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January-March, 2023

Driving Home

by Rev. Joyce Peebles, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

Have you ever been driving while thinking about something else and missed an exit or arrived somewhere on autopilot because your mind was elsewhere? As bodies we can live our life like that too. Going through all the motions but not fully present. Unknowingly we choose blindness.

When you realized you have missed the exit you immediately seek to get back on track to your destination. The same occurs with our spiritual development. The Holy Spirit speaks, and we recognize where we are and decide to take another path. There are certain intersections we come to in life and we must make a choice. One of the most important intersections we come to is the recognition that love, compassion and empathy are essential. We can decide not to take this road but avoiding it does not get us where we want to go.

A road does not appear desirable until we learn what is valuable and what is valueless. Lesson 182 (8:1) says, “When you are still an instant, when the world recedes from you, when valueless ideas cease to have value in your restless mind, then will you hear His Voice.” This voice leads in the direction of love, compassion and empathy.

What stands in the way of taking this road? Our belief in victim-hood, blame and guilt, and the belief that what we are seeing is real rather than an illusion. From the point of view that the upset is a projection, a judgment made by my mind, a learning tool I need and want, I cannot be the victim or unfairly treated. I hear the Holy Spirit say the other person is always innocent, despite what appears to be happening. We are not these ego bodies.

The book, A Course in Miracles, is itself another intersection you come across on your journey. It is not the only road you can take to get home, but it is a shortcut. In the introduction it says, “This is a course(road) in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect when you want to take it at a given time.” Whether you take this course or use another route, learning forgiveness, the fore bearer of miracles, is required.

Psychologist Lee Jampolsky Ph.D. says, “I may not know you, but I can say this: Much of the upset in your life is due to two reasons — either someone did not live up to your expectations, or some event did not go as you think you wanted it to go.” Ah, identifying with the ego body, I get my panties in a wad because somebody has fallen short of fulfilling the function I decided they should fill. Coming from this perspective, even my ego finds it hard to justify grievances.

Ego based thoughts and the Holy Spirit’s thoughts are opposites. One road leads to misery and one road leads to happiness. For example, as a human walking this earth Jesus’s focus was not on how others viewed him. It was on how he saw others as innocent or guilty because that told him how he saw himself. He recognized that other people were either giving love or they were asking for it, no exceptions. To accept this mindset is another intersection we come to on the journey home. We take the road that we want by what appears valuable at the time. Once we come to understand the road we are on cannot get us where we want to go, we finally take another road.

The road of love, compassion, and empathy; that sees others as innocent and perfect, and that recognizes others as either giving love or asking for it, is always before us. It is the fastest way home and only our misperceptions stand in our way.

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