Gloria to God:

Dear God, I thought I understood that what we see outside us is within us. And yet, in the case of Jon, he is tremendously harmonious. I don't understand how any drama at his home is a reflection of him.

God:

Jon may have lessons other than harmony here. That is the case. Maybe he has to know that the drama has nothing to do with him except as how he sees it.

Gloria:

I don't understand why it's there for him to see. Or, I can't believe that everyone in a concentration camp who saw and experienced such cruelty were themselves cruel.

God:

In the case of Jon, in addition to his own lesson of detachment, perhaps he is there to teach harmony and peace. And, remember, dear Gloria, that humans do not fully understand the threads that wind and unwind in life. For every thread you see, there is one winding in another way that you cannot see.

Jesus' vision saw beyond the inanity and cruelty. He who did not strive saw striving. He saw feeble attempts at power, no more than that. He knew Whose was the power and the glory, and the cruelty did not reach him.

You have to remember there is no death, and suffering is not truth. This is hard to remember, but you must remember it in order to have vision.

Anyone can see what is right in front of them. That takes no talent.

An enlightened one can step in mud as well as anyone. But he can know that the mud has nothing to do with him. His foot is in it, that's all.

Gloria:

So, dear God, are You saying two opposites? That what we see has to do with us and at the same time has nothing to do with us?

God:

I am saying that what you see has everything to do with you. What you look at is your choice.

Gloria:

God, if I were in a concentration camp, I would be crying plenty.

God:

Or you could be seeing the love that exists there nevertheless. You could be seeing the opportunity for you to love more and comfort others. You could be bringing Me into the squalor.

Gloria:

God, isn't there an harmonious effect radiated in nature or in a peaceful home?

God:

Certainly.

Gloria:

And there's a discordant effect from the opposite also?

God:

Or you can create a harmonious effect to neutralize the disharmony, or vice versa.

Gloria:

Which brings me back to Jon's original question. Why does he not have a more obvious harmonizing effect on others?

God:

Because he lets disharmony affect him! Let this subject rest a while.

Gloria:

May I just say one more thing?

God:

Yes.

Gloria:

To see and to do are two different things. We can yearn to perceive differently and thus do differently.

God:

That is true. But even the desire to see and to do go a long way.

A sage has said it. "You can put your attention on the rose or on the thorns." He never said thorns weren't there.

Gloria:

In A Course in Miracles, Christ says that illness comes from the mind and not the body. When we realize that illness serves no purpose, then we are freed from it and guilt as well.

I begin to see, dear God, that we see the body as we see the world, something apart from us, something out there that gives us trouble.

God:

You said it well. Dealing with disharmony in an environment is the same as dealing with disharmony in the body. Everything is what you make of it. It takes place in your mind. Switch your beliefs, ideas, thinking, and the world switches.

Gloria:

But someone in a concentration camp would still be in the concentration camp.

God:

Probably. But he could see further and more deeply. He could be in truth and not illusion.

Gloria to Mother Divine:

Dear Mother Divine, Karen so often says, Be in your truth. Sometimes I understand it, and sometimes I don't.

Mother Divine:

She means, Be in God's truth, for that is your truth. Be truthful. Be honest. See honestly. Speak truth. Look at it, and thus honor yourself.

Being in your truth is not a great big far-flung concept outside you somewhere. It is acknowledging what you think and what you like and who you are. It is not looking to please but to be, in truth, to be.

Gloria:

Karen teaches me many things. She has been enormously generous to me with her time, wisdom, and love. I started to feel too small to receive so much and not know how and when I could give back.

Karen helped me with my smallness here. She helped me to realize that she gives me God's love, and that's what makes it so freeing. She serves God. If God wants His love to come to me through Karen, should I try to prevent it?

I think Karen is teaching me how to accept love.

Mother Divine:

It is a gift to accept. If you don't accept, your smallness puts a block in the way. Karen is teaching you to give and to accept.

You used to give and keep an accounting of it, and at one time or another, decide that you had given enough and that the unwritten i.o.u. should now be paid.

It is not like that with Karen. She is but a messenger of God, and therefore she holds on to nothing. That is how she can be and is pure love.

Gloria:

Karen has said that when a person is in their truth, they are with God, and they can't have two sides to them. Not nasty and nice, or generous and then tight.

Mother Divine:

They don't open and then close.

Before, you were trying to control Karen's giving. You were measuring it and deciding how much you thought allowable.

God gives full measure. He never measures. He never withdraws, withholds, counts. He gives all always everywhere.

How much of God's love are you willing to receive?

You are finding out who Karen is. She is a giver of grace. Like God, she is gracious in giving, and you, as God's child, will be gracious in receiving. It is all flow. Do not block the flow of God's generosity.

Your gift to Karen is in your receiving. How much you allow yourself to receive indicates how much you think you are worth. But you are not given what you think you are worth, but you thought you could accept only as much as you valued yourself.

Do not control the love that comes to you, nor how or where it comes. Be a willing receiver of God's Will. Would you turn your God away?

Any sense of obligation on your part shows competitiveness rather than cooperation.

Receiving is cooperating.