Day 268

Today's Lesson:

Let all things be exactly as they are.

Let me not be Your critic, Lord, today, and judge against You. Let me not attempt to interfere with Your creation, and distort it into sickly forms. Let me be willing to withdraw my wishes from its unity, and thus to let it be as You created it. For thus will I be able, too, to recognize my Self as You created me. In love was I created, and in love will I remain forever. What can frighten me, when I let all things be exactly as they are?

Let not our sight be blasphemous today, nor let our ears attend to lying tongues. Only reality is free of pain. Only reality is free of loss. only reality is wholly safe. And it is only this we seek today.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Wow this lesson really hits home. It reminds me of Byron Katie's "The Work" again (I suppose it should be no surprise that that would be at the forefront of my awareness since I listen to it at least once a week on CD). She asks the question there "Who needs God when you have your opinion?" If we are believing our thoughts, we are not open to what is because we've made something completely false act like the truth. She says more than once, "It is what it is, until it's not - that's the way of it."

If we don't even know what we don't know, it's probably because we're believing our thoughts. And if our thoughts are not producing joy and love and peace, they're not true thoughts because, as today's lesson reminds us, "Only reality is free of pain. Only reality is free of loss. Only reality is wholly safe."

If we aren't able to let all things be exactly as they are in all their perfect imperfection, then we are judging. Mother Teresa once said she worked with the poorest of the poor because in them she saw Jesus Christ in all his distressing disguises. She was a person who didn't fight against things the way they were, she believed that standing for something was much more powerful.

I notice my own judgments all the time, even though I want to believe I don't have prejudices. Awareness is the first step to artful action, which is mindful and deliberate and focused. Artful action then leads to transformation, which is when we really begin living what we're learning here in this Course.

Blessed and grateful!