A week ago I
stood up here and said, “Boy it sure doesn’t feel like Christmas.” Today, three
days before the end of 2014 I stand here and say, “Boy, it sure doesn’t feel
like the end of the year.” Maybe it’s just me and maybe you feel that way, too.
Either way, I have a suggestion for us on how to approach 2015.
“Make this year different by making it all
the same.”
When I first
read the previous sentence in A Course in Miracles my brain screeched to a halt
and I found myself suspended, motionless, in an empty space between two
thoughts.
Make this year different by making it all the same.
It seems to me when we hear something
that doesn’t make sense we quickly transition from the statement we just read
to “Wait…that doesn’t make any sense.”
For me, I was sort of suspended
between those two thoughts. Imagine, if you will monkeys swinging from vine to
vine through the jungle. As they grab onto the second vine they let go of the
first one, then they grab onto the third one letting go of the second one, and
so on. Our thinking kind of goes the same way, grabbing onto one thought as we
let go of another.
As I was “swinging from thought to
thought” while I was reading A Course in Miracles that day, I reached out to
grab onto the next thought and there was nothing there. The analytical function
of my thinking had screeched to a halt. It was like I was suspended in air,
motionless, with noting to hold onto… no “vine” in either hand.
I’m pretty sure my eloquent response
in that moment was, “Huh?”
Make this year different by making it all the same.
As soon as my thinking mind started
up again I read that sentence a few times saying to myself, “That doesn’t make
any sense!” In this case clarification came as I read on, “And let all your
relationships be made holy for you.”
Let is a key
word here. Not make, but let. It seems to me that we let
our relationships be made holy, become holy encounters, when we forgive.
Charles Fillmore (co-founder of the
Unity movement, along with his wife Myrtle) describes forgiveness this way, “A
process of giving up the false for the true…erasing error from the mind.”
What is the false that we are giving
up for the true? Kenneth Wapnick says it best, “It is the idea that we are
different from each other, and that our reactions should differ in terms of the
differing events and situations that confront us. Making it all the same,
simply stated, means to perceive every situation, event, and relationship as
offering the same opportunity for forgiveness.” (The Lighthouse vol. 22 number
4)
God made us all equal in our
holiness. We have made ourselves appear to be different from each other
by judging appearances and creating an arbitrary hierarchy. In giving up the
false for the true, as Mr. Fillmore suggests, we look beyond the distorting
mist of appearances. In erasing error from our mind we no longer believe the
distorting mist of appearance to be Truth. Forgiveness removes the veil of
distortion from our mind and we connect: holiness to holiness.
I’ve read that Jesus’ teachings were
initially referred to as “The Way.” Whether that’s accurate or not isn’t
important to me. What it does though is make me remember there is a way to joy and freedom. It is my
opinion, as I just said, through forgiveness – which by the way is the exact
same as extending Love. When we extend Love we are extending our holiness
un-blurred by ideas of good/bad, right/wrong, deserving/undeserving of Love.
Extending Love, extending forgiveness
is, as I see it, the way to joy and freedom and it doesn’t matter what form it
comes through.
Too often we look to the form of things
to indicate how things are in Truth, in Reality, and the indicator of how
things ought to be done. Of course that’s usually based on our interpretation
of the correct form of things.
I have obtained for you a video that
will instruct you on the form of how to be ultra
spiritual. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kDso5ElFRg)
I trust you recognized that as
satire.
The form through which we express our
spirituality is secondary, the purpose
behind what and how we do things, how we present ourselves is the primary
thing. Let go of the false for the real. Be more concerned with the purpose
than the form.
Years ago Jane and I participated
with a group called “The Emissaries of Divine Light.” It was a group based on
the teachings of New Thought. Unity has a basis in New Thought, too.
The man who started the Emissaries
was named Lloyd Arthur Meeker. He both went by and wrote under the pen name
Uranda. Neither Jane nor I ever met him; he died in 1954. One of the stories
that was passed down about Uranda was the he could see the people in his group
were more concerned about appearances (form) and less about purpose. In the
context of what how I’m saying things today, their vision didn’t look beyond
the blurry mist of appearance. Uranda was “preaching” the necessity of clean
eating back then and at least enough of his “followers” got themselves into a
mind-set that smoking was wrong (i.e. judging by appearances) that they became
openly critical of smokers. Uranda apparently couldn’t get their attention by
talking about not judging, about seeing beyond the form of things, about giving
up the false (our interpretations) for the Real (God’s interpretation) so he
started smoking to get them to face their concepts!
How often do we ask ourselves, “Why
do I think what I think? Why do I do things the way I do them?”
A question we can ask ourselves is,
“What is my purpose in expressing what I am expressing?” or, “Why am I doing
what I’m doing (or, have done)?” or, again going to Kenneth Wapnick, “Does
this (whatever this thinking or action is) impede or contribute to my goal of
awakening from the… dream of separation? Is there anything else here to
consider, want, and work to achieve?”
Make this year different by letting all your relationships be made holy
for you.
Forgive, and joy and freedom will be
yours.
My holy sibling, together in Love we are one. In the name of freedom I
choose to release you from the judgment I have placed on you by looking past
the blurry mist of form to your holiness, that we may be released together.
Amen.
We’ll now take an offering to support our church.
No comments:
Post a Comment