Reacting from a Place of Love

Many years ago, I did a serious, ongoing study of A Course in Miracles, and still today lessons from those texts will come to mind. That tendency of spiritual texts to return to our memory and remind us of their wisdom is one of the best reasons to study them in the first place.

The passage that recurred to me recently is: “When you are not wholly joyous, it is because you have reacted with a lack of love to one of God’s creations.”

If you are feeling as though there is little joy in life, that the world is a dark place in which it is difficult to be happy, then here is a secret: Give up your grievances against all the people with whom you are upset. It doesn’t matter whether it is a large grievance or a very small one. It doesn’t matter whether the grievance is against your spouse, your parent, your neighbor, your co-worker, your boss, or a stranger; give them all up. If you are not wholly joyous, it is because you are reacting with an absence of love toward someone, and this attitude separates you not only from that person but also from God and the joyous part of yourself.

And a final point: the creation of God in question, toward whom you are reacting with an absence of love, might be yourself.