Lesson 85: Review of
Lesson 69: My grievances hide the light of the world in me, and
Lesson 70: My salvation comes from me.
Grievances? Again? Really?
Oh, wait, that’s a grievance, isn’t it? Being irritated with having grievances pointed out again and again … yeah, I guess so.
This is why A Course in Miracles is nothing if not redundant. We recalcitrant human beings have the attention span of a gnat. Always flying at the closest face or pile of manure, no matter how many times our Higher, Divine Self wants to swat us away from our ridiculous egoic compulsions to attack one another and compete with everyone for what we see as limited resources.
Our ego is like a demented Oprah: “You get a grievance! And you get a grievance! Grievances for everyone!”
Our grievances – everything from petty irritation to our outrage at the state of the whole world – blocks our sight. It hangs like a heavy, black curtain blocking us off from the Light of the Divine that is always shining within us. If we can remember, though, that it is only a curtain of illusion that shrouds that light – easily removed by remembering that we are that Light and nothing else – the veil is lifted and we can see the world clearly through our Holy vision.
I encountered a setback today in a business deal – something I really need to go through for my bodily security. I was presented with several options to keep the deal on track, none of which were feasible. I began to feel irritated at the whole situation when I remembered a phrase from today’s lesson: “Let me not use this as a block to sight.”
The deal is still on track – it’s timeline is just delayed – and time (as well as the deal itself) is really just an illusion. Whatever my needs are, God will meet them, and if this deal is part of the way God intends to provide for me, it will work out perfectly in its own time and way. My worrying or being frustrated about it now simply saps the joy I could be having in this moment.
That brought up another phrase that pays from today’s lesson: “I will not let this interfere with my awareness of the Source of my salvation.”
My salvation is assured, because my Source never fails me, even if it doesn’t arrive in the form I’m expecting.
Author Michael Singer talks about how the only way to truly live a happy life is to surrender to what is – to not be bothered by what’s going on. That’s not to say we can’t be concerned, and it’s not to say we don’t do the work before us that needs to be done. But, if setbacks don’t bother us, and we keep doing what needs to be done, we’ll get where we’re going without worry, because we know Source is working it all out in our favor, no matter how it may look in the end.
Singer’s wisdom that I am repeating along with this lesson is this: “The truth is, everything will be okay as soon as you are okay with everything. And that’s the only time everything will be okay.”
I’m okay with that.
As the 17th century Indian mystic poet Tukaram once wrote: “If God would stop telling jokes, I might act serious.”
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash