As I have shared elsewhere, the early dictation of the Course has hit me like a ton of bricks. I feel clear on something that I’ve been clear on theoretically but haven’t managed (despite years of trying) to translate to a personal level. That is that the whole Course comes down to cultivating miracle-mindedness and letting that spill over into miracle-doing. I know I’m repeating something I said in an earlier post, but that thought has got me in an iron grip. I can’t let go of it and can’t stop talking about it.
All day long we are supposed to be on top of our thoughts, being vigilant, guarding our thoughts, protecting our miracle-mindedness, keeping ourselves miracle-ready. That miracle-mindedness becomes the direct basis, then, for miracle-doing, in a number of ways:
- It brings into our minds the love we will give in miracles. Without that love, we can’t do miracles. You can’t give what you don’t have.
- It makes us sensitive to miracle impulses, impulses to express love to others that arise naturally in our minds yet which we are usually not aware of or don’t act on.
- It puts us in touch with the Holy Spirit, Who is supposed to guide our miracles, ensuring that they are given in the right form to the right people (those who will accept them and pass them on).
- It puts us in a state of miracle-readiness, in which we hold ourselves ready to notice those impulses and act on them.
So I’ve been focusing a great deal on that duo: miracle-mindedness and miracle-doing, especially the latter. I’ve been doing lessons like 345, “I offer only miracles today, for I would have them be returned to me,” and 353, “My eyes, my tongue, my hands, my feet today, have but one purpose, to be given Christ, to use to bless the world with miracles.”
Yesterday I really focused on devoting the day to this. (I combined it with an assignment in the historical Jesus group I’m part of in which we were meant to give a day to bringing the Kingdom to others.) My lesson was “Help me to perform whatever miracles you want of me today.” The Urtext says we are supposed to begin each day with that prayer.
I really had a different day. I found that most everything I did could be turned into a focus on giving miracles. With most of my tasks—helping with the kids, writing emails, working on writing projects, working on Circle business—I could turn it into a way to give miracles. What I did was repeat my lesson frequently, ask on the hour what miracles He would have me give, and then ask before going into an activity what my miracle impulse for that activity was.
I found I conducted the day very differently than normal, in lots of ways. I was a lot more attentive to family needs, and more loving in how I carried them out. I found myself stepping into rather than avoiding a leadership role in relation to an important project in the Circle. It was hard but it felt good. I tried to write emails that didn’t just get a response off but centered on some miracle impulse in me in relation to the other person.
When I hit big-time sleepiness about 1pm, I would normally have just trudged through it. But I found my tiredness made my focus for the day disintegrate, and I started wasting time. So I laid down for 20 minutes and then woke up refreshed and had a really good meditation, which enabled me to carry through with my focus for the rest of the day. Normally, I would have not allowed myself that time, feeling that it was irresponsible. But it really was the right thing to do.
If you remember my “living up to what I already know” project from three months ago, this was probably the best day I had in terms of putting the whole package together—studying the Course, doing my practice, asking for guidance, and extending miracles to others. It felt like what might have been my first day where I was reasonably satisfied that I had put the whole package together. It felt like the day actually was devoted to giving miracles, like miracle principle 15 says.
And I definitely felt a lot better. I felt much happier during the day than I normally do. It just took a lot of focus and concentration, and I know that’s why I don’t live that way every day. So this morning I was talking to Jesus and reasoning with myself about that. I don’t like effort, but I really need to muster the effort every day to live like that. The simple fact is that I like the results of the effort, and I don’t like the results of the lack of effort.
