Lesson 197: “It can be but my gratitude I earn.”
We learn from the Course that all that we see is an an opportunity for gratitude.
Our purpose is to have an attitude of gratitude no matter what we see.
We may not know how to do this in the world when we see scenarios of real suffering there. The world is chalk full of insanity. We see it from every avenue from which we turn. We must learn to trust that God has a purpose about all we see and thus, we are not meant to judge it.
When we judge it, we get consumed with attack thoughts and we are not able to connect with that inner gratitude that the Course says is always possible to feel.
The world has all kinds of insults that do not appear pleasant or peaceful and therefore, we may forget to allow everything without making what we see a problem.
The Course teaches us above all else, allow gratitude to be our steady mantras.
We are learning to be gentle with our minds when our ego is ruler. We learn to not be vigorously protesting what the world shows us- it is rather the vision of God. Gentleness is ever so important. We must be gentle with our judgment. It is a huge charge we carry and undoubtedly we all get attached to having it. Letting it go is often an involved process. We want to be considerate of our ego’s insanity.
The ego is not being helpful and we must get to a place where we are clear with the ego that we don’t want its predominance in the ship of our minds.
However, we can also be gentle because this is a huge process when we allow our current thinking to really unravel.
We need to give it all to God and let God be in charge of letting our insanity unscramble. However, we also want to appreciate that we are human and we get stuck sometimes in the process of getting to God.
Therefore, we do this with true lightness.
We give it to God in our moments of peaceful clarity and we also allow for whatever ups and downs we may feel in this process.
We allow this process space and time in our minds and the gentle touch of God’s guidance. Even though the ego has big hurdles we still remember to love our egos while we give them clear boundaries about what is acceptable.
This lesson says, “It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy. In his mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you.”
You exude peace and I receive it here. I am grateful for you.
I value you too. And I am very grateful we get to live Course principles together. It works when we do it and getting to feel each other’s vibe and peace is the certain benefit on top of the joy the practice brings. Blessings, friend.