In chapter 18 of the A Course in Miracles text, Jesus says something very powerful that I find profoundly beautiful: “We are made whole in our desire to make whole.”
Our wholeness isn’t waiting on our performance. It arrives through our desire to see wholeness in someone else.
It goes on: “You who are now the bringer of salvation have the function of bringing light to darkness.”
The darkness in our mind has been brought to the light. Now we carry the light back out. That’s the function. Not to be impressive. Not to be finished. To bring light to darkness in our relationships.
Here’s the mechanism, and it’s very sweet.
We share one mind. When I judge my brother, he mirrors my self-judgment back to me. When I see his perfection, his beauty, his wholeness, he mirrors my own wholeness back to me. It works exactly the same way in both directions. We can be the perfect givers and receivers of Love. We’re built to give AND receive.
Which explains why the difficult people in our lives matter so much.
Think of every story ever written about a closed-hearted person who suddenly has someone in their life who needs their help. They want to turn away. That person is bothersome, annoying, not their problem. Something in their heart won’t LET them walk away.
Those are the classic stories, and they’re the story of our life.
When I started as a spiritual counselor I had clients who were genuinely difficult and challenging. I had to open my heart to them, truly welcome them in, and see them with no judgment and no complaint whatsoever. I had vowed that I would do that and I intended to keep my vow.
Otherwise I couldn’t be truly helpful.
We have a tendency to run from those moments, certainly we have the impulse to run. When our heart is challenged to love someone, to open in compassion and willingness to understand, to extend love where it isn’t easy, that’s precisely when everyone is having a healing. Not just the two people in the room. Everyone. Because we’re one.
The moments we most want to escape are the ones doing the most work.
If there’s a person you’d rather not think about right now, my FREE Forgiveness Workshop this Monday is a warm and practical place to bring that relationship and set it down.
Their wholeness and ours were never two separate projects. Our healing is everyone’s healing. And theirs is ours.
SEPTEMBER: My Finding Freedom From Fear 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
Next Free Forgiveness Workshop is Monday, Labor Day, September 7th. Sign up now so you don’t forget.
LATEST PODCAST EPISODE: Why You Can’t Skip Forgiveness with Keith Kavanagh. In this episode of A Course in Miracles: Walking the Talk, Living the Love, Jennifer Hadley welcomes Keith Kavanagh, joining from just outside Dublin, for a conversation on ACIM, forgiveness, and true identity. Keith reveals why he carried the book for nearly thirty years before he’d say he was actually doing it, the surprising truth about the woman who scribed it and never practiced it, and the counterintuitive request Chapter 2 makes of anyone who’s afraid. There’s one step almost every student quietly skips, and there’s a reason it can’t be skipped.
