I go, God is already there.
From your heart, the River of God flows gently into the future. Immerse every fearful expectation within the still and silent waters of divine blessing. Then watch as the River washes each anticipation, now sparkling with welcome, onto the shore of your tomorrow.
56
Repeatedly assessing past performance is failure to concentrate on what can be done now.
Today, each time I feel even a slight stab of defeat or disappointment, I will be still and remember that God is not mistaken in loving me. I will sense this love deep within me, and I will watch as it quietly replaces all shame and anguish with a fresh determination to do the best I can this moment.
57
“Trust yourself” and “Trust God” are not conflicting ideals. I must trust what I am, but what I am is never alone.
It's impossible to choose without conflict between being selfless or selfish. The first choice makes me feel self-neglectful and the second, self-indulgent. To “sacrifice” for others makes me resentful and can lead to hatred, yet to disregard their needs, isolates me and may lead to a deep loneliness. But the choice between the two is always false because God is both love and peace. God's love blesses each and all equally, and to choose God is to choose peace. When I ask myself, “What is the most peaceful thing to do?” the answer is what I want to do, and it is kind to all.
58
Today I will see through the eyes of Love.
I am called to a great wedding. I am asked to embrace Life everywhere I look. Life's vision sees the threads of innocence woven through all people and things, like a shaft of light falling across treasured objects long hidden in darkness. Because I am real, and because Life is real, I must already be a part of Life, and it a part of me. There is a place in me so harmless and still that all fear has dropped away. As snow unifies a landscape and moonlight transforms it, today my vision will arise from this place, and it will blanket the world in peace.
59
When I extend what I am, I broaden my happiness.
Nice people are always happier than mean people. To expand and extend the love in my heart creates in me an innocent vision. It doesn't reform other egos, but it does see beyond them. This seeing is not mere illumination, like shining a flashlight on a trash heap. Spiritual sight is spiritual reality. What is seen in love is at one with the seeing. Nothing has more substance and presence than accurate perception. Ego perception is arbitrary and unstable, but to look gently is to begin to see heaven at hand.
60
Blessed are those who try again.
Trying again is an act of faith, not in predictable outcomes, but in predictable blessings. We reach a time in life when we see that things have not turned out as we believed in our youth they would. We become afraid to hope, afraid to try again. We especially tend to be cynical about forming new friendships or finding a potential partner. Then the possibility of a new relationship opens up, or the potential of an old one is recognized, for never does God stop presenting opportunities. Naturally, a part of us is skeptical and holds back. We think that protecting ourselves is more important than loving another person. But nothing is more important than love.
61
“I am completely at peace with the way you are.”
I tell myself that the people I know are in God's hands, but do I believe it? For if God loves us all equally and guides us all impartially, why do I keep expecting people to behave differently? Today, whenever some behavior does not meet with my approval, I will silently say, “Because God is real, it is possible for me to be at peace with what you just did.”
62
The one I hold myself superior to is a part of me.
Obviously some things, whether certain people, dogs, weather conditions, or insects, are more destructive than others. Yet on the level of their core, one individual is not less spiritual than another. It's impossible to be enlightened and know it. Enlightenment is awareness of oneness, of which there is no consistent symbol in the world. The monsters of history all lacked awareness of oneness, and my own worst moments have been when I have lost sight of it. My goal today is to be vigilant for feelings of superiority and to correct all thoughts that any personal attribute could set me apart from what is real and lasting in others.
63
Today I will do two things: shut up and mind my own business.
Ninety percent of my relationship problems would be solved virtually overnight if I would just learn to shut up. I simply don't know when someone needs to hear what I have to say. But when I think I do know, I clearly am not hearing the part of me that I should be listening to.
64
Is it likely that what God wants will be thwarted?
The Shepherd returns all lambs to the fold; the Father welcomes home even the prodigal son who has “sinned against heaven.” I will not be arrogant and think I am the one problem beyond God's capacity, that I am the one person who can thwart God's will. As I go through the day, I will be “humble in the Lord.”
65
Today I will remember God.
We have been told that God is love. We have been told that God is always with us. We have been told that even if we make our bed in hell, God is there. We have been told that God's peace has been given to us and left in our keeping. We have even been told that it is God's great pleasure to give us the Kingdom. There may be room for over confidence, but there is certainly no room for confusion.
66
Faith is the willingness to rest in the arms that already hold me.
The bully is usually the leader of the playground, the ruthless often climb the corporate ladder faster, politicians willing to lie routinely get reelected, and mean people frequently live longer than nice people. Goodness is seldom rewarded in the world. But goodness is rewarded. And the reward is immediate, because only those committed to being good experience peace, which transcends the world.
67
Faith can be redirected.
A true and helpful faith is not reliance on something I would expect to happen judging from my past experience. The events of my life don't exactly inspire faith! Yet I always see what I choose to see. I have a sustainable faith only when I extend it. This I do by acknowledging precisely what can be relied on in others. True faith carries with it a state of joining, a state of comfort, a state of Family— provided that I don't search my life for individual “blessings.” I am not special, and this recognition, honestly seen, is the foundation of a new kind of faith.
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