ACIM Archives | Page 14 of 14

A Simple Form of Joining

Joining in Light to find truth together.

In A Course in Miracles Jesus emphasizes the power of opening to direct experience in order to recognize our true nature and thus see through the ego’s false sense of separation and fear. Joining in Light is a form given by the Holy Spirit of focused joining in prayer with a brother to ask for a miracle that provides a direct experience the power of light/truth to shine away error/sense of separation which is experienced as fear and suffering. Joining in Light is a gentle invitation to the present moment. This form helps the mind remember to focus on truth; that we are light and light is the gift brothers have to offer to each other.

You who hold your brother’s hand also hold mine, for when you joined each other you were not alone. Do you believe that I would leave you in the darkness that you agreed to leave with me? In your relationship is this world’s light. And fear must disappear before you now. (T-18. III.4)

Focusing on light stimulates recognition within the mind that the problem has been solved. It eases the path to joining (recognition within the mind that minds are joined) and provides an experience of the power of joining for a shift in perception. This gentle shared experience opens trust for a brother and concurrently in Spirit. It thus questions the existence of “enemy” or brother as separate.

Until the second level at least begins, one cannot share in prayer. For until that point, each one must ask for different things. But once the need to hold the other as an enemy has been questioned, and the reason for doing so has been recognized if only for an instant, it becomes possible to join in prayer. Enemies do not share a goal. It is in this their enmity is kept. Their separate wishes are their arsenals; their fortresses in hate. The key to rising further still in prayer lies in this simple thought; this change of mind:
We go together, you and I.” Song of Prayer, S:1.IV.

There is much resistance to joining because of the habit of the mind of wrong mindedness, which is the abdication of creative power into believing thoughts that seem to prove separation. Thus the practice of Joining in Light can be a stepping stone to help move past resistance to joining with a brother, and thus joining and trusting in Spirit. It is proper use of denial which denies error and a symbol of the acceptance of the atonement. It is the decision in mind to focus on the truth. It is for the correction of error.

You can do anything I ask. I have asked you to perform miracles, and have made it clear that miracles are natural, corrective, healing and universal. There is nothing they cannot do, but they cannot be performed in the spirit of doubt or fear. When you are afraid of anything, you are acknowledging its power to hurt you. Remember that where your heart is, there is your treasure also. You believe in what you value. If you are afraid you will inevitably value wrongly, and by endowing all thoughts with equal power will inevitably destroy peace. That is why the Bible speaks of “the peace of God which passeth understanding. “This peace is totally incapable of being shaken by errors of any kind. It denies the ability of anything not of God to affect you. This is the proper use of denial. It is not used to hide anything, but to correct error. It brings all error into the light, and since error and darkness are the same, it corrects error automatically.

True denial is a powerful protective device. You can and should deny any belief that error can hurt you. This kind of denial is not a concealment but a correction. Your right mind depends on it. Denial of error is a strong defense of truth, but denial of truth results in miscreation, the projections of the ego. In the service of the right mind the denial of error frees the mind, and re-establishes the freedom of the will. When the will is really free it cannot miscreate, because it recognizes only truth.

You can defend truth as well as error. (T:II.2)

In a simple form of Joining in Light inspired by the Holy Spirit two brothers sit facing each other, with hands cupped together as though holding a shared ball of light. Both brothers imagine sharing his/her “light” as a symbol of “joining”, ask for God’s will together and listen quietly for His answer. It is a symbol of shared purpose and extension.

It is a form of charity, as extending Light and to see light in a brother is charity until such time that the Light that shines within is all that is known.

Healing is an ability that developed after the separation, before which it was unnecessary. Like all aspects of the belief in space and time, it is temporary. However, as long as time persists, healing is needed as a means of protection. This is because healing rests on charity, and charity is a way of perceiving the perfection of another even if you cannot perceive it in yourself. Most of the loftier concepts of which you are capable now are time-dependent. Charity is really a weaker reflection of a much more powerful love-encompassment that is far beyond any form of charity you can conceive of as yet. Charity is essential to right-mindedness in the limited sense in which it can now be attained.

Charity is a way of looking at another as if he had already gone far beyond his actual accomplishments in time. Since his own thinking is faulty he cannot see the Atonement for himself, or he would have no need of charity. The charity that is accorded him is both an acknowledgment that he needs help, and a recognition that he will accept it. Both of these perceptions clearly imply their dependence on time, making it apparent that charity still lies within the limitations of this world. I said before that only revelation transcends time. The miracle, as an expression of charity, can only shorten it. It must be understood, however, that whenever you offer a miracle to another, you are shortening the suffering of both of you. This corrects retroactively as well as progressively.

Through the use of the symbol, joining in light, brothers can support each other in looking beyond the level of the body, to see the light within. Lesson 189 is a beautiful preparation for this recognition and welcoming a brother in joining:

Lesson 189. I feel the Love of God within me now. There is a light in you the world can not perceive. And with its eyes you will not see this light, for you are blinded by the world. Yet you have eyes to see it. It is there for you to look upon. It was not placed in you to be kept hidden from your sight. This light is a reflection of the thought we practice now. To feel the Love of God within you is to see the world anew, shining in innocence, alive with hope, and blessed with perfect charity and love.

Today we pass illusions, as we seek to reach to what is true in us, and feel its all-embracing tenderness, its Love which knows us perfect as itself, its sight which is the gift its Love bestows on us. We learn the way today. It is as sure as Love itself, to which it carries us. For its simplicity avoids the snares the foolish convolutions of the world’s apparent reasoning but serve to hide.

Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.

Is it not He Who knows the way to you? You need not know the way to Him. Your part is simply to allow all obstacles that you have interposed between the Son and God the Father to be quietly removed forever. God will do His part in joyful and immediate response. Ask and receive. But do not make demands, nor point the road to God by which He should appear to you. The way to reach Him is merely to let Him be. For in that way is your reality proclaimed as well.

And so today we do not choose the way in which we go to Him. But we do choose to let Him come. And with this choice we rest. And in our quiet hearts and open minds, His Love will blaze its pathway of itself. What has not been denied is surely there, if it be true and can be surely reached. God knows His Son, and knows the way to him. He does not need His Son to show Him how to find His way. Through every opened door His Love shines outward from its home within, and lightens up the world in innocence.

Father, we do not know the way to You. But we have called, and You have answered us. We will not interfere. Salvation’s ways are not our own, for they belong to You. And it is unto You we look for them. Our hands are open to receive Your gifts. We have no thoughts we think apart from You, and cherish no beliefs of what we are, or Who created us. Yours is the way that we would find and follow. And we ask but that Your Will, which is our own as well, be done in us and in the world, that it become a part of Heaven now. Amen.

With this preparation in mind the partners join with open hands and hearts together. Partners call together without interference and offer only light to each other to recognize what is already joined. Within the Light that is shared by two brothers we ask for God’s will and thus open together to hear Spirit’s guidance. Jesus reminds us in the Song of Prayer:

“Even together you may ask for things, and thus set up but an illusion of a goal you share. You may ask together for specifics, and not realize that you are asking for effects without the cause. And this you cannot have. For no one can receive effects alone, asking a cause from which they do not come to offer them to him. Even the joining, then, is not enough, if those who pray together do not ask, before all else, what is the Will of God. From this Cause only can the answer come in which are all specifics satisfied; all separate wishes unified in one. (S:1.IV.3)

After the offering is made both focus on the light and pause for a few minutes in the stillness listening with an open mind. If there are grievances that are in awareness, each person can place those thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and/or concerns (darkness) in the shared Light with the request for assistance/insights from Holy Spirit.

Joining in Light is easy to learn and can be shared with anyone when guided by the Holy Spirit. When a 7 year old was asked, “What happens in the Light?” She said, “It melts trouble”. It is an experience of the power of light to shine away darkness.

What is “placed in the shared Light” may be placed silently or spoken out loud. It is not necessary to speak the words. The experience of release from emotional/perceptual blocks brings a deeper understanding of the value of “joining” with a brother. It also re-enforces in the mind “I need do nothing” and “I will not intrude upon my guest”. Nothing need be said for a healing to occur.

Strictly speaking, words play no part at all in healing.… God does not understand words, for they were made by separated minds to keep them in the illusion of separation. (M-21.1:1,7).

Your brother will not learn it from your words or from the judgments you have laid on him. You need not even speak a word to him. You cannot ask, “What shall I say to him?” and hear God’s answer. Rather ask instead, “Help me to see this brother though the eyes of truth and not of judgment,” and the help of God and all His angels will respond (Absence from Felicity, p. 381).

In the beginning it can be helpful to ask the Holy Spirit for help with insight on a general topic with the associated emotion/feeling placed in the Light. For example, “I feel angry in my heart about x”, “I am unhappy about my relationship with my sister.” I feel guilt about x. The exact “problem” or thoughts do not need to be identified, as HS knows what is in the heart and what is needed. A simple thought may be most helpful e.g.: “I wish to return to right mindedness” is sufficient. This releases the mind from “pre-deciding” the “problem” and an answer to the misperceived problem.

Prayer for specifics always asks to have the past repeated in some way. What was enjoyed before, or seemed to be; what was another’s and he seemed to love, — all these are but illusions from the past. The aim of prayer is to release the present from its chains of past illusions; to let it be a freely-chosen remedy from every choice that stood for a mistake. What prayer can offer now so far exceeds all that you asked before that it is pitiful to be content with less. You have chosen a new-born chance each time you pray. And would you stifle and imprison it in ancient prisons, when the chance has come to free yourself from all of them at once? Do not restrict your asking. Prayer can bring the peace of God. What time-bound thing can give you more than this, in just the little space that lasts until it crumbles into dust? (S-4.IV.3.3)

Silent sharing into Light is helpful. Speaking can be a form of delay to healing. It can flush up additional fear because of concerns over judgment, activate a story, stimulate trying to “figure it out”, and associated guilt and thus emotion/pain can intensify, which is not necessary for a shift to occur. It can also increase the feeling of “realness” and reinforce the belief that there is something to be undone.

Do NOT let any belief that it is real enter your mind or you will believe that you must undo what you have made to be forgiven. (T-9.IV.5.4)

Often simply placing the emotion that is felt into the light is sufficient to quickly experience a shift in perception, to hear the comforting words of Spirit and return to now. It is helpful to remember that uncomfortable emotions arise out of our denial of the truth of who we are, thus when this discomfort is aroused it is for our benefit because it brings into awareness that we are withholding love from ourselves.

Discomfort is aroused only to bring the need for correction into awareness. (T:26.II.8.)

Jesus is not asking us to be in discomfort, only to offer with willingness the discomfort that we have created for ourselves through our subconscious beliefs in separation to the Holy Spirit to be reinterpreted as quickly as possible. Also, discomfort is a denial that all is joined so a fast antidote to discomfort is to join to deny separation!

It is helpful to remember that it is not possible for us to judge this discomfort and the purpose of it, as we learned in lesson in lesson five of the workbook.

I am never upset for the reason I think. (W:5.1)

At first silent sharing can be helpful because not everyone is accustomed to “joining with Spirit/remembering light” when confronted by an intense emotional state in another person. Those who have experience with remembering light/stillness can serve a brother to quickly release intense emotional blocks using this form of focused joining when it is guided by Spirit.

Whoever is saner at the time the threat is perceived should remember how deep is his indebtedness to the other and how much gratitude is due him, and be glad that he can pay his debt by bringing happiness to both. (T-18.V.7.1)

The practice of Joining in Light helps train the mind to remember light whenever darkness is flushed into awareness. With experience and trust built in Spirit and our brother through the mind training of remembering light/right mindedness we know that anything can be expressed and in any form- intense emotion, strong words, etc. and that none of this has bearing on the truth of what God made. And in this recognition and understanding is Glory! Let our light shine through all of it. Imagine a world where all that is offered and received is light in open hands and open hearts. The world is there now to be recognized!

After a few moments of joining the mind rests in stillness and one or both participants may hear the Holy Spirit and/or come to a new understanding of the situation that was offered for a miracle. There is usually a shift in perception where emotional charge around an area of concern completely dissipates, with associated beliefs evaporating and a new perspective coming into awareness.

It is beautiful when partners share what each has experienced. In this way both the perceived “problem” is expressed concurrently with the solution provided by Spirit. It is a celebration of the miracle and thus the compression of time for removing the blocks to love’s presence. A shift in perception is a return to the present moment. And it is helpful to recognize that what is offered and accepted is love, and the results may not be directly observed.

Miracles are expressions of love, but they may not always have observable effects. (T-I.1.35)

Examples of the Joining in Light will be shared throughout this blog. Here are a few links. Light Pours Through. It is helpful to remember that any time a brother is welcomed into the heart this is joining, as well as praying to ask God’s will (joining with God/Spirit). All joining with open hearts and open hands to welcome the gifts we already have honors the truth of who we are and is a joyful celebration of what is. Just the thought of two minds joined can quickly dispel an illusion of darkness within the mind.

Healing is an act of thought by which two minds perceive their oneness, and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the Sonship to rejoice with them, and let God Himself go out into them and through them. (T-5.I. 1.)

Here is a summary of the steps for Joining in Light:

Open mind, open heart.
Focus on light, extend light to your brother.
Ask for God’s will together.
If it is given, join open hands together and imagine the light joined.
Place any perceived darkness in the shared light.
Pause with open mind and open heart, relax and notice (let Spirit do the heavy lifting)
Share your experience as guided.
Thank God.

With love and gratitude,

Cay

A Simple Form of JoiningCay2021-04-04T13:04:34-05:00

What is Joining?

Holy Spirit: What is Joining in Light?

Light is an expression of creation. The power of light to shine away error is unlimited. Sin is error and belief in error is the illusion that seems to separate God and his light creations, to whom he has given everything (light).

This is where joy dwells, in the recognition that all is unified when light is recognized. By focusing on light the illusion of darkness can be placed within it and shined away by the Holy Spirit. The acceptance of light is the atonement.

The atonement is a lesson in sharing, which is given you because you have forgotten how to do it. (T-9.IV.3.1)
The Atonement can only be accepted by releasing inner light. (T-2.III.1.)

Acceptance of this light is the denial of darkness, which is false. In confusion man uses darkness to “prove” that separation is true, yet he has only to choose to turn toward the light to find the All-Being it holds. To accept the atonement is to accept that the separation has never occurred. The Father and his light creations are One.

Joining is the opportunity at any moment to welcome a brother into your heart for healing of the mind. It is a celebration of what is already joined. It is an opportunity to bring illusion to truth, where two or more are gathered in His name. To join to ask God’s will together, to get clarity, to reveal truth. A truth that is universal and that unfolds peace and joy within the mind, once freed from illusions.

Yet when two or more join together in searching for truth, the ego can no longer defend its lack of content. (T-14.VII.6.)

It is the joining and the experience of truth revealed in sharing with a brother that shows the illusion false and opens the mind to new perception. The source of love that is hidden can be revealed in this way, by the two joining. Joining in light is bringing together what seemed separated to ask for God’s will, their own Divine will to recognize each other as the same, equal Sons of God.

Healing is a thought by which two minds perceive they are one and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the Sonship to rejoice with them and lets God go out unto them and through them. (T- 5.1.)

This joining is a celebration of what is most holy. God’s holy sons honoring what is true – they are joined always and forever, One in light and One in truth. It is a re-enforcement of the choice to remember Light or darkness and the beauty that can be found when brothers join together to step toward heaven. It recognizes that any two brothers can share this light as all brothers are equal. All brothers have the creative power to say yes to Light, to make the choice to stand in Light and that by offering Light to each other they can remember that there is only one Light and one Son. All roads lead to heaven.

Let us join quickly in an instant of light, and it will be enough to remind you that your goal is light. (T-18. III.2. 5)

Not one light in Heaven but goes with you. Not one Ray that shines forever in the Mind of God but shines on you. Heaven is joined with you in your advance to Heaven. When such great lights have joined with you to give the little spark of your desire the power of God Himself, can you remain in darkness? You and your brother are coming home together, after a long and meaningless journey that you undertook apart, and that led nowhere. You have found your brother, and you will light each other’s way. And from this light will the Great Rays extend back into darkness and forward unto God, to shine away the past and so make room for His eternal Presence, in which everything is radiant in the light. (T-18.III.8.)

With love and gratitude,

Cay

What is Joining?Cay2021-04-04T13:04:34-05:00

To Join is to Celebrate What is Joined

Oakhill Correctional Prison is a minimum security prison for men south of Madison Wisconsin. Milwaukee County Women’s Correctional Center is a small minimum security women’s prison located adjacent to Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Behind the walls of these prisons over a period of almost eight years I experienced more love and miracles than I can ever describe. At times it seems extraordinary to me to have found light and beauty in what many might consider a place of fear and darkness. Yet now I realize this experience of finding light in what at first appeared to be a place of frustration, hatred, and attack only parallels the discovery of light and love that has been hidden in the darkness within the prison of my mind. The illusion of darkness was maintained by judgment and the belief in the ego, a sense of a separate self from everyone and everything. This journey into the darkness of a physical prison to find deep abiding love and joy could only have been guided by some power greater than I. The gratitude I have for this experience and the men and women I encountered fills my being.

I did not expect to find God in prison. I did not go into prison to find God. In the beginning I don’t know what I felt about God. The thought of God rarely crossed my mind. I volunteered to teach a personal development program in prison to “prove” my skills and abilities as a coach at “changing” behavior. There was the thought to help others while at the same time I remember thinking, “This is great, I can practice my skills at changing people and people will be impressed that I went into prison,” at the back of my mind. Yet the Holy Spirit found a way to enter my mind, to guide me, to show me another way past this false edifice of proving myself to win love and approval. He helped open my eyes so that I could see past the illusion of darkness within myself and others to experience a deep abiding love that is ever present. I experienced over and over the power of light to shine through the darkness of fear and reveal it as untrue. This is the path to forgiveness and peace.

After several years of coaching in prisons I started studying A Course in Miracles, and this brought deeper recognition of what is true, that we are love and light, and that there is no darkness that can stand to this light. Jesus shared in the Course that we are one in Light and Love and this grows in my awareness each day. I can only bear witness in my experience and offer this as testament by request of the Holy Spirit for the healing of my mind. Healing the mind through forgiveness is to perceive that there is no darkness, only light.

Healing is an act of thought by which two minds perceive their oneness, and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the Sonship to rejoice with them, and let God Himself go out into them and through them. A Course in Miracles, T-5. I. 1.

What is precious is there is nothing exclusive about this experience of love. It is available to everyone and that is the most joyful news of all to share. A Course in Miracles is one of many teachings available for each and every one of us to experience the grace of our shared true nature. We have merely to have the desire and the openness to allow the truth of our being to be revealed.

I resisted the inspiration to write this blog. I did not want to talk about Jesus, or at least the concept I had of Jesus. Jesus meant fear to me, because of what I thought was the cruel way in which a teacher of love and gentle savior was killed. Most images in my mind were of looking up at him hanging on a cross in church, the reminder of the belief in the mind that some price must be paid for salvation. Even though I’ve studied the Course for years, I shared my experiences with very few of those around me, fearing “what would they – friends, family, professional colleagues – think of me?” The concept “Jesus freak” played in my mind. Little did I know the thousands of ways in every day I was crucifying myself through my own thoughts of a separate self. “What would they think of me?” is just one thought of many that created a false sense of fear that I could be “rejected” and thus not feel love. Those judgments of myself and others are the basis for all suffering and ultimately the denial of the truth of what God created. This is an egoic self inflicted punishment that is impossible for a loving God to conceive for his precious Son.

God was just a group of ideas in my mind of the bearded guy on the throne keeping track of right and wrong. It was like a mean version of Santa Claus, making a list and checking it twice before gifts could be bestowed. That was the expression of a mind that had chosen fear over love. Now I appreciate that writing this blog is an expression of the acceptance of the light within and gratitude for the one Christ mind that shines within us all. Jesus says gratitude to a brother is the gateway to Heaven, and truly the gratitude I feel toward my brothers and sisters who have shown me the way into light beyond the prison of my egoic thought system is beyond expression.

As I started writing the thought came to mind, “No one will believe love can be found in prison.” Made up ideas about how I might be judged for sharing these beliefs and experiences arose in mind. Then the realization came that this is the same challenge Jesus is referring to in the Course in Miracles when he suggests that we can find love and freedom from the prison of suffering of the world; the prison of our belief system about the world. I didn’t believe that abiding love, peace and joy can be found in daily experience, because of the prison of judgments I accepted. There have been many concepts I have had about myself and others that have kept me in a prison of pain and suffering. The purpose of expression is to offer all self judgment to the Holy Spirit for reinterpretation in order to be free of the prison of beliefs in the ego and separation. And as misinterpretations fade away beauty and light fills the mind.

In the Course Jesus invites us to experience the joy of the ever present now. The focus of the course is mind training. Training our minds so that we are open to direct personal experience of what is true- we are love. This experience occurs when we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit to learn to see past what is false so ever present love rises fully into awareness. The Course emphasizes the power of watching our minds for the judgments we make about what is happening in the world so that we can learn what leads us to joy and peace of mind or what decisions we make in our minds that lead to pain and unhappiness.

Our greatest power is that we can choose to be in a state of peace or choose differently and remain in fear. In order to “take back our minds” or be “right minded” as is suggested in A Course in Miracles we have to first notice the thoughts and judgments that are causing fear. Thankfully, as the Course says, there is always an opportunity to choose again with Spirit’s interpretation of the meaning of our thoughts; the interpretation of a loving God. We have the power to choose peace of mind through seeing no error with what we find in present experience. In accepting forgiveness right now love can be recognized. In this freedom from judgment grace arises.

The Course teaches the power of stepping forward together to join in order to help each other to recognize and honor the truth of light and love in our minds. We are made in light and to Join in Light is the path to freedom and joy together. Our greatest fear is that we are separate and alone from that which created us and joining together to remember our light is an antidote described by Jesus in the Course. Placing darkness (beliefs and fears) in this shared light provides a direct experience that the darkness of fear perceived through the ego sense of separate self is untrue. There is tremendous resistance to the concept of joining as belief in thoughts of separation that float through our minds maintains the habit of a sense of individual or personal identity. To join is to celebrate what is already joined as One Christ mind and to experience what Jesus called the peace that surpasses understanding.

This website and blog is dedicated to joining in celebration of the One. I extend my open hands to all to join in this light so that we may together shine away any illusion of darkness to reveal the truth of the glory of what God has made.

You who hold your brother’s hand also hold mine, for when you joined each other you were not alone. Do you believe that I would leave you in the darkness that you agreed to leave with me? In your relationship is this world’s light. And fear must disappear before you now.” (A Course in Miracles, T-18. III.4)

With love and gratitude,

Cay

To Join is to Celebrate What is JoinedCay2021-04-04T13:04:35-05:00

The Light Pours Through. Freedom from anger, fear, frustration, loss.

Roger grew up on the rough side of Milwaukee, in a troubled neighborhood that was otherwise known as “the hood”. In his early teens he joined in with a tough trouble making crowd, which was the path followed many from the inner city, as it was believed to be the single path of survival for a young black man. At seventeen he was involved in a robbery that resulted in the death of an elderly man.

When Roger joined the class I was teaching as a volunteer at Oakhill Correctional Prison in Oregon, Wisconsin he had served 33 years on a life sentence for murder. In his coaching request form he wanted to rewrite the painful tape in his mind that played over and over regarding the deaths of his mother, father, older sister and two nephews who had died while he was incarcerated. He felt guilt because he could not attend their funerals.

As we sat there quietly in our first one-on-one session I asked him to close his eyes as part of the process to find peace over the deaths of his family members. After closing his eyes for a moment, he peaked at me out of the corner his eye and said, “you’re not going to hit me are you?” I was stunned: he was really afraid. He had survived in prison for all this time and yet he was afraid. Of me! He wasn’t a large man, but he was larger than I (I’m 5’5”), and he was strong and in excellent shape. It had not even occurred to me to be afraid of him. I almost broke down and cried right there. This is what the illusion of fear does to all of us. After I assured him I wasn’t planning to hit him, the Holy Spirit poured in as we joined to rewrite the perception in his mind (really my mind) that was leading to suffering over the loss of his family members.

On the way out of class one day he expressed his anger and frustration as the parole board had again denied his request for parole. He was livid. I looked him right strait in the eye and said, “You are a good man” and meant it. Then I thought, what made me say that?” That comment could only have come from the Holy Spirit, an inner knowing of truth. John went still and peaceful. My ego questioned, yet what a lesson for my mind. The light just poured through it all.

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.
― Francis of Assisi, The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi

When we met one-on-one later that week he expressed his anger and frustration again over the parole board. I heard in my mind to say “Roger, they can’t let you out of prison until you are free from the anger and frustration.” I was momentarily afraid to say it, yet it felt guided to say it anyway. He replied that he understood that there was something he needed to look at in order to have more peace about whether he continued to be in prison or not.

I asked him if he would like to pray with me for wisdom on this. The light that had been placed in my hands came to mind. It felt right somehow to extend my hands cupped, holding light and asking Roger to extend his hands holding light so that our hands could join in shared light. I’ll never forget looking down at the beauty of our hands joined together and the incredible feeling of trust. I suggested that in that shared light he could place whatever thoughts or emotions he was feeling. We paused in a moment of silence. Within a minute or two I asked him what had happened. He said he was peace about the parole board and that the anger had melted away. He said he would be free when it was time to be free and that he would make the best that he could of the time he was spending in prison. The spirit and wisdom that flowed from this man was inspiring.

What stunned me, (among many things about him) was his relationship with his daughter. She was born while he was in incarcerated, yet he had maintained a positive relationship with her for over thirty years. She had developed a career and he encouraged and blessed her every decision, even though he often didn’t understand the decisions she needed to make. He said, “I don’t know how to be a father, or what a father does.” I said, Roger, what more can a father be than to offer only love and non-judgmental support for his daughter as you have for her?” He was surprised. It had never occurred to him that this could be of value, beyond the concept of what he thought a “father” is. The precious, generous gift he had extended to her and himself was unrecognized.

The innocence and beauty of this man is extraordinary. I learned much about kindness and willingness to learn from getting to know Roger. What a gift to my peace of mind. Roger was sent by the Holy Spirit. He is a testament to what Jesus says in the course – we will never know the all the gifts we lay upon our brothers. Perhaps he will never know the gift of forgiveness he bestowed upon me. Amen.

In his request for coaching he wrote: “I’d like to feel good, grateful, joyful, pleased, thankful because of what Jesus Christ did for all of us.” On the back of the form he typed the following:

Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes – who are they, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, “They are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple: and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.

I thank you for the blessed invitation to the temple, Roger. Jesus reminds me again that this love and gratitude is to be found with every brother. How precious is this? Knowing this, how could I not choose to be a happy learner and look for these experiences at every opportunity?

You are so beautiful, to me, can’t you see? You’re everything I hoped for. You’re everything I need. You are so beautiful, to me.

I wonder if Dennis Wilson, Bruce Fisher and Bill Preston had any idea when they wrote this song the Holy Spirit would play it for me in my mind when I wrote about Roger.

With love and gratitude,

Cay

The Light Pours Through. Freedom from anger, fear, frustration, loss.Cay2021-07-09T06:38:36-05:00