Day 169: By grace I live. By grace I am released.

Our meditation for today is this:

By grace I live.  By grace I am released.
By grace I give.  By grace I will release.

Below is an excerpt from the workbook of A Course in Miracles further explaining our lesson for today:

Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear.  By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real.

Grace is not learned.  The final step must go beyond all learning.  Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain.  Yet we prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken.  It is not shut tight against God's Voice.  It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home.

Grace is our final destination, the last step taken along the path of Salvation.  Grace lies within all of us, but it cannot be fully realized until we dispose of all the garbage in our minds.  This is our "release," and the release which we then give to others through our graceful actions.  This is our healing process.  In healing the mind, we heal the world around us.  Forgiveness is the way by which we heal.  Forgiveness is the mending of a mind that has become split in its belief of separation.

In our lesson today, the Course advises that we ask God for a glimmer of the Grace awaiting us.  Though this sublime state is yet to come to us in its entirety, we can sample the experience of it now.  Doing so makes the healing process easier, as we bring a bit of Grace with us to light the way to its Source.

If we think of life on earth as preparation for something Grand, we are thinking in accordance with the principles of Atonement.  A Course in Miracles describes the Atonement as a chain of forgiveness, leading the way to our Salvation or full realization of Who We Really Are.  Each circumstance that presents itself to us is an opportunity to practice what we inherently know - that We are All One, that We are Divine Children of God, that We are Eternal, and that Love is All There Is.  This is how we prepare ourselves to wipe our eyes clean of the world we once saw and behold Heaven in its place.  This is how we ready ourselves for the Day of Grace, which comes to each of us in time as we complete our path along the Atonement.

We must be prepared, but the beauty of time is that we have all we need to get there.  The end is certain.  God will welcome us Home again.  But He waits for us to make the choice to align our will with His.  Must we continue to choose against it and keep wreaking havoc upon our planet?  When will we wake up?  After we exhaust our resources?  After we drop a few more nuclear bombs?  After we decimate the globe?  Let's not wait until we have no choice to make, for although there is a limit to the degree which we can miscreate, we need not go that far.  Let us turn around now and face the Light.  Let us See the path of Truth before us and take our steps in faith, knowing one day Grace will fill our hearts and all we see forever.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman