Day 69: My grievances hide the light of the world in me.

Here is the subject for today's meditation: 

My grievances hide the light of the world in me.

The workbook lesson in A Course in Miracles explains further, adding:

I cannot see what I have hidden.  Yet I want to let it be revealed to me, for my salvation and the salvation of the world. 

During the longer meditation practice for the day, the Course instructs us to imagine our mind as a "vast circle, surrounded by a layer of heavy, dark clouds."  These clouds represent the grudges we are still holding, the people or circumstances we have yet to forgive entirely.  We are then asked to approach those dark clouds, as if something is pulling us inward.  Yet the force which is pulling us is beyond the clouds - it is the magnificent light hidden behind them.  That light is the light of the world that exists within all of us.

I believe in the power of visualization, so this exercise was very effective for me.  As I meditated, I pictured myself becoming lost in the dark clouds, smelling their stench and feeling their brutal chill upon my skin.  I saw horrifying lightning flashing all around as I continued to be pulled further in.  At one point, I had forgotten I was even being pulled at all.  I felt hopeless, completely lost and abandoned in the darkness.  Yet when I became still in the picture I was creating, I could feel the gentlest, most unyielding power guiding me in a clear direction.  Sure enough, the clouds began to thin, and I saw patches of light shining through.  Soon the clouds disappeared behind me altogether, and before me was a brilliant globe of white light.  It was as if I had gone skydiving and was soaring toward a brightly-lit earth.  As the light engulfed me and I became one with it, I began to recognize that I was not the only spirit there.  Others, many others, billions of others were there with me, composing the sphere into the brilliant ball of light it was.  I joined them as they radiated outward, the globe growing larger, and I saw that this light was melting away the clouds, layer by layer.  The Course mentioned that "the tears of God's Son disappear in the sunlight," and this was it.  As the ball of light expanded, the dark clouds dissipated.  And more souls, like myself, continued to be pulled out of the clouds and into the light, contributing to its growth.

Talk about an enlightening moment!  What this exercise showed me was that as each one of us is lifted into the Light of God (which is also to say that we are awakened into our own inner light), we join the souls of all who have been lifted.  As we do so, we become part of the crusade to literally bring salvation to the world.

By joining together, by lifting one another, by sharing our inner light and bringing others through the darkness so that they may see it - we dissolve the grievances that have kept our light hidden for far too long.  So join with me, one and all, as I join with those who have gone before me, and let us shine away the dark clouds with our Brilliant Sphere of Light.

Until Tomorrow,
Journeyman