To live “another way”
[Please note: ACIM passages quoted in this article reference the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) Edition.]
As I was rereading last week’s sections in preparation for our Text Reading Program class here at Course Oasis, I saw something as I had not seen it before.
At the end of the last sentence of the last paragraph of “The Voice for God” (T-5.II.11), Jesus says (in the Urtext version), “I came to your minds because you had grown vaguely aware of the fact that there is another way, or another voice. Having given this invitation to the Holy Spirit, I could come to provide the model for how to think.”
This is obviously a reference to Bill Thetford’s “another way” speech to Helen, the one that began the whole process of that “another way”––A Course in Miracles––coming through.
However, what hit me when I read it this time was that Jesus was also speaking to me. At one point in my life, I got to the place of thinking that there had to be another way to go through life and deal with the issues I was facing. That awareness was an invitation to the Holy Spirit, even if I wasn’t aware of it. Then that invitation opened the door for Jesus to come to me through the Course, to model for me a different way of thinking, to be my guide to thinking and my “model for decision” (T-5.II.9:6). This Course in Miracles was the miracle that came to me in response to that call of mine, just as it came to Helen and Bill in answer to their call.
I don’t know what this idea does for you, or if you can even relate to it, but it sure has had a powerful effect on me. It strengthens my faith in the something in me that does yearn for that better way so strongly that it called first the Holy Spirit to me, and then Jesus through this Course. I feel so much love there. It was as if the Holy Spirit and Jesus were waiting for me to get to that “tipping point,” so that they could come to me in a more tangible way. The love and desire in me for that “another way,” for healing, drew me to them and them to me. I called and I was answered.
“Mary; I came to your mind because you had grown vaguely aware of the fact that there is another way, or another voice. Having given this invitation to the Holy Spirit, I could come to provide the model for how to think.”
Tears come to my eyes as I hear those words.
The best part of all this is that he is saying those words to all of us. At some point each and every one of us Course students became aware that “there must be another way,” and that issued an invitation to the Holy Spirit, and that allowed Jesus to bring this Course to us. How much he loves us; how much we long to fully live “another way.”
With much love all of you beloved brothers, dearest friends, and companions on this path!