X. The Equality of Miracles
1. When no perception stands between God and His creations, or between His children and their own, the knowledge of creation must continue forever. The reflections you accept into the mirror of your mind in time but bring eternity nearer or farther. But eternity itself is beyond all time. Reach out of time and touch it, with the help of its reflection in you. And you will turn from time to holiness, as surely as the reflection of holiness calls everyone to lay all guilt aside. Reflect the peace of Heaven here and bring this world to Heaven. For the reflection of truth draws everyone to truth, and as they enter into it, they leave all reflections behind.
2. In Heaven reality is shared and not reflected. By sharing its reflection here, its truth becomes the only perception the Son of God accepts. And thus, remembrance of his Father dawns on him, and he can no longer be satisfied with anything but his own reality. You on earth have no conception of limitlessness, for the world you seem to live in is a world of limits. In this world, it is not true that anything without order of difficulty can occur. The miracle, therefore, has a unique function, and is motivated by a unique Teacher Who brings the laws of another world to this one. The miracle is the one thing you can do that transcends order, being based not on differences but on equality.
3. Miracles are not in competition, and the number of them that you can do is limitless. They can be simultaneous and legion. This is not difficult to understand once you conceive of them as possible at all. What is more difficult to grasp is the lack of order of difficulty that stamps the miracle as something that must come from elsewhere, not from here. For the world’s viewpoint, this is impossible.
4. Perhaps you have been aware of lack of competition among your thoughts, which even though they may conflict, can occur together and in great numbers. You may indeed be so used to this that it causes you little surprise. Yet you are also used to classifying some of your thoughts as more important, larger or better, wiser, or more productive and valuable than others. This is true of the thoughts that cross the mind of those who think they live apart. For some are reflections of Heaven, while others are motivated by the ego, which but seems to think.
5. The result is a weaving, changing pattern that never rests and is never still. It shifts unceasingly across the mirror of your mind, and the reflections of Heaven last but a moment and grow dim, as darkness blots them out. Where there was light, darkness, removes it in an instant, and alternating patterns of light and darkness sweep constantly across your mind. The little sanity that still remains is held together by a sense of order that you establish. Yet the very fact that you can do this and bring any order into chaos shows you that you are not an ego, and that more than an ego must be in you. For the ego is chaos, and if it were all of you, no order at all would be possible. Yet though the order you impose upon your mind limits the ego, it also limits you. To order is to judge, and to arrange by judgment. Therefore it is not your function, but the Holy Spirit’s.
6. It will seem difficult for you to learn that you have no basis at all for ordering your thoughts. This lesson the Holy Spirit teaches by giving you the shining examples of miracles to show you that your way of ordering is wrong, but that a better way is offered you. The miracle offers exactly the same response to every call to help. It does not judge the call. It merely recognizes what it is, and answers accordingly. It does not consider which call is louder or greater or more important. You may wonder how you who are still bound to judgment can be asked to do that which requires no judgment of your own. The answer is very simple. The power of God, and not of you, engenders miracles. The miracle itself is but the witness that you have the power of God in you. That is the reason why the miracle gives equal blessing to all who share in it, and that is also why everyone shares in it. The power of God is limitless. And being always maximal, it offers everything to every call from anyone. There is no order of difficulty here. A call for help is given help.[1]
In our devotional text, The Equality of Miracles, Jesus begins by instructing us about the reflections we accept into our mind – reflections are thoughts, when we think about something, we are reflecting either the everlasting or the temporal, that which is loving, or that which is not. In time, Jesus tells us, we have the ability to reach beyond time and touch the timeless because Holy Spirit calls for us to do this. Each time we touch timelessness strengthens our resolve to reflect timelessness for it is timelessness that releases us from our bondage to the cycles of time. As we set our minds to reflect the peace of Heaven we bring this world to Heaven. As we bring the perceptual world to the higher consciousness of Heaven, we leave perceptions behind for we become that which is heavenly.
Jesus explains to us how the Atonement works to save us from the world of perception – when we share the reflection of God’s Kingdom on earth – we are no longer willing to accept any perception that is less than God’s Kingdom. Why would we? When I treat you with the deepest appreciation, love, and tenderness, when I recognize you as a mutual Son of God, when I communicate with you in honesty and release you from any sense of guilt, blame, and shame – how could you be satisfied with a relationship that demanded sacrifice, increased your guilt, and was characterized by competition for precedence and power? When I have fun with you without mockery, ridicule, and spite, when you can trust in me implicitly never to embarrass you or shame you in any way, when you can depend upon me to address your blunders with only a desire to help and to heal – how could you desire to hang out with someone who always made you feel bad about yourself, whom you could not trust, and who sought to punish you through silent treatments rather than communicate their willingness to talk it out and correct what went wrong between the two of you?
As we apply these concepts in our daily interactions with our family, friends, and coworkers, with our cell mates, with our pets, with the people who loom large and the ones who seem insignificant, we bring what was temporal and doomed to a heavenly level of consciousness. And when we do this, we cannot be satisfied with egotistical ways in which to relate to one another. For we have found our truth, we have found our reality. We break free of the world that limits us, that makes things scarce, that stingily withholds and believes that love is a limited resource and puts all manner of tax upon all that is pleasant, wholesome, and good. When we break free of the world’s way of relating to one another, we are miracle workers for the miracle teaches us equality of being, the miracle teaches us that there is no order of difficulty in miracles.
Miracles are not of this world for they bring us out of the temporal realm and into the eternal one. When I can look at you as you are, I am a miracle worker, for I can see you as you were created. And when I see you as you were created, you see me as I was created. When we see each other as we were created we are both healed and made whole, we have lost the perception of the temporal world, we have gained access to the timeless one. This is why we say that miracles are mutual. They bless both parties simultaneously. Nobody is competing for who is the miracle worker here, nobody is keeping statistical records to win grants or get credit or get their name on the wall of fame. When Jesus says there is no level of difficulty involved He is referring to the fact that the most hated and reviled, the vile and corrupt of this world are not exempt from this mutuality – everyone is included. From the world’s viewpoint this could not happen of course – this is why we know it is a miracle from beyond the world, that it comes not from flesh or the ego but from God – for when we see beyond the appearance of that which is unlovable, unforgivable, impure and vile to our mutuality in the Sonship of God, we have the vision of Christ.
Jesus tells us to study our thoughts and realize how conflicting, varied, and multitudinous they are. We are always judging which ones to go with and which ones to ignore. In our relationships and interactions with others in the world we are always making decisions about which ones to give attention to and which ones to ignore. Who and what is important and who and what is not? Who has earned our love and respect and trust and who has failed? Which activity has more fun to offer, which profession will give us more money, which friend has more clout? What will we eat and how much will we eat and who will we eat it with? Our thoughts go in all directions, and we make constant assessments of where to put our energies and focus our attention.
The miracle goes beyond our thought system – it gives an equal response to every call for help. It does not judge the call as to who deserves it, who has earned it, who has more to offer us in return. The miracle response is one that recognizes a need for healing and responds accordingly with no thought of defense or attack, no thought of what is in this for me. Because the miracle response goes beyond our human thought system, because it seeks nothing but God’s Will, God’s Kingdom come, and God’s Will be done on earth as it is in heaven – it bears witness that we have the power of God within us. With the power of God within us, we recognize that we are God’s Will and as God’s Will we give equal blessing to all for it is God’s Will that everyone share in it. There are no limits to God’s Will. God’s Will is always maximal, Jesus says. It does not shortchange one person and grant extra special blessings upon another. It is no more difficult for God to forgive a serial rapist and killer than it is to forgive a fib – for in God’s eyes, we are His Son created perfect and changeless in our Creation. If something has changed about us, it is not of God’s doing and therefore has no reality and therefor no meaning outside of time.
As humans we cannot grasp this on our own. We want this world and all the melodrama, crime, and darkness to mean something! We devise religions that will keep us trapped in realms of karmic battles between good and evil. We would take this penchant we have for our flesh and blood bodies into the furthest reaches of the universe, devising shuttles, resorts, and stations in outer space reenacting the egoistic ambitions that keep us from going within and returning to God. When we look outward instead of inward we will not find miracles. Human judgment is full of contradictions, condemnation, contempt, and corruption. In God, a call for help and healing is given help and healing with quiet love and calm joy and everlasting peace. There is no hoopla, there is no awe, there is no showing off about it. Miracles are the natural outcome of holiness, and holiness is simply knowing who and what we are in God.
We will end today’s post with paragraph six, covering paragraphs seven through twelve in the next post. Today in your personal devotional practice, reflect upon the equality of miracles. Ask Holy Spirit to teach you to put your own judgment aside and offer help and healing to every person, every situation, and in every circumstance that comes up in your daily life. Do not go seeking miracles – let them come to you. Our human judgment about a person leads us astray and hinders our return to God. It will make of this one a snob and that one a low-life. Our human judgment will tell us to be nice to those who have more to offer and to ignore those who cannot repay us. Our human judgment wants to be recognized for all the good it would do – it will find subtle and not-so-subtle ways in which to broadcast its “miracles.” Our human judgment will get in the way of the miracle-working call of God in our lives by making us afraid of jealousy and spite and ill will of those who could try to control us through their special relationship ties to us, obligating us to lives that are small and inconsequential in return for their “love.” Ask Holy Spirit to set your mind free of all that is egotistical and seeks protection and safety in the world. Learn each day to adopt the Mind of Christ, for it is the Mind of Christ which restores the Sonship of God in you and in me and in all of the world.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Chapter 14 Teaching for truth. X The equality of miracles 1-6. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
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