“All things work together for good. There are no exceptions except in the ego’s judgment.”

This aspect of truth in our New Thought teachings can be difficult to understand and hard to accept. And yet, if we’re willing, this simple truth will completely transform our thinking and our life.

The trick is to be consistently willing.

We all know that everything doesn’t FEEL good.
Notice that the teaching doesn’t say that everything FEELS good. It says everything works together for good.

Our emotions are usually the result of the meaning we make of things, and how we interpret what we think we’re seeing on the screen of life. YET, everything, yes, EVERYTHING we see and experience in our life is a projection of the mind.

This is the fundamental truth that we keep forgetting.
We forget because we don’t wish to take responsibility.

As crazy as it sounds, we’d prefer to blame others for how we feel and call ourselves a victim, entirely denying our power.

Many folks don’t feel worthy of the constant good and so they reject it and call things bad. They revert to being a victim. It’s what they’ve gotten used to.

All things work together for good doesn’t mean that everything is intended for good. When someone is cruel, violent and vicious to another, it’s not good. It’s unloving.

It can be helpful to discern whether there’s an intention to be loving or unloving. What’s the intention behind the choices we make?

Long before I picked up A Course in Miracles and began doing the daily workbook lessons, I had a personal practice of nonviolence. I was teaching about that way of living – following the teachings of Jesus, Gandhi and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, as well as others.

I found that simply being able to notice whether something was feeling loving or unloving helped me to decide whether or not it was the wise choice for me in that moment. This was a key component of my personal practice of nonviolence.

Paying attention to when I was making loving or unloving choices went a long way towards retraining my mind. The more I made loving choices, in my thinking and in the world, the more I was able to recognize that I found my self taking responsibility for what I thought and felt – and that got me out of believing I was a victim.

From there, I really began to see more and more clearly that even the very most difficult things I’d experienced in my life had brought me some good.

Getting fired from a job freed me to follow my passion.
Being rejected by situations and people moved me to look elsewhere which brought me great good and stopped me fiddling around with trying to fit into a place that no longer suited me.

Sometimes when you just can’t pay that mortgage anymore and you have to short sell, declare bankruptcy or hand your home over to the bank it means that you’re going to be better off living within your means and putting your attention on your inner growth rather than on just getting by and paying bills.

Sometimes, believe it or not, when the person you love doesn’t want to be with you anymore they’re setting you free so that you can actually experience more love in your life.

Sometimes when a person falls down the stairs and breaks both their legs, they’re being given six week’s sabbatical to focus on their spiritual practice so they can go really look where they’re going with vision and clarity.

“Everything works together for good” is a perfect way to describe God’s Infinite Grace.

Grace is always operating.
Everything truly IS working together for our good.
We can’t see it when we’re looking through the lens of the past.
The good is always there even when we can see it or conceive of it.

I’ve come to rely on Grace always operating, never taking a break. When I’m willing to acknowledge and accept it, I’m aware that no matter what’s happening, Spirit will use it for the good of all. Always.

This is foundational to my faith and trust in Love itself, in the Infinite Intelligence that God is. It’s how I’ve learned to be consistently willing to RECEIVE the good and ACCEPT the good that’s always available to those that have eyes to see and ears to hear. Perfect!

If you feel as though you’ve been playing small, but would like to share your gifts and talents you may be interested in some of the professional trainings I’m offering. If you have self-doubt you’d like to transform so that you can share from Spirit and inspire others check out what we’re up to. These trainings are open to anyone – feel free to join us!

Next weekend we have our Create and Lead Workshops with Rev. Karen Russo – both are open to anyone, and many people like to combine them for maximum transformation.

If you’d like to learn more, click here. This trainings is for anyone who’d like to feel more comfortable speaking in front of others, present a topic or a workshop with confidence, or just develop a workshop.