We have to love in the very circumstances of our lives as they are given to us moment by moment. We cannot postpone love in favor of the life we long for or think we deserve.
We can’t wait on love – neither as a gift we receive nor as one that we give.
God is one without another (T-14.IV.5:8). Therefore, there is no body and no thing that does not reflect God’s holiness, much less any body or thing unworthy of God’s perfect Love (T-14.IV.5:9).
Therefore, our holy function is to love “in a loveless place made out of darkness and deceit, for thus are darkness and deceit undone” (T-14.IV.5:10).
In other words, we are called to love what appears unlovable. To love what appears only likable. To refuse to wait for what is lovable to show up and then love. That’s not love, it’s hate.
And you and I are beyond that now.
It is our joy to see this and to live together accordingly.
The Holy Instant teaches us that waiting is impossible because time is an illusion. When we wait, we play the ego’s game with its favorite weapons – delay, improvement, judgment, which together make the illusion of choice.
Nobody wins playing the ego’s game. Not even the ego wins.
The ego, like the Holy Spirit, uses time to convince you of the inevitability of the goal and end of teaching. To the ego, the goal is death, which is its end (T-15.I.2:7-8).
But the Holy Spirit’s goal is life, which is eternal (T-15.I.2:9).
Life is our goal, too, because it reflects what we are in truth. It is beyond winning and losing. It is the end of the illusion of choice.
When we give attention to our lives, we may see a lot that we don’t like – wrong people, wrong jobs, wrong bodies, wrong habits, wrong cultural trends, wrong headlines. No body is immune to this because no body is without an ego.
Separating the whole into parts and then evaluating each part apart from the whole is what ego is. The ego is, literally, what it does.
But so is Love.
The Holy Spirit, obeying the Law of Love, which is Its teacher and creator, teaches us that life is whole and therefore to emphasize partiality and separation in any way is an error.
The recognition of the part as whole, and of the whole in every part is perfectly natural, for it is the way God thinks, and what is natural to God is natural to you (T-16.II.3:3).
Thus, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Love gives attention to all of life, without separating it into good, bad and in-between. If changes are called for – and they will be, from time to time and in various ways – then Love will handle the rearranging.
Our role is simply to give attention – to consistently and non-dramatically give attention to life. What it looks like, tastes like, sounds like, feels like. What its rhythms and cycles are. Its responsiveness. Its order.
When we notice judgment and preferences arising, we let them be. We don’t have to fix them; we just have to notice them.
All we do is give attention. And all we give attention to is this: this this.
When we do this, a lot of what once appeared uniquely important to us (people, places, activities, objects) loses the partiality that made it seem special. Yet this is not a loss, for the former “part” gains in holiness, because we see it now with the vision of Christ, in which “every loving thought is true” and “everything else is an appeal for healing and help, regardless of the form it takes” (T-12.I.3:3-4).
If you would look upon love, which is the world’s reality, how could you do better than to recognize, in every defense against it the underlying appeal for it? And how could you better learn of its reality than by answering the appeal for it by giving it? (T-12.I.10:1-2).
There is only love and calls for love, and the response to both is the same. There are no differences; there is nothing special. In this lies our salvation.
Therefore, be quiet today and every day; be quiet and be still. Give the gift of your attention to all of life, and let it speak to you in the language in which it speaks to you. Let it draw you close and end your fear and loneliness by reminding you that you both have and are everything.
If a cry for help appears, offer help. And if help is offered, recognize it by accepting it.
Above all, do not distinguish between the two, for there are no grounds upon which to say this is not that and vice-versa.
Giving and receiving love are the same because there is only one giver and only one receiver. Beyond the appearance of differences, there is only one life. We share it, you and I, happily remembering that together we are – like our Creator – whole.
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Oh gosh. Thank you.
I appreciate that you take the time to make what for me is often ‘jagged’ and make it ‘silky’!
You’re welcome, Eleanor – thank you for reading 🙏
Sean
Always a pleasure and a point of powerful insight and inspiration to read! Thank you.
You’re welcome Lourdes!! Thank you for reading and sharing 🙏
Sean
Yes Sean like Eleanor I appreciate your clearing our paths as you have done for me down the years and many others as well. What you do is love and you do it with love. I appreciate everything you have done and written all for others. Thanks again
Thanks for the kind words, Sean. It’s good to hear from you – I hope all is well –
Love,
Sean
it is miraculous that these words can meet me where i am in this moment
I’m glad 🙏 Thanks for being here
~ Sean
” one must die as a blind person to be born again as a seeing person “, writes oliver sacks, “it is the interim, the limbo, that seems so terrible “.Intellectually knowing i am ” a”separate being is bearable, and talking about this sense of separation is even more bearable, perhaps worthy of discussion : however, feeling this sense of separation in an intermittent, unpredictable way is my journey right now…..there is a sense of foreboding and darkness …..my limbo between egos’ sight and christs vision….help me to feel the difference gracias
Ah but there is no in-between . . . we aren’t torn between love and love’s absence because love is all there is and it is always enough. Anything to the contrary is just a lie we tell ourselves in fear. It is a hell that can last lifetimes. Longer even. And yet all along we hold the key to salvation, ours and everyone else’s, which is simply to remember that we are doing this to ourselves; we are the author of suffering. We can stop telling that terrible story whenever we like . . .
I hear you – I know – it does not feel like we are doing it. It feels like we are on a journey, it feels like somebody else is running the show. It feels like one step forward, two steps back. But still.
Still.
Quiet helps. The memory of God comes to a quiet mind (T-23.I.1:1) and teaches us the “quiet state alone is strength and power” (T-22.V.3:8). Helping others helps because it is the reason we are here(T-2.V.A.18:2). We do not wake up alone; the loneliness of hell is transformed to the joy and peace of the Kingdom of Heaven when we allow our minds to be lit and guided by the Holy Spirit, for it is thus we are “led out of hell with those we love” beside us “and the universe with them”(T-31.VII.7:7).
And for what it’s worth, I promise you that somebody is helped reading what you wrote, or reading this in reply, or reading both together. We are always doing the work of Love, even when we do not recognize it as such. You are good, my brother . . . Better than good . . . Thank you for sharing this beautiful way with me.
Love,
Sean
Thanks Sean. the Holy Spirit teaches us that Love gives attention to all of life, without separating it into good, bad and in-between. If changes are called for – and they will be, from time to time and in various ways – then Love will handle the rearranging.
This caught me at a time when I was about to make a major decision based on separating/judging into good, bad and in between. Such a strong habit, hard to break. Your words spoke to me and called me back to Love.
I’m glad it was helpful Ana! Thank you for reading and sharing 🙏
~ Sean
For me, too, your words are timely and clarifying. They offer peace. Thank you, Sean.
You’re welcome, Margaret – thanks for reading & sharing 🙏
Sean
Refusing to Wait on Love reminds me of a perfect summer day in August 2018.
Long story short, I live by the Pacific Ocean and one morning while sitting on the floor doing my meditation, I was jolted by horrible death cries outside my balcony window. Ears splitting, I jumped up and what I saw was disturbing. I quickly grabbed my keys and phone and ran outside barefoot in shorts. In what seemed like an instant, I rescued a badly injured baby seagull from two predators that were trying to rip her in half by the wings. One wing was hanging down on the ground. After intervening, I got assistance finding a box and blanket and brought the little bird home.
I named her Jordan, and prayed to God to heal her. I mean, a bird with a broken wing is as good as dead in this world. There was no other way.
God came through. After about 4 hours of prayer (the medium of miracles), energy work (the power of Love) and lots of gentle inter-species communication to foster the trust and the total absence of fear required for healing, she flew away off my balcony at dusk.
It was one of those rare days, somehow meant to be. And it was the only time I ever videotaped/photographed a healing in my life. A man with a broken heart named Paul, and a baby seagull with a broken wing, Jordan.
What were the chances of healing the sick and raising the dead?
Turns out 100 per cent. We are never healed alone.
If you feel it would be helpful to Course students here, I would love to share an edited 8:08 minute video of my time spent with Jordan. I recently spliced it together from clips and photos I took. It’s really sweet. She was absolutely adorable.
I found ACIM via a profound miracle of healing of my own and have an interpretation and understanding of it based on my experience. It is such a gift to read yours, Sean. Refusing to Wait on Love described that day to a T for me.
And this, from “Between Attention and Love, This Love.”
“We know what we have to do. We are saints in chrysalis, and now is our time to be reborn in Love. For whatever time is given us in this confusing landscape of body and world, let us offer only love. Let us be the means by which love – the love that even crucifixion could not kill – extends itself to itself, thus remembering itself forever and for all.”
These are among the most gentle, profound, powerful and challenging words I’ve ever read.
Thank you again.
Hey Paul . . . thank you for the kind words and for sharing such a beautiful story of healing and grace. Yes, absolutely, if you have a link or something to the video, please do share.
Love,
Sean
Hi Sean. I don’t have a link but will send via WeTransfer. Sent you an email.
Thanks.
As mentioned upthread, here is the touching video of Paul and Jordan – lots of healing, lots of love. 🙏
Thanks you for sharing this and for your kind words, Sean. I hope it is helpful. Peace.
Thank you for sharing it with me, Paul. It is always a mystery to me what helps and does not, but I was touched watching it. Animals are powerful allies in my experience – I have learned so much about love and forgiveness with them. The love between you and Jordan is palpable and touching; it makes me happy. 🙏
Love,
Sean
I’m beginning to understand ACIM and I find it beautiful and liberating. Thank you for helping me do that.
You’re welcome, Sydney. The course has been a lovely and helpful curriculum with which to remember love. I am so grateful for it! I’m glad that it resonates for you.
~ Sean