A Course in Miracles Workbook: 13. What Is a Miracle? Year 2022

ACIM 13. What Is A MIracle? 1. A miracle is a correction. ²It does not create, nor really change at all.

13. What Is a Miracle?

1. A miracle is a correction. ²It does not create, nor really change at all. ³It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. ⁴It undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness. ⁵Thus it stays within time’s limits. ⁶Yet it paves the way for the return of timelessness and love’s awakening, for fear must slip away under the gentle remedy it brings.

Miracles correct the thoughts which are the cause of our miscreations. It works with perception, undoing error through forgiveness. When we have awakened from the world of time, we will no longer need them. When I notice that I believe something that is not true, I forgive that belief, and it is undone in my mind. It just falls away as if I had never believed it. The emotional reaction falls away with it. That is a miracle.

My favorite sentence in this section is this. ³It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. I love this sentence because it is another way of saying that while much has been seen, nothing has happened. The world is an idea in the mind, an error in the mind. That is all it is, and the miracle reveals this to us. For a while, it is revealed one error at a time, but eventually, the mind remembers the truth.

The Gift of Grace

2. A miracle contains the gift of grace, for it is given and received as one. ²And thus it illustrates the law of truth the world does not obey, because it fails entirely to understand its ways. ³A miracle inverts perception which was upside down before, and thus it ends the strange distortions that were manifest. ⁴Now is perception open to the truth. ⁵Now is forgiveness seen as justified.

When we perceive the world through the ego mind, we see everything upside down. We think that the world caused us. In truth, we caused the world. Have you ever heard someone justify an attack by saying they were just defending themselves? This is saying that the world (or someone specific in the world) caused them to react. This is not so. And this is why I never look outward for a solution. I am the cause of my life. My life does not cause me.

This is not referring to actions taken in the world but to thoughts in the mind. Our interpretation of the action is what we respond to, not the action itself. If someone is about to slug me, I would duck because that’s the common-sense thing to do. But if a judgment about the action occurs, that is not because someone tried to hit me. It is because of my perception of the action.

For instance, I can avoid people who are violent without hating them or thinking less of them.

If they are not acting from love, they are calling for love. The only sensible thing to do is to give what is called for in whatever way is appropriate, even if it must be from a distance. Violent actions are projections of violent thought. I choose not to make the same mistake of harboring violent thoughts about anyone. This can be as innocuous as resenting the plumber for cheating me. It is still an attack thought, and attack is violent.

Forgiveness Is the Home of Miracles

3. Forgiveness is the home of miracles. ²The eyes of Christ deliver them to all they look upon in mercy and in love. ³Perception stands corrected in His sight, and what was meant to curse has come to bless. ⁴Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love. ⁵And each is laid before the Word of God, upon the universal altar to Creator and creation in the light of perfect purity and endless joy.

Miracles are what occur when we forgive. When I divorced my husband, I did so because I thought he was impossible to live with. After a while, he remarried, and his wife thinks he’s just fine. My husband wasn’t the problem; my interpretation of him was the problem. This is not to say that I would want to be married to him again, but I also am certain there is nothing wrong with him.

When we were first divorced, I was taking my courses with Pathways of Light to be a minister. Through taking those courses, I learned to see things from a different perspective. I wanted to be free of all remaining grievances, but I knew it would take a miracle to accomplish this. Fortunately, I also knew that miracles come from forgiveness. I began the process of forgiving everything I believed about him and myself and the relationship. The miracle occurred, and we are now friends, and I have nothing but love for him.

The Miracle Is Taken on Faith

4. The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand. ²Yet faith will bring its witnesses to show that what it rested on is really there. ³And thus the miracle will justify your faith in it, and show it rested on a world more real than what you saw before; a world redeemed from what you thought was there.

When I first began the forgiveness of that relationship, I was conflicted. I knew it had to be forgiven, and I trusted that I could do this and would be glad I did it. I trusted but had little proof it was so. Nevertheless, I took Jesus at his word, and I forgave. Often, I had to revisit the same memory over and over because I had convinced myself that I was right and that being right mattered. I returned to it as often as I needed to until my mind was clear. Once a belief was undone, I would wonder why I ever believed it. I was never sorry that I let a grievance go.

Drops of Healing Rain

5. Miracles fall like drops of healing rain from Heaven on a dry and dusty world, where starved and thirsty creatures come to die. ²Now they have water. ³Now the world is green. ⁴And everywhere the signs of life spring up, to show that what is born can never die, for what has life has immortality.

My life is filled with miracles now. I am so grateful for A Course in Miracles. Sometimes I can’t believe that this incredible thing has happened to me. I remain vigilant for the need to forgive, and now I never hesitate. I almost never have to revisit a grievance, but if I do, that’s OK. I’m just glad I know what to do with them now.

More Thoughts on Miracles

A miracle is a correction and thus stays only in the world of time. It corrects the mind that thinks it is under laws that are not the laws of God. It corrects the mind that thinks it can be something God did not create. Forgiveness is the home of miracles. In forgiving, we receive the miracle. It takes faith at first to apply forgiveness when we have no proof it works, but our faith will be justified as we begin to see the world differently.

There were many times when practicing the Course that I couldn’t believe the guidance that was given, especially at first. It just seemed too ridiculous. But I followed directions anyway. I looked at the situation with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn’t give advice on how to make things turn out the way we want. Instead, the Holy Spirit looks at the craziness and sees it as craziness.

He says to forgive the whole idea.

In fact, there is a lesson that says, “I will forgive, and this will disappear.” But how could my big problem be solved by forgiving it?  How could it disappear without me manipulating it? It took a long time for me to trust that what is illusion is not the truth and that there is truth to be found. But eventually, I did come to trust this.

Even so, the situation is not always quick to change because I don’t always know what I am forgiving. We hide our motivations from ourselves, and we have to rediscover them. Other times, it is just that quick. When this happens, it is because I want to surrender my ideas entirely and just accept correction. I care more about peace than I do about getting my way or being right. Sometimes the situation doesn’t change at all, but my perception of it has changed, and I am at peace with it.

Nowadays, forgiveness is easier than ever.

I finally understand that I am having an experience and I am having the one I wanted. There isn’t anything real to forgive, and that is the very essence of forgiveness. The Holy Spirit looks at my life with me and reminds me that this is not really my life. It is just a series of experiences that will help me to return Home as I forgive the thoughts that sourced them if that is my choice.

He reminds me that I am not this body and I won’t be here long. And when I go, I will leave the idea of a body behind, and I will be unaffected by what happened here. I will have learned from it, and that is its only value. I see now that this is more like a weird interactive movie in which I take part even as I watch it. But it is nothing to worry about, and that no matter how the movie goes, I am fine. This is a miracle, this wonderful change that has occurred, and it came because I kept forgiving the idea that I am not as God created me and that anything could exist that God did not create.

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