Questions

Question:
Although I have been visiting your sites every day or so and although I have been reading and trying to follow “A Course in Miracles” lessons day after day, I cannot keep the oneness feeling during the rest of my days. I have the feeling that my willingness and acceptance are as sincere as they can be. All day and night long the Holy Spirit and all ACIM Principles are present in my mind only to make my earthly life more difficult. I cannot go back to my former way of thinking and I cannot completely change it either. I feel I am trapped midway in my awakening mind and, worst of all, I feel lonely and helpless. Why do you think it is that I feel like this? When I began reading and studying ACIM, miracles were obvious every day and I felt blessed. I not only felt blessed but apparently looked blessed also and friends started to gather around and we all joined to read and discuss ACIM text and lessons. It was wonderful! But little by little they all started to quit and to feel it was too difficult to maintain the new way of thinking and now they seem to prefer avoiding me rather than to remember Who We Really Are. Please send me some helpful thoughts.

Answer:
The Holy Spirit has all things well in Hand. In moments of distress and discomfort, it is always helpful to remember that God's Plan cannot fail. Everything in this world is backward and upside down, and nothing is as it seems. It is impossible to judge seeming advances/successes from seeming retreats/failures, and difficult trials are always only opportunities to choose again and welcome the miracle. The Movement of Awakening is the undoing of a false sense of identity, and with each loosening shift in self-concept there is fear. The Christ Self awaits but recognition, for It never changes. The journey inward is a lesson in increasing trust, for fear cannot be given up without the trust that there is something else to take its place.

Awakening is the journey through the darkness to the light. What has been repressed and hidden in darkness must be raised to light. What has been pushed out of awareness must be allowed to resurface, that it may be released. The unconscious mind is a belief system of falsity, and what is assumed to be true must therefore be open to question. The ego or false self was made by belief and is dispelled by withdrawing belief. God, Divine Love, is beyond belief, for God can be but known. As belief in the ego is withdrawn, the ego interprets every step in its undoing as a threat to its "existence." Awakening is going on always, and this the ego interprets as painful and disturbing. Yet when belief has been withdrawn from the ego, these false interpretations disappear with the illusion which seemed to spawn them.

Keep the faith and remember that the world simply out pictures the thoughts that you retain. Change your thoughts and think with God, and the witnesses and symbols will reflect this change of mind. Perception mirrors belief, but it is given you to change what you believe and accept the Atonement. This complete change of mind CAN and MUST be possible, for Christ remains as God created Christ; Eternally and Changelessly Innocent. Awakening is inevitable, truly unavoidable. Resistance is futile, yet it will not subside without an increase in trust and many miracles. Miracles light the way and collapse time, and miracles are our means for Awakening. A little willingness for a miracle goes a long way!

What could you not face if you would only stop an instant and remember Who carries you along the road inward? Can the Holy Spirit fail, when success is guaranteed by God? Can error withstand the gentle, certain, Call to Awaken if it is God's Will that Christ be Awake and Happy in Eternity? If friends seem to disappear and the belief in loss rears its head, be of good cheer, for the Holy Spirit Guides the sleeping mind through the keyhole of darkness to the light of forgiveness, and beyond to remembrance of Life Eternal in God. As doors close on the past, the door to the Present opens. As the ego is laid aside the mind seems to be born anew as Divine Mind, for in truth nothing has changed in what is One forever. Divine Mind is our Christ Self, and nothing can change Eternal Love.

Take heart … for Love is Certain.

In Love and Joy,
David