The glory of my Father is my own.
A major stumbling block for many of us is false humility. We think by making ourselves small that we are acknowledging God’s greatness. It’s true that we are called to be servants! But what enables us to adopt that posture of love is a full-hearted and open-minded embrace of what we are in truth.
When we acknowledge the God’s glory is shared with us, we are not elevating ourselves over and against our brothers and sisters (broadly defined to include maple trees, whale sharks and mosquitos). We are making a statement about all Creation. God does not play favorites or, if you prefer, God has only one Child and we are, together, it.
This lesson makes clear that the opposite of humility is gratitude. When we realize that we are not separate from our Creator, and are radically equal with all Creation, we do not become power-hungry Lords or tyrants. We become deeply, almost mystically, thankful. All problems are solved in this light, all hurts and grievances healed. Of course we are grateful.
Gratitude is actionable. It is a feeling, yes, but it’s also a foundation. When we act from Love, we always act in ways that bring forth the Atonement, which can only be brought forth in relationship. The world becomes an interlocking network of relationships, all nurturing and feeding into one another, and our job is to render our node in that system holy.
Holiness means that we live in reality with open eyes and open minds. We do not deny ourselves. We are not afraid because we trust God and know that God trusts us. We serve our brothers and sisters by refusing to burden them with projections of fear, nor do we accept their projections. We undo interior blocks to our awareness of Love so that we can serve with as much clarity and integrity as possible.
This is the practice of holiness.
The happiness that living this way – living the practice of holiness – begets is hard to describe. It is not contingent on the right arrangement of external circumstances. It liberates us from the external by fundamentally rearranging our understanding of cause and effect. It restores to us the power to refuse separation and thus reconnect with what it truth we could never leave nor be apart from.
All this sounds too good to be true but “too good to be true” is a defense. It’s an idea we use to keep ourselves from truly partaking of the creative power and glory that is ours because of what we are and what reality is. So the work, then, is not merely to accept or reject the idea – anybody can do that – but to bring it into application.
The question is: if you do, in fact, share God’s glory, then how shall you live today? What will you do? What will you say? How will you respond to what appears?
The prayer in this lesson uses the metaphor of light to describe God’s presence in, to and with us. And it suggests that when we give attentin to this light we remember that we “are one, united in this light and one with You, at peace with all creation and ourselves” (W-pII.239.2:3).
That is a promise! It is a promise that if we accept our nature in truth, and remember our creative abilities, that we will also remember we SHARE those abilities with all Creation. We will be restored to collaboration, and our happiness will not be constrained or restricted in any way.
That is our practice today: to remember the glory of God and to accept the memory speaks to what we are as well. Indeed, we can only remember it because it reflects what we are in truth. What else but gratitude could possibly suit us?
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