Lesson
86: Review of:
Lesson 71: Only God’s plan for salvation will work, and
Lesson 72: Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.
It’s a paradoxical time we’re living in while we deal with this coronavirus pandemic. We have been forced apart physically, but our innate desire for unity over separation is driving us to find new ways to connect to one another. Musicians are livestreaming concerts from their living rooms, churches and other spiritual communities are seeking ways to hold virtual celebrations, teachers are reading stories online to their students and others are checking in with neighbors, making supply runs for others and generally seeking new ways to create community.
We are hard-wired to want to be together, because, I believe on some level we know that this separation we feel truly is an illusion. This is not our true state of being and now that we are limiting our physical presence with one another, we are finding out that we are more than our bodies – we are realizing what A Course in Miracles and other metaphysical teachings have been telling us for millennia – we are all joined in one mind.
Another byproduct of this pandemic has been the reemergence of our Love and compassion for one another. Daily, we see instances of people putting aside their grievances – putting aside differences on politics, religion and other hot button issues – to help one another, to provide for one another, to create a sense of connection.
Every expert predicts that we will emerge from this pandemic changed – our systems, be they political, religious or social – will be altered forever. We are at a turning point when we have the choice to either create new systems that seek the greatest good for all or to revert back to the old, ego-driven systems of selfishness, inequity and inequality.
It is in these moments we must remember that only God’s plan for salvation will work. God’s plan is for us to remember who we are – beings of light who are joined in one Holy mind. This is our opportunity to remember the truth about ourselves – we are not selfish, egoic, greedy, recalcitrant beings. We are Love incarnated in flesh, meant to remember our own divinity and shine that light of unity in every moment.
Our irritations, whether they seem petty or huge, dim our light of Love and prevent us from following God’s plan for salvation and creating a world of unity instead of separation. Too long, Hafiz says, have we been “sacrificial lambs offering ourselves to a false god.” That false god is the selfish, egoic systems we have built in this world.
“God,” Hafiz says, “wants nothing from us but to share its glory.”
“And at
times, when we really need to know
something about perfection …” he continues,
“the movement of your breath might do, or the beating of our hearts.”
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash