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April-June, 2022

The Island

by Rev. Joyce Peebles, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

Someone said, “The island of knowledge is surrounded by the shore of ignorance.” I am this island of Love surrounded by all my false beliefs. This ego body knows nothing of real knowledge for it was made for the opposite purpose, which is to prove I am a separate individual, somehow lacking and alone. This mindset is the ignorance Jesus is telling us about in A Course in Miracles.

I have felt guided, even “pushed” at times, to do things. This guidance is always provided in small increments, which I now know is related to my willingness to receive. It also seems to come on a need-to-know basis. The impatient side of me wants the whole enchilada now. Holy Spirit can only give me what I am willing to accept. My fear stands in the way. I have not always been willing to see my fear and resistance. Very slowly I am learning to trust what the Holy Spirit tells me is true.

Despite thinking of myself as spiritual and having this guidance, I have gone through this life being judgmental of myself and others and until most recently not knowing why. I was unaware that in reality I can not judge anyone but myself. What I see in the world is a projection of my own guilt onto others.

Asking to see clearly, I now can see many instances where I treated others insensitively. Enveloped in my own pain, I focused on getting my specialness needs met. My past reactions, being ego-based, did not focus on how other people might be affected by my actions. For the most part, I was concerned with how I felt about what others were doing to me. 

Elisabeth Kubler Ross wrote, “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”

At this time, I am practicing with love and compassion, rather than reacting from fear and anger.

ACIM tells us that thoughts are not neutral. What stood in the way of my understanding was believing I needed to analyze the world and clinging to the idea that I was a victim. With practice I am eliminating these ideas through quieting my mind and listening, thereby changing my perception of circumstances.

The mind is like an old-fashioned chalkboard. It is difficult to totally erase what has been written there. The writing can faintly be seen even after the initial attempt to erase has been done. The false thoughts in my mind are erased by my continued practice of forgiveness which replaces them with reality.

There are only two voices I can listen to. I have chosen ego thinking when I feel resistant to quieting myself and waiting for Guidance. It has been helpful to imagine putting a bubble around an ego thought and watching it float away.

I read lesson 356 (1:1-3) “Father, You promised you would never fail to answer any call your Son might make to You. It does not matter where he is, what seems to be his problems, nor what he believes he has become. He is Your Son, and You will answer Him.”

I came to this earth plane for only one reason — to heal my mind. In the forgiveness process I discovered there are no neutral thoughts, and the only one who could make me a victim or treat me unfairly was me.

The events in my “life” have not been random. Everything is truly for my best interest, as it has all been an opportunity for healing to occur. Each time I have screwed up, I have chosen to see differently, thereby erasing my faulty thinking from the chalkboard in my mind. What is more, I have been given these opportunities over and over until I finally learned the lessons. Ultimately, I will recognize the innocence beyond every circumstance and event. Salvation is the knowledge that I forgive myself for my mistaken thoughts of separation.

Rev. Joyce Peebles is a Pathways of Light minister living in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Phone: 501-701-8399

© 2022, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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April-June, 2022

The First Tuesday of the Month

by Rev. Larry Glenz, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

I am very grateful for the Minister Touch-in call on the first Tuesday of the month at 11am ET. It is an opportunity for Pathways ministers to share how their ministry and their spiritual life is unfolding. It just feels good for me to share my gratitude for the program in my life that focuses me on Holy Spirit and the book that speaks God’s Word to me.

I am in my 28th year as a Course student and my 14th year as an Ordained Ministerial Counselor (O.M.C.) for my global church, Pathways of Light. I had no desire to take on a title such as Reverend or Minister. I did, however, want to take the Course deeper. Although I considered ACIM to be a self-study path of mind training, I wanted to share it with other Course students.

I explored quite a few organizations that studied the Course. They had websites and sent emails about the Workbook lessons. They hosted conferences with the most well-known authors of A Course of Miracles based literature. They published monthly or bi-monthly or quarterly magazines that gave a wealth of information for those hungry for explanations.

I do not remember what it was that most attracted me to Pathways of Light. Robert and Mary Stoelting had developed more than a global church. They had a spiritual college with both courses in Minister training and ACIM Practitioner courses for those who just wanted to take the Course deeper.

Although the ACIM Practitioner courses seemed to fit my needs and desires, I somehow ordered the first binders of the minister training courses. It seems to me now that Holy Spirit’s plan was for me to be ordained at the same time that I was retiring from my 36 years as a high school social studies teacher.

When my friends and colleagues asked me what I planned to do with my retirement at age 58, I had no answer. I knew I was passionate about the study of ACIM but I never saw myself as a reverend. I kept it quiet, however, that I had received my ordination just five months before my days in the classroom were over.

Looking back now I have to smile. I had been taught for many years to let go of my plans and listen to the Voice for God. I was lucky enough to have a nice teaching pension, a part-time job as a bartender, and a working wife. I could let the ministry unfold according the Holy Spirit’s plan. I was not to lead but merely follow.

Then my son Kevin died suddenly from a heroin overdose. Kevin had struggled for seven years of opiate addiction. He had several periods of recovery, followed by eventual relapses. But a year before his fatal relapse, he had recovered in a rehab in Iowa, lived with loving cousins in Iowa, fell in love with a beautiful woman and had a baby girl, Olivia. He looked like he was doing well.

The tragedy of losing my son sent me deeply into the arms of the Holy Spirit. I asked for strength to help me and my family to heal from the unimaginable pain from this loss. I wanted to be strong for Kevin’s only brother, for his mom, for my wife Laura, and all those who loved Kevin.

And God gave me the strength I asked for. I wrote and published the book Forgiving Kevin in less than two years from the time of his passing. I receive many invitations to speak to middle school, high school, and college students. I greatly enjoyed that.

I council parents of addicted kids and console those that have lost their child to opioid overdoses. I attend Al-Anon meetings and have coffee or lunch with those people who want to talk about their difficulty in experiencing addiction in a loved one.

During all these years I have had people reach out to me in different ways.. The only professional training I had was my devotion to Holy Spirit through my Minister Training and ACIM Practitioner courses of Pathways of Light.

I continue to coach the same lacrosse team for the past 50 years; the last 14 as a volunteer assistant. I feel like I am the unofficial team chaplain. I focus on the brotherhood and the loving connection we are developing — a deep friendship that lasts a lifetime.

I put the Holy Spirit in charge of my ministry. People and opportunities just seem to show up. I receive invitations to speak publicly and also meet individually. Nothing seems to heal me more than speaking with others who are suffering and letting God’s Voice guide me. My favorite function as a Reverend, however, is to officiate the weddings of my family, friends, and former students and athletes. It is a great joy.

My ministry has developed on its own with Spirit in charge. It is an unconventional ministry but it seems to have been given to me. I have a weekly ACIM group and work individually as a mind healing partner with students studying the ACIM Practitioner courses from Pathways of Light. I also participate weekly on the Pathways Sunday service teleconference and develop friendships with Pathways ministers.

On the first Tuesday of the month, I enjoy speaking and listening to the Minister Touch-in call. The ministers share how their spiritual journey fulfills them despite the challenges and lessons learned from both enjoyable and unenjoyable circumstances.

The Minister Touch-in has become a favorite space to express and share my experiences as a minister. I feel the gratitude that the ministers express for the Guidance they have been given. And I am grateful for my ministry every day.

Rev. Larry Glenz, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Long Beach, NY. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Website: larryglenz.com

© 2022, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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April-June, 2022

Plan, What Plan? Spirit’s of Course

by Rev. Robin Singler, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

This journey of undoing the concepts I believe in sure is a ride of surprises! The last couple of years of my life have been a fast-moving series of changes: Leaving a stable job to move to three different states, getting divorced, relying on the kindness of others for places to live, recovering from a disabling knee injury, and bouncing from job to job with little more than a couple weeks of cash in my bank account at times.

Each event along the way has come with intense periods of darkness; I’ve had to face my belief that events and circumstances could have been avoided if only I’d been better at something; forgiveness, making decisions, loving myself and others, practicing the Course, etc. If I weren’t so flawed, stupid and resistant, I wouldn’t have to go through this, that and the other thing. The main message these thoughts tell me is that I’m not good enough, and that everything “bad” is my fault and I deserve punishment.

These periods of deep suffering always have the same result, though. Eventually I am brought to the point where I’ve had enough pain and I take a BIG step back in my mind and remember that God doesn’t agree with me, that I must be wrong. How could I be as guilty and condemned as I tell myself I am? The habit of relying on my own interpretations of my life is being undone with each life event.

As I’m willing to surrender and let Spirit help me, I see that the events in my life are necessary to lead me back to my True Self within, the only place where any lasting relief comes from. Suddenly my mind is lifted into higher awareness and what I’ve judged as being so wrong becomes a tremendous gift of healing.

I realize I’ve been given just what I need in the present and that I really can trust that the events are not happening as a punishment; they are miracles wrapped in packaging I would never have welcomed in the form they came in. Then I find I have great strength to draw from that is not my own, and I can move on to the next step with gratitude and greater trust. Then the next big change comes and the process starts again.

Most recently, Spirit sent me to Wisconsin to live with my mom and brother, which is where I’ve been since last October. I’ve been avoiding looking closely at these relationships and letting them be healed for over 40 years, and while it’s been very challenging to feel the feelings of wanting to change family, once again I’m letting go of the need to fix or change any of it.

Spirit is showing me I don’t have a choice if I’m to be happy. It’s just that simple. I have to let go of what I’ve been holding onto since I was a child; the story of victimization, the need to blame and take responsibility for the dynamics that make me feel so uncomfortable. I’ve been shown that its safe now to let it be as it is; it’s why I’ve been sent here. There is no other purpose to my being here, and now its time to move onto the next change.

I received strong guidance last month that this phase is ending and I’m to leave this living situation. When I reached out to Robert and Mary at Pathways of Light to post something to the Minister’s Forum about living with others on the ACIM path, they invited me to come live with them in Huntley, which is less than two hours from where I currently live.

Oh my Lord, I’ve been given such a miracle! By the time this article is published, dear reader, I’ll be moved into a beautiful space held in the Purpose of Awakening from the dream of separation and will be supporting this wonderful organization in many ways. It was so easy; no manipulation or planning was needed on my part! I’m still getting used to how easy Spirit makes everything when I step back and let Him lead the way and place my trust in Him. What an amazing gift!

Of course He’s not done undoing my belief in vulnerability! Just this week, I was unexpectedly released from the work-from-home job I’ve had the last three months. I thought the job would continue for some time, but I was wrong again. The thoughts of unworthiness and fears around money came up but they are passing by quickly.

If the last three years have taught me anything, its that Spirit always has a plan for me, and I can’t understand it from my limited perspective so there’s no use in trying. He’s told me, “You’ll always have a place to land” and He means that in every aspect of my life. I trust that this miracle move and the release from my job will bring gifts that I can’t possibly comprehend from where I now stand.

I’m willing to step forward and rely on the Spirit for my safety and Peace instead of trying to find it in my own plan which has never worked or even come true. Who’s plan? Certainly not mine. Life is much easier to navigate when I don’t try to steer it. Spirit is in the drivers seat and I can kick up my feet, relax and enjoy. And that is cause for celebration and gratitude.

Rev. Robin Singler is a Pathways of Lightminister living in Huntley Ilinois. 
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2022, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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April-June, 2022

How Would You Have Me See This?

by Rev. Dan Strodl, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

I try not to read the news because I see it as ego food, and I feel more peaceful not knowing what’s going on in the world. But in the last few days news stories have been coming to me while chatting with neighbors, emails from my family, and phone calls from friends. They have all been talking about Putin invading the Ukraine, and Russia putting the world on nuclear alert.

I couldn’t resist finding out more about what’s happening, so I dived into the news, and the more I delved, the more I was filled with terror! I couldn’t shake it off and I was stuck in hell.

But then I remembered that I have a Guide that is always there for me, and will bring me back to peace. So I took my terror to the Holy Spirit and asked… “How would you have me see this?” And
this is what came to me:

“The world has a new fear story keeping them captive in the ego’s prison. Fear that the Russians will retaliate to sanctions placed on them with a nuclear attack. They have their missiles poised, and fear is running rampant.

But you don’t have to be captured by the world’s insanity. Just ignore it. Don’t talk about it or read about it. That will hook you into the fear.

If fear crosses your mind, remember… “I could see peace instead of this.” And send all your brothers blessings.

The whole world is suffering in the hellhole of fear and needs your Love. Send blessings to Putin, to Russia, to the Ukraine, and to all the world. Your blessings are invisible gifts of Love that will lift your brothers up out of hell and into Heaven. And the gift you give to them is a gift you give to yourself.

You are a teacher of God, and you are perfectly placed to bring peace into the world through your loving thoughts. Stay neutral today to fear stories… and use them as an opportunity to bring Love into the world.”

Rev. Dan Strodl is a Pathways of Light minister and publisher of Miracle Worker magazine in London, UK. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Visit Miracle Network online at www@.Miracles.org.uk

© 2022, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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