Today's meditation really hit a chord with me. I knew some sort of breakthrough was coming from the preceding lessons. Here's what A Course in Miracles had in store for me today:
My happiness and my function are one.
This goes hand in hand with what I've written about previously. Our function, the only one given to us by God, is to love and forgive. Doing so brings us joy. Today's lesson goes on to tell us that God gives us nothing but happiness, so our function must be happiness. As the Course explains the lesson further, it asks us to think about any other time we believed we had an alternate purpose, an alternate function in life. Did it bring us happiness? The answer, I discovered, is no. And with that realization during my meditation this morning, I had a breakthrough.
Whenever I believed my function to be winning an award, I was never joyous. Whenever I believed my function to be writing a great script, I was never joyous. Whenever I believed my function to be making lots of money, I was never joyous. And each time I believed my function was something other than offering forgiveness and love, I was never able to achieve my function - not my True function or the one I'd made up for myself.
The relief I felt when discovering this during my meditation this morning was overwhelming. As I had this breakthrough, I broke down and began to cry. All this time I'd been chasing after unachievable goals - unachievable as long as I believed they were my true purpose. I'd been setting myself up for failure, when all I had to do was love, forgive, and thus follow my bliss. As I mentioned yesterday, the form our true function takes does not matter. But when we mistake the form for our function, that's when we get into trouble.
This isn't to say that we shouldn't set goals or dream big. That isn't the case at all. But it's the journey that counts. If we aren't in bliss, if we aren't loving every moment of the process (and forgiving ourselves when we fall short), that goal will never be attained. Our function - our only function - is to love and forgive and be happy. If doing so results in winning an award or writing a great script or making lots of money, then so be it.
As the day continued, I could feel myself walking a little lighter. The world I saw seemed a little brighter. And the evening ended on a perfect note (quite literally), as I saw a spectacular performance of the musical Rent at the Hollywood Bowl. Seeing the show complemented today's lesson wonderfully because the history behind the play's conception illustrates its point perfectly. Jonathan Larson wrote the book, music and lyrics, but he died before he ever saw his show produced. He was fully invested in the journey, and you can tell by the content of the play in the words he wrote. The show is all about love, it's all about living in the present, it's all about our connection to one another. It's impossible that he wasn't fulfilling his sole function while writing and composing Rent, because the musical is abounding with love, forgiveness and joy. Did he set his sights for the award-winning sensation the play became? Perhaps, but it couldn't have been his function in writing it, or it never would have come to be. His purpose, his function, was the journey itself as he continued to pour love, forgiveness and joy into the creation of his script.
So again, I say, wherever we go, whatever we do, whatever goals we set for ourselves, let us remember that it's all for naught unless we shine love, forgiveness and joy into every ounce of lives. As Jonathan Larson would say, "Measure your life in love."
Until tomorrow,
Journeyman
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