I’ve been having a lot of conversations lately with people who are worried. Worried about the finances, the health situation, the family situation, the headlines about war, division, injustice that keep the mind spinning.
And what I notice in myself is that I’m concerned, I’m interested, I’m paying attention, and I’m not upset.
That isn’t a personality trait. It’s the result of work done at the level of the mind.
It took me SO MANY YEARS to realize what really causes us to worry is our avoidance of the truth. And what we’re avoiding is almost always something we’ve refused to forgive. It’s the story we won’t let go of.
We say we’d like to – but we don’t do it.
Our opinions, our judgments, the meaning we’ve assigned to everything, all of it is unforgiveness wearing a respectable coat.
TRUE Forgiveness is the way out of the worry. Not around it. Out of it.
As we move into true forgiveness, we become less and less afraid of the truth, because the truth really does set us free. The truth liberates us from our story, but often we’re afraid of the truth – afraid of our perfection, afraid of taking responsibility for our choices, we’ve built up so much in our mind agains the truth.
Through TRUE forgiveness we can learn to be the less afraid of the truth of what we are, and then we have less opinions, less stories, and attack thoughts to frighten ourselves with.
It’s amazing how it works.
Let me show you why we hold on, since it makes no sense at first glance.
Say I’m holding a cup of coffee, and the cup is hurting me. It’s so hot that it’s hurting me. It’s causing me pain and I can feel it. It’s burning my hand, it’s causing real damage and suffering.
And I don’t set it down.
For some reason I’ve decided I need this cup, and maybe even this pain. So I keep holding onto it, maybe even holding it tighter and tighter, and somehow it’s getting hotter, burning me even more, and I keep hurting, feeling the pain, and I go looking for someone to blame for the hurt. It’s not my fault this is happening – they made me hold this cup, they are the reason I won’t put it down. They did this to me, and I keep it going, because I believe I cannot put it down.
That’s what our false beliefs do to us. They hurt us to the point where we can’t remember the truth. We’ve forgotten that we’re part of God and that our mind is very powerful. We’ve forgotten that we’re responsible for what we see and what we feel and what we think. So we blame it on other people, and then we’re miserable and we hope to make them miserable too. If we’re suffering, they should suffer too.
None of that is necessary. If we’re willing to remember who we really are, all of it fades.
Lesson 68 in the ACIM Workbook is titled Love holds no grievances, and it doesn’t leave any room to negotiate.
To hold a grievance is to forget who you are.
Not to have a bad day. To forget who you are. That’s the actual cost, and worry is one of the ways we pay it.
And then the promise, stated as flatly as anything in A Course in Miracles.
It is as sure that those who hold grievances will forget who they are, as it is certain that those who forgive will remember.
Remember. That’s the whole reward, and it’s the thing every anxious mind is actually reaching for.
True forgiveness means letting go of the meaning we made of things.
That’s all it is. Not condoning, not excusing, not pretending. Just laying down the interpretation we’ve been carrying and letting it be what it is. To step back.
One of the side effects of laying it down is that we remember the truth. And in that remembering, worry has nothing left to hold on to.
If you’d like to do this work in good company, our FREE Forgiveness Workshop is tomorrow, and we spend the time together laying down what we’ve been carrying. I usually offer two free forgiveness workshops per month.
Bring whatever’s been hurting you. The regrets, the grievances, the resentments, the grudges, the sadness, the hurt. Bring the blame of the person you’re certain is the reason you suffer. Bring the situation you’d like to release, including any guilt or shame.
We’re entitled to miracles. Expect a miracle.
Your miracle is what you share with all of us. All boats rise on this tide of Love.
MONDAY, TOMORROW Next Free Forgiveness Workshop is Monday, Labor Day, September 7th. Sign up now so you don’t forget.
SEPTEMBER: My Finding Freedom From Fear Spiritual Bootcamp is 90 days of moving out of coping and into real trust, faith and listening to the higher wisdom, together. This is my longest running program – popular because it is such a game changer. Are you up for truly moving past fear? I only offer this once per year – We start in September! Click here now to learn more now.
SEPTEMBER: How about some free classes with great ACIM teachers? Living A Course in Miracles: Release the Worry, Rest in Trust is open for registration now! Worry isn’t natural. It’s a habit, and habits can be dissolved when we’re truly willing. That’s what we’re doing together September 10 through 13 in my FREE series. 5 teachers, 8 classes, 4 days, and every one of us has walked through the worry ourselves and come out the other side. We’ll look at what worry actually is in the mind, why willpower has never once dissolved it, and how to hand the future over so we can rest even while life is still unresolved. Not denial. Not pretending we’re fine. A real change of mind. It’s FREE, and I’d love to have you with us. Register now so you don’t forget at powerofloveministry.net/Release
LATEST PODCAST EPISODE: Why You Can’t Skip Forgiveness with Keith Kavanagh I’m joined this week by Keith Kavanagh, calling in from just outside Dublin. We go straight at the step almost every ACIM student quietly skips, and Keith uncovers why there’s no way around it. He also shares the surprising truth about the woman who took down A Course in Miracles and never practiced it, and names the counterintuitive request Jesus makes of us in Chapter 2 when we’re afraid. What ACIM promises isn’t what most of us came for, and it’s better.
