Together, We Light the Way

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One Shared Goal

S-1.IV.1:4-6 Enemies do not share a goal. It is in this their enmity is kept. Their separate wishes are their arsenals; their fortresses in hate.

I have one goal and that is the peace of God. This goal does not vary according to circumstances, but it took me some time to accept this. What I am going to share here is a story from three years ago that illustrates how I eventually narrowed my focus to the one goal and began to see the goal we all share.

As I was going to bed last night I was thinking about goals. It is easy to get confused about this issue. My thoughts began with this idea that I have some things I want to accomplish in my house. Things that I have been putting off until I retired. But now instead of doing them, I am spending much of my time with my daughter and her new baby. I love being with her and I love being with the baby, but I do notice that I feel resentful of the lost time.

So what seems to be happening is that we have separate goals. My daughter’s goal is to have me around. She wants company and reassurance and help keeping up while her body heals from the C-section. Her goal is to have me come over every day to be sure her needs are met.

My goal is to get this big pile of unfinished business whittled down. I love when I get a project done. It feels so satisfying to me. And when it is not done it is like an itch that I can’t scratch. So it seems like one of us is going to get their goal met and we are in competition to see who wins.

This is an excellent example of separation. It is a situation without an answer that is union and is an extension of love because even if I continue to do the “loving” thing, I still resent doing it so it is not love. Same for her. Love is not sacrifice and as long as we have separate goals someone is going to sacrifice.

The solution, the only one that will work is if at least one of us changes their goal. I choose to be the one because as I reason this out, I remember that I have only one goal, which is the peace of God. Lesson 205 is the lesson that simplifies all my decisions.

“The peace of God is my one goal; the aim of all my living here, the end I seek, my purpose and my function and my life, while I abide where I am not at home.”

So now all I have to do is question my goal. Is my goal to complete my to-do list? Or is my goal the peace of God. Hardly seems a question at all when I put it like that. I will complete my list at some point, but now it is not my goal and so the completion of it does not drive my actions and my reactions.

I can relax into this situation with my daughter and appreciate how precious it is. It will likely never happen again that we have so much time together. Watching this new little human grow and change daily is something rare and precious. I was blinded to the obvious when I was focused on my little goal. Now that I remember my only goal, I can see again.

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