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The Empty Chair: Why My “Knowing” Almost Killed Me

by Rev. Maureen Yarbrough, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

A Lesson on the Arrogance of Inferiority

In any classroom, there is a student who fights. Sometimes they fight with loud arguments and intellectual posturing. Other times, they fight with a wall of silent, “perfect” competence.

I was the latter. I was the student who “fought” the Teacher by pretending I had already graduated. I didn’t realize that in the logic of the ego, “knowing” is the ultimate defense against healing.

The Mask of the Invincible

I walked into every room with a calculation already running: I assumed everyone else was smarter than me. To survive that perceived inferiority, I built a fortress of “Super-Confident Manager” and “Efficient Worker.” I was a world-class People Pleaser who always had the right answer, the right spreadsheet, and the right smile.

I was so busy managing everyone’s perception of me that I had no room left to be taught. “Resign now as your own teacher.” (T-12.V.8:3) When you are your own teacher, you are a prisoner of what you already believe. I was “teaching” myself that my worth was tied to my performance. To keep that exhausting lie alive, I drank. Alcohol was the chemical glue that held my mask in place, numbing the terror that if I ever stopped “managing”, I would be revealed as nothing.

The Arrogance of “Less-Than”

We often think of arrogance as thinking we are better than others. But A Course in Miracles suggests that deciding you are less than others is just as arrogant. It is the ego’s way of staying separate. By deciding I was inferior, I was telling the Universe: “I know more about my worthlessness than You do about my Light.”

“The arrogant must cling to words, afraid to go beyond them to experience which might affront their stance.” (W-186.5:5)

My “stance” was my efficiency. I used my “Super Manager” skills to keep the truth at a distance. If I was busy solving everyone else’s problems, I didn’t have to look at my own emptiness. I was a “Fighting Student” who was starving for the Truth but looked too “full” for anyone to feed me.

The Collapse into Freedom

I almost died because my mask became too heavy to carry. The miracle didn’t happen when I finally got “smart enough” or “efficient enough.” It happened when I ran out of breath.

Sobriety was the beginning of my “un-learning.” It was the moment I realized that in the eyes of God, “smart” and “stupid” don’t exist. There is only willingness.

“Your part is only to offer Him a little willingness to let Him remove all fear and hatred, and to be forgiven.” (T-18.V.2:5)

The Law of the Empty Chair

Today, I practice the “Empty Chair.” I no longer have to be the Expert. In a miraculous curriculum, the roles of teacher = Student.

The “Empty Chair” is a mental space where I step back and let a Higher Power lead. It is the “Beautiful Freedom” of not having to be right. When I stop fighting the lesson, I realize the Teacher was never my rival. The Teacher was the Love I was trying to earn through my “efficiency” all along.

• The Old Way: “I must know everything, so they don’t see I’m nothing.”

• The New Way: “I know nothing, so I can receive Everything.”

To the Student Who Is Still Fighting

If you find yourself correcting your teachers, hiding behind your “expertise,” or numbing the fear that you aren’t enough: Stop. Your resistance is not protecting; it is isolating you.

You don’t need a mask to be worthy of a miracle. You don’t need to be “smarter” than the person next to you. You just need to leave the chair empty so Grace can finally sit down.

“The curriculum is highly individualized, and all aspects are under the Holy Spirit’s particular care and guidance.” (M-29.2:6)

You don’t have to manage the curriculum. You don’t have to manage the Teacher. You only have to show up.

Maureen L. Yarbrough, OMC, is a Pathways of Light minister living in Rochester, NY. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Miracles News, Jan.-Apr., 2026

 

”“I will there
be Light”
ACIM Lesson 73

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Being Trained

by Rev. Larry Glenz, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

“You are not used to miracle-minded thinking, but you can be trained to think that way.” (T—2.VII.1:9)

I believe that through A Course in Miracles, I am being trained to be able to handle the tough times of this dream in which I find myself. I have been studying the Course for decades and have always felt a strong attraction to its teachings. But many times over the years I found myself questioning if I ever will be able to think with the Christ Mind.

Will I be able to see all my brothers — every body — as an innocent Son of God?

Will I understand that everything in the world of form is an illusion?

Will I ever fully recognize that my spiritual thoughts and my ego thoughts are creating and making the world I see?

Can I consistently learn to choose the Holy Spirit and let go of my fear? 

At my best, I say, “Why Not?” I have a spiritual path that says, “I can.”

We are being taught that our minds have the ability to know the Higher Self that lies within us as the truth.

“Deep in your mind the holy Christ in you is waiting your acknowledgment as you.” (W-110.9:4)

We are taught to look at the world as a classroom. Our ability to learn is dependent on our willingness to let the Holy Spirit lead. Every experience is part of our learning. Choosing between ego thoughts and thoughts aligned with Spirit’s guidance is part of our daily practice.

“No accident nor chance is possible within the Universe as God created it, outside of which is nothing. Suffer and you decided sin was your goal. Be happy, and you gave the power of decision to Him, Who must decide for God for you.” (T-21.II.3:4-6)

We are being guided. But we need to stay focused. To do that we need a daily spiritual practice. A Course in Miracles provides that.

In order to stay with Spirit, I need to meditate. I read the Course and do workbook lessons, and share the Course with others in ACIM study groups. I study the Pathways courses with a mind-healing partner.

I still find myself angry and fearful at times. It often takes me some time to recognize that I am with the ego and that I need to pause, step back, and let Spirit guide me. I still make mistakes but believe I am getting better.

Letting go of ego thoughts is the path to inner peace. That is a very worthy goal. But it appears to be a process. It is a direction I am trying to choose with regularity.

I cannot say I understand all the Course teaches, but I am letting the Course wash over me. When will it all make perfect sense to me? I don’t know, but that is what time is for. I am changing this dream I am in by turning to the Holy Spirit.

The choice is mine. I am grateful for this spiritual path and I plan to follow the guidance I receive. I ask Holy Spirit to help me accept the following:

“I am responsible for what I see. I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve. And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked.” (T-21.II.2:3-5)

I have faith that I am being guided to move in the right direction. I may be imperfect in my actions. Holy Spirit, however, has helped me to be happy and peaceful throughout my trials and I have confidence in this spiritual path I have chosen.

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)

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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How to Walk in this World with Holy Spirit

by Laura Pastiva, Pathways of Light Student

(This article was inspired by POL Course 910: Living in the World While Waking Up.)

A Course in Miracles tells us we are living in a dream of our own making — and that illusion cannot impact or hurt the true Self, the eternal Self. That’s a difficult idea to embrace when we are faced with the daily challenges of life — getting stuck in traffic and arriving late to work, coming down with a cold and feeling miserable, arguing with a partner, or being hit with unexpected expenses and circumstances that make our experience feel chaotic and random.

In Workbook Lesson 135, my favorite lesson, we are told: “You operate from the belief you must protect yourself from what is happening because it must contain what threatens you.” (ACIM W-135.2:1)

Of course, I feel the need to prepare for the unexpected — sometimes even the worst — when I’m relying on my own strength and my own understanding of this world. Jesus says, “The world is based on this insane belief.” (W-135.2:3)

We seem to lurch from one threat to the next without logic or warning: a job loss, a serious illness in the family, a costly car repair. It feels like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. How do we prepare for the next emergency?

And yet we are told: “…no one walks the world in armature but must have terror striking at his heart.” (W-135.2:5)

This means that nearly everyone we encounter is dealing with their own fears, their own troubles, and their own identification with the small self. As Course students, we must ask: What are we really trying to protect? It must be something fragile and vulnerable to the chaos of the illusory world. 

“What but the body has such frailty that constant care and watchful, deep concern are needful to protect its little life?” (W-135.4:4)

Ah — there it is. We’ve identified ourselves as bodies, and bodies seem to have many needs for safety — food, shelter, money, medicine. The Course reminds us that we have assigned these needs in the dream. And so, we stock up on defenses — insurance policies, locked doors, surveillance cameras, prescriptions — and live in constant concern over threats we believe we are guarding against.

Over the past year of my dream experience, I left a job I had held for 10 years, one that had provided well for my family and me. I had long felt miserable in that role but convinced myself I had to stay to maintain the financial resources the world requires. The stress was making me ill, and I agonized over whether to leave or stay.

Soon after I left, my eldest son unexpectedly developed a serious spinal cord compression. He was in danger of losing control over basic bodily functions, including walking. Long story short: he needed urgent surgery to remove the offending vertebrae.

My son lived in Texas. We live in Connecticut. He moved back home, and I was able to accompany him to each doctor’s appointment, find the best surgeon, and assist with his post-op recovery and therapy. He is healing — perhaps even more gracefully than I am! Had I still been working, I would not have had the gift of supporting and caring for him in this way.

Surely, we were both held by Holy Spirit throughout that uncertain time. During those anxious nights before his surgery, I lay awake picturing the worst—yet praying, “Holy Spirit, decide for God for me.”

There is good news: “The body is in need of no defense.…It will be strong and healthy if the mind does not abuse it by assigning it to roles it cannot fill, to purposes beyond its scope, and to exalted aims which it cannot accomplish.” (W-135.7:1,3)

If we can remember this — that the body we’ve made and cared for so deeply has no real value except as a communication device for salvation — we can begin to let go. “Healing is the result of using the body solely for communication.” (T-8.VII.10:1)

All other uses bring evidence of weakness and threat.

If I focus on predicting the future based on past experience, I trap myself in a cycle of fear.

“A healed mind does not plan. It carries out the plans that it receives through listening to wisdom that is not its own.” (W-135.11:1–2)

In the Manual for Teachers, we’re told what a Teacher of God is and what they do. Who qualifies? 

“A teacher of God is anyone who chooses to be one. His qualifications consist solely in this: somehow, somewhere he has made a deliberate choice in which he did not see his interests as apart from someone else’s.” (M-1.1:1–2)

So how do I plan for my worldly responsibilities while honoring the spirit (pun intended) of my function on earth? We are told:

“To the advanced teacher of God this question is meaningless. There is no program, for the lessons change each day. Yet the teacher of God is sure of but one thing; they do not change at random.” (M-16.1:1–3) 

“He will be told all that his role should be, this day and every day. And those who share that role with him will find him, so they can learn the lessons for the day together. Not one is absent whom he needs; not one is sent without a learning goal already set, and one which can be learned that very day.”  (M-16.1:5–7)

I ask Holy Spirit, ‘How can I be safe?’ And I am gently reminded:

“Your defenses will not work, but you are not in danger. You have no need of them. Recognize this, and they will disappear. And only then will you accept your real protection.” (M-16.6:11–14)

So far, the situations I’ve shared above are still unfolding. But things are working out. The people involved — myself included — are managing, learning, and likely growing through these perceived hardships. I need only trust the One sent to guide me home. I’m not perfect. I need lots of practice. But I am becoming a happier learner.

Laura Pastiva is a Pathways of Light student living in Waterbury, CT. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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