This was beautiful Sean, thank you. And 'Thank you, as always, for sharing your light with me that I might learn again to shine with you and everyone today'.
Thank you Sean for this beautiful reminder. In Matthew 5:43-48 Jesus tells us to love the people who persecute us. I used to look at that passage and think it made no sense. Love my enemies? What kind of craziness is that? But ACIM is helping me to see how much sense it really DOES make to love as God loves, and as you say “no matter how awkward it feels, no matter how apparently imperfectly we do it.”
I know that to love like this is transformative - and when I’m able love in this way it just FEELS right. I heard a speaker at a retreat years ago - an old and wise person in long-term recovery and a student of ACIM. He had once spent time in prison for violent crimes, but had experienced the kind of transformation talked about in ACIM. He said, “there was a time in my life when I would stick a gun in a guy’s mouth just for the thrill of seeing the look on his face. Now I can’t even think a bad thought about anybody.” It was a reminder to me that miracles are real!
Yeah that kind of dramatic transition is what ACIM suggests is possible and trains us to undertake. Wanting it seems to be the challenge. One really does need to bottom out with the ego, I think - just reach that juncture where there's nothing left to do but throw up one's hands and say, I quit. And even then.
Loving one's enemies - being a servant unto all - is crazy from the perspective of the world. If you buy into the the body/world at all then Jesus - the Sermon on the Mount Jesus, the ACIM Jesus - is just bonkers. And yet slowly the logic has dawned on my very slow and cluttered mind :) If we are all committed to being the last and the least - if we are all given to being the other's servants - then the world would be transformed. There would be no more masters. There would be no more war.
And I get how naive that sounds, and how foolish and and even dangerous, and all I can say is, it still seems worth a try.
Fortunately we don't have to convince anybody - we just have to clear our own heart and mind, and God does the rest. We'd be well and truly screwed if that wasn't so :)
Janice This brought up a memory. A host of a show at the end of the interview would ask 10 questions, the last being what do you think God would say to you at the pearly gates? I thought about that question and my answer came from the Bible. ..’ a voice came from heaven and said “ this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”. That is what I would like to hear. Now I would like to keep that as the thought to all. Thanks for reminding me.
Thank you for sharing, Janice. I like that a lot! It is hard to remember to look at all our brothers and sisters equally - to see them all beloved as God - but it matters. We will remember together! 🙏🙏
Beautiful post brother, it’s easy to love and extend love to those we whom are kind and loving. However whenever we encounter someone less then that we close up.
Yes and that closing up shuts down the free flow of Love . . . hurts us, hurts others . . . thank God there is another way . . . and thank you for helping me keep my heart and mind open to it Bernadett 🙏🙏
This was beautiful Sean, thank you. And 'Thank you, as always, for sharing your light with me that I might learn again to shine with you and everyone today'.
So glad we share this path, Suzy 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Thank you Sean for this beautiful reminder. In Matthew 5:43-48 Jesus tells us to love the people who persecute us. I used to look at that passage and think it made no sense. Love my enemies? What kind of craziness is that? But ACIM is helping me to see how much sense it really DOES make to love as God loves, and as you say “no matter how awkward it feels, no matter how apparently imperfectly we do it.”
I know that to love like this is transformative - and when I’m able love in this way it just FEELS right. I heard a speaker at a retreat years ago - an old and wise person in long-term recovery and a student of ACIM. He had once spent time in prison for violent crimes, but had experienced the kind of transformation talked about in ACIM. He said, “there was a time in my life when I would stick a gun in a guy’s mouth just for the thrill of seeing the look on his face. Now I can’t even think a bad thought about anybody.” It was a reminder to me that miracles are real!
Yeah that kind of dramatic transition is what ACIM suggests is possible and trains us to undertake. Wanting it seems to be the challenge. One really does need to bottom out with the ego, I think - just reach that juncture where there's nothing left to do but throw up one's hands and say, I quit. And even then.
Loving one's enemies - being a servant unto all - is crazy from the perspective of the world. If you buy into the the body/world at all then Jesus - the Sermon on the Mount Jesus, the ACIM Jesus - is just bonkers. And yet slowly the logic has dawned on my very slow and cluttered mind :) If we are all committed to being the last and the least - if we are all given to being the other's servants - then the world would be transformed. There would be no more masters. There would be no more war.
And I get how naive that sounds, and how foolish and and even dangerous, and all I can say is, it still seems worth a try.
Fortunately we don't have to convince anybody - we just have to clear our own heart and mind, and God does the rest. We'd be well and truly screwed if that wasn't so :)
Hope you're well Mark!
Sean
Janice This brought up a memory. A host of a show at the end of the interview would ask 10 questions, the last being what do you think God would say to you at the pearly gates? I thought about that question and my answer came from the Bible. ..’ a voice came from heaven and said “ this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”. That is what I would like to hear. Now I would like to keep that as the thought to all. Thanks for reminding me.
Thank you for sharing, Janice. I like that a lot! It is hard to remember to look at all our brothers and sisters equally - to see them all beloved as God - but it matters. We will remember together! 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Beautiful post brother, it’s easy to love and extend love to those we whom are kind and loving. However whenever we encounter someone less then that we close up.
Yes and that closing up shuts down the free flow of Love . . . hurts us, hurts others . . . thank God there is another way . . . and thank you for helping me keep my heart and mind open to it Bernadett 🙏🙏