Forgiveness Through Love

Drawing by Lynn Horist

ACIM Workbook Lesson #46:

“God is the Love in which I forgive.”

[I wrote this last year and was most surprised to find that I have done what I wanted to do last year!] We are asked to close our eyes and search our mind for things which we have not forgiven. It doesn’t matter if it’s a small unforgiven experience or a great big unforgivable event — we are asked to examine ourselves and identify these instances. We are preparing to forgive ourselves! Divine Love is the love which we are giving and getting in this forgiveness, not the human love which puts parameters on its flow. What we extend, we are. When I see the people I am withholding forgiveness from, I don’t want to think of their actions which I feel justify my feelings. I still blame someone from 50-plus years ago, a sweet woman who gave my pet turtle a bath and it died. I don’t want to think of that incident every time I see her or hear her name! I want to release my mind from these illusions, extending Love because I am Love!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

 "'God is Love.' More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go." Science & Health Page 6:17-18

Limitless Idea of Infinite Mind

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #45: “God is the Mind with which I think.”

On this beautiful day when the world celebrates love, I would like to quote words from an Eckhart Tolle talk: “To feel empathy with another human, to feel love or lovingkindness, isn’t an emotion. Emotion is the neediness of attachment to another human being, but the outflow of lovingkindness or love towards another human is not a turbulence; it’s a deep thing that comes out of the recognition that the consciousness that I am is the essence of who you are, also. So what I love in you is consciousness loving itself.” Today I will make a point of thinking of people who are expressing divine Love in various activities, living a life of grace, and let them know how important they are to me and others. Happy Valentine’s Day to us all!!

Mary Baker Eddy quote: “Love alone can impart the limitless idea of infinite Mind.” Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures Page 510:18-19

Seeing Through Divine Love

photo credit: Alden Stallings

ACIM Workbook Lesson #44

"God is the Light in which I see."

We have all witnessed people who are deeply unconscious, being totally led by ego and the baser instincts. When I said yesterday that God sees no difference in Mother Teresa and Adolph Hitler, I did not mean to say that heinous acts perpetrated by unconscious individuals should be ignored or accepted as inevitable. When we view others without judgment, this does not mean that their inhumane acts should be overlooked.  Defining injustice is not in and of itself judgmental. Seeing in the light of divine Love, which becomes our sight when we clear the channel for it, we are led in ways which strong opinion and bias would hide from view. We can be a transparency for this Love to shine through and illumine the darkness, simply by giving up things we never wanted in the first place.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The manifestation of God through mortals is as light passing through the windowpane. The light and the glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass is less opaque than the walls. The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that one which has lost much materiality — much error — in order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides the sun.” Science & Health Page 295:16-24

Pure Sight

photo credit: Kailey Jones

ACIM Workbook Lesson #43: "God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him."

From today's Course in Miracles lesson: "You cannot see apart from God because you cannot be apart from God." We are told time and again, and in many different ways, that it is impossible to be separated from divine Love, it is impossible to be separate from each other as we are all a reflection of divine Mind. On a regular basis, my ego tells me this couldn’t possibly be true. My so-called mortal mind informs me that my thought is higher than that person over there, and it’s tempting to feel a bit superior. I often tell people that God sees no difference in Mother Teresa and Adolph Hitler. This is easy to say, but a bit more difficult to truly understand. But that’s where our burgeoning understanding of Oneness is leading us: there is no difference in me and that guy over there! Today I will exercise my sight — my true sight — wherein I cannot see apart from my Source. Would I rather my sight be pure or convoluted? It seems like a no-brainer!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Man is more than a material form with a mind inside, which must escape from its environments in order to be immortal. Man reflects infinity, and this reflection is the true idea of God."

Science & Health Page 258:9-12

Re-Identification and Reinterpretation

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #42: “God is my strength. Vision is His gift.”

"Gut feelings" are often discounted as being invalid for any number of reasons. Some say they're nothing more than paranoid thoughts, others may think of them as wishful thinking, a few of us see them as reflections of divine Mind. I'm reminded today that we must reinterpret everything we see. Discord and inharmony can be changed in thought by re-identification and reinterpretation.  As an example, when we see train tracks coming together in the distance, we immediately reinterpret that into the truth of the situation. We know that those tracks aren't coming together and that it will not be dangerous to travel on the train which carries us toward that end. The metaphysical studies we've embarked upon are doing the same thing: teaching us to recognize misidentification and translate it into Truth. Love extending Itself is correct interpretation. Translating erroneous thought is our job!

Mary Baker Eddy quotes: “Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.”  Science & Health Page 393:12-15

The Impossibility of Separation

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #41 

“God goes with me wherever I go.”

For years, I suffered all the symptoms of separation from God: depression, anxiety, worry, a sense of helplessness and loneliness. I also went through the typical material means to quiet these feelings, but none of them worked for long. Knowing ourselves as consciousness, melded like a drop of water with the ocean, or a ray of sunshine with its source -- that's the feeling we're hoping to remember. I say remember because it's something we've always known, but perhaps have forgotten. Peace, joy, happiness: these are ours in the kingdom of heaven within, no matter what the outward circumstances may appear to be. Take a deep breath and feel the Oneness!

Mary Baker Eddy quotes:

“Existence, separate from divinity, [divine] Science explains as impossible.” 

Science & Health Page 522:10-11

A Purer Vision

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #40:

“I am blessed as a Son of God."

A good friend called recently and told me she felt as though she had been punched in the face by God. Of course, I asked what she meant by this — as many different interpretations crossed my thought, mainly that she had awakened from the illusion! It turns out she had a toothache. So I immediately told her not to put that [expletive deleted] on God! We talked of definitions for God, specifically that we are the image and likeness of divine Love, and there is no way that this gentle Presence would ever punch us in the face. This particular friend is so receptive to Truth that she almost immediately felt better and has spoken with me often about the many instances wherein this new understanding has changed her outlook. What a joy it is to see someone open the door and not be afraid of the light!

Mary Baker Eddy quote: "Man is, and always has been, God's reflection." Science & Health Page 471:17-18