My mind holds only what I think with God.
(137) When I am healed I am not healed alone.
(138) Heaven is the decision I must make.
When I am healed I am not healed alone. “Today’s idea remains the central thought on which salvation rests.
It’s a CENTRAL THOUGHT, so please pay attention.
Please read Lesson 137: When I am healed I am not healed alone.
“Healing is the opposite of all the world’s ideas which dwell on sickness and on separate states.”
1. Sickness is a retreat from others, and a shutting off of joining.
2. Sickness is a door that closes on a separate self, and keeps it isolated and alone.
3. Sickness is isolation.
In the past few weeks I’ve been receiving a lot of messages from blog readers who have been quietly reading this blog for months and who are now reaching out and saying “I’m so tired of my life. I’m tired of my depression and loneliness. I need help.”
That’s great. That’s a terrific first step. You’re coming out of your isolation. You’re coming out of hiding. Having the courage to write an email is the courage to let down your walls, and invite someone in. It appears like you are writing to me, but in truth, it is an invitation to the Holy Spirit to enter into your life.
This website/blog is an invitation for you to start communicating.
If you’ve ever wanted to talk with God, or write a letter to God, write it to me, and He will hear it.
lisanatoli2@gmail.com
The whole universe hears it, because there is nothing outside of your most holy mind, and the action of reaching out to another human being is the entire action of healing.
Don’t be concerned with “how” it is accomplished.
And remember, I am not a therapist and I am not here to solve your problems. It is the action of reaching out beyond yourself that help is given to you.
Just have a little willingness to open the door, and invite someone in. It could be me, it could be anyone.
You can leave a comment (with your email) on this blog, and angels will rush in.
Chapter 4 in the text of A Course in Miracles says “you retain thousands of little scraps of fear that prevent the Holy One from entering. Light cannot penetrate through walls you make to block it, and it is forever unwilling to destroy what you made. Watch your mind for scraps of fear, or you will be unable to ask me (the Holy Spirit) to do so.”
Got that?
You have free will. You are responsible for the scraps of fear. You are responsible for stepping into the fear. No one can do it for you, not even the Holy Spirit.
“Light cannot penetrate through the walls you make to block it, and it is forever unwilling to destroy what you have made.”
Light cannot penetrate through a brick wall. You gotta let the wall down.
In the 12 Step Program of Alcoholics Anonymous:
1. First, you admit you are powerless (over alcohol, over an addiction, over your life) and that your life has become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than yourself could restore you to sanity.
3. You make a decision to turn your life and will over to the care of God.
4. You make a searching moral inventory of yourself
5. Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of your wrongs.
So, you see? Step 5 forces you out of your isolation. Most people talk to themselves and God all the time, and they think this is sufficient. They pray in silent.
But now, you are being asked to come out of the closet. For me this was the scariest thing I ever did. My entire adult life I kept all my thoughts secret. I let everyone know that I was “doing great” and that “life was good” and that “I was fine.”
In secret, I was crying my eyes out that my life was unmanageable. I was praying fervently (behind locked doors, in the privacy of my own home) for a relationship, to quit alcohol, to be happy, and to find peace.
And then the next morning, I would put on my best clothes, a happy smile, and do my best to blend in with those around me, and tell myself that my life was not that bad, and that I was doing okay.
And finally one day, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I opened the dark dungeon to another human being. I said: I need help. I don’t know what to do. My life is a mess. Everyone thinks I’m so successful, but I am a complete and utter failure and I’m lonely, and I’m scared, and I’m tired.”
And that was the beginning.
This other person never gave me a single bit of advice – she just listened to me – and that was the new beginning for me, a definite turning point, because I opened the door to let some light in.
I made a decision to stop isolating myself. I invited someone (other than myself, other than God) to have a look at the mess that I’d made.
I decided that I wanted to be happy, and I realized that I needed help.
Lesson 138 says: “Heaven is the decision I must make.”
“Of all the choices you have tried to make this is the simplest, most definitive and prototype of all the rest, the one which settles all decisions. If you could decide the rest (how to make money, how to live, who to love, what to do for work, how to pay your bills, what you need, what you want, what you should do), this one remains unsolved. But when you solve this one, the others are resolved with it, for all decisions conceal this one by taking different forms. Here is the final and the only choice in which truth is accepted or denied.”
Heaven is the decision I must make.
Let your walls crumble in. Be willing to let the house you built fall apart. Let some light in.
Facebook comments:
AA has a pithy slogan. Well, I don’t know if t’s actually pithy. I just really get a tickle out of the word pithy…
Anyway…the slogan is “You’re only as sick as your secrets.”
Which is a pretty good ‘teaching’ on defenselessness, I think.
Another aspect of the ‘light’ the 5th Step allows for is perspective. Often times we consider ourselves (and our actions/defects) a lot better or worse than they actually are. I was taught that both are instances of pride, the #1 offender!
Sorry to intrude again…but I just came across these 2 quote by Herman Melville and I thought they fit this topic -
Let us speak, though we show all our faults and weaknesses, – for it is a sign of strength to be weak, to know it, and out with it – not in a set way and ostentatiously, though, but incidentally and without premeditation.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody’s expense but his own.
Have a great day…
I’m going to take a nap
I had a funny day,
talking about letting go of defenses and stop isolating myself …
haha, i am on this friend chat site and accidentally i invited everyone in from my entire adressbook, people i haven not spoken to for ages, people i do not even want to speak to anymore, people i even forgot about etc etc
and my instant message to every one was”do you want to be my friend ?” hahaha
no time for regret, useless anyway, the word was out,
no time for shame, well what do i have to hide really ?
the replies are amazing , funny , touching and suprising
reminding me when i open up ( even when it appears to be by mistake) i suddenly see all doors open…
hahha i love cosmic jokes
Here I am again. asking for help. loving this opportunity to get right with God.
This is a place where I can start my day with the thought that I do not know anything and stay there, wait for God to direct me. Hmm scary place for me – I have never been here before but the old way does not work – there is no point is sitting here waiting for the light.There is no turning back to doing the same thing every day expecting a different result. Every day I write, with everything inside me screaming” NO DON’T DO THIS , NOT THIS WAY” No more… Heaven is a decision I must make.. today.
Thankyou for everything
Ankie, how great and funny that story is….thanks so much for sharing, there
are no mistakes…so….be grateful you were able to experience this great gift
ds