Miracles News

January-March, 2020

On Being Special

by Peggy Rivera, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

What does it mean do be special? Doesn’t everyone have their own specialness, their own way of being special? It has often felt like that to me. Many times in my life I felt un-special. In other words, I felt that everyone else was so special in their own way, but me — I was a dud.

Nothing special here. There were also times when I strove to be special. When I wanted to be better at singing than someone else or look better in my prom dress than another girl in hers, but that feeling was awful because for me to feel special, someone else had to feel bad. So when I ask what it means to be special, I am reminded that specialness is a judgment. It is the great illusion. It is an attack against God.

Jesus says, “Love is extension. To withhold the smallest gift is not to know Love’s purpose. Love offers everything forever. Hold back but one belief, one offering, and love is gone because you asked a substitute to take its place. And now must war, the substitute for peace come with the one alternative that you can choose for Love. Your choosing it has given it all the reality it seems to have.

Beliefs will never openly attack each other because conflicting outcomes are impossible. But an unrecognized belief is a decision to war in secret.” (T-24.I.1-2:2)

So I think this is part of the tragedy of believing an untruth. It goes underground, and operates subtly without recognition. Here we have then decided to have beliefs about ourselves and others that are not part of the truth of Who we are. When we believe in the illusion we must defend our beliefs. For our specialness to survive, we must attack what we perceive as different.

I think that this is a source of so much of our discomfort in this life. It seems to me another word for specialness could be judgment. We judge ourselves, compare ourselves to others and then we have to find a way to make our brothers guilty so we can feel better about ourselves. We compete with each other and gossip about each other. We cheat each other in the work place. It is easy to find people stabbing each other in the back so they can seem better than their co-workers to get that promotion everyone is fighting for. We can get locked into our own separateness and loneliness.

I love to watch the Hallmark Channel on TV in the evening with my husband. Last night we watched one where a couple had been notified that they were owners of an old farmhouse because the owner had died and left it to them. They never knew her but they read about her and decided to restore the old house and make it a Bed and Breakfast. They were not married but they fell in love from coming together over this house. After they fixed it up, they decided to get married. They had come to love the town and all of the people.

Suddenly a distant relative (Emily), shows up and declares she is also part owner and wants her share of the property. The couple could not afford to buy her out so they were faced with having to close the B & B to pay for her share.

The woman, Jenny, who originally inherited the farmhouse never judged Emily. She took her in as family. Emily asked her why she was being so nice to her and Jenny said, “You are family.” Emily found herself softening. She even fell in love with a man from the town.

The towns people came together and donated the money to help them pay Emily off. Happy ending: Emily decided she would move to the same town and they would be able to spend time together.

The Treachery of Specialness

“Comparison must be an ego device, for love makes none. Specialness always makes comparisons. It is established by a lack seen in another, and maintained by searching for, and keeping clear in sight all lacks it can perceive.” (T-24.II.1:1-4)

In the movie I found myself thinking the new lady, Emily, was mean taking the property. I fell into that “stinkin thinkin” of judgment. Jenny, did not judge anyone, she only offered love and kindness. It made me see where I still need to heal my mind. I was seeing the work in healing the relationship between relatives that really didn’t know each other and how it led to the whole town coming together in love to work for a good outcome was very inspiring.

There is so much depression, sadness and loneliness in this world because of the replacement of truth. As we learn more and more to see the truth more and more, good will come not just for us but for the whole world.

When Jesus says that Love is an extension means we are here to extend Love. When we replace Love with the illusions of our specialness, we are cut off from our Source.

“You can defend your specialness, but never will you hear the Voice for God beside it. They speak a different language and they fall on different ears. To every special one a different message, and one with different meaning, is the truth. Yet how can truth be different to each one? The special messages the special hear convince them they are different and apart; each in his special sins and “safe” from love, which does not see his specialness at all. Christ’s vision is their “enemy,” for it sees not what they would look upon, and it would show them that the specialness they think they see is an illusion.” (T-24.II.5)

There is a way out of these lies though. It is forgiveness. “Forgiveness is the end of specialness. …Forgiveness is the release from all illusions, and that is why it is impossible to partly forgive.” (T-24.III.1:1,3)

When we see ourselves as different from what God created, it is easy to lose track of our peace. That is why we have days that we feel less than our brother. A belief in lies has no stability. It can change like the direction of the wind. But when we stay in our truth, we are standing on solid ground. The truth is always the same, never changing. Just like God’s Love for all of us, it is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. There is stability in that knowledge. We don’t ever have to doubt that.

We know that our brother is the same as we are. He is Love too. And the wonderful thing about recognizing our brother, friend, life partner, etc.; is we can extend our love to each other and remind each other that we are Love and nothing else, just like Jenny and all the characters in the story. They all found their way to each other.

I look forward to staying in my truth more often and helping those in my path do the same.

Rev. Peggy Rivera, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Palm Bay,FL 305-322-6610 Email:7seas@bellsouth.net Web: http://www.revpriveralifeministries.com

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution in support of this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution or become a member online, go to http://www.pathwaysoflight.org/polshop/home.php?cat=254.
Or send a check or money order to Pathways of Light, 6 Oak Court, Ormond Beach, FL 32174-2623 (USD only, please) Thank you for your support.