Morning!
Before I speak to this lesson from my own experience, the following is a little excerpt from Ken’s Journey through the WB:
“Lessons 79 and 80 are unmistakably clear in their statement and meaning. Their language is simple, yet the entire curriculum is contained in them, being essentially a variation on the principle theme of the Course: There is no order of difficulty in miracles (T.1.I.1:1). That is how the text begins, as you all know. What you may not know is that the actual dictation to Helen did not begin with the current Introduction, but with the statement that the first thing to remember about miracles is that there is no order of difficulty among them. Jesus thus stated the theme of his course right at the beginning, and in a sense everything that followed – and these lessons in particular – is a commentary on that theme. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because there is but one problem. Bill Thetford used to say that the first principle could be restated as : There is no order of difficulty in problem solving, because the miracle is a way of solving problems. But not external problems. (This was highlighted in his book, BTW). The miracle solves problems by bringing them to the mind, wherein is found the one problem and its one solution.”
Just think about this for a bit. My reaction when I read it last night was WOWOWOWOW! This pretty much sums up the entire objective of ACIM, its purpose.
Yesterday, when practicing Let miracles replace all grievances, I decided I would do it on myself, I used she for I do this, I do that, etc.
It went like this:
She is convinced she cannot nor has she ever been a decent housekeeper. She has not developed a system whereby the house is clean without her feeling enormously stressed, burdened and yep, victimized by this home that enslaves, HA!
She simply cannot stay on top of all the emails that come pouring forth in every form.
She cannot take the time to do more Course work because she’s so darned distracted too often and too easily.
She feels like the consummate failure pretty much most of the time because she doesn’t seem to be able to be done with any task in its entirety. (As it relates to housekeeping, clearing out our cluttered basement, etc. Those non-human “chores”, if you will).
I could go on and on, but what surfaced for me as I did this, as I practiced on myself realizing, of course, that I am not Gayle Bartlett, I am as God created myself, that when I go into overdrive, as I often do, there is nothing in the Course that states this lesson or any cannot be practiced on the small self we believe ourselves to be.
I am my own worst enemy. Aren’t we all?
As a result of my inspired decision to practice on myself, I found myself all day long better comprehending how I just wasn’t asking for miracles, a change in mind, a change in perception, a change in teacher as it applied to much of my daily life with respect to problems I perceive that are not associated with relationships with other individuals as well as the political arena among many others.
It was quite the epiphany for me!
As I open-mindedly and open-heartedly practice today’s lesson, I see that I don’t have a million problems that will never be resolved. The only one I have is believing that they are out there when it’s only my interpretation of what is outside that destroys me. That makes me feel highly inadequate in my ability to tackle and resolve problems that I created. Whew!
Today…I join with the Holy Spirit with an open mind and heart. I don’t have any answers, I know nothing.
I ask what the problem is and will await the answer and then I shall ask what the answer is and I patiently await it. It may not come on an immediate basis, but ah, if I am vigilant throughout the day, the miracle is awaiting but my acceptance.
I can release my addiction to problems and trying to solve them on my own. It hasn’t worked ever. Nor will it.
May we all commit to being open-minded and open-hearted as we resign now from being our own teacher and turn toward the only One who can lead us ever so gently to peace!
Much love,
Gayle
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