December 9, 2014 - No Sacrifice

Thailand Beach

ACIM Workbook Lesson #343

"I am not asked to make a sacrifice

To find the mercy and the peace of God."

Someone recently asked me if I thought there was anyone on this planet who had attained the ideal of no suffering. One of the reasons she was thinking deeply about this topic was that a friend of hers had awakened in the morning to find that her partner has passed on during the night. How, we wonder, is it possible to not feel pain in such a situation? I believe the key is in knowing that they haven't gone anywhere. Passing on to where? Mary Baker Eddy tells us that the dead will be surprised to wake up and find they are not dead. Of course, we have turned this scenario into a different sort of material life, with the addition of wings and such. Everything we imagine is from our personal standpoint, don't you think? That is why we're endeavoring, in these studies, to release all thoughts which are engrained beliefs. Even within this material existence which we claim as a necessity, many people are able to feel grief and then release it for the joy of time spent together in this realm. Numerous people are able to feel even closer to loved ones after they are gone, as they commune on a different, more pure, level of consciousness than they had previously known. Perhaps we hold on to these feelings of grief because we're afraid that love, too, will be lost in the letting go. I have a hunch that the Love which is left will be sweeter than we ever could have dreamed!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The divine hand led me into a new world of light and Life, a fresh universe — old to God, but new to His 'little one.' It became evident that the divine Mind alone must answer, and be found as the Life, or Principle, of all being; and that one must acquaint himself with God, if he would be at peace." Retrospection and Introspection Page 27:29-4 (MBE Autobiography)

November 19, 2011 -- What do we give up?

ACIM Lesson #323
I gladly make the "sacrifice" of fear.


[Marsha's thoughts]

"Bursting with Love"
from Randal Thompson

The word "sacrifice" is another of those which can hold negative connotations!

It seems to embody ideas of giving up something precious to gain favor from God, or sacrificing our own happiness for that of another, or at the very least giving up certain foods for the betterment of our bodies.

But this sacrifice we speak of today only asks that we exchange pain for Love!

Although it seems that we'd be waiting in line to do this, I find it interesting that so many of us seem to enjoy our pain and work to hold onto it! I have a friend who seems to enjoy his pain so much that he constantly recounts the events which have led up to his present circumstance. It seems it would be a diminishment of his perceived self to let go of this sadness in favor of joy.

 Just as we've let go of the idea that wearing animal furs makes us more beautiful,

we shall release beliefs that being miserable will make us more interesting people.

Today I will see grace in everyone I meet, beauty in everything I see, paying the debt I owe to Truth.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Give up your material belief of mind in matter, and have but one Mind, even God; for this Mind forms its own likeness. The loss of man's identity through the understanding which Science confers is impossible; and the notion of such a possibility is more absurd than to conclude that individual musical tones are lost in the origin of harmony."

Science & Health Page 216:30-5