Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Daniel Day 38

Only two more days of my official Daniel Fast. Except for the issue of coffee, I hope to remain in the spirit of Daniel; and Elijah, John Baptist and Anna the prophetess who fasted and prayed in the temple night and day for decades. I hope for my whole life to be God's temple where I remain in continuous prayer. I hope to remain a raw foodist, free from the corruption and addiction of society's food. I mean society's food on several levels: body, mind and spirit.

From ACIM:
  • It is not my (Jesus') merit that I contribute to you but my love, for you do not value yourself.
  • ...my (Jesus') value of you can heal you (your mind)...
  • Peace comes from God through me (Jesus) to you.
  • When a brother is sick (sickness originates in the mind) it is because he is not asking for peace...
  • My peace I give to you...though you may not ask...
  • The acceptance of peace is the denial of illusion (denial of the ego world and thought system), and sickness is an illusion.
  • I (Jesus) will heal you merely because I have one message and it is true. Your faith in it will make you whole when you have faith in me.
  • You could accept peace now for everyone, and offer them perfect freedom from all illusions because you heard His Voice.

In the Rule of Benedict it says:

  • ...seek after peace and pursue it...
  • ...let us hear with awestruck ears what the divine voice, crying out daily, doth admonish us...

I learned this morning how the mechanism works whereby I switch from the Holy Spirit's thought system to the ego's thought system. The reason I am interested is because believing and acting on the ego's thoughts cause me to be afraid, hateful and angry; essentially living in a hellish prison. The Holy Spirit's thoughts give me abundant freedom, life, love and peace; Heaven right now.

Out of the blue, two days ago, a recruiter called me to see if I was interested in an environmental job in the Kansas City area. I engaged with the recruiter because quite possibly I would like to move back to Kansas City. This morning, I began to feel stresss and fear: how will I schedule interviews, who would I ask to be references, what would I do with my house in Atchison, I don't want to commute again, where would I get an apartment, what if I don't like it, etc... I feared that I was not worth the salary it would take to get me to move. I fear that if I don't take this job and my current company went out of business, I'd be out of work.

I had ACIM open before me and I shut my eyes for prayer. I asked Jesus for help. I realized that this situation appeared out of the blue. I don't have to worry because if it is a gift from the Holy Spirit, everything will work out smoothly. It is not necessary for me to start worrying about it. VERY IMPORTANT was this: I have peace if I sit at my table and pray. I do not have peace if I project into the future all the things that could happen. The moment I leave the peace of this moment is the moment when I switch from the Holy Spirit to ego.

The healing peace of Jesus is in this moment. The love of Jesus is in this moment. Freedom from ego prison is in this moment. Somehow, human beings created themselves and left Heaven and God. This happened historically, but it also happens all the time right now. We keep doing it. We leave Heaven and God every time we choose ego intead of Holy Spirit. I make the ego choice over and over many times a day. It is only when I become conscious of the switching moments that I am able to stop and remain in peace. Jesus will help me with this awareness.

I want Jesus' help so I completely let go of things (like job changes) and let the Holy Spirit decide. I stop switching and put complete trust in God.

An alcoholic might say the Serenity Prayer, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change..." Most people say this prayer thinking they are enduring a bad situation. But I say it with the realization that the thing I can't change is God's love for me and Jesus' healing help and the Holy Spirit's peace and guidance. If I accept God's love, then I have true serenity. Don't say the Serenity Prayer because your ego isn't getting its way and you are upset. Say it because you want to remember and feel and know God's love. That is the one thing in the universe that never changes.

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