The Purpose Given You

by Rev Reja Joy Green*

I love it when synchronicities happen in my life. They seem to be sending me a hint that there is an unseen connection uniting me with all of life. The message seems to be that I am not alone and that we are all in this thing together—that all of life is united in this magnificent journey of BEING, which does not end when we leave our bodies. Recently, as I was thinking about these synchronicities, I was instantly reminded of a New York Times best-selling book I discovered recently by Laura Lynne Jackson called, “The Light Between Us.”

While listening to that audiobook, narrated by the author, who—by the way—does a spectacular job at bringing forth this blessed concept of Unity and Connectedness, I was struck by how much of this message is a reflection of what we are learning in A Course in Miracles-Original Edition.

“From loving minds there is no separation. And every thought in one brings gladness to the other because they are the same. Joy is unlimited because each shining thought of love extends its being and creates more of itself. There is no difference anywhere in it, for every thought is like itself.” ACIM OE TX.22.VII.64

What better time than now, in this time of racial strife, economic insecurity, climate change, and the general sense of malaise and hopelessness that all of these issues bring to our lives, to have a message come through that resonates so deeply within our being—There is another way! We are connected. There is a purpose here. 

In A Course in Miracles-Original Edition, we are presented with the amazing idea that there are no accidents and that we are responsible for what occurs in our world. These are powerful teachings that take a bit of courage to open up to. There is a degree of acceptance and willingness and surrender that must be there before we can truly open our hearts to the loving messages in this Course, which will inevitably precipitate the healing that naturally follows.

“Miracles are natural. When they do not occur, something has gone wrong.”
ACIM OE TX.1.I.6

And so what is the Miracle? Wouldn’t it be a miracle to experience a shift in what we thought was so? What if we were to be shown that we had been totally mistaken in how we were seeing the world and that there is a way at looking at the world that brings peace to us and to everyone who comes in contact with us. What if all our misperceptions were hiding the Real World from our sight and that the miracle is what would shine them away?

If we are in despair at our current situation in this life, has the time come when we will have the courage to make a shift away from how we have always thought and toward being willing to look again, and this time to look with a Divine Vision from deep within?

In our daily ACIM OE TEXT Conference Call Study Group the other day, we read the following:

“A simple question yet remains and needs an answer. Do you like what you have made—a world of murder and attack through which you thread your timid way through constant dangers, alone and frightened, hoping at most that death will wait a little longer before it overtakes you and you disappear? You made this up. It is a picture of what you think you are, of how you see yourself. A murderer is frightened, and those who kill fear death. All these are but the fearful thoughts of those who would adjust themselves to a world made fearful by their adjustments. And they look out in sorrow from what is sad within and see the sadness there.” ACIM OE TX.20.IV.19

“They look out in sorrow from what is sad within,” but what if they looked out in joy from what is joyful within?  What if we came with empty hands to a power deep within us that could show us what is truly so. What if we have been deceived by fear into seeing a world of separation when the world of connectedness and love has always been there, waiting to be seen.

You may have heard the story of the man outside of a town being asked by newcomers what the town was like. He told them that they’d better keep close watch of their valuables and make sure to always lock their doors. He even told them of all the times he had been robbed and cheated and suggested to them that they might want to think twice about living there.

And yet the newcomers move on to another man further down the road and ask him the same question to which his face brightens with joy. He tells them that he has experienced a torrent of generosity, kindness, and compassion from every single townsperson he has met since coming there. He tells them that they will love this town and that they may never want to leave it.

We see only what we believe deep within. When our beliefs align with Love, there is a healing of this seeming separate world that can and will take place and begins within each of us. That’s what A Course in Miracles is guiding us towards.

“There is no fear in perfect love because it knows no sin and it must look on others as on itself. Looking with charity within, what can it fear without? The innocent see safety, and the pure in heart see God within His Son and look unto the Son to lead them to the Father. And where else would they go but where they will to be? Each of you now will lead the other to the Father as surely as God created His Son holy and kept him so. In your brother is the light of God’s eternal promise of your immortality. See him as sinless, and there can be no fear in you.” ACIM OE TX.20.IV.27

This illustration of seeing what we believe is also related to the Course concept of responsibility. A Course in Miracles-OE tells us that we “are not victims of the world” we see, that there is “another way at looking at the world,” that “I will forgive and this will disappear.” It gently guides us away from our misperceptions and toward a new way of being and of seeing in which we use our inner guidance to show us the Love that is truly there.

“I am responsible for what I see. I chose the feelings I experience, and I decided on the goal I would achieve. And everything that seems to happen to me, I asked for and received as I had asked.” ACIM OE TX.21.III.15

What an amazingly powerful statement, and it is one in which we see a bit of bad news as well as good news.

What I see around me, as my life, is exactly what I have “asked for and received as I had asked” and in most cases, that’s bad news. When I look around me I see the seeming inhumanity of man toward each other, the state of the environment, or the chaos in our governments. Or, I could just look closer to my home and see my personal struggles and challenges in my family or with my health.

Yet, this need not be. While I may very well be aware of the bad news, the good news is—I am the one who can change it. My thoughts are not idle. My thoughts are the most powerful force in the Universe.

Now we might ask: What will it take to bring a miracle—a shift in this world that we inhabit today? How can we feel the Unity that lies beneath the duality and that connects us all?

A Course in Miracles teaches us that it will be the thoughts and feelings and the goals that we choose that will bring the shift. The miracle comes with the forgiveness we bring to the world that is seemingly outside of us. In the last pages of the last chapter in the Text of A Course of Miracles titled CHOOSE ONCE AGAIN, we find these loving words:

“You are as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon, regardless of the images you see. What you behold as sickness and as pain, as weakness and as suffering and loss is but temptation to perceive yourself defenseless and in hell. Yield not to this, and you will see all pain in every form wherever it occurs but disappear as mists before the sun. A miracle has come to heal God’s Son and close the door upon his dreams of weakness, opening the way to his salvation and release. Choose once again what you would have him be, remembering that every choice you make establishes your own identity as you will see it and believe it is.”  ACIM OE TX31.VIII.92

If forgiveness means to see only that which is real in each and everyone and everything, then with that gift, we fulfill our purpose in releasing the world from what we thought it did, knowing our forgiveness makes no exceptions. There is absolutely no one excluded for anything they have done or said. We see them as they truly are: whole and complete, sinless and guiltless, even though they may, for a while, continue to deny this truth themselves.

Thus, we are learning that the way to end the cycle of hate and fear is to choose Love, knowing that this is why we have come.

Now we choose again to see the synchronicities that surround us—to let ourselves be shown by the Love within that we are all One and that we are still as Love created us.

“This is the purpose given you. Think not that your forgiveness of each other serves but you two alone. For the whole new world rests in the hands of every two who enter here to rest. And as they rest, the face of Christ shines on them, and they remember the laws of God, forgetting all the rest and yearning only to have His laws perfectly fulfilled in them and all their brothers.” ACIM OE TX.20.V.34

And so, it is.

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*Reverend Reja Joy Green is one of the founding members of the Course in Miracles Society [CIMS] publishers of A Course in Miracles – Original Edition; She is the CIMS webmaster, produces the Daily Lesson & Text mailing, and facilitates the Course in Miracles study group in Omaha, NE Rev Reja Joy was ordained by Community Miracles Center and was a presenter, with her husband Chris, at the 2018 Annual ACIM International Conference in San Francisco.

As a registered Yoga Instructor, Rev. Reja Joy teaches Yoga from the perspective of A Course in Miracles, initiated a Daily Conference Call Study Group, and hosts several social media groups for those who share this journey.

Course in Miracles Society (CIMS) is an international group of Course students and teachers organized to discover, authenticate and propagate the divine teachings of A Course in Miracles. As students, we seek to increase our knowledge of Jesus’ words and to deepen our experience of his teaching. As teachers, we work to circulate the message of A Course in Miracles throughout the world by our words, by our deeds and by the example of our lives.  Jcim.net