March 28, 2015 - Love Without the In

photo by Arthur Lau-Sed

ACIM Workbook Lesson #87

Review: “I will there be light.” and “There is no will but God’s.”

My thoughts turn today toward the holy relationship. We have many relationships in this life and, if you're like me, you prefer to think of all of them as holy! If God is Love, and we express that Love, then isn't every thing we do coming from that Love which is our essence? Unfortunately, this is not true. What we think of as love is often colored with human emotions such as guilt, jealousy, lust, and fear. This is a hard admission for any of us to make. A dear friend has been talking to me recently about a relationship he is ending. I have been thinking back over relationships I could have stayed in to this very day and how that would have led my life in different paths. The thing that keeps coming back time and again is that each and every relationship I have ever had was based in some way or another on the words, "I want". Maybe I wanted to be loved, maybe I wanted to be IN love, maybe I wanted a love affair like the movies and songs tell us is the be-all, end-all. My friend is feeling sad for the loss of this relationship. He liked so many things about this woman, but there were some basic differences which caused their incompatibility. He could have stayed and been contented, but there was something missing: It wasn't a holy relationship. It was based on expectation of change and other material desires. My friend innately knows there is more than settling down with someone because it's easy. And I know he will recognize, within himSelf, what it is he's waiting for.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The admission to one's self that man is God's own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea. The understanding and recognition of Spirit must finally come, and we may as well improve our time in solving the mysteries of being through an apprehension of divine Principle. At present we know not what man is, but we certainly shall know this when man reflects God.”

Science & Health Page 90:24-32