By Karla Middlebrooks
I have always had a rich spiritual life and I credit my great grandmother, my grandparents, and my parents for laying the foundation. My spiritual influences were the writings of James and Myrtle Fillmore (founders of the Unity movement) and a fascinating book by Thomas Cahill called The Gifts of the Jews that examined the progression of religious beliefs and practices from the ancient Sumerians to Judaism, culminating with the radical belief for ancient times that we could have a personal relationship with God. I never forgot that. I also read my mother’s series of White Eagle channeled books and studied Buddhism and some of the other world religions. But when I needed inspiration, I went to the Bible; in particular, the Psalms and parts of the New Testament.
My mother was an ordained Unity minister. During high school and college, I went to Unity Church with her. Her copy of A Course in Miracles (the Course) sat on our living room table for years, but I was never curious about it. She was a devoted Course student and was very dedicated in her practice. We used to tease her that she never did less than two hours of God work every day.
It was only when I graduated from college and moved to Cincinnati, that I took charge of my own spiritual life. I found a lovely Unity Church not far from my apartment and started to attend on a regular basis and participate in their workshops. Unity’s teachings helped me understand that God was active in my life and that I could seek guidance from Him when I needed it; that my spiritual life could have direct bearing on my secular life; that I could pray about my job and for my co-workers.
My mother, my brother, and sister-in-law attended Renaissance Unity in Warren MI, so when I moved back to Detroit, I started going there. From time to time, the minister would mention A Course in Miracles, but it still didn’t resonate with me. It wasn’t until Marianne Williamson came to Renaissance Unity that I heard someone preach directly from the Course. I was intrigued by what I heard. She gave excellent sermons, often mentioning specific passages but never cited specific references and their locations in the Course. I found that frustrating. In one sermon, she shared “The Truly Helpful Prayer”:
I am here only to be truly helpful.
I am here to represent Him Who sent me.
I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do,
because He Who sent me will direct me.
I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing He goes there with me.
I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal.
I remember thinking, “Where is that? (Text 4.XI) I must find out.” My need to physically study the Course myself was the impetus for me to buy the book and start reading.
I had always known there was a spiritual realm and a divine presence, but it was only when I read the Course that I heard Jesus speaking to me personally. I went through a very difficult phase in my professional life that literally brought me to my knees. When I heard Jesus tell me through Course readings that I was God’s son, that God loved me deeply, and that He was lonely without me, I had no doubt that the Course was the path that I should follow.
I first heard about the Circle of Atonement (the Circle) in 2017 when they published the Complete and Annotated Edition (CE) of the Course. I watched an introductory video on YouTube featuring Robert Perry and Greg Mackie talking about what was different from the Foundation of Inner Peace edition (footnotes and cameos) and what was added (45,000 words that had been edited out). At the time, I was studying the original edition with the Community Miracle Centre. I purchased the CE, but it sat on my night table for several years. It wasn’t until the pandemic that I decided to study the CE in earnest by joining the Circle’s Course Community. It was the right decision at the right time.
One of the things that I absolutely love about the Circle is that there’s so much to choose from. I have studied the Text (the theory) with Robert and Emily following their reading plan, the Workbook (the practice) with Mary Anne, and I have just completed Robert and Emily’s classes on the Supplements – the Song of Prayer and Psychotherapy. The Course is so dense that I sometimes feel overwhelmed with everything that’s coming at me, trying to comprehend it all. It’s great that the teachers at the Circle break down the Course into digestible pieces. I can back off when I need to; I can go in deeper when I have the mental capacity and feel led to do so.
One thing I do miss is a local Course community to engage with at a personal level. I go to a traditional United Church of Christ in downtown Detroit. I love the people and it’s wonderful to fellowship with others in worshipping God, but I don’t really get my spiritual food from there. As I sit though the sermons, I find myself often comparing and contrasting the teaching from the sermon and the Course’s approach. But I enjoy the fellowship with the good people who are also members there.
My prayer life is much broader now that I am a Course student. There are so many prayer-based resources in the Course. Jesus goes so far as to prescribe specific prayers for specific circumstances. When I have a friend who is struggling with a difficult situation and I tell them, “I will pray for you,” I don’t just say it, I do it. There is one Course prayer – The Holy Instant Prayer – that I find particularly powerful:
I desire this holy instant for myself, that I may share it with my brother, whom I love.
It is not possible that I can have it without him, nor he without me.
Yet it is wholly possible for us to share it now.
And so I choose this instant as the one to offer to the Holy Spirit,
that His blessing may descend on us, and keep us both in peace. [CE T-18.V.7:5-8]
I believe that Course-based prayer works, and I’ve seen people come to better places in their lives because of prayer. I don’t take personal credit; I’m just the messenger, grateful that my prayers bring them into a more stable experience and frame of mind.
In trying to understand the Course, I sometimes get bogged down in the technical details of how to see my brothers and sisters as my saviors, how not to hold grievances and how to forgive the way the Course asks me to forgive. Other times, I lapse into trying to engage on an intellectual level and find myself looking for inconsistencies. I realize that both are ego traps. Recently, I read in one of the Workbook lessons, “…how simple is salvation.” [CE W-76.2:3] That really spoke to me. Jesus does not want me to complicate things. “Keep it simple,” he says. That’s all I have to remember.
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