Friday, December 11, 2015
Lesson 345: “What is a Miracle?” “I offer only miracles today, for I would have them returned to me.”
I am ever so grateful for the Course’s teaching about what a miracle is. The world says the miracle is when we move a mountain. Generally the idea of a miracle is associated with a change in form. This physical experience of changing something to make it look more appealing we believe in our material existence. We are asked to hold this notion of a miracle very loosely. The miracle can be a change in form if that’s part of God’s plan manifested physically. But we are asked to understand the miracle to be quite different in truth.
The Course teaches us specifically that the miracle is a shift in consciousness. This may seem little in comparison to moving a mountain as it seems much more extraordinary to make that mountain walk down the street. This is just our limited experience of what happens in form. We simply think that form is a bigger deal than simply sitting in the perfect alignment with our minds. The mind piece is most definitely what is extraordinary. Ponder for example when we feel upset inwardly and we are really stuck on some piece of our minds that we can’t get out from underneath.
We can be completely frozen within in trying to live through our inner hell. We can be more stuck than any need to have a mountain moved. I know I have had experiences where I was so angry or so stuck I was completely paralyzed, completely at loss. This inner stuck is most definitely the biggest deal we could ever imagine. When our minds are railing because of the inner suffering we are desperate to change it and at a loss for changing it.
This is the state of mind we have when we absolutely don’t know how to forgive, it could be forgiving the situation or forgiving another or even forgiving ourselves. We could be ever so stuck. This is the real mountain that matters if we move it. This inner pain we feel is so poignant it feels simply unbearable and when we sit at the loss of how to let it melt away in God’s hands then this is definitely when we are dying for the miracle. We need a shift in thinking because this is the way to stop suffering. And the inner challenges we have are the key to having peace in life, when we understand that our happiness rests on whether we get that shift in our consciousness to one of forgiveness over making the problem real.
It’s that shift in consciousness that brings our peace. When we hold onto our suffering and make it the most viable thing in our minds then we lose our balance and gentleness where we accept that the shift in consciousness is the only way to true peace and joy.
The beauty of the Course’s miracle is that it is the absolute most helpful and satisfying thing we can have for ourselves. We alone are graced with the extraordinary experience of living with them. This is the way to our most cherished experience of the utter peaceful mind. What is extraordinary is that when we give the miracle then we also have the miracle for ourselves. This is the way to practice God’s plan on earth. The miracle becomes our own even when we give it away. The energy of it comes right through us and so all are equally blessed at the profound experience of feeling it and extending it out to what seems like the others out there.