There’s a prayer in A Course in Miracles that I call My Purpose Prayer. Most people call it the truly helpful prayer. It might be the most well known prayer in all of ACIM. It opens with a line I’ve leaned on for years.
I am here only to be truly helpful.
Only. That’s the whole job description, and it’s the only purpose I have in this world.
What I love about it is this: If I’m being judgmental, unkind, attacking, and throwing guilt thoughts at someone, I’m not being truly helpful. Look what that does to an ordinary upset. Those two things can’t share a mind. One of them has to go.
So the honest sentence isn’t that someone upset me. The honest sentence is that I’m upset because I’m choosing not to be truly helpful. It’s such a different way to think of things. It completely, and easily shifts the energy for me.
In the past, I’d get up set and then dig in. “No, no, no. I’m going to dig a hole in the muck and the mire, I’m going to jump into it, and then I’m going to blame her for the hole and for my jumping in!”
That’s the height of insanity, and many of us do it before breakfast. Which means that we’re not fulfilling the only reason we’re having this experience – and, of course that is intensely upsetting – even if we don’t know what’s actually underneath our upsets.
Here’s the piece I’d have never guessed when I was younger. Being truly helpful isn’t a sacrifice we make for other people. It’s the safest place there is.
The truly helpful are invulnerable, because they are not protecting their egos and so nothing can hurt them.
Invulnerable. Not braver. Not tougher. Not better at absorbing the blow.
There’s simply nothing left to defend, because we’ve set down the thing we were defending.
That’s why our thoughts about a loved one, a neighbor, or a stranger in traffic aren’t a small private matter. Every unloving thought is an ego on guard duty, and an ego on guard duty is a mind that can be wounded by anything.
We can heal our mind about this. When I catch myself building the case against someone, I’ve learned to stop mid-sentence and turn it over.
Higher Holy Spirit Self, I’d like to be truly helpful here. Please show me how.
I’ve never once been told no.
The invitation isn’t to try harder at being nice. It’s to remember what we’re our purpose is – because in fulfilling that purpose our fulfillment lies – our deep sense of security is fulfilled.
We’re here only to be truly helpful, and everything we’ve been protecting was never in danger in the first place. I think that’s super cool.
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
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.
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.
