Bathed in Love

ACIM Workbook Lesson #249 “Forgiveness ends all suffering and loss."

One reason I loved working with the public was the stories I would hear every day. There was a 68-year-old woman celebrating a first marriage to a man she had been friends with for 15 years. I once talked with a woman who was dying of cancer. She came in showing me her beautiful red shoes which she planned to wear to her impending chemotherapy (which she described as throwing a bucket of water at a forest fire). I remember a child-like middle-aged man who spent quite some time telling me about Sheldon on a TV show called The Big Bang Theory. I’ll never forget the woman who gave away her home and all her belongings to her children and moved to a remote area in the woods, riding and tending to horses and building a rustic cabin while living in a small make-shift abode. Her friends all thought she had lost her mind; I thought she had found it! People share the most astonishing things when we’re open to hearing them! It’s beautiful to laugh with those who do not fear death, to cry happy tears with a giddy newly-wed couple, to giggle at a man’s happy childish tales, and cheer on a woman brave enough to follow her dream!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light." Science & Health Page 516:9-13

The Reality of Love

photo credit: Chris Fischer

ACIM Workbook Lesson #248

“Whatever suffers is not part of me."

I am reminded of a family friend from long ago. She was a wonderful, spiritually-aware person who showed me the Truth of today's topic. Over the course of a year, her husband passed on, her daughter was in a car accident which left her in a coma for months before she died, and her house burned down. While I know she felt grief, I'm not sure there was despair. She always had a twinkle in her eye and a generous heart. When she herself passed on some 20 years later, I am told she went with a smile on her face. I often think of her. "Whatever suffers is not a part of me". This is not a heartless statement. It doesn't deny the feelings we have in favor of a hardness which excludes emotion. On the contrary! It's a pure Love which allows us to face hard times with a firm understanding of the beauty of Truth. After walking through the grief, we're free to see that nothing can touch our true Self or change the reality of Love.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“A blundering dispatch, mistakenly announcing the death of a friend, occasions the same grief that the friend's real death would bring. You think that your anguish is occasioned by your loss. Another dispatch, correcting the mistake, heals your grief, and you learn that your suffering was merely the result of your belief. Thus it is with all sorrow, sickness, and death. You will learn at length that there is no cause for grief, and divine wisdom will then be understood. Error, not Truth, produces all the suffering on earth.”

 Science & Health Page 386:16-25

Sight Through Forgiveness

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #247 “Without forgiveness I will still be blind."

The sight which appears with forgiveness is our topic today. What we call forgiveness isn't some sort of divine pardon, but a yielding within ourselves to the purity of divine Mind, without the impediments of holding on to personal memories of wrongdoing, resentment, and pain which seems engrained within.  This yielding includes the release of things which we think have been done to us, and things we think we have done to others, along with things going on everywhere else. So let's choose again, rest in Love, and let it Be!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible.”

Science & Health Page 264:13-15

Love's Protection

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Lesson #246

“To love my Father is to love His Son."

"Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you." This Mary Baker Eddy quote is one which I've always thought of as meaning that the human hatred others feel cannot reach me when I'm wearing the armor of divine Love. I now see that it also includes the hatred I may feel toward others. It's very easy for me to think that I don't hate anyone or anything. Actually, it's a word I have pruned from my vocabulary and simply do not use. BUT if I am irritated by another's actions or words, or if I replay a past situation in my mind which caused anger in the past, or if I allow criticism to gnaw at me and I think of retaliatory statements which could have been said -- isn't that human hatred? Wearing this cloak of Love calms these nagging feelings and thoughts. I know that if I'm wearing the protection of Love, hatred cannot enter from inside or out!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being.”  Science & Health Page 361:16-18

Peace Within

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #245 “Your peace is with me, Father.  I am safe."

Although I know peace is a choice within my own self, I want to share it with everyone, everywhere. It has taken quite a while to grasp the concept that the only thought I can change is my own! After years of trying to change loved ones, I think it was my children who finally taught me the meaning of Oneness. They showed me this as I watched the household mood change its tone along with my emotions. Holding to peace within myself is all I can do — and that’s a lot! Jumping on the bandwagon of resentment or other negative emotions can seem difficult to avoid, but it’s possible to simply witness these things without becoming a part of them. While I can't change what anyone else is thinking or feeling or experiencing, I can adjust my vision of reality. Every thought is important! We’re all in this together, in every way, at every moment. And so today I will make an effort to see through the eyes of Love, excluding nothing, no matter what!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love.” Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures Page 264:24-27

The Panoply of Love

Mongolia River Crossing - photo credit
Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #244 “I am in danger nowhere in the world."

Reading the above affirmation of our safety in any situation reminds me of a profound example of this Truth. A young woman was abducted from her college campus, tied up and blindfolded, then taken to a remote area. Throughout this trip, the woman continuously affirmed the One ever-presence which we all reflect. She affirmed this not only in relation to her well-being but also for the perpetrator.  After quite a while, the man stopped the car and apologized to the woman, at which point she shared some thoughts concerning the truth of his being. Then they proceeded back to her apartment so she could give him a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I'm sure we all have stories about instances of protection, which perhaps seem like divine intervention. Let's not think of this as intervention, but as the way things really are; not a setting aside of material danger, but an understanding of the divine Principle of all being. By this, we rest in the assurance that all is well. This knowledge has enabled me to peacefully know my son is safe during numerous travels. He's been away from home since he was 14, and flitting around the globe on his own since he was 19. Friends have wondered how I can be so calm and free from worry about him. It's because I know where his safety lies -- as does he.

Mary Baker Eddy quote: “Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity.” Science & Health Page 571:18-21

Non-Judgment a Constant Meditation

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #243 “Today I will judge nothing that occurs."

How is it possible to "judge nothing that occurs"? This practice of non-judgment is a constant meditation with me, and I must admit I often feel like a failure at it. (Which in itself is a judgment!) This basic metaphysical precept of letting go and letting God, realizing that we of our own selves know nothing, facilitates giving up judgment because how can we judge what we do not know? And so I will continue to make note that my opinion is simply that: an opinion, not a Universal Truth. I thank Mr. Shakespeare for a thought that is in the front of Science & Health: "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The optical focus is another proof of the illusion of material sense. On the eye’s retina, sky and tree-tops apparently join hands, clouds and ocean meet and mingle. The barometer, — that little prophet of storm and sunshine, denying the testimony of the senses, — points to fair weather in the midst of murky clouds and drenching rain. Experience is full of instances of similar illusions, which every thinker can recall for himself.” Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Page 122:15-23