Waiting on You to Save Me

Living the life A Course in Miracles makes possible

Sometimes when I get going about social justice and current events and whatnot, people will say, Sean. My brother. A Course in Miracles is silent about all that. You can rob banks and practice the course. You can cheat at cards and steal candy from babies.

To which I say, well, yes.

But also - really - no.

It is true enough - as Ken Wapnick never tired of saying - that ACIM neither prescribes nor proscribes behavior. It's about the mind, not the body.

But also, A Course in Miracles is clear that our practice takes form and that form is deeply, intimately personal. It's special.

Your special function is the special form in which the fact that God is not insane appears most sensible and meaningful to you . . . The form is suited to your special needs, and to the special time and place in which you think you find yourself, and where you can be free of place and time, and all that you believe must limit you (T-25.VII.7:1-3).

Thus Ken running a foundation in Temecula, Gary communing with sexy ascended masters, Marianne running for president and . . .

. . . and me trying to face down guilt and fear by finding a way to feed the poor, clothe the naked, bury the dead, et cetera, and - this is the important part, this is where the pathology is - trying to get you to do it with me.

I don't know the form of your practice looks like. I know a lot of ACIM folks pretty well and they collectively agree on about 25% of the course at best, and their practice - the way they live it out in the world - couldn't be more different. Application is diverse.

Yes. Things are bad right now and, so far as I can tell, are going to get worse before they get better. Maybe a lot worse.

But honestly? So what? Empires have been coming and going, grinding the innocent to dust, for thousands of years. This is just the latest iteration of an old and familiar story. Jesus knew it; Buddha knew it. Emmett Till knew it, Dorothy Day knew it. We are not alone.

So now is a good time to ask, what would my life look like if I knew that God was Love? And Love was here, now? How would it feel? What would I do? Who would be here with me? Who would we help?

And then - like holding hands, like slipping off our shoes and stepping into the shallows - live the life we are called to live, with the ones with whom we are called to live it.

I don't care if you agree with my politics. I don't care if you want to go full Catholic Worker with me, or homestead with me, or follow Jesus all the way to the cross and then past it . . .

I care that you find a way to remember that God is Love and Love is here, now, because you are here, now.

Salvation is a collaborative venture. It cannot be undertaken successfully by those who disengage themselves from the Sonship, because they are disengaging themselves from me (T-4.VI.8:2-3).

We find the course because we are ready to become responsible for healing and happiness. We find it because we are ready to join with one another in ways that have scared us for lifetimes.

What is the life A Course in Miracles makes possible for you? Are you ready now to live it?

~ Sean