"Make This Year Different..."

A few thoughts on Christmas and 'A Course In Miracles.'

Most of the sections on Christmas in A Course In Miracles were actually dictated to Helen by Jesus around Christmas time. In Chapter 15, for example, there are two, "The Time of Rebirth" and "Christmas as the End of Sacrifice". At the end of the latter, there is a line that seems especially fitting for the new year: "Make this year different by making it all the same." This is basically a plea from Jesus to us to try, as best as we can, to make everything the same, meaning, not to make distinctions between the parts of the sonhip. As the lesson of forgiveness is in every situation, in every encounter and in every circumstance, so is the opportunity to make everything in our lives infused with the same purpose: To learn to look at our egos without judgment and to let go of the seeming differences between ourselves and others. If we start, slowly but surely, to 'make it about them' rather than about us, making it about the people in our lives and not so much about our own imagined needs, we learn that our interests of escaping our ego thought system of separation, sin, guilt, and fear are shared by everyone and everything. Ultimately, the acceptance of Jesus' love for us is something that we all need, despite our resistance against it and despite our ego telling us that there are people out there that do not deserve this love, as if they were not part of the sonship but somehow outside. We are reminded that each time we cast someone out, we are casting ourselves out and shut the door to our own peace and the experience of love we so long for. "Make this year different by making it all the same" becomes the mantra reminding us of our purpose of looking with Jesus at all the differences we see in each other and smiling at them, knowing that they have absolutely no reality whatsoever. As it states in the introduction:

"Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God."

Ready?

Copyright 2009 by Stefan Bolz
I walk barefoot on a deserted beach along the edge of the water. The sun sits golden on its surface covering it like a blanket. The heat of the day still emanates from the fine sand under my feet. I don’t know how long I had been walking when suddenly a voice next to me says, "You've come a long way.” I look over and see Jesus walking beside me. He is tanned, dressed in Tommy Bahama shorts and a sort of old fashioned Hawaiian shirt. His hair is wet and he looks as if he had just taken a swim. “The water is terrific, isn’t it?” he exclaims cheerfully while putting on his Ray Ban sun glasses. My problem, my #1 problem, I realize at that moment, is that I can’t integrate my spiritual life revolving around my relationship with him, with being in the world – really being in it, in relationships, with money, career, this body, my hopes, my dreams, my joys, etc. I somehow think that I can’t have all this here if I really want to be with him. I feel terribly guilty sometimes. So much so that I swear I create my own failure with things here just to tell him, “See, I don’t care so much about the world. I just care about you.”
“That’s a bit silly, don’t you think?” His calm yet firm voice interrupts my thought process. “I have overcome the world. That is why you should be of good cheer. I don’t need martyrs. But I do need teachers. And good ones. The world is in a slump and it needs people that are in it – fully in it. In relationships, in careers, with money and with dreams and hopes and fears. I don’t choose my channels lightly.”
‘Ok, stop talking now so I can process what you said’, I think to myself. “There is no world,” he continues. “So why not enjoy it while you believe that there is one? It is not so serious, you know. There is nothing to do except to accept my love. Your work lies solely in understanding that there is no work for you to do. As long as you think you have work to do, spiritually I mean, you don’t understand me and what I can be to you. I need you to go out there and be happy. I need you to be my ambassador, my agent if you will, my voice, myself. There aren’t that many who can reach me directly. Obviously, those are not the ones who need my help through you. But there are more than enough, more than enough who search for me and have no way of accessing the part of their minds where I abide. So you, my old friend, my loving brother, you are the only way for me to reach some of them and you are the only way for some of them to reach me. You always wanted a purpose in life. You asked for it many times. How is this one for starters? It comes with my total care package as well. You take care of whoever I send to you and in return I’ll take care of you. You can even have a girlfriend. And a house and a car and enough money and whatever it is your heart desires.”
After a little while I realize that he had stopped walking. I stop as well and turn toward him. “Ready?” he says.