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January-March, 2023

Choice Is Our Super Power

by Rev. Myron, Jones, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

“And so again we make the only choice that ever can be made; we choose between illusions and the truth, or pain and joy, or hell and Heaven. Let our gratitude unto our Teacher fill our hearts, as we are free to choose our joy instead of pain, our holiness in place of sin, the peace of God instead of conflict, and the light of Heaven for the darkness of the world.” (W-190.11:1-2)

Our purpose is to learn to make the choice for Heaven rather than for hell. You would think this would be the simplest choice of all, and you might be wrong. I have to say that I didn’t find it to be easy. At least not at first. But I discovered some basic truths from A Course in Miracles that helped me to become consistent in choosing Love rather than fear.

Everything I see and experience is an effect of a belief in my mind.

Through the study and practice of A Course in Miracles, I have made a habit of being aware of my thoughts and I know they matter. It is time to make a real change and the Course explains how to do that. We learn we have the Holy Spirit in our mind. It is His function to correct our thinking. Our part becomes clear: We are to notice our thoughts and desire correction. We then ask the Holy Spirit to look with us at those thoughts, and correction occurs. At least it occurs to the degree we are ready for it.

It can be such an astounding shift in thinking that it feels miraculous. And so, it is. Sometimes we must look at a strong belief many times with Him before we are ready to accept the correction. That doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we continue to do our simple part. We are assured of our success because it is the Will of God that this be done.

As we continue to patiently go through these steps, our minds become healed and our lives change at the same rate. Where we once experienced anger and fear, now there is happiness. Our lives might have been chaotic, and are now peaceful. Perhaps we felt hate or hated, now love pervades our experience.

“There are no idle thoughts. All thinking produces form at some level.” (T-2.VI.9:13-14)

When I realized that thought always comes before form, I stopped trying to change my behavior and I stopped trying to manipulate the world to my liking. I began to look at my thoughts instead. For instance, I was sick recently, sick enough to see a doctor. I was congested, achy and had a fever as well as an upset stomach. At one time, I would have been wondering how I got sick, where I caught it.

And in the world, this seems to be the way sickness happens. I catch a virus from someone. But what actually happens is that there is a belief in sickness and there is some value in being sick and so I choose sickness to fulfill a purpose. Then I hide that thought from myself. I choose instead to believe in this complex set of circumstances that we made to obscure our responsibility for our own choices. And what a good job we did of it. It is so much easier to believe in germs and viruses and genes than it is to believe in the power of our mind.

Even though there was the thought that I was a victim of sickness, it was not a thought I could now believe. Instead, I asked Jesus to clarify this for me, helping me to understand what actually caused the sickness. Whatever thought or belief I needed to look at with him, I was ready to do that. I sat quietly and waited for the answer. I began to think about my son who is going through a difficult situation. I started to worry about him and, bingo! “I see, Jesus. I have been worried about him for a few weeks. This is what you wanted me to understand.” I continued to sit with Jesus until I felt the worry dissipate and my mind return to peace.

It is never about anyone else. Always turn it around.

If I consider the situation with my son, I might think at first that the cause of my upset was his problems. But I would be wrong. If I am upset it is never about the other person or the situation. My upset is always caused by my thoughts about the person or the situation. Understanding this opens me to forgiveness very quickly. In the case of my son and his problems, I forgave the thought that I was a victim to his circumstances. I forgave the belief that his circumstances were the cause of his upset. Or even that his difficult circumstances were a problem at all. In truth, they were his next step Home, just as mine are for me.

I have learned to surrender. I give my children to God. I surrender their care to Him. That means I give up the idea I know what is best, what they should have or do. I give up protecting and defending them. I give up wanting their life to be easier. I give up worrying about them. I give up needing them or anything from them. In the place of all that I surrender, I keep only what is true of them, their perfection, their beauty, their glory, their wholeness. And as a result, my relationships with my children are better as my peace of mind is more stable.

Using these kinds of specific situations for healing the mind is important.

“It is clear that while the content of any particular ego illusion does not matter, its correction is more helpful in a specific context.” (ACIM, T-4.VII.1:1)

Also, we are asked many times in the lessons to be specific in their application. In Lesson 161, we read, “The mind that taught itself to think specifically can no longer grasp abstraction in the sense that it is all-encompassing. We need to see a little, that we learn a lot.” (ACIM, W-161.4:7-8)

And in the Manual for Teachers it says this. “Unless a specific referent does occur to the mind in conjunction with the word, the word has little or no practical meaning, and thus cannot help the healing process.” (M-21.2:3)

This is the purpose of our life stories. They provide us with situations that are meant to be our classroom. I always ask the all important question: What is this for? I want to know the lesson I am supposed to learn. In this way, I am using what the ego made to undo the ego, just as the Holy Spirit intends.

I am using my super power, the power of choice or another way to say it, the power of decision. And, lest I underestimate this power, I will remember that I am always choosing between Heaven and hell. May I always choose Heaven.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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