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July-September, 2012

The Mirror

by Rev. Melissa Ketchum, O.M.C.

Holy Spirit finds a way to speak to us and guide us even if we have tied a blindfold over our eyes and have shoved wads of cotton in our ears. Over the past few weeks since my ordination on May 20th, I have been in a frantic panic to start my ministry-based business — get my website on search engines, find every inexpensive advertising source available, check my email fifty times a day for wedding leads …or any leads. I was consumed. Obsessed. Being an unemployed single mother with a mortgage and two kids, I felt panicked to “make money.”

During my panicked state, I discovered strange things happening to me. First, I wasn’t praying or meditating as much as usual, and I wasn’t hearing Holy Spirit. I started to feel lost. I rationalized this at first, assuring myself that this was a temporary, necessary burst of energy that was an inevitable part of living in a money-based world. Perhaps I could have continued my “needing-to-make-money-charade” indefinitely, but I noticed something else disturbing happening to me as well. After a year since the occurrence, I began to once again grow hateful, angry and bitter at my ex-fiancé, who stuck me with some wedding bills that I had placed on my credit card. The wedding didn’t happen, but the bills needed paid anyway, and it was my credit at stake.

Here I was revisiting year-old lost funds, and blaming the “evil” person, who dropped the bills in my lap, for my current financial situation. So the attacks began — hateful texts and even more hateful thoughts. In the midst of my attack, the mirror concept popped into my mind and I asked myself, “How is this reflecting what I need to work on inside myself?” “Nonsense,” my ego retorted, “I would never do that to anyone! I am merely a victim of a terrible person.” I judged. I felt justified. The situation with the ex-fiancé, of course, came to no satisfactory resolution. We merely rehashed the same tired circle of blame and judgment.

It wasn’t until today that I looked in the mirror. The blindfold was gently removed from my eyes during the teleconference for Spiritual Relationships Counseling training. I brought my mirror question up during the class, “What if people don’t see the connection between what they draw into their lives and their own unhealed places? What if the mirror concept just isn’t valid for some situations?” These words from a fellow student sent me into a tail-spin of self-examination, “If you spot it, you got it.” Thanks Paul.

I began to replay the past three weeks in my mind. My greed. My feelings of lack of abundance. My fear. My self-doubt. My lack of love for my brothers. And I began to picture what my ministry would look like if I created it from this place. Holy Spirit, in a rush of teaching, reminded me what my Function is — to love my brother unconditionally, so that we can both be saved, and in return save the brotherhood.

Now I forgive myself for what I never really did and return to who I Truly Am. I remembered my first love, which is writing, so I write. And I will make an announcement at my ACIM group and at the Unity Church that I attend, “Free counseling for anyone who is interested in healing.” For those who come, I thank in advance for allowing me to practice the art of loving. The rest will work itself out.

But above all else, I’ll never forget — the mirror is always clear if we are willing to look.

Rev. Melissa Ketchum is a Pathways of Light minister living in Hubbard, Ohio.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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July-September, 2012

Teacher and the Learner: Serving as a Pathways Facilitator

by Rev. Larry Glenz, O.M.C.

I have learned from my study of A Course in Miracles “that to teach is to learn, so that teacher and learner are the same.”

I have been having a powerful experience from serving as a facilitator in the Ministerial Curriculum. Five years ago while studying these courses for ordination as a Pathways minister, I was consumed with the peril of my son Kevin’s drug addiction. Now I am reading my answers from that time and sharing them with my “student” Mike. More than two years after Kevin’s death, I realize how clearly I was being guided by Spirit and was being prepared to see the tragic results with a different vision. I was learning the power of true forgiveness.

A father/son relationship could be considered a classic “special relationship” by Course teachers/students. Resentments and grievances abound when one or both of the men involved see the other as not fulfilling his contract as father or son. Fear of disappointing the other leads to conflict, anger, and feelings of guilt. Projection causes perception and I projected enormous fear.

While Kevin struggled as an opiate addict, I was engaged in a mind-training process with my inner Guide through the Pathways courses. I was being guided through each course by reading the literature, listening to guided meditations, and answering questions on how these metaphysical concepts applied to my life. I was being trained in how to turn to Spirit, my Higher Power, to see the true innocence of my son despite his aberrant behavior as a heroin addict. But this understanding of his true innocence as a perfect Child of God was not coming easily for me during that period.

When meeting recently by phone with my student/teacher, Mike, we shared our answers to the questions and our comments on the processes from a ministerial course. I was actually reading Holy Spirit’s advice to me written by my own hand about reacting to Kevin. I did not realize that I was being spiritually strengthened for the hard road ahead. My role and Mike’s as teacher/learner or facilitator/student seem to reverse at times or they blend together so they are indistinguishable. This is the same with Sharyn Zenz, who serves as my facilitator for Miracles Practitioner Courses. We are mind healing partners; both of us are the teacher and the learner.

A student of A Course in Miracles sees the world as a classroom. Sometimes I see it as a weight room or a gym. I have to do the work to get spiritually stronger and more flexible. Repetition is effective in mind healing. I need to keep practicing in order to advance to higher levels. My role as a course facilitator and spiritual counselor is helping me to build mind healing strength and flexibility.

Practicing with a mind healing partner helps with Self revelation. It takes me deeper. It is the entrance to a holy encounter. The more I practice these concepts with a brother, the healthier my thinking becomes. These healing thoughts bring me a happier dream. I am able to receive and extend love more consistently. I am more able to let go of the darkness of my dream and to still keep all Kevin’s love in my heart. Certainly this is no small gift.

I give much credit to the process of serving as a facilitator for helping me to deal with great tragedy. I feel gratitude for the strength that has been the effect of this process. I am more ready to pause, step back, step aside, and let Inspiration guide. The result is healing. I feel the emotion of gratitude and I want to share it with my brothers. My experience confirms that the teacher and the learner are the same.

Rev. Larry Glenz, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Long Beach, New York.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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April-June, 2012

Ghosts, Monsters, Dragons and Police Officers

by Joanne Kraenzle Schneider, Ph.D., O.M.C. and Don Carver, Ph.D.

Just one and one-half miles from my home, there is a parking lot where I meet my running buddies. I drive this street nearly every day. A couple of days ago I was on my way to meet two of my running buddies. The sun was shining bright and the temperature was moderate. I was singing Neil Young’s “old man take a look at my life…” with the radio. Life was good and then when I was just about at the lot, out of the corner of my eye, a police car pulled out of its parking spot. Yup, busted! I pulled into the lot as usual as he pulled in behind me with his lights flashing and my running buddies standing there in their florescent yellow jackets with big grins on their faces. Busted again!

You know how the rest goes. I got a ticket for doing 43 in a 30. The police officer was nice and didn’t bust me for not having my driver’s license. The police officer was all business and did his job. Then we took off for our run.

Two miles into the run, when ticket experience crossed my mind, I was surprised by such a heavy feeling in my chest. I wasn’t able to immediately label this emotion but I described the feeling to my running buddies who proceeded to ask questions. Responding to the questions I recognized that I valued money and that I was going to waste about $125. Getting the ticket also symbolized to me that I was not a good girl, not perfect.

I finished the run and drove home (slowly), showered, and decided to sit with the emotion for a while. But by then it had dissipated enough that I could not recreate it.

The next evening I discussed this situation and the emotion involved with a Course friend. He reminded me about the dynamics of the ego and referred to that section in the Course. “No one can escape from illusions unless he looks at them, for not looking is the way they are protected. There is no need to shrink from illusions, for they cannot be dangerous. We are ready to look more closely at the ego’s thought system because together we have the lamp that will dispel it, and since you realize you do not want it, you must be ready.” (T-11.V.1:1-3)

My Course friend pointed out that the Course encourages us to look at our illusion, hold it in the light, put it on the table, and look at it. In my situation, I needed to ask myself what was under this heavy feeling. My running buddies were instrumental at helping me do this. I said aloud what was under the heavy feeling. “And how else can one dispel illusions except by looking at them directly, without protecting them?” (T-11.V.2:2) My Course friend went on to point out that any feeling that comes up is an opportunity to examine it or it will come up again and we must first look at it to undo it. “Let us be very calm in doing this, for we are merely looking honestly for truth. The ‘dynamics’ of the ego will be our lesson for a while, for we must look first at this to see beyond it, since you have made it real. We will undo this error quietly together, and then look beyond it to truth.” (T-11.V.1:4-6)

Then, as good friends do, he challenged me by reiterating with emphasis, “We will undo this error quietly together…” (T-11.V.1:6) Whoa, that was eye opening to me, my second lesson from this experience. Only then was I aware that I had not immediately turned to Jesus (or the Holy Spirit or God) to ask for a change in my perception. “The Bible tells you to become as little children. Little children recognize that they do not understand what they perceive, and so they ask what it means. Do not make the mistake of believing that you understand what you perceive, for its meaning is lost to you. Yet the Holy Spirit has saved its meaning for you, and if you will let Him interpret it, He will restore to you what you have thrown away. Yet while you think you know its meaning, you will see no need to ask it of Him.” (T-11.VIII.2:1-5) That is where I was. I believed I had figured it out and dealt with the emotion. Therefore, I had no need to ask for help. I had dissipated the emotion and moved on.

“Children perceive frightening ghosts and monsters and dragons, and they are terrified. Yet if they ask someone they trust for the meaning of what they perceive, and are willing to let their own interpretations go in favor of reality, their fear goes with them. When a child is helped to translate his ‘ghost’ into a curtain, his ‘monster’ into a shadow, and his ‘dragon’ into a dream he is no longer afraid, and laughs happily at his own fear.” (T-11.VIII.13:1-3)

Holy Spirit, help me trust that you will change my perceptions.

Reinterpret how I see this experience and help me learn the lessons YOU want me to learn.

Joanne Schneider is a Pathways of Light minister living in Festus, Missouri. Don Carver is an Interfaith New Thought Minister living in San Diego, California.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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April-June, 2012

The Planner

by Rev. Veronika Wilcox, O.M.C.

I have a planner
that is full of my plans.
Plans for this and plans for that.

I am fond of my planner.
It keeps me secure in the knowledge
That all is well in the future for me.

Where would I be without my planner?
Indeed, I might feel quite lost.
I might feel too free!

But soon I notice that all is not well.
There is somehow some tension.
My peace is not here.

I quiet my mind. I go within now
And ask Holy Spirit,
What I am to do now?

He smiles — one of His really
big smiles, and gently He says:

The future is Now.
Your thoughts in each moment
Are all you need watch.
Love or fear is all there is.

Only Love is real.
Only Love is present.
Therefore give Me your fear.

Rev. Veronika Wilcox is a Pathways of Light minister who lives in Merimbula, NSW, Australia.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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