Giving up Grievances for Lent #2: Replace Grievances with Miracles

[Note: The same preface precedes all the blogs on grievances. It provides the personal context regarding the relationship of each piece to my quest to restore my eyesight since I've exhausted all that Western medicine can do to repair the damage done by my advanced case of glaucoma. Therefore, if you've read it before, you may want to refresh your memory or skip to the new section below on replacing grievances with miracles.]

On New Year's Day, I began the 365-day journey through the dailly lessons in the workbook section of A Course in Miracles. Given all the amazing synchronicities (meaningful coincidences) I've had since completing The Space Between Stars, I am certain that the course holds the key to restoring my impaired vision, which currently fits the definition of being legally blind both in terms of severely restricted visual angles and visual acuity. The last line before the epilogue of the book ends with the words of the man born blind who is healed by Jesus, ". . . I was blind but now I see." This is the title of the book I am currently writing. The subtitle is: "A Miracle of Restored Vision Redefines Reality." The book chronicles my quest for rstoring my vision that began with events leading up to my first and second trips to see the healer/medium John of God in Abadiania, Brazil. What I been led to considier is quite remarkable. I have always seen the healing of my vision as a twofold process. First, I have done what medical science can do for glaucoma, namely, the reduction of the elevated intraocular pressures which have damaged the optic nerves in both of my eyes. Until encountering the redefining of reality in A Course in Miracles, The Disappearance of the Universe, a spin off of the course,, as well as on my trips to Brazil, I have always seen the second phase for healing my vision as regenerating my optic nerves. I have used the following metaphor to describe the damage: If a healthy optic nerve could be seen as a tree in summer with all its green leaves, my optic nerves are like a tree in late November with a few brown leaves left on their branches.

John of God speaks Brazilian Portuguese. So before going before him, you have to tell a translator 3 things you would like to have healed. Your requests are written on a small piece of paper which is read to John of God. I asked my guide if I should ask for the regeneration of my optic nerves. He instructed me not to ask for that but for restored vision. He recommended this because a woman who had "severed optic nerves" had her vision restored, and when doctors examined her optic nerve, they expected to see her nerve reconnected. But, to their astonishment, it was still severed.

Later, as the plane took off from Brasilia, my friend Rod was reading a book containing case studies of individuals healed by John of 'God. With a trace of excitement in his voice, he read aloud to me the case of another woman with completely "nonfunctional optic nerves." Her vision was restored, and guess what?

When doctors examined her, her optic nerves were still nonfunctional. Both of these had several trips to Brazil to see John of God before their sight returned. This got my attention. A Course in Miracles and The Disappearance of the Universe, as well as some sacred spiritual tradtions claim vision involves more than the "body's eyes." It is in this sprit that will offer a daily lesson from A Course in Miracles for your consideration and for your spiritual growth and "resotred vision" to what it was before you emerged from the womb.

[Note: The headings and words in brackets as well as female-gender based words are my additions.]
Lesson 78 "Let miracles replace all grievances."

Perhaps it is not quite clear to you that each decision you make is between a grievance and a miracle. Each grievance stands like a dark shield of hate before the miracle it would conceal. And as you raise it up before your eyes you will not see the miracle beyond. Yet all the while it waits for you in light but you behold your grievances instead.

Today we go beyond the grievances to look upon the miracle instead. We will reverse the way you see by not allowing sight to stopbefore it sees. We will not wait before the shield of hate but lay it down and gently lift our eyes in silence to behold the son/daughter of God [refers to each one of us when we seek to see the good within each other]. He/she waits for you behind your grievances and as you lay them down, he/she will appear in shining light where each one stood before.

For every grievance is a block to sight and as it ligts you see the son/daughter of God where he/she has always been. He/she stands in light but you were in the dark. Each grievance made the darkness deeper and you could not see. Today, we will attempt to see God's son/daughter. We will not let ourselves be blind to him/her. We will not look upon our grievances.

So is the seeing of the world reversed as we look out toward truth away from fear. We will select one person you have used as a target for your grievances and lay the grievances aside and look at him/her: someone, perhaps, you fear and even hate, someone you think you love who angered you, someone you call a friend but whom you see as difficult at times or hard to please, demanding, irritating, or untrue to the ideal he/she should accept as his/hers acccording to the role you set for him/her. You know the one to choose. His/her name hs crossed your mind already. He/she will be the one we ask God's son/daughter be shown to you. Through seeing him/her behind the grievances you have held against him/her, you will learn that what lay hidden while you saw him not is there in everyone and can be seen. He/she who is enemy is more than friend when he/she is free to take the holy role the Holy Spirit has assigned to him/her. Let him/her be savior unto you today. Such is his/heer role in God, your Father's plan.

Today's Practice Periods
Our longer practice periods will see him/her in this role. You will attempt to hold him/her in your mind first as you now consider him/her.You will review his/her faults, the difficulties you have had with him/her, the pain h/she caused you, his/her neglect and all the little and the larger hurts he/she gave. You will regard his/her body with its flaws and better points as well, and you will think of his/her mistakes and even of his/her sins. Then let us ask of Him [Holy Spirit] who knows this son/daughter of God in his/her reality and truth that we may look on him/her a different way and see our savior shining in the light of true forgiveness give unto us. We ask Him in the Holy name of God and of His son/daughter as holy as Himself. "Let me behold my savior in this one You [God] have appointed as the one for me to ask to lead me to the Holy Light in which he/she stands that I may join with him/her." [Note: this is similar to the idea that our tormentor is our greatest mentor which I first heard attributed to the shaman Don Juan in Carlos Casteneda's books].

The body's eyes are closed and as you think about him/her who grieved you, let your mind be shown the light in him/her beyond your grievances. What you have asked for cannot be denied. Your savior has been wwaiting long for this. He/she would be free and make your freedom yours. The Holy Spirit leans from him/her to you seeing no separation in God's son/daughter. And what you see through him/her will free you both. Be very quiet now, and look upon your shining savior. No dark grievances obscure the sight of him/her. You have allowed the Holy Spirit to express through him/her the role God gave him/her that you might be saved. God thanks you for these quiet times today in which you laid your images aside and looked upon the miracle of love the Holy Spirit showed you in their place. The world and heaven join in thanking you. For not one thought of God but must rejoice as you are saved and all the world with you. We will remember this throughout the day and take the role assigned to us as part of God's salvation plan and not our own.

Temptation falls away when we allow each one we meet to save us and refuse to hide his/her light behind our grievances. To everyone you meet and to the ones you think of or remember from the past, allow the role of savior to be given that you may share it with him/her. For you both and all the sightless ones as well, we pray, "Let miracles replace all grievances."