ACIM Introduction P 1, 2, 3. To heal is to make happy.

Introduction

¹ To heal is to make happy. I have told you to think how many opportunities you have had to gladden yourself, and how many you have refused. This is the same as telling you that you have refused to heal yourself. The light that belongs to you is the light of joy. Radiance is not associated with sorrow. Joy calls forth an integrated willingness to share it, and promotes the mind’s natural impulse to respond as one. Those who attempt to heal without being wholly joyous themselves call forth different kinds of responses at the same time, and thus deprive others of the joy of responding wholeheartedly.  

Yikes, I’m feeling the pressure! ~smile~ My job is to be wholly joyous, and to fall short of that goal means I am not the healer I might be otherwise. If I am not joyous, it means I have failed to accept healing for myself, and if I am not wholly joyous, then when I attempt the healing of others, the results will vary. I will not be asking for only healing but for something else as well.

Learning to Pray With Conviction

This makes sense. I have noticed that when I pray for someone who is suffering from confusion, that is mine as well, then my prayer lacks conviction. For instance, if someone asks me to support them as they attempt to release their fear of losing their job, and I suffer from the same fear, my prayer will not be pure.   I think of it this way. All thought is prayer.

We are praying continuously, praying without ceasing. So, because I want to support my friend as she heals her mind, my thoughts are like this. My friend has nothing to worry about. God is her Source, not the job she thinks she needs. God loves her and wants only her happiness. She is safe in God. It is never God’s Will that she suffers. But, because I still carry a fear of lack and loss, her fear triggers mine, and so I also have thoughts that reflect my own fears.  

Clearing My Mind First

I remember that when I was working, this was a familiar classroom for me. I would often be afraid of losing my job, even though that was highly unlikely. In this case, her prayer might trigger a memory of mine. Maybe a customer is not happy with his service. I fear that he will look elsewhere before we can fix his problem. Thus, I pray that fear and loss are not true, and at the same time, praying that it is true. I hold two opposing thoughts in my mind, and thus two opposing prayers and a conflicted mind are neither effective nor happy.

This is why when I pray for someone, it usually takes the form of asking that my mind be healed of the untrue belief my friend is holding. In this way, I will be praying the most effective prayer I can at this time.   I can also attest that the more my mind is healed, the happier I am. I become less than happy as I allow the ego mind to run me.

Relationships

I am focused right now on healing my relationships. I understand that the way Home is through my brother and that any grievance between me and my brother also stands between me and Heaven.  Because I know this is true, I want all relationships in my life to be healed, so this is what is coming up for me.

I see all the places where they are not healed. Seeing the issues can be very uncomfortable, and this discomfort is not joyous. However, seeing the issues is only the first step. As I recognize them and decide against them, they are healed, and my joy increases. Doing this consistently has taught me that a healed mind is synonymous with joy.  

Introduction, P 2

² To be wholehearted you must be happy. If fear and love cannot coexist, and if it is impossible to be wholly fearful and remain alive, the only possible whole state is that of love. There is no difference between love and joy. Therefore, the only possible whole state is the wholly joyous. To heal or to make joyous is therefore the same as to integrate and to make one. That is why it makes no difference to what part or by what part of the Sonship the healing is offered. Every part benefits, and benefits equally.  

Oh boy, I love this! First, lack of joy is a marker, a red flag, if you will. It is a way I can tell if there is mind-healing work to be done. My goal always is to return my mind to wholeness, and joy is the only completely whole state. Thus, lack of joy is a good indicator of fear, and fear and love cannot coexist. In the same way, joy is the indicator that I have been doing my healing work. That is, I have chosen love over fear.    

Everyone Benefits

The second thing I enjoyed reading in this paragraph is that it does not matter what part of the Sonship heals or is healed. It is for all, and everyone benefits. I knew that, but I like seeing it here, reminding me and reassuring me. I am so very grateful every time I hear one of my brothers doing their own work because I know that means I am being lifted up right along with them.  

It also means that if I see someone else acting out of their ego, I can heal that belief in my mind, and it is done for both of us. Or, as Jesus says, I can accept the Atonement on behalf of my brother. In this way, I am completely responsible for everything. If it is in my awareness, it is there for me to heal it.  For instance, If my friend becomes angry when she sees a homeless person asking for money, maybe my ego wants to judge her for her lack of compassion.  

However, the other choice is to recognize the lack of compassion in my own mind and to ask that my mind be healed. There. It is done. As it turns out, I didn’t need to school my friend, I just needed to accept the Atonement for myself for this to be healed. I continue to accept total responsibility and to heal whatever is in my awareness without regard to “ownership.” And so I begin to fully integrate the fact that there is no separation. We are, indeed, all one, and all healing benefits all equally.  

Introduction, P 3

³ You are being blessed by every beneficent thought of any of your brothers anywhere. You should want to bless them in return, out of gratitude. You need not know them individually, or they you. The light is so strong that it radiates throughout the Sonship and returns thanks to the Father for radiating His joy upon it. Only God’s holy children are worthy channels of His beautiful joy, because only they are beautiful enough to hold it by sharing it. It is impossible for a child of God to love his neighbor except as himself. That is why the healer’s prayer is:

Let me know this brother as I know myself. 

Every thought we have and that we believe is doing one of two things. It is adding to the ego, or it is undoing the ego. Those thoughts I think with God are undoing the ego. Since there is only one ego, it is undone in all of us. I am so grateful to everyone for doing their part, and we are all doing our part whether it looks like it or not, whether we know it or not.  

Even in my BC days (Before the Course), I did my part. I was learning what it is that I don’t want. I was showing others what they didn’t want. And I was setting up the lessons that would bring me to this very place in my spiritual life. It looked like I was screwing everything up, but that was just how I perceived it. I’m sure that from someone else’s story, it seemed I was sometimes the bad guy. But every part I have played has been essential to my development and theirs.  

With More Light, There Is More Healing

Now that the light is growing in me, I am helpful in different ways. That light shines throughout the Sonship. To be a real pain in someone’s side, I had to be in their life. But to influence the Sonship, I only had to believe my thoughts. Now I believe the thoughts I think with God a lot more than I believe the ego thoughts in my mind, and so now I am influencing the Sonship differently.  

I love sharing through my words, written and spoken. When they are inspired, it allows the flow of God through me to you, and this flow continues until I impede it with my untrue thoughts. I can be sad, discouraged, or angry, but when it is time for me to journal or teach, all that goes away. I feel energized and positive. When I feel the love flowing through me, nothing is better. But if I never wrote or said another word, the work of undoing the ego in the Sonship would go on because when my mind is healed, so is yours. And vice versa. Thank you.  

My most consistent prayer these days is to see Christ in my brother no matter the circumstances. The only way to know and love God is to know and love my brothers. All of them, not just the ones who reflect my “good” self but the ones who reflect my confusion as well. If I don’t know and love and appreciate all of God’s creation, I cannot know and love the Creator.  

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