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Lesson 84: Review
Lesson 67: Love created me like itself, and
Lesson 68: Love holds no grievances

I have often remarked, at my spiritual community, that I preach the same sermon every week, just with different examples. The underlying theme of every message is how we can end the separation and remember who we are as beings of light and Love.

A Course in Miracles is no different. It’s an entire book that repeats the same message in every sentence. If we could just fully comprehend one sentence of this book, and allow it to lead to our enlightenment, all the other words become unnecessary. We all learn in different ways and at a different pace from one another, so the Course presents the same idea over and over again, with different words and examples.

I know that if I could fully integrate these two lessons in my own heart and mind, enlightenment would descend upon me in a flash. However, being the recalcitrant bodily form that I am, still firmly ruled by ego, I have to read the words again and again and practice them constantly to even give me a moment of insight into what the Course is teaching.

Continue reading “AYoMW: March 24, 2020 — My grievance casserole”

Lesson 83: Review
Lesson 65: My only function is the one God gave me and
Lesson 66: My happiness and my function are one.

Back when I was a kid, we spent Saturday mornings glued to cartoons on television, and some clever folks decided to take advantage of our longer attention spans back then by producing educational videos called “Schoolhouse Rock.” The catchy tunes and lyrics helped us learn about everything from how Congress passes a bill, how to sing the preamble to the US Constitution and why three is a magic number.

One of my favorites was about a train conductor in charge of “Conjunction Junction.” His job, he sang, was about “hooking up words and phrases and clauses.” He sang about three (there’s that magic number!) conjunctions in particular: “and,” “but,” and “or.”

He puts all the boxcars together in these lyrics:

Continue reading “AYoMW: March 23, 2020 — Living in your function junction”

Lesson 82:
Review of Lesson 63: The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness, and
Review of Lesson 64: Let me not forget my function.

In this time of social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, we have a unique opportunity to remember our function as the light of the world and to truly put it into practice. While we cannot be together physically, it’s a great time to remember that we are always joined in our minds and in our spirits. We are never alone – and as A Course in Miracles tells us, we are never healed alone.

If you find yourself with some extra time, I invite you to do the exercises especially from the review of Lesson 63. This is a time when we can meditate on those around us and the challenges they are facing. Think of a few friends and family members, bring them into your heart and mind and say: “Let peace extend from my mind to yours.” Say their names and extend your loving thoughts and feelings to them.

Continue reading “AYoMW: March 22, 2020 — Like a fish out of water”

Lesson 81:
Review of Lesson 61: I am the light of the world,
and Lesson 62: Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.

I got snippy with one of my band members the other day. We were rehearsing a song and he kept asking questions that I had already gone over and I could feel my frustration with him rising a bit. He’s an amazing man who takes A Course in Miracles to heart and puts it into practice in his life. He truly knows he is the light of the world and is dedicated to forgiveness as his function. I love him dearly, but he was trying my patience.

Continue reading “AYoMW: March 21, 2020 — The soul is a candle …”

Lesson 80: Let me recognize my problems have been solved.

“Problems, problems, problems,” sings Ziggy Marley and the Wailers, “We got to solve them … Problems, money problems, woman problems, political problems
Problems, religious problems, race problems, life problems.”

So many problems we believe that we have, but as the last lesson taught if we recognize that we have but one problem – a belief in separation – then it follows that all problems have been solved. No matter if you think the problem is about money, relationships, politics, religion, race or anything about this life, they are different manifestations of the one problem we all share – the ego’s lie that we are each separate beings living our own separate lives.

In Reality, we are one. In Reality, problems do not exist. In the ego’s reality, problems appear to be everywhere, and some of us even relish solving those problems, sorting things out and tying it all up with a bow. But, then, like roaches, more problems crawl out of the woodwork, just as we think we’ve solved the one before us now.

Our problems seem to mushroom because we don’t yet believe we only have one problem. We still believe there are many – and that some are more difficult to solve than another. But, often we find, when we get to the root of the situation, that there is a common cause for all problems.

Continue reading “AYoMW: March 20, 2020 — The problem with problems”

Lesson 79: Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved

We believe we have many problems in our world: war, famine, disease, oppression – so much suffering going on. Those are the macro-problems we face, but we each have our “own special problems,” today’s lesson observes, that we wish we could solve.

We can’t solve problems, though, until we recognize them and understand their root cause. This lesson tells us that no matter how we perceive the problems around us and believe them all to be distinct in their own way – they are all the same. The root of every problem we believe we see in this world has one source: Our belief in separation – that tiny, mad idea that we are somehow separated from God and one another.

It’s interesting that this lesson should arrive in a time when our world is practicing “social distancing” due to the coronavirus pandemic. It would appear, at first blush, that this pandemic is increasing our problem of separation. In bodily form, at least, we are the most separated we have ever been.

However, I believe this pandemic is helping us recognize that our true problem is one of separation. While we may be bodily distancing ourselves from one another, what appears to be growing is our sense of unity – our sense of a common purpose – and our growing generosity toward one another.

Continue reading “AYoMW: March 19, 2020 — The paradox of problems”

Lesson 78: Let miracles replace all grievances

One of the slogans I recall most vividly from watching Marianne Williamson’s weekly talks was this: “You can have a grievance or you can have a miracle.”

While I enjoyed the slogan very much, and have repeated it often, today’s lesson invites us to let those words seek deeper into our heart and mind so that we can actually live from this wisdom and not just parrot its sentiments. I won’t sugarcoat it; this lesson is difficult to do, especially for those of us who love our grievances.

Perhaps we should back up and talk about what a grievance is. It certainly is those areas we feel outraged about – the suffering and injustice in the world, the leaders we blame for causing it and those others we blame for not doing anything about the leaders who are causing all the suffering. But grievances can seem tiny as well – that irritation you feel when the lines are long or when you perceive others as hoarding seemingly scarce resources.

Just as there is no order of difficulty in miracles there is no scale of grievances. Tiny grievances are just as prohibitive to miracles as those we consider huge. A grievance is a grievance, no matter how trivial or important it seems and keeps us from experiencing miracles.

This lesson asks us to think about someone with whom we have a grievance. Who are you holding a grudge against? Think about that person.

The one that always leaps to mind, besides my father, of course, is our current president. His manner of being – the lies he tells, his selfishness, greed and other pathologies – drive me around the bend. I cannot fathom why others cannot see that he is a conniving, self-dealing grifter who believes all mechanisms of society, economics and politics should serve his needs alone. Thinking about him increases my anxiety and feelings of anger, isolation and, yes, superiority. I cannot see him as anything but a lowlife who thrives off the suffering of others.

Continue reading “AYoMW: March 18, 2020 — Look at the size of that grievance!”

Lesson 77: I am entitled to miracles.

One of the things I learned growing up in the Southern Baptist tradition was about God’s grace. It was something that God freely gave to everyone, without condition. Grace was unearned and was bestowed on you just because you were here. However, there was one condition. You had to accept this grace before you die, or else, you would end up frying in hellfire for all eternity.

A Course in Miracles turns this piece of egoic theology inside out. Today’s lesson tells us that we are entitled to miracles just because of who we are. Not because of who we are in our body, but because of who we are in eternity. We are not these bodies so a “get-it-now-before-you-die-or-else” kind of grace is actually pretty useless. It’s the ego’s invention, meant to make us grateful to it as our god for saving us from whatever it has defined as “hell.” In Reality, the ego IS hell. It creates it for us in every moment of the day.

We, however, have a choice of whether or not we live in this hell of ego. We can choose to live in heaven right now by realizing we are entitled to miracles, “because of what you are.” And, this lesson says, “You will receive miracles because of what God is. And you will offer miracles because you are one with God.”

This is not something we have to do before the body dies – because our entitlement to miracles is an eternal thing – because of who we are, because of who God is and because we are one with God.

Continue reading “AYoMW: March 17, 2020 — Tattoo you”

Lesson 76: I am under no laws but God’s.

I recently ran across an internet meme that read: “In America, there are more prison beds than hospital beds and more gun shops than free clinics. We’ve been sick for a long time.”

Today’s lesson seeks to underscore this idea that we’ve been sick for a long time, not just in America, but as a human race. We’re sick because we believe fully and wholeheartedly in sickness. We believe that our bodies will grow old, get sick and we’ll eventually die. It’s true that all bodies die – it’s how we’re constructed here in this bodily illusion.

This lesson, though, says the laws we’ve constructed here in this little “r” reality are meant to ensure our suffering. We rely on bits of coins and paper to pay for the basics everyone needs such as food, clothing and shelter. No coins and paper? No food, clothing or shelter for you unless someone more charitable comes along and gives it to you. No round pellets or fluid to push through your veins? You’ll get sick and die.

These are the laws of this universe we live in, because we have written them and believe them to be true. I struggle a bit with this lesson, because, especially in this time of pandemic, you don’t want to blame the sick for being sick, but every illness under the sun has been created by the rules and laws we humans have concocted and live under.

Continue reading “AYoMW: March 16, 2020 — Put down your shield”

Lesson 75: The Light has come.

This bodily world we live in can be an unforgiving place. As fear around a pandemic takes hold around the world, we can see clearly the selfishness, the “everyone-for-themselves” kind of thinking as commodities such as toilet paper and hand sanitizer disappear from the shelves. Some have even bought up large quantities of necessities, hoping to sell it back to others at a premium.

This is the ego’s world – a place where forgiveness, unity and the common good go right out the window the moment we fear a threat to our own bodies.

Today’s lesson invites us into a new state of mind, one that realizes this unforgiving world is not our true reality. Yes, we live in it while we are in a bodily state, and we should be prudent and careful about the state of our bodies, but our minds do not have to buy into the fear that seeks to engulf us during this time.

In our minds, we know the Light has come. This old world of fear and despair can pass away without us even noticing.

Continue reading “AYoMW: March 15, 2020 — Living in Light”