With My Whole Heart

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." -- The Bible, Proverbs 3:5-6

"It is impossible to see two worlds." -- A Course in Miracles

There is a wonderful freedom in these words. I either trust with my whole heart or not at all. I either see it or I don't. There is really no in-between, although most of us live our lives moving our feet in a rapid dance between multiple illusory worlds.

There is also a challenge in these words. Jeshua ben Joseph said, "Narrow is the path that leads to Life, and few there are that walk thereon." ACIM says it this way: "All are called, but few choose to listen." The fine art of rationalization that is the ego's way seems to fog it all over, until it simply looks like we are surrendering to the way it is (how spiritual!)... when we are really doing exactly what we want while looking innocent and vulnerable; keeping our feet in both worlds while looking like we're taking the high road. Our very human guilt and compulsion remains intact, carefully disguised in busyness and altruism.

The deepest message in all of this, though, is that I have to make a stand at some point. I am either choosing to identify with the conditioned self that isn't even real, remaining a character in my own stories, or to know my Self as One with God, knowing God as All in All, Omnipresent, and nothing beside this Oneness... really knowing that wherever I stand is holy ground. Once this stand is taken, what question could remain? What could there be that is other than All?

How is this final choice ultimately made? As ACIM reminds us, "The real and the unreal are all there are to choose between, and nothing more than these. The world you see is proof you have already made a choice as all-embracing as its opposite." As the proverb reminds me, only choosing with my whole heart will do.

"Either Spirit or matter is your model. If you try to have two models, then you practically have none. Like a pendulum in a clock, you will be thrown back and forth, striking the ribs of matter and swinging between the real and the unreal." -- Mary Baker Eddy

"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me." -- A Course in Miracles