Good Morning!
Yet another storm this morning, my goodness, we have six or seven more days of heavy rain, thunder and lightning forecasted! Yes, I allow the weather to get to me, not because it bothers me personally, but because Gracie is so terrified and inconsolable. At this moment as it’s abated for a few hours, she’s under the desk where I am sitting inputting this email. She’s small, she easily fits underneath this very old/ancient oak desk.
OK…enough of that! Here we go with Ken:
KEN’S THOUGHTS:
“The procedure for this review is that we first become aware of our ego’s interfering thoughts, asking Jesus’ help to look at them. As their darkness disappears in his light, what remains are the thoughts we hold with God. Jesus now presents us with the specific instruction for the ten review days to follow, two lessons per day.”
Ken is now referring to 7:1-5 in his remarks:
“As we lay aside our investment in the ego’s “Interfering thoughts” – the raucous shrieking that prevents us from hearing God’s Voice – the meaning of His words shines through our happy minds. Each one symbolizes the end of darkness, as we bring our thoughts of guilt and judgment to His forgiving light. Thus will each practice period be one of joy, reflecting our eternal joy when the Holy Spirit’s words to us become the Word of God, and we are home.”
In response to the remainder of this paragraph seven (7), Ken writes:
“Jesus is asking us to unify our days around these two thoughts, so that our gifts of separation and specialness can be transformed by forgiveness into the gifts of love he holds out to us. He has always held them in our minds, but when we vacated them, these loving gifts awaited our return. As part of our meditative practicing, let us again read Jesus’ loving words to us from the text, which express the same gifts his review offers us:
“”How can you who are so holy suffer? All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing. I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had. I have purified them of the errors that hid their light, and kept them for you in their own perfect radiance. They are beyond destruction and beyond guilt. They came from the Holy Spirit within you, and we know what God creates is eternal. You can indeed depart in peace because I have loved you as I loved myself. You go with my blessing and for my blessing. Hold it and share it, that it may always be ours. I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share. The heart is pure to hold it, and the hands are strong to give it. We cannot lose. My judgment is as strong as the wisdom of God, in Whose Heart and Hands we have our being. His quiet children are His blessed Sons. The Thoughts of God are with you (T-5.IV.8).””
Enough of Ken for today.
MY THOUGHTS:
I found revisiting the passage Ken quoted from the text to be most helpful.
I also had read a brief article from another Course teacher who admonishes all of us to forgive ourselves when we’re convinced we have failed the Course.
How many times are we “guilty” of crucifying ourselves when we go into attack and blame mode?
Let me just stick to what I do.
I know I feel guilty, but I am realizing it’s all a choice, each minute, each second of every day, I am choosing for the crucifixion or resurrection, that’s somewhere in the text too.
There is power in choosing. This power of decision permeates the entire blue book in some form.
When I wake up in the morning feeling overwhelmed and inadequate, it’s a decision I have made to stay stuck.
I desire to hold myself accountable for this choice.
“I am responsible for what I see…”, is among my favorite passages in the text, page 448, I think, not sure. All this means is that I can ask Jesus to help me see what ails me differently. I can ask for a miracle, a shift in perception so that I don’t spend my day frenzied.
The cycle I repeat over and over is this:
FRENZIED/FRIED/FRANTIC to FROZEN (basically immobilized in indecision and self-hatred) to FREE, if I so choose.
The free aspect may come in a few days or not at all, but that choice is always there.
From FRENZIED to FROZEN TO FREE.
I like it because it helps me to remember the decision for freedom from pain is always mine.
Have a wonderful day!
Love,
Gayle
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