Miracles News

Tweet

January-March, 2012

The Holy Spirit’s GPS Knows the Way… Just Relax

by Rev. Ken Gorman, O.M.C.

As the Course teaches, one of the biggest ways the ego keeps us trapped is through our own judgments or projections we place on the world, which is inherently neutral. Most of these judgments involve things I must be afraid of or reasons why I am guilty, not worthy and failing (and occasionally the arrogant flip side of the coin — why I deserve more/to win, am better than others, am not responsible, etc.). Forgiveness to me actually means working on/being at least a little willing to release these judgments (and the value I place on them) and letting something else entirely be shown to me by Holy Spirit.

From an ultimate truth standpoint we are told things like; Only Love is Real, Gods Love is spread out across the face of the earth but the Son of God sees it not, the one who is awake sees Buddha everywhere, etc. If we believe this, it is not a big leap to see how the game of judgment or writing our own meaning based on our limited past knowledge is keeping us from see this. (Maybe we could even call it the habit of judgment and in many cases the addiction to judgment…)

So I started to ask myself why I value judgment so much, so much that I would continue to use it to deny the truth in the face of teachings which I respect greatly such as ACIM… There are many reasons for this but in a recent meditation the Holy Spirit had me focus on one in particular which was around ‘planning’ versus ‘trusting.’

The basic game is that ‘my judgment’ tells me that I need to either be afraid of something and therefore ‘plan’ for my safety or that I am not capable or worthy and should ‘plan’ on avoiding whatever it is. This can take the form of money, circumstances, conversations, spiritual work (our ego’s deepest fear is of God according to the Course) or anything else I see might be coming up in the future.

In this particular meditation, Spirit gave me the image of a journey I had just taken by car from San Francisco to Los Angeles to my parent’s house. If you look at a map, there are literally dozens if not hundreds of potential routes from A to B when you factor in the street systems of San Francisco and LA and the myriad of freeways between them. However, when I typed my request into my GPS there was exactly one route, only one that I was to take… 

In the meditation, I instantly got the analogy as it applies to any decision we think we need to make. To the ego the world looks like a place of many, many alternatives, which causes anything from moderate anxiety to a fearful reaction, a need for lots of planning (despite the fact I would have had little information about traffic, road conditions, speed limits, etc. in this case) and lots of anxiety around second guessing during the entire journey.  To the GPS, which knew all the relevant parameters… there was exactly one route which was calculated in seconds. And as a bonus, if I took a wrong turn, it would give me exactly one more route to get me where I was going.

The analogy of course is to the Holy Spirit that knows exactly what we need to be doing next to maximize the unfolding of the Atonement, walk in the happy dream, achieve our ultimate goal (providing we have set the right goal — I recommend Lesson 258). This concept is covered in ACIM quite frequently, for example in the statement, ‘A healed mind does not plan.  It carries out the plans that it receives through listening to Wisdom that is not its own.’ (W-pI.135.11:1/2)  

One teaching I had along with this that has really helped me is that we do ‘receive’ plans like to book an airline ticket next month, call parents tomorrow, plan customer presentation in two weeks, etc. as that is necessary to function in the world of form. The difference is that we do not come up with them through what I call cognitive anxiety, as deep down we know that ‘I do not know what anything means’ is spot on. But rather we allow the peaceful voice of Holy Spirit to inform us when it is time to make a plan. (I am successful a low % of the time with this but it is a start and it feels great and everything seems to flow perfectly when I manage it 😉.

As with the GPS, if I were in an area I was not familiar with, I would have no way of knowing if I was going the right way. I would just be trusting it and have left all of my ‘judgments’ out of the equation. And like GPS, if we do revert to our own judgments and get sidetracked, the Holy Spirit just gently directly us when we are willing to hit the ‘plan trip’ button in our minds.

Lastly, on a larger scale for me, this concept is contained in the first paragraph of the Course with the sentence ‘Free will does not mean you set the curriculum.’ (ACIM Introduction, 1:4) What this means is that I really have only one route I can take that will get me where I am going. Everything else is just doing nothing (wasting time). My job is follow the instruction which is to ask (press the request route button)… and Holy Spirit’s job is to answer (set the route)… and then just trust… and from perfect trust comes perfect freedom.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

Back to main page of Miracles News.

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution to support this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution with a credit/debit card, click here.
Click here to donate from your PayPal account.
Or send a check to Pathways of Light, 12530 Lions Chase Court, Huntley, IL 60142.