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Self-Identity

T 8: VI. 4, 2 This son of a loving father left his home and thought he had squandered everything for nothing of any value, although he had not understood its worthlessness at the time.

Lesson 166. 5, 3-4 But he will not look at what is given him. He wanders on, aware of the futility he sees about him everywhere, perceiving how his little lot but dwindles, as he goes ahead to nowhere.

L 166. 6, 3 Yet is he really tragic, when you see that he is following the way he chose, and need but realize Who walks with him and open up his treasures to be free?

While working on a Pathways of Light course, I was thinking about ways that we hold onto a limited self-identity when we could be free instead. Here is something I wrote two years ago and it was helpful to me.

I am doing more work on my 4th step with my Al-Anon sponsor and the topic is finances. I have been putting it off because I feel hopeless when it comes to finances. I spend money without thinking it through. I do save, but not enough nor consistently. I can’t look at my expenses vs my income and tell you much about it. Investments are beyond my ability to process and make choices.

All of these things have been true for me for all of my life and I take them for granted. But really, they are true for me because I believe they are. These beliefs are part of the way I identify myself. I could say that I am one who is not good with finances. That is a declaration of identity. When I think about letting that go, I feel uneasy. I feel like I am being asked to become something else and I don’t know how to do that.

However, when I think of it, a lot of things have changed around this idea of finances. I used to be afraid all the time about money because I “knew” I was inept with my finances. I was always afraid of not having enough or losing what I had. But as I began to study ACIM and as I learned that the Holy Spirit would remove unwanted beliefs from my mind, I let go of the belief that there is not enough and that I could lose what I have. Those thoughts come back up sometimes, but I have little interest in them and so they flow out of my mind as quickly as they come into it.

I know something now that I didn’t know before. I know that I am Love as is God. I know that Love will take care of all things if that is my choice, so I ask Love to provide what I need and I trust that it is done. Occasionally, I forget and I pick up that load again, but I let it go pretty quickly because why would I want that responsibility back?

I don’t know what is best for me or anyone. I don’t know what might happen in the future and, therefore, how could I prepare for it? Each thing that happens in my life has a purpose if I care to use it that way and I cannot know how to use it to serve that purpose. But Love does know all these things and will arrange everything for me if I just step back. Sure, I will have to give up a layer of self-identity, but look at what I gain! I am quickly losing interest in a personal self and so I don’t need a self-identity.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

From Hopelessness to Peace 6-1-20

This morning I listened to the meditation, The Power to Work Miracles Belongs to You from 920: Being a Miracle Worker, I was helped by the sentence that says this: You refuse to make any of the illusionary stories founded on separation real. The reason this caught my attention is that I read something on Facebook by Rev Tony. He was arguing against social distancing. He talked about how it was hurting the most vulnerable people in our society, some of them already losing their jobs, their homes and even the ability to provide food for themselves and their families. He was arguing it would be better to end this now.

I began to feel anxious after reading this. It made sense. So did the idea of social distancing. So, I asked the Holy Spirit to help me see this differently. I asked for help to sort out what was really behind my anxiety. I saw right away that I am upset because I am confused about what to even think. I am concerned about the vast number of Americans who will suffer terribly from the loss in income, my oldest son being one of them since he was laid off on Good Friday. Am I causing this kind of suffering just so that I can keep this body alive?

When I let my mind focus on the story, I was sliding down the rabbit hole and I knew it. That is why I turned to the Holy Spirit right away. Seeing what was behind the fear in my mind helped me to remember that I am never upset for the reason I think. I was upset because I felt helpless and the more I looked at this helplessness, the more hopeless I felt. Then I remembered that the only way I could feel like this is if I believed in the story.

For this to occur in my mind, I must believe the story is real and happening now and that we are all truly suffering and that we are all going to suffer because we affect each other. What came to me when I asked for clarity is that this is not really happening now. We are putting an ancient memory before our eyes so that we can decide if we want to keep playing the game, keep watching past memories, keep trying to change the story, to direct it into something we prefer. That is all that’s happening.

Knowing this, I realize that the only helpful thing I can do is to stay in a state of love so that I can be a channel for miracles wherever they are needed. I don’t even have to figure out what miracle is needed by whom or how to perform that miracle. I just have to love and the rest is done without my effort. I can’t love if I am fearful. Where fear has entered love cannot operate. Where love has entered, fear cannot remain. So, I chose love and waited for the fear to evaporate and it did. This is all I can do but it is enough. It is my part.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Manual for Teachers, HOW IS HEALING ACCOMPLISHED. P 3. 6-1-20

5. HOW IS HEALING ACCOMPLISHED? P 1 and 2
1 Healing involves an understanding of what the illusion of sickness is for. Healing is impossible without this. 
I. The Perceived Purpose of Sickness
1 Healing is accomplished the instant the sufferer no longer sees any value in pain. Who would choose suffering unless he thought it brought him something, and something of value to him? He must think it is a small price to pay for something of greater worth. For sickness is an election; a decision. It is the choice of weakness, in the mistaken conviction that it is strength. When this occurs, real strength is seen as threat and health as danger. Sickness is a method, conceived in madness, for placing God’s Son on his Father’s throne. God is seen as outside, fierce and powerful, eager to keep all power for Himself. Only by His death can He be conquered by His Son.
2 And what, in this insane conviction, does healing stand for? It symbolizes the defeat of God’s Son and the triumph of his Father over him. It represents the ultimate defiance in a direct form which the Son of God is forced to recognize. It stands for all that he would hide from himself to protect his “life.” If he is healed, he is responsible for his thoughts. And if he is responsible for his thoughts, he will be killed to prove to him how weak and pitiful he is. But if he chooses death himself, his weakness is his strength. Now has he given himself what God would give to him, and thus entirely usurped the throne of his Creator.

I used to use sickness for my own purposes. For instance, I would call my kids to let them know I had a migraine so that they would express their concern and I would feel loved. I would call into work with this excuse so I didn’t have to show up. That kind of thing. When I was ready to release the illusion of migraines, I was shown this behavior and I let all that go. I don’t have migraines anymore.

But there is a deeper more subversive use for sickness. The ego decides on sickness as a way to prove it is stronger than God. The fear of God and the belief that God wants all power for Himself are the driving forces that cause us to choose sickness. In this way, sickness seems to make us more powerful than God. God is health and we are not so that makes our decision for sickness proof of our power and that we have overcome God.

Once when I was working with the lesson that says I am still as God created me, I had a revelatory experience of that. It was amazing! And within minutes I was sick. I had a fever and I was throwing up. I was also laughing because I saw the connection between giving into God and sickness. That experience convinced me that sickness is a decision and that it is a defense against God.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

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