Miracles News

Tweet

October-December, 2021

A Course in Miracles: Utilizing Literacy Strategies to “Make Meaning of the Course

by Rev. Barbara Adams, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

Learning is learning despite the content.

Individuals may have different learning styles yet the end objective is to acquire new (or modify existing) knowledge, behaviors, skills or values. Educators and educational researchers know that learning does not happen all at once. It builds upon and is shaped by previous knowledge and experiences. It is also molded by attitudes, values and beliefs. However, the one constant for a favorable outcome is the desire or willingness to learn. Without this aspiration, there can be little to no success.

What does this have to do with A Course in Miracles? The Course is presented by Jesus as a curriculum.  A means by which the manner of acting and interacting may be altered in order to find peace and remember the Truth. This particular method of “changing one’s mind” and thereby changing one’s decisions is accomplished through reading/listening, comprehending and applying.

Yes, students of ACIM are embarking on a journey of learning. Yet, at the outset, many new Course students get easily discouraged and give up. Whether it be the wording, the sentence structure, or the different use of terms that causes discouragement is difficult to say. But a sentiment in some manifestation of the following is heard over-and-over, “I started to read it but couldn’t understand it so I put the book down.”

As a student and teacher of the Course and as a former public school teacher, I can’t help but think, “There must be another way.” There must be another way of encouraging the beginning, as well as seasoned students to *make meaning of the life-changing teachings of the Course. Here’s another way: utilizing literacy strategies in order to *make meaning of the content.

No matter what learners are asked to learn or to become literate in, the strategies remain the same. One may become a literate reader, a literate mathematician, a literate artist, a literate athlete, a literate linguist, etc. Although the content may differ, the process of making meaning remains the same.

Literacy Strategies:

Connect

Predict

Visualize

Summarize

Question

Evaluate

Using literacy strategies with A Course in Miracles:

I’m going to present a passage from the Text of ACIM to use as an example throughout the demonstration of my point:

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” (T-16.IV.6:1)

Connect past learning and experiences to new learning:

Ask yourself: “What are examples in my life when I have built barriers to prevent myself from getting to know another person? How did I feel as a result?”

Ask yourself: “When did someone build barriers to keep me out of his/her life? How did this affect our relationship?”

Then ask yourself, “How do these examples better help me understand section T-16.IV.6:1 of the Course?”

Predict: Make predictions as to what would happen if you were to build barriers? Then, make predictions about tearing down barriers.

Ask yourself: “If I keep ignoring my new neighbors because they aren’t like me, what effect will that have on community-building in our neighborhood?

Ask yourself: “Every time my partner begins to say something I’m uncomfortable with, I have the tendency to put up my hand for him/her to stop talking? How would our relationship be better if I discontinued this pattern?

Then ask yourself, “How do these examples better help me understand section T-16.IV.6:1 of the Course?”

Visualize: Visualize yourself building barriers and breaking down barriers

Ask yourself, “When I quiet my mind and envision myself ignoring others, staying away from strangers, breaking off communication with my partner, what do I see happening with others? with myself? What do I feel when this happens?

Ask yourself, “When I quiet my mind and envision myself extending myself to others, reaching out to others, what do I see happening to them? To myself? How do I feel when this happens? How do they react?”

Then ask yourself, “How do these examples better help me understand section T-16.IV.6:1 of the Course?”

Summarize: After reading a sentence or a paragraph, stop, reflect and summarize it in your own words.

Ask yourself, “While I’m reading the newspaper or an on-line article, stop after either the first sentence or first paragraph and ask myself, ‘What did I just read? What is the author trying to say? How could I rephrase that? What meaning do I make from that?’”

Ask yourself, “After that conversation with __________ what did s/he actually say? What did s/he mean? If I were to summarize what ____________ said, what would I say?”

Then ask yourself, “How do these examples better help me understand section T-16.IV.6:1 of the Course?”

Question: Everything!

Ask yourself, “What did the President mean when he said that? Do I agree?”

Ask yourself, “What did my partner mean when s/he said that? Do I need more information?

Ask yourself, “What did the author mean when s/he wrote that? How could the paragraph above and below provide more meaning? How could the title provide insight? What does the chapter heading mean?

Then ask yourself, “How can these examples better help me understand section T-16.IV.6:1 of the Course?”

Evaluate: Take everything into account and determine its relevance, meaning, pertinence, reliability, source, etc.

Ask yourself, “I just read this story on Facebook, is it real? Can I trust the author? What’s the original source?”

Ask yourself, “I just heard this person speak about global warming. What’s his background and training? His experiences? His sources?”

Then ask yourself, “How do these examples better help me understand section T-16.6:1 of the Course?”

A Course in Miracles is one path to enlightenment/salvation/Path to Atonement/the Truth. Each of us has our own learning style, our own way of making meaning of the illusions of this world. We each have our own way of making meaning of the Course. If the above strategies seem like too many to contend with, start with one or two, then move further through the list. Whatever your process, find one that matches your learning style.

This method is simply “another way.”

Making meaning is simply another way of saying, “What does this mean to me? This process is different than simply reiterating the author’s words, the artist’s productions or the athlete’s movements. Making meaning puts the reader/audience/spectator in the position of interpreting the material. This process helps integrate the material into a person’s life experiences.

Rev. Barbara Adams, is a Pathways of Light minister living in Webster, New York. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Website: PeaceAndHarmonyMinistry.org (585) 633-8769

© 2021, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

---

Tweet

October-December, 2021

Being a Comforter in the World

Excerpts from Daily Inspiration on the Pathways of Light website

“What Comforter can there be for the sick [separated] children of God except His power through you? Remember that it does not matter where in the Sonship [the Comforter] is accepted. He is always accepted for all, and when your mind receives Him the remembrance of Him awakens throughout the Sonship. Heal your brothers simply by accepting God for them. Your minds are not separate, and God has only one channel for healing because He has but one Son. God’s remaining Communication Link with all His children joins them together, and them to Him. To be aware of this is to heal them because it is the awareness that no one is separate, and so no one is sick.” (T-10.III.2)

Our only meaningful purpose in the world is to bring healing to our brothers. To do this, we must accept the help of God’s Comforter, the Holy Spirit. God placed the Holy Spirit in our mind to teach us that we remain whole and complete as God’s one Son. Accepting this fact heals our mind. With this healed mind, we can comfort our brothers, for we will see the truth in them. We will not be deceived by the mistaken self-image our brother thinks he is.

To bring healing to the world, we need to be willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s help. His Love will comfort our minds, bringing us peace and happiness. Today we choose the Holy Spirit’s comfort by accepting His help to forgive the false idols we have made about ourselves and our brothers in the world. He will teach us to see the Love shine away the hate, let peace replace fear and let joy replace guilt.

Forgiveness Brings
the End of Illusions

“Can what has no beginning really end? The world will end in an illusion, as it began. Yet will its ending be an illusion of mercy. The illusion of forgiveness, complete, excluding no one, limitless in gentleness, will cover it, hiding all evil, concealing all sin and ending guilt forever. So ends the world that guilt had made, for now it has no purpose and is gone. The father of illusions is the belief that they have a purpose; that they serve a need or gratify a want. Perceived as purposeless, [illusions] are no longer seen. ⁸Their uselessness is recognized, and they are gone. How but in this way are all illusions ended? They have been brought to truth, and truth saw them not. It merely overlooked the meaningless.

“Until forgiveness is complete, the world does have a purpose. It becomes the home in which forgiveness is born, and where it grows and becomes stronger and more all-embracing. Here is [forgiveness] nourished, for here it is needed. A gentle Savior, born where sin was made and guilt seemed real. Here is His home, for here there is need of Him indeed. He brings the ending of the world with Him. It is His Call God’s teachers answer, turning to Him in silence to receive His Word. The world will end when all things in it have been rightly judged by His judgment. The world will end with the benediction of holiness upon it. When not one thought of sin remains, the world is over. It will not be destroyed nor attacked nor even touched. It will merely cease to seem to be.”

“To turn hell into Heaven is the function of God’s teachers, for what they teach are lessons in which Heaven is reflected. And now sit down in true humility, and realize that all God would have you do you can do. Do not be arrogant and say you cannot learn His Own curriculum. His Word says otherwise. His Will be done. It cannot be otherwise. And be you thankful it is so.” (M-14.1:1–2:12;5:9-15)

There is only one meaningful purpose for our seeming existence in the world. It is a purpose God assigned to the Holy Spirit and to His Son. We are to forgive every illusion. Only illusions obscure the reality of Heaven as our Home. Illusions make it seem that we are not in Heaven. They support the belief that separation from God is real.

God calls to us through the Holy Spirit to forgive the illusions that seem to separate His Son, our true Self, from His Love. His Love for His Son remains untouched. It is all that is true. Forgiveness peels away the false beliefs that make us feel unloved, abandoned, powerless and limited. They are unreal and therefore untrue.

Today let’s focus on accepting the Holy Spirit’s help to forgive the ego-made illusions and let the Love we are be revealed. Together we teach the world and ourselves that only Love is real. With each illusion forgiven we step closer to awakening to Love.

Excerpts from Daily Inspiration on the Pathways of Light website.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

---

Tweet

October-December, 2021

Manual for Teachers — Steps to Awakening

by Rev. Myron, Jones, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

Step 1. “A period of undoing. This need not be painful, but it usually is so experienced. It seems as if things are being taken away, and it is rarely understood initially that their lack of value is merely being recognized.”

When I first began the undoing process, I did not have the certainty I do now. I had to develop trust as I did the practice. When I was unsure that this was for my best good, undoing was indeed painful. It is surprisingly hard to put the difference into words.

Imagine that you had the ability to levitate, but you didn’t know about the ability, had no idea you could levitate. I come along and tell you to step off a cliff. I tell you that you cannot imagine the freedom you will feel when you realize you don’t have to worry about falling ever again. And to know this extraordinary freedom all you have to do is step out.

Even though you might trust me, or know you should trust me, you would be reluctant to give up the “safety” of the ground that seems to support you and keep you from certain death. You would value this sense of safety and be reluctant to let it go, and yet this trustworthy person is offering you the chance to be forever free of your fear of falling.

The true change being offered is that you would be giving up the sense of loss, vulnerability, and fear. But the outward appearance is that you would have to give up the safety of the ground under your feet. It would probably feel very frightening and very painful to contemplate and no matter how much you trusted me, extremely hard to take that first step into air.

Imagine now that you did finally step out and discovered that you really could levitate. The next time I told you that you could do something extraordinary you might experience fear, but you would have developed some trust and it would not be nearly so hard. You would have seen that I mean you only good. Suppose the next thing I tell you is that you can walk through fire and be unharmed. You will still be reluctant to let go of the safety of the place that has no fire, but you will consider my words with less trepidation than when you had the first experience of undoing a belief.

After many experiences of undoing, I know that they are all for my good, and I do trust the Holy Spirit. I have learned that I have valued all the wrong things. I have developed trust to the degree that this process is not seen as being as painful as it used to be and it is not protracted.

Step 2. “A period of sorting out. This is always somewhat difficult because, having learned that the changes in his life are always helpful, he must now decide all things on the basis of whether they increase the helpfulness or hamper it. … It takes great learning to understand that all things, events, encounters and circumstances are helpful. It is only to the extent to which they are helpful that any degree of reality should be accorded them in this world of illusion.”

For me the period of sorting out was mostly me arguing for what I wanted to keep. The hardest thing for me to relinquish was the desire to project blame. I really thought I needed this and that it was of great value to me. I didn’t put it in those words of course, but would argue that circumstances proved that it was clearly someone else’s fault and so in this case I was the victim.

My ex-husband was a heavy drinker and would often go out with his buddies and not come back until the early hours. I would not know where he was or if he was OK. I would imagine him driving drunk and getting into a wreck, maybe leaving the road and hitting a tree, sitting injured in the car unable to help himself. Many a night I lay awake playing out this nightmare in my imagination.

I would go through all the scenarios in my head and also through all the emotions. I would be afraid for him, afraid for us if he was injured or died. I would feel resentful and angry, thinking how unfair this was, and how unloving that he would put me through this. I could not see how this could be anything but his fault. I wasn’t the one who was behaving so thoughtlessly and I wasn’t the one who was causing so much grief for his family.

What had to be done to get out of this nightmare of my own making was to look past the apparent circumstances to the truth. He is innocent. I am innocent. No matter what it might look like, and no matter how I might feel, this is the truth. While circumstances shift appearances, our innocence remains the only true and unchanging fact.

From that place of clarity, I was able to see that my reluctance to withdraw my projections and accept responsibility for how I felt was the result of thinking that having him to project on was too valuable to give up. I really wanted my feelings to be caused by his behavior and the circumstances I found myself in. I was as afraid of giving up projecting blame as I would be if asked to step off that cliff I spoke of before.

I had to go through many such scenarios before I was fully convinced that there is no value in projecting blame. Now the temptation arises from time to time, or the old habit tries to reinstate itself, but I am not interested because I know it is not true. I place no value on that behavior, and in fact, I see it as detrimental to my peace, so even if I fall for it briefly I quickly let it go.

Step 3. “A period of relinquishment. No point in sorting out the valuable from the valueless unless the next obvious step is taken. …Therefore, the period of overlap is apt to be one in which the teacher of God feels called upon to sacrifice his own best interests on behalf of truth.”

Studying A Course in Miracles I have come to appreciate how Peter felt when Jesus called him to get out of the boat and walk on the water toward him. And like Peter, I have often stepped out onto the water only to become overcome by fear and to sink back into the ego, doubt and uncertainty seeming to pull me under.

What have I relinquished that I thought would be a sacrifice? Of course, there is the idea of projecting blame which I already talked about. I really believed this would be painful, and yet it was freeing, and I never miss it now.

I valued making plans on my own, but I thought this would be easy to give up. I hopped out of the boat on that one and went skipping across the water to Jesus, but then I would begin planning how my day should go, what I should do about a problem, where I should live, so many things that need my attention. That’s OK, Jesus, I’ve got this one. I’ll let you know if I need your help. And there I was, sinking back into the ego.

It turns out this one was more subtle. Projecting blame was obvious because I felt the fear and reluctance to abandon it so very strongly. But there were so many “little” ways to make plans that it hardly seemed necessary to bring Jesus into this. What did he care what I had for supper or whether I went shopping? Obviously, I need to help my daughter who is in financial trouble so I’ll just move in with her and we’ll fix up the little house on her property for me to stay in. No problem. I’ll let you know when I need your help, Jesus.

I’m learning that not asking what He would have me do and say, and where He would have me go is the way I keep the ego in place. It’s the way I feed the ego and help it grow stronger in my mind. It’s the way I slip more deeply into the dream.

I loved being with my daughter and her family, and will never regret that time, but it became obvious that I had not asked for guidance when I made those plans. Getting everything done was like trying to move upstream without a paddle. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Of course, if I make an unnecessary turn, the Holy Spirit goes with me and so I learned lessons, primarily that making plans on my own is not freedom. Instead, it is a way to stay imprisoned within a closed system of separation, in which attack, defend, fear, and guilt are my constant companions. You could say that all of this was perfect since it was so rich in opportunities to sort out and relinquish the valueless. I am quicker now to notice any tendency to make decisions on my own and no longer make that sorry choice very often.

Step 4. Now comes “a period of settling down.” This is a quiet time, in which the teacher of God rests a while in reasonable peace. Now he consolidates his learning. Now he begins to see the transfer value of what he has learned. … ‘Give up what you do not want, and keep what you do.’ How simple is the obvious! And how easy to do! … He will not go on from here alone.”

I don’t know about anyone else’s path, but mine has meandered a bit. I am reminded of a comic that I used to follow in the paper called Family Circle. The mom would send the little boy to another part of the house to get something and you could follow his circular route as he became distracted with all sorts of interesting but unrelated things. I’m sure his mom wondered how it could take him so long to go such a short distance.

Well, this has been me, too. I have been given this short and direct path to salvation. All I have to do is give up what I do not want, and keep what I do. But for a long time, I would see something up ahead that looked interesting and I would follow it, forgetting to notice if it was going to bring me closer to my goal, or take me away from it. In this way I wandered in and out of the first three steps, periodically stopping at step four to relax awhile and look back on what had happened.

It is at this step that I began to see that not only did I suffer when I made certain choices, but that I suffered every time I made those choices. I noticed that the form didn’t matter, but was just an ego distraction that I used to keep me unaware that I was making the same error over and over. I was dressing the same error in various costumes and pretending they were, therefore, different and so needed to be investigated.

The first couple of times I got to this place of relative peace and contemplation, I thought I was through. Having come through so much confusion and fear, and having made so much progress, that suddenly feeling this peace and having these insights was heady stuff. I was not through. I was taking a coffee break. ~smile~

This step is important because it allows me to rest and to see that I am, indeed, making progress. I began to see that the promises in A Course in Miracles are real. And it is at this step I began to gather my mighty companions. Some embodied and some unseen, these companions will be with me from now on, encouraging and supporting me, and helping me in ways I do not always discern, but only experience.

Step 5. “A period of unsettling. …The idea of sacrifice, so central to his own thought system, had made it impossible for him to judge. (Still believe in sacrifice sometimes) … He must learn to lay all judgment aside, and ask only what he really wants in every circumstance. Were not each step in this direction so heavily reinforced, it would be hard indeed!”

I cannot imagine how hard this step would be without Heavenly help. It was hard enough as it is. Jesus says that sacrifice is central to our thought system and I have learned that this is true, and I learned that it does not have to remain true. I have been guided out of suffering as I did my practices.

I began by learning to be aware of my thoughts so that I could realize how egocentric they were and become willing to be healed. I seemed to be sorting them out, separating what was valuable from what was valueless, and to some degree I was. But as Jesus says, I was not a good judge because I still believed in sacrifice, and this prevented me from choosing correctly.

Another error I made at first was to misunderstand my role. I thought it was my job to think differently, that is, to control my thoughts. This is not possible and only caused suffering. My task was not to control thinking, but only to notice that my thoughts were not my true thoughts, and to relinquish these thoughts to the Holy Spirit for correction.

What I learned during this period of sorting out was that I was not good at it, and that I needed help. I began by telling Holy Spirit, “Here is a belief that I have judged as valueless. Please correct it.” Over time I began to withdraw all judgment and asked the Holy Spirit to judge for me.  I would say, “Here is a belief. Is it valuable?”

I spent a long period of getting used to this way of practicing. The ego mind is very resistant to giving up what it considers is its domain. It wants to judge and will do so all the time without regard to the lack of helpfulness. I have learned to disregard its judgments.

At the beginning of this step my willingness was still pretty weak and I spent this time strengthening that willingness through desire. Willingness is not a matter of effort or doing, and the ego finds this confusing. It wants to do something to make all this happen and so I still remain vigilant noticing when the ego mind is taking over and letting that effort go.

In NTI, the Holy Spirit encourages us to become empty vessels through which He can communicate. I do this as I learn to disregard thoughts in the mind and experience more and more silence. As I have been able to give up ego thinking, my true thoughts, the thoughts I think with God, rise up in my mind without any effort on my part. I do not think them, really; I simply become aware of them.

I knew I was a beginner, a toddler taking my first shaky steps. My mind was quieter and I more peaceful, but I still had a ways to go before I was that empty vessel. I learned not to struggle. I saw that I achieved each step in its own time. I reminded myself frequently that there is nothing for me to do to make this happen faster except to desire it, to be willing for it, and to disregard the ego’s temper tantrums when I relinquished judgment and control.

Step 6. “A period of achievement. It is here that learning is consolidated. … This is the stage of real peace, for here is Heaven’s state fully reflected.”

I had to laugh when I looked back at previous evaluations of this step. The first time, all that I wrote was, “Sigh.” Ha ha ha.

I now have long periods of undisturbed peace and I have times when joy simply wells up in me, joy that is not attached to anything, that simply is. For a very long time, the peace and the joy didn’t last. I would suddenly feel anxious or sad or guilty. There seemed always to be a reason for this, something that happened in my life that pulled me out of this happy state.

Of course, this cannot be the case. I don’t actually react to what happens in my life. What happens in my life is a direct result of what happens in my mind. I then create the fiction that I don’t know why life picks on me, and I am just the innocent victim of circumstances. But I knew better, even as I lied to myself there was a place in me that knew better. I alone am responsible for everything in my life, so it must be that I kicked myself out of paradise. Again.

I’ve been teaching from The Obstacles to Peace, specifically, The Fear of God, and this week we were on The Lifting of the Veil. We stand before the veil that seems to hide from us the face of Christ, and yet we do not move it aside. We stand trembling in terror at the fear of God. And yet, this is what we have come for, to move the veil aside and remember God.

What remains undone? How do we overcome the fear of God? This is what the Course tells us:

“Before complete forgiveness you still stand unforgiving. You are afraid of God because you fear your brother. Those you do not forgive you fear. And no one reaches love with fear beside him.”

And so, I saw that my learning was not complete, my beliefs were not consistent if I still looked on my brother from time to time and saw him as the enemy. I would not awaken while I looked at him with the body’s eyes and believed what they told me, completely forgetting that they only report back to me what I wanted to see.

I am reminded of spring cleaning. I completely take apart a room so that I can clean under and behind everything. It might take a long while to do this job and if you come in while I am in the middle of it you might think it looks a lot worse than when I started. This is the way it seemed to me when I began this process. Everything was turned upside down and my life seemed more chaotic than ever.

At some point in my cleaning, everything starts going back into place and it looks a lot better. It’s neater, more organized and cleaner. The work is paying off. My process of awakening mirrors this as well. I have reached the point where the appearance of chaos is past and there appears to be order most of the time. I have cleaned up my act.

The final phase in spring cleaning is to go through the room looking for little things still out of place, looking for what I have missed as I put things in order. That is what I am doing now in my mind. I have done the work and I recognize when something is out of place, that is, when it doesn’t belong in my mind. I don’t worry that it is there; I simply remove it.

Holy Spirit, I am so very grateful for the shift in my mind that has occurred. And now, I am ready to completely awaken from this crazy dream and return my awareness to only God. Jesus said that it is possible even in this world to hear only the Voice for God. I am nearly there and it is my Heart’s desire that this be true for me all the time. I choose to know my brother as he is, not as I have had him be. Please help me to see when I forget my purpose so that I can quickly return to it. Please help me to remember that I need forgiveness of my brother, for we will share in madness or in Heaven together. And we will raise our eyes in faith together, or not at all.

Rev. Myron Jones, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Westlake, Louisiana. Read her inspiring Healing Journal articles on the Pathways website. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Myron’s website:
http://www.forgivenessisthewayhome.org

© 2021, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

---

Tweet

October-December, 2021

The Pothole

by Rev. Joyce Peebles, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

“Think what a happy world you walk, with truth beside you! Do not give up this world of freedom for a little sigh of seeming sin, nor for a tiny stirring of guilt’s attraction. Would you, for all these meaningless distractions lay Heaven aside?” (T-23.in.4:3-5)

A pothole is where I find myself when I say I want to understand some spiritual lesson but am not happy or at peace. A while back I planned a trip to go see my son who I had not seen in a long time. I had left him a message about when I could come see him and he did not return my call. Again, I felt the pain of rejection. This thought festered in my mind, my ego telling me I was unfairly treated yet once again. I even fantasized that this silent treatment could go both ways. If he called me and desperately needed my help, I would not talk to him. Even in that moment I was aware that the ego was in control. I had given up my “freedom for a little sigh of seeming sin.”  The pain in that perceived mindset was very real, rejection is painful.

The Course tells me what I am seeing is coming from my own mind and nowhere else. Lesson 189 5:1-4 says, “What would you see? The choice is given you. But learn and do not let your mind forget this law of seeing: You will look upon that which you feel within. If hatred finds a place within your heart, you will perceive a fearful world, held cruelly in death’s sharp-pointed, bony fingers. If you feel the love of God within you, you will look out on a world of mercy and of love.”

Remembering this, I quieted my mind which meant ceasing to listen to the shrieks of the ego. I told myself I was unhappy and wanted to feel better. Problem was I was unaware of the pothole I had fallen into.

Although I wanted to feel better, I was unwilling to give up my belief in lack and being unfairly treated. I wanted relief of my uncomfortable feelings, but not peace. Peace has a price tag and its all or nothing. That price is surrender. I could not give up my feelings of being unfairly treated halfway. I could see myself as separated (lacking love, vulnerable, and unfairly treated). Or recognize these were false ideas and see as God sees me whole (lacking nothing, certainly not love).

“Would you for all these meaningless distractions, lay Heaven aside?” The ego rears its head and says your son is not meaningless! You need him to act a certain way to feel loved. Holy Spirit’s Voice is gentle and soft, prompting me to make the choice that leads to peace. There were moments of self-pity and loneliness. Ultimately, I knew there is only one choice, for I cannot deny the Voice that speaks to me of unity and love. It draws me as nothing in this world can. I forgave my son for what he had not done. I choose to see myself as safe with God, invulnerable, lacking nothing.

“As you decide so will you see. And all that you see but witnesses to your decision.” All the pain I experienced was the result of my own thoughts. Jesus tells us what we see comes from our minds alone. Taking responsibility for what I saw created freedom. The world was not happening to me, I projected it outward. Self-limiting thoughts are depressing. I do not want them. Someone said the world has weapons of mass destruction. The ego has weapons of mass distraction.

Why wait to be happy? Miracles are immediate. I choose how I want to feel. This story I call my life is like watching a movie or play in a theatre. Imagine sitting in the balcony with Jesus and eating popcorn. I can laugh at the characters in the script, knowing I made it all up. Or I can choose sorrow by insisting I am the body itself and the play is real. In Jesus’ version of the story the characters take off their costumes when the play is done. I would not be unhappy with an actor in a play so why be unhappy with my son in the role he is playing? He played the part I wanted him to on some level and that character is not who he really is.

Lesson 340 says, “I can be free of suffering today.” “Father, I thank you for today, and for the freedom I am certain it will bring. This day is holy, for today Your Son will be redeemed. His suffering is done. For he will hear Your Voice directing how to find Christ’s vision through forgiveness, and be free forever from all suffering.”

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.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

---

Back to main page of Miracles News.

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution to support this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution with a credit/debit card, click here.
Click here to donate from your PayPal account.
Or send a check to Pathways of Light, 12530 Lions Chase Court, Huntley, IL 60142.