do it. It is the infusing of all our little details of life with the love of God that makes our life real and purposeful. In this Jesus lives in us for He remembers His Father always. When we remember with Him, we live in His peace and joy.

The Christ Self that we are lives a life of love and peace. It lives in the purpose given at creation. There is only the one purpose in every moment and that is to remember the Love of God and that everyone is part of that Love. That is what we are called to do, just remember who we are in all that we do. In this way Jesus lives in us. When we are aware of Jesus living in us, there is the feeling of complete fulfillment, complete peace, complete safety. Isn’t this worth remembering and taking the time to remember? Spending a few more moments each day remembering the peace of God is ours already, always has been and always will be, seems worth the trouble to put a little note of reminder where it will be seen. With practice the habit grows to remember more and forget less that God is always with us because we are one with Him.

The Christ lives as me. The Christ lives as you. The Christ lives as all of us. The Son of God is not remote or separate from us. We are Him. Why not remember a little more often this wonderful truth, this great source of joy and peace. The rewards of remembering far outweigh the little effort it takes to do so. A few more minutes of remembering can transform a seeming dismal or mundane life into one of great power because the power of love is allowed to be at work, be at the commute, be with the family, be wherever we go. When we remember to allow the power of love to be in our lives in a real way, Jesus lives through us in a real way. We bless the world every moment we remember that Jesus lives as us. The details of our outward lives need not change in big ways, or any way at all, but perhaps they may. What is important is the remembering we bring to the details. This is what makes all the difference.

Rev. Barbara Kraetsch is a Pathways of Light minister living in Hartford, Wisconsin.

Email: kraetsch@execpc.com

Nothing Has Changed

by Revs. Mary & Robert Stoelting

The night before writing this article we asked the Holy Spirit to bring us inspiration. The following is what transpired:

Mary — While I was showering, the idea kept coming to me: Nothing has changed. Then a picture came to me. When I was a child, I had a picture of Jesus across from my bed. When I woke up in the morning, there he would be, reassuring me that no matter what seemed to be happening in my life, he was there. His picture reminded me that everything was going to be all right. This picture was the face of kindness, the face of gentleness.

Now, when I read in the Course that the face of Christ is all there is to see, I am reminded of that picture. Through that picture, I am reminded that nothing has changed. No matter what story is seeming to be told in the moment with all its ups and downs, twists and turns, the fact is that, “The sight of Christ is all there is to see. The hand of Christ is all there is to hold. There is no journey but to walk with Him.” (T-24.V.7:7,9-10) I am reminded that nothing has really changed. Everyone is still as God created them. If I am willing to remember the truth, I am willing to see the face of Christ. I am willing to see that nothing has changed. Love is still Love, and no dream to the contrary can change that. I am being gently guided to remember the constancy of truth, the changelessness of Love.

Many times it seems very enticing to follow the dream’s story line. When I am watching a movie, I want to watch it to the end to see how the story turns out. Many times the story is like “The Perils of Pauline,” with one problem after the next to overcome. More than once I have asked myself, “Why am I attracted to these stories? Why am I drawn to them?” Last night we watched a program called, “Extreme Makeover Home Edition.” In the program, an eight year old girl who had been in a children’s hospital cancer ward requested to have the grey and cheerless ward made over with bright colors. She wanted other children to have a more cheerful environment as they were going through their cancer treatment.

The producers decided not only to bring in a team of Disney artists to redo that wing of the children’s hospital, but they also decided to build a big, beautiful home for the girl’s family. The family had six children and their home was very cramped. Instead of renovating the old home, they leveled it to the ground and started over. On that same ground a new home was erected. Volunteers came from near and far to help bring this family a new home that would abundantly meet all their needs.

It was so touching to see this story unfold. It reminded me of what the Course is teaching us regarding letting go of the old ego “home” we built in our insanity. We have a poster beside our bed that says, “To every apprehension, every care, and every form of suffering: I will forgive and this will disappear.” (ACIM W-pI.193.13:3-4) I see this as the means by which we level the old home that no longer serves us. We do this letting go by releasing ego thoughts when they come up. When “The Perils of Pauline” stories run in our minds, we now have a way to choose differently. With every apprehension and every concern, we can remind ourselves, “I will forgive and this will disappear.”

As Course students we are learning that this clears the way for the Holy Spirit to bring us an awareness of our real Home, the House that Love built. We are learning that we all live in this same magnificent Home, where all our needs are always met. As we continue to let our minds be changed by the Holy Spirit, we are gradually being brought to an awareness of our real Home, the Home we never really left. We have just been feverishly dreaming up stories of leaving home and being alone and friendless. But these stories were never true.

The awareness of our eternal Home comes to us as our willingness to awaken to it increases. We learn that we have never left. We learn that the sight of Christ really is all there is to see. Nothing has happened to change God’s Son. In truth there never were separate minds with separate and unique bodies. “The Perils of Pauline” stories never happened. They were all made up. We have remained safe at Home in the Mind of Love all the while.

The Course is teaching us that this is our lesson to learn now. We know the ending and we are all winners together. The losing stories are simply not true. Our job is to remove our attachment to these trauma drama stories. They do not bring us peace. They have only brought us fear and guilt and pain. We realize that we can be done with believing in these stories. We realize that we can forgive, or let these stories go. We can let go of deciding what anything means on our own. We can let go of judging for ourselves alone what is real and what is not real. We can let go of thinking we have a private mind with private thoughts we do not share.

The good news is that in letting go, or forgiving, these old trauma drama stories, our real Home is revealed to us. We come to realize that our real Home fills our every need. Only our real Home brings us true and everlasting happiness. It is up to us to decide to accept the truth of our real Home now. Our real Home is waiting for our acceptance.

As we wake up, we return to the truth that the sight of Christ is all there is to see. The hand of Christ is all there is to hold. There truly is no journey but to walk with Him. We return to the awareness that nothing has changed God’s Son. Despite the appearances of the stories, we are all God’s one Son. Together we share His one Mind. This willingness to share requires a willingness to let go of the private stories, the private trauma dramas, the private judgments.

Our true Home is there now, waiting for us. As we are willing to give up our belief in littleness, the magnitude of our true Home comes into our awareness. We are one with the united Mind of Love. We all have the same Home and are the same Home. As we are willing to listen, Jesus reminds us that we are in Heaven because we are Heaven. Like the prodigal son, we have dreamed of going away awhile. Now we are returning, grateful that our Father has a banquet waiting for our return. As we awaken, this is the universal truth that we learn: Nothing has happened to change God’s Son. Love is. God is. Nothing else is real.

Robert — The fact that nothing has changed is the basis for forgiveness. As we remember that we remain Love as we were created by Love, we realize that nothing ever really happened that needs to be forgiven. True forgiveness is the recognition that there is nothing to forgive. There never was justification for guilt.

With the help of the Holy Spirit in our minds, we can learn to recognize that the stories of attack and loss, fear and guilt are just dreams. When we become aware they are just dreams, the automatic next step is to disregard them. It’s as easy as disregarding our dreams when we wake up in the morning. With our eyes wide open, we have no trouble recognizing that the images and stories we experienced in sleep were really nothing because they had no effect. Nothing changed.

As we learn to bring all of our stories to the Holy Spirit and receive His perception, we realize that these stories have no effect. They change nothing. The Holy Spirit helps us open to a new way of seeing that disregards what the body’s eyes see. The Holy Spirit shows us His vision of reality. In that vision we see that only Love is real. With His help every situation becomes a lesson in Love. Every situation becomes a lesson that moves us closer to the full recognition that we remain Love as we were created to be. There is nothing else. Love is our Home.

Mary & Robert Stoelting are co-founders of Pathways of Light. They live in Kiel, WI.

Email: office@pathwaysoflight.org

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