Lesson 147 • May-27
Central Theme:
My mind holds only what I think with God
Review of:
(133) I will not value what is valueless.
(134) Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.
Practice Instructions
See Practice Instructions Review IV
Commentary
Let me, today, look at the things I value and reconsider them all. Why am I doing this particular thing? What is it I am valuing here? The things we value are often quite foolish when we look at them. For instance, when I have begun to experience the nourishing warmth of true intimacy in relationship, nothing seems worth the closing off of that warmth. I recall reading about a fundamentalist church that split up over the issue of whether or not it was sinful to plug in a guitar. How, I wondered, could anyone value anything like that enough to shut out from their hearts people who had once been close friends? So many relationships break up over issues that seem just as trivial.
Forgiveness sees that nothing is worth shutting another child of God out of my heart. We have so many absolutes in our consciousness, things we consider more important than love, more important than unity, more important than our own peace of mind. Have I come, yet, to value peace of mind above everything else? Have I come to the point where anything that interferes with the flow of love through me is quickly discarded?
We need to become aware of the source of our own pain. We ache when we close down our hearts. We ache when we refuse to forgive, when we latch on to the wrongs that have been done to us and fondle them over and over, refusing to let them go. "Love holds no grievances" (W-pI.68.Heading). Forgiveness is a gift to myself; it is a release from my own pain. What am I valuing above the free flow of love, the warmth of union with my brother or sister? Let me choose to no longer value this valueless thing, and choose to forgive.
Let me take five minutes this morning, and five minutes tonight, to open my mind and clear it of all thoughts that would deceive (W-pI.rIV.In.5:2). Let me brush aside lesser values, and remember that my mind holds God's own thoughts. Let me value these thoughts above all else. Let me rejoice in the congruence of my mind and God's Mind, and recognize that this blending of my mind with God's, this sharing of His thoughts, is all that is truly valuable to me.
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