Leaning Into Christ

part three of a longish letter

The suggestion is that Jesus is the behavioral model who insists that the way to model him is to be in a dialogic relationship with the Holy Spirit, who teaches us how to be in relationship with one another in ways that enable and nurture our shared commitment to holiness.

Holiness is what happens when wholeness recognizes itself by extending itself - person by person, moment by moment, circumstance by circumstance. Holiness and happiness are connected - not the ersatz happiness of getting what we want but the deeper, more stable, happiness of knowing what we want and, critically, knowing that getting it is a function of giving it.

To spirit getting is meaningless and giving is all. Having everything, spirit holds everything by giving it, and thus creates as the Father created (T-5.I.1:7-8).

A turtle or two down, relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit are a form of communal prayer in which minds join in a "relationship which Christ can enter" (P-2.VII.2:3). In my experience, when we relate with Jesus and the Holy Spirit in a sincere desire to be healed of fear, guilt and hatred, then our relationship with one another lights up with desire - desire for union, peace, coherence and happiness. And the desire doesn't go unmet. We are able to give the very thing we long to receive. We understand, however dimly, that to give is to receive.

The Holy Spirit communicates only what each one can give to all. He never takes anything back, because He wants you to keep it. Therefore, His teaching begins with the lesson:

To have, give all to all (T-6.V-A.5:10-13).

The form this relationship of giving takes is not the point - the form is always the form that is best suited to the individual learning needs and styles of those in the relationship. But the essence of the relationship - the transformation the relationship inspires and enables - is the point. It's like maybe you read ACIM online, maybe you read a hardcover. Hopefully you read the form that allows you to learn most effectively. But always, it's what you learn that matters - and the way that you are able to bring your learning into application in relationship with the world. No lesson is learned until it is shared. Sharing is what love is.

That is the theme of this essay, which I worked on last year, and which still holds true for me. Christ is a collective, a community, a communion - it is what we become together when together we lean into our desire to be kind, helpful and creative together. Christ is the freedom to be what we are in truth, which is kind, creative, helpful and, yes, free. It takes two to remember we are one.

Often, in a difficult space, where I am struggling to remember my holy friends and my function, I call you to mind. And you are always there, and you are always willing to stay there, no matter how confused or stubborn or meandering I become. Your presence reminds me that I am not lost, that there is nothing to lose. Yes, things are challenging now but challenges come and go. It's okay, or it will be. And when I ask you why this is so or why I should believe it, you murmur gently the old familiar promise: "you are my son in whom I am well-pleased."

That is where it begins. That is where we begin.

You might ask, to whom does "you" refer here? It's a fair question! Maybe "you" points to the you reading this sentence right now. Maybe this whole sequence of posts is a letter to my late father and he's “you.” Or maybe it's just a generic pronoun, one that fits anybody and everybody, according to context. Does it really matter?

Well, yes. Yes it does, in its way, matter.

It matters because we are still in the dream of separation - and it's important to be honest about this - but being still in the dream of separation is not a crisis. The crisis is when we're in the dream but think it's reality. The crisis is when we dream but don't know we dream. But we are past that part now. Our mind and heart has been pried open just enough to glimpse the light of Heaven and feel the heat of Love. We're Eden-bound, in a dream (a context) in which "Eden-bound" makes sense.

You have been called, together with your brother, to the most holy function this world contains. It is the only one that has no limits, and reaches out to every broken fragment of the Sonship with healing and uniting comfort . . . The peace of God is given you with the glowing purpose in which you join with your brother. The holy light that brought you and him together must extend, as you accepted it (T-18.I.13:1-2, 5-6).

Martin Buber, whose book I and Thou reflects deeply and helpfully on these ideas, said that Spirit - his word for God, Truth, Love - dwelt not in the solitary “I” or “you” but rather "between I and you." It was in the relationship itself that Love appeared - not as one of the parties to the relationship nor even on what form the relationship took - but rather as the essence - the love - that arose between and through and for the parties, effectively dissolving them as separate entities.

And love, to be love, must be shared (e.g., T-10.V.14:1).

If "you" matter to "me" in any context - and you do, very much - then you matter to me, and I matter to you. We cannot be separated; we cannot be forced to compete or conflict; we do not have separate interests. That is what becoming Christ teaches us - that there is no separation anywhere and that separate interests are an illusion. We are one who would remember we are one.

When that is clear, the way to peace and happiness clarifies and can be walked with grace and ease.