Day 100: My part is essential to God's plan for salvation.

My part is essential to God's plan for salvation.

Below is an excerpt from A Course in Miracles further explaining today's meditation lesson:

You are indeed essential to God's plan.  Without your joy, His joy is incomplete.  Without your smile, the world cannot be saved.  While you are sad, the light that God Himself appointed as the means to save the world is dim and lusterless, and no one laughs because all laughter can but echo yours.

You are indeed essential to God's plan.  Just as your light increases every light that shines in Heaven, so your joy on earth calls to all minds to let their sorrows go, and take their place beside you in God's plan.  God's messengers are joyous, and their joy heals sorrow and despair.  They are the proof that God wills perfect happiness for all who will accept their Father's gifts as theirs.

Our part in salvation then, as the Course suggests, is to be joyous.  Salvation is the same as forgiveness, which brings us joy.  These, as mentioned in previous postings, are all derived from Love.  Our function is one of Love, one of forgiveness and joy, and one of salvation.  They are all the same.

If you ever doubt your worth in our world's salvation, consider this metaphor:

Those of you who have ever put up Christmas lights are probably aware that if just one of the tiny bulbs goes out, the whole string of lights becomes dark.  Each one is connected.  Removing one disrupts the whole circuitry.  We are no different.  Each one of us is joined together by the Energy Field of God.  Each one of us is an individuated Aspect of Divinity.  Each one of us is a tiny light bulb on a Great Circuit of Light.  If our light goes out, so does the Whole.  The beauty of God's design is that our inner-light can never go out, even in death.  Our light, our spirit, the unit of energy currently inhabiting our bodies, will transform into another manifestation of God's Love.  The Great Circuitry forever remains intact.

Another way to look at it is that we are each a link in a Great Chain which connects us all together.  When our bodies die, links bind together where we once were, as a new link is created where we are reborn.  The Chain can never be broken.  Without each one of us, without each link in place, it could not exist.

On this day we remember the tragedy of September 11th, 2001.  Many links in the Chain of Life were re-positioned that day.  As a result, our nation had to bind together, both to mourn the loss of those who had passed and to grow in our strength and compassion for one another.  There is great Joy in strength and compassion, but must it come at such a price?  If our part is essential to God's plan for salvation, and joy is our function in that part, how do we maintain that feeling in the presence of such devastation?

We must remember that any perceived tragedy is an illusion of the physical world.  We must recognize the errors of thinking that brought us to that event, but we must also look past the picture to See the possibilities for correcting our way of thinking.  Even in the presence of devastation, there is Light.  There is always the potential for a miracle to occur, for a shift in perception from fear to Love.

Though we were mourning as a nation on September 11th, the majority of us did become more loving and more compassionate with one another.  This was the miracle hidden beneath the tragedy of 9/11.  After our period of mourning, I believe that America's people did become more joyous than we were before.  Yes, there have been missteps along the way, and yes, other devastating events and circumstances have occurred within the last nine years, but I believe that overall, our Light does shine brighter now.  I believe we have more of an understanding than we once did that We are All One.

So let us truly realize our importance today.  Let us each recognize our essential presence in the Great Circuitry of Light, in the Chain of Life.  Let this awareness bring us an abundance of Joy, and power us with the ability to Love and Forgive.  By this, we will come to know our Salvation.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 99: Salvation is my only function here.

The complete meditation for today is this: 

Salvation is my only function here.
Salvation and forgiveness are the same.

In Day 62 we learned that forgiveness is our function as the light of the world.  Here we are reminded that forgiveness is synonymous with salvation, and that it is our only function here on earth.

God is Love, and all His creations are manifestations of Love.  Forgiveness is a derivative of Love, as is Joy and Peace.  Light is how His Love is represented.

When we are residing in Light, we are a free-flowing channel for God's Love.  It is the only state in which can experience True Forgiveness, True Peace, and True Joy.  Forgiveness is the means by which we will bring salvation to this world.

A Course in Miracles emphasizes over and over again the importance of relinquishing all grievances.  Holding a grudge or grievance against another blocks our inner-light from shining through.  It is withholding forgiveness, and as such, it halts us along our spirit's trajectory in its quest for Ultimate Joy, Peace and Love.

Forgiveness is not a simple task, but it is one we must learn if we are ever to deliver Peace on earth.  Recognizing ourselves as reflections of each other is one way to begin.  Another is to see the Child within each of us.  No one intends to do wrong.  Any act of violence or aggression is out of a false perception that we are separate from one another.  It is an ignorance of the Kingdom of Heaven that awaits us all.  This is the basis of fear.  If we are to be rid of fear, we must learn to forgive.  Remember, "They know not what they do."

Forgiveness extends even beyond the people who appear to slight us.  It applies to all of God's creatures, in all situations.  We must forgive the weeds that have grown wildly in our yards, the hurricanes that have wreaked havoc on our cities, the blood-stained history books of our nations... and we must do this just as freely as we forgive a newborn baby that has spit up on our shoulder.  We must even forgive the mosquitos that draw our blood.  (Yes, that's a difficult one for me as well.)  All in all, it does not matter who or what it is we are forgiving.  What matters is that we are standing in Light and exuding Forgiveness wherever we go.  Where forgiveness is not necessary - where there is no grievance being held - we must still pour Love and Joy into everyone and everything we see, touch and feel.  To not do so is to ignore the Beauty all around, which can only lead us into darkness.

Of course, we must not forget to forgive ourselves.  This is perhaps the most difficult task salvation entails.  We must remember that we are Divine Children of God, and that there is a Light within us that can never be extinguished.  The Light within is Who We Really Are.  Everything else is an illusion.  Remember, we are free from sin.  Any perceived damage we have done is an illusion of the physical world.  The past is gone, and the future is yet to be created.  If we can learn to cultivate ourselves anew in the Here and Now (which is really all there is), then we will behold what Splendor is yet-to-come.

Through forgiveness, we will achieve our salvation.  Let us infuse our lives with Love and Forgiveness everywhere we go, in everything we do, and to everyone and everything we encounter along the way.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 98: I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation.

I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation.

Today's lesson in A Course in Miracles is a proclamation of our will to save ourselves, and furthermore, our world.

Each one of us has a role to play.  Collectively, we are One Child of God, but each of us individually contributes a crucial component that will lead to our world's salvation.  Never underestimate your own importance in this weighty task.  You may have heard of the butterfly effect, an aspect of chaos theory suggesting that the tiniest of alterations can result in significantly different outcomes.  Even the mere decision to turn left instead of right to avoid traffic on a busy street can change the course of history... Perhaps you get into an accident, and the person you exchange information with turns out to be a music producer.  She hears your demo, and before you know it, your song is being played on radio stations across the nation, inspiring millions of people to change their own lives for the better through the melody and lyrics you wrote... Situations like this occur every day.  Most of the time, we aren't even aware of the impact we have had on others.  But it's there.  The truth remains that this world could not exist without you, or any single one of us.  Remember how important you are.

As today's meditation is of a very personal nature, I will leave you with that.  I encourage you to use the few extra minutes you would otherwise spend reading on to sit silently and dig deep within yourself.  Make the determination to accept your role as Savior on earth.  Ask of God what tasks you have been assigned.  What would you have me do?  Where would you have me go?  What would you have me say, and to whom?

The world is waiting for you to claim your stake.  The world is waiting for you to lead it into Light.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 97: I am spirit.

Today's meditation is yet another reminder that we are not our bodies, contrary to what we are likely to believe.  Here is our mantra for today's practice periods:

Spirit am I, a holy Son of God, free of all limits, safe and healed and whole, free to forgive, and free to save the world.

Let's dissect this wondrous statement phrase by phrase, so that we may yield a better understanding of the concepts therein.

Spirit am I - I am spirit.  We are all spirit.  Yet because we live in a physical world, we often forget this truth.  If we were just a body, we would not have the capability to dream up the marvelous ideas that have become some of our world's greatest achievements: The Sistine Chapel, Beethoven's symphonies, the works of William Shakespeare, the invention of the light bulb - these are but a few of the beautiful expressions of humankind that would have never been possible if we were "just a body."  Each one of us is a soul yearning to explore this playground of our planet and make itself known.  The body is merely our tool to do just that.

a holy Son of God - As discussed yesterday, we are all God's Children.  Combined, we are His Son, the Chosen One, the Savior of our world.  Though we appear as billions of different people and even further still as the myriad life forms that roam this planet, we are but reflections of one another.  God has only One Son, and we are all it, being expressed in an infinite number of ways.  Because we were created by God, and because we have been imbued with the ability to create ourselves, we are indeed Holy.

free of all limits - By the sheer fact that we have the gift of creating ourselves anew in a multitude of shapes, sizes and life-forms, we can certainly consider ourselves free of all limits.  This may not appear to be so in the lives we are living now, but on the scale of Eternity, we have no limits whatsoever.  Once we lay our current bodies aside, we can decide to become the rain, the wind, a buzzing beetle or an alien on another planet.  There are no limits on what we can create.  And in God's eyes, which can only see Infinity in the construct of Here and Now, we have already done it all.  Every possibility has already manifested, and we are the fortunate beings who can experience those possibilities whenever we so choose.

safe and healed and whole - We have always been safe, even when we have perceived otherwise.  Nothing in this world can harm us.  Pain is our body's reaction to physical trauma, but the spirit can never be bruised.  When we feel fearful, angry, guilty or alone, we have simply forgotten where our True Home is.  We are forever safe in God's loving arms.  When we remember this, we are healed.  We are whole indefinitely, for we never could be apart from one another, even when it appears as though we are separate from each other on this physical plane of existence.  Even here, there is an invisible force connecting us all to one another.  This is the Holy Spirit, ensuring that we never leave our Source - God, our Creator.

free to forgive - We must forgive if we are to bring this world Peace.  Forgiveness is Love, and it is how we experience authentic Joy.  If we are all connected, then holding any grievance against another will only hurt ourselves.  Forgiveness is recognizing the Light of God in every person, in every walk of life, in every situation.  It is how we will lift up our collective Whole and bring Salvation to the world.  This brings us to the last portion of our meditation today:

free to save the world - Of course, since in Reality there is no time, our world is already saved.  Yet since we have elected to experience our lives as we are living them now on this planet, we must also make the conscious choice to save our world if we want to see Salvation unfold before our eyes.  This is why we are "free" to do so, but it is not a demand.  God has given us free will in order to create as He does.  The question is: Do we want to experience the Joy and Peace of a world that has been healed by our heightened spiritual consciousness through Forgiveness?  Or do we want to perceive that we all remain stubbornly rooted in our separatist ideas while animosity leads to war and results in the disintegration of our global community?  We are free to decide.

Spirit am I, a holy Son of God, free of all limits, safe and healed and whole, free to forgive, and free to save the world.

Let us remember this important teaching throughout the rest of our day and in the days to come.  We are not our bodies, but we are connected to one another through the Holy Spirit that joins us all, we Divine Children of God.  We are limitless in our being, as we are of Pure Creation, free to create of ourselves.  Nothing can harm us.  We may be healed from our illusory perceptions anytime we choose by remembering Who We Really Are.  In choosing Forgiveness and Love over fear, we are making the decision to bring Salvation to our world.  We cannot fail.

May Love and Light be with you all, and spill forth into all those who surround you.

And so it is.  Thank you, and Amen.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 96: Salvation comes from my one Self.

When I was a child, I thought I was the Messiah, the Second Coming of Christ, the Savior of the world.  When I got a little older, I thought I was crazy.  Now I realize that I was right all along.  Only I'm not the only one.  Each one of us is our own Savior.  Each of us has a role to play in the salvation of humankind.  And together, we are all the Child of God, the Chosen One.  That we happen to appear on earth as billions of different people is just a mark of our ability to create ourselves anew.  As reflections of one another, there is really only one of us here.  This is what is meant by "my one Self."

Salvation comes from my one Self.
Its Thoughts are mine to use.

The second part of today's meditation reminds us that all minds our joined, as A Course in Miracles teaches in earlier lessons.  Each and every mind on the planet is connected to everyone else's by virtue of the fact that God's Light and Energy flows through us all.  The Holy Spirit is the connective tissue that keeps us all invisibly bound to one another.

God's Thoughts, the Thoughts of our Self, are those which join us together.  They are the thoughts of Joy, of Peace, of Harmony and of Love.  The thoughts of our egos, on the contrary, would insist that we are separate from each other.  They are thoughts of fear, of guilt, of shame, blame and loneliness.  These thoughts, though believed by many, cannot be shared by our One Self, for they are not given to us Holy by God.  These thoughts are the illusory ways of the ego.

The more we see past the dark thoughts of our egos, the more we will be able to extract from our Core Foundation of beliefs - those which cannot be shaken by the shadowy shapes we have mistakenly implanted in our minds.  At the Center of each one of us is Light, and this Light is a portal connecting us to the Holy Mind which joins us all.  From this Mind - the Mind of our One Self - we will come to know the answer to our Salvation.  It is there, and it is available to each and every one of us, as long as we have the Vision to see past the clouds that cover the Truth of our Being.

Isn't it time we joined together to bring Peace to our planet?  Let us begin today.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 95: I am one Self, united with my Creator.

Today's lesson in A Course in Miracles emphasizes the importance of repeating these meditations frequently throughout the day (the workbook suggests 5 minutes every waking hour for this series of lessons).  This is so that we may re-train our minds to think correctly, as we have been brainwashed by a faulty way of thinking prevalent in the world which we now live.

The meditation for today is quite beautiful, summing up a great deal of what we have already learned in the Course.  Repetition of it would do us well:

I am one Self, united with my Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and in peace.

Marianne Williamson, one of my spiritual mentors and a present-day teacher of A Course in Miracles, tells us frequently in her lectures, "God has only one begotten Son, and we're all it."  This is the meaning behind "I am one Self."  There is only one of us here - each is a reflection of the other.  I am you are me are we are all.  We are One with each other, One with God, and One with all individuated Aspects of Divinity - from the birds to the trees to the grains of sand on the ocean floor.  We all belong to One Field of Energy, which we call God.  With this knowledge, once it's had the chance to really sink in, we have the ability to harness incredible power and incredible peace.

Imagine the power of this entire planet in your fingertips.  You could have it.  And you do.  We all have access to it.  But to use it, we must also recognize that it is a shared power.  It is not a power that takes away or separates any single creation from another.  It is a power that gives endlessly, for the Power of God is Creation.  It is an Eternal Gift.  It is a peaceful power, for it could never harm.  It could never attack.  It could never play favorites.  It is not a power defined by competition, but by Unity.

These concepts, of course, are initially difficult to grasp.  We must exercise our minds just as we exercise our bodies, in order to sharpen our awareness.  These concepts are of the invisible world, which we can only tap into if we are thinking at a higher level than the physical world which we inhabit.  It is well worth the challenge to comprehend these ideas, for by doing so we will yield a more joyful, more peaceful, and more fulfilling way of life.  What could be more important than that?

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman

Day 94: I am as God created me.

Think of how we enter this world - an innocent cherub, a brand new baby completely open to whatever the world has to offer.  We are pure, we are precious, we are free from guilt or blame, and we cultivate love in everyone who surrounds us.  This is how God created us.  And though it may be hard to believe, this is how we remain all our lives.

I am as God created me.
I am His Son eternally.

The Light in us can never be extinguished.  We have the capability to cover it up with shadows and illusions of the physical world, but it will remain there in trust, waiting patiently for us to uncover it again.

Even in death, our Light remains, for we never really die.  Remember, energy can never be created nor destroyed.  It can only change form.  Death, then, is simply a transformation, a shift of energy.  After death, when we've laid our bodies to rest, our Spirit - our Energetic Essence - moves on.  Perhaps it returns to its Source - the Origin of Light and Life that created it.  Perhaps it moves onward to another physical plane, one where it can garner new and exciting experiences to contribute to its Soul Growth.

Whatever may happen when we leave the physical bodies we now possess, we remain - as always - a Child of God.  "I am His Son eternally."  The more we consider this, the less importance we begin to place on things that ultimately have no meaning - things like bills, clothing, the car we drive, the business presentation we have to make.  The experiences that matter in life are the ones that fill us up with love and joy.  They are the friendships we make, the relationships we cherish, the pets we care for, the children we raise... They are the expressions of our innermost selves - whether that manifests in a painting, a poem, a piece of theater, or a musical masterpiece.

The things that matter are not "things" at all.  They are the invisible aspects of our world.  They are the experiences we have.  Like Light, Love and Joy, they cannot be measured on a weighted scale, but only in the depths of our heart.  Yet they are more real than any physical object we have ever held in our hands.  This is Life.  This is Light.  This is the Glory which God intended for us, for we are His Divine Creations, unblemished by any figure the physical world may present.  We are His Innocent Children.  And we can rejoice in the fact that this will Always Be, for we are Eternal Beings of God.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman