Friday, April 3, 2015
Lesson 93: “Light and joy and peace abide in me.”
This lesson reminds us that we are filled with the absolute best insides. We are filled with these amazing qualities the Course tells us. The problem is we just don’t believe it. Our ego mind has warped our perception, so when we see ourselves especially, we see just problems and darkness and scarcity and disgust. Jesus tells us that the only thing we have to do is change our minds about ourselves. And this seems straightforward and easy on the surface, but after giving this a try sometimes, we may discover we feel stuck. We can trip over this perfect reality because the ego is used to tripping. This is why we take great effort to redefine ourselves in God’s energy and light and then we apply this to our lives. Then we just keep reminding ourselves until we get it.
This can take a very long time sometimes. We are asked to forgive ourselves for getting lost. If we can’t remember this most basic truth about ourselves don’t jump ship. Stop and pray immediately. Ask God in the reflection of the Holy Spirit how to believe in our lovability. Then we will be graced with specific instructions about how to make the shift in our outlook that will make way for the truth about us to be known.
No matter how much we struggle in our earthly life to believe we are worthy of being only good things we simply need to stay at attending to changing our thought patterns. We have to be willing to keep clearing out our intention to get to the place when we can readily access our intention that turn us to the direction of God’s perfect love for us. No matter how far away we might think our perfection might be, we are asked to see that these amazing traits never left our minds. We are whole and intact and a reflection of only what is God filled. We are asked to understand this is always true. We just forgot in a moment of madness.
This lesson says, “Should you be tempted to become angry with someone, tell him silently: Light and joy and peace abide in you. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.” I love the intention of letting other people off the hook. So often when someone does something that the ego feels like is an attack we then end up holding grudges for an indefinite about of time. When we hold grievances this is a way to separate ourselves and also block our openness to the flow of God’s love. When we are holding grievances sometimes our egos can make an inordinately excessive story about how much we have been wronged. And we make them into enemies sometimes for however long the ego sees fit.
It’s imperative that we simply see that the ego is masterful and holding grudges. And when we do that, their sinlessness which is from God, can be completely forgotten. We can’t even put that person into the same sentence sometimes with the word ‘sinless’ because our ego says- ‘NO WAY! This person deserves to pay for such a misdeed.’
We may need to be direct in telling this person that we would prefer them to behave in a different manner. If we feel called to authentic discussion about what happened, then do so. But before, during, and after that conversation, forgive, forgive, forgive, and then just hold them in the light of sinlessness until it fits the picture again.