Isn't that precisely the choice that we need to make in each situation before us? We can either decide that what we see is not to our liking, not what we bargained for, not what we expected or wanted, or we can let our own judgments go about how the situation should be and instead, allow the miracle to replace all grievances. What are you upset about today? Every day does seem to bring some upsets, some seemingly bigger than others in our judgment though they are all the same. Jesus tells us that there is no order of difficulty in the illusion. No problem is bigger than any other problem. They are all unreal. All illusions are the same. Some are not more difficult to address. Thus there is also no order of difficulty for the miracle. "One is not 'harder' or 'bigger' than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal." (T.1.I.1.2-4)(ACIM OE T.1.I.1)
 
You can't be hurt when you don't have constructs on how things need to be. When we want what we define as good and get upset with what we define as bad, then we are in resistance not wanting to accept what is. Today I broke some eggs that fell out of my hands and smashed all over the floor. The temptation is to get angry in my belief that this should not have happened. We may feel victimized by the situation, "Why does this always happen to me?" or "I should have known better, " or "How could I have been so clumsy?" Alternatively there is a temptation to blame someone else, "If you had not upset me, this would not have happened." "If you had closed the carton properly, the eggs would not have fallen out."

This is the voice of the ego that we spend a lot of our day listening to. It always speaks first, and then we wonder why we are not at peace. When we don't buy into the ego's perspective, which is always to make a case of something that just happened, then we can proceed in peace to take whatever action necessary in the situation. Then it is just seen for what it is, which is a neutral event. When we put our own interpretation on a neutral event, we react accordingly. All of our interpretations are based on our desire to judge reality. It is our own perceptions that we deem to hold as the truth. Once we admit that we don't know what anything is for, and that none of our interpretations are right, then we are willing to listen to His interpretation of events.

When we see truly, then we can look upon it and judge it not. Jesus says, "It is surely good advice to tell you not to judge what you do not understand." (T.12.I.5.1)(ACIM OE T.11.II.5) That can be heard by us as an insult, because we think that we know. We think we understand everything and that our perspective is correct. Yet Jesus asks us if we would rather be right about our judgments or would we prefer to listen to him on behalf of our happiness. We mostly choose to be right about the way we see things, and in the process throw away our peace and joy. That is clearly insane, but the reason for our decision to be right is based on our desire to hold onto our definition of ourselves. As Byron Katie always asks, "Who would you be without that thought?" This frightens us, as we have spent our lives defining who we think we are. Now who would we be without these definitions of ourselves? What if we let go of the tragic story that has come to define our lives? What if we let go of our belief that we are who we are, because a parent died when we were young, or that we were shut down as children and not allowed to express ourselves? We value these self concepts and use them to gain what we want from others. Our fear of God's Love is our fear of losing this self that we have made and that we value.
 
Now we are invited to use every situation and event in our lives and to see it as instructive and helpful in healing our misperceptions of how we have defined ourselves and how we defend our image. It has all come about from our wrong-minded thought system of sin, guilt and fear. We have embraced this thought system in the belief that it is safer to be a victim of what others have done to us than to take responsibility for everything in our lives. Now we are called to see that everything that happens in our lives is a classroom for undoing our wrong-minded thinking. It is our wrong minded thinking that has taken us into the separated state, where we believe we are. We are not controlled by events outside of us unless we give them power to rob us of our peace, whether those events are broken eggs or a broken relationship. It is a powerful thought to realize that nothing outside of us is the cause of our loss of peace. If we don't have peace, it is because we have chosen to throw it away and put the cause for our lack of peace and joy on events and circumstances outside of us.

We need not be bound any longer to our ego reactions. We can choose to be liberated from the thoughts that arise. When we project responsibility for how we feel onto our brothers, we are keeping the guilt in our own minds. And as we bring our judgments that we have projected onto them back to our own minds, where they can be healed, we are also releasing the bondage of guilt that we have laid on our brothers. Why would we choose to let our brother, whose wrongdoings we have judged as hurting us, off the hook? Because that is the only way that we can be released from our prison. "It is essential to realize this, because otherwise you will be unable to escape from the prison you have made." (T.3.VII.1.8)(ACIM OE T.3.IX.72) As we give pardon to our brother, we receive the gift that we give, for ourselves. "So would I liberate all things I see, and give to them the freedom that I seek." (W.349.1.1) To do so means we have to be willing to be wrong about our perceptions and our judgments.
  
Jesus tell us that if we obey the law of love, then we must give exactly that which we want for ourselves. If we really accepted the fact that with each attack on a brother we are only hurting ourselves, would we choose to attack? We must be prepared to look at how we are choosing to see others guilty and instead be willing to look at our judgments, our expectations and our plans for how things should be and bring them to the Holy Spirit asking Him to help us release them and thus release our brothers and ourselves. That is how love is extended through us, not by what we, ourselves, deem to be the loving thing to do, but by making space for the love that we are to come through us. This can only happen when we are willing to look at our judgments and release our blocks to love. Love then extends naturally through us.

To see with Christ's vision is to recognize that we all share the same nature. We hold the same thought system of the ego and we share the same Christ Self. The truth is in everyone's mind, but not everyone is aware of this truth nor the power of decision that is in our minds to choose again. The miracle is what undoes the thought system of the ego, so that the truth of who we are and who our brother is can be unveiled. It is the veil of our perceptions and judgments that keep us blind to recognizing the Christ in all of our brothers. The miracle is thus the correction. It does nothing. "All it does is to undo." (T.28.I.1.2)(ACIM OE T.28.I.1) "And thus it cancels out the interference to what has been done. It does not add, but merely takes away." (T.28.I.3-4)(ACIM OE T.28.I.1) When the interference is gone, there is a recognition of what we have always known but have forgotten. Thus, there is nothing to seek since we already are what we are looking for.
  
When we refuse to judge, compare and condemn, and instead accept everyone fully, we see our own love and innocence reflected everywhere. Then we know that we too are free, but we cannot simply cover over our anger and judgments. Nor is it helpful to the healing of our minds to be falsely sympathetic, or nice and kind, or falsely people-pleasing, when our thoughts are in turmoil. We must recognize instead the judgments that we are making and sincerely ask for help from the Holy Spirit so that He can deliver the miracle. Now we can join with our brother's strengths (true empathy) in honesty. That is why this process takes courage. We must be willing to look at our own hatred and see it in ourselves for what it is. Only by seeing it can it be healed.

Jesus recognizes our instability on this path when he says, "You who are sometimes sad and sometimes angry; who sometimes feel your just due is not given you, and your best efforts meet with lack of appreciation and even contempt; give up these foolish thoughts! They are too small and meaningless to occupy your holy mind an instant longer. God's judgment waits for you to set you free." (M.15.3.1-3)(ACIM OE M.15.4) He is gentle with us, so be gentle with yourself. To judge yourself for your angry, judgmental, and condemning thoughts will not bring you healing. Jesus asks that you look at your thoughts without judgment of yourself. Otherwise you are making the same mistake that you make when you judge your brother. God's judgment of us is that we are holy, never sinned and are forever innocent. That is His judgment of every brother. It is only our own judgments that keep us from that awareness.

We have only one purpose in being here and that is to connect with our holiness so that love can be extended through us to everyone and we recognize the One Self that we are. It is not about trying to achieve new beliefs, but giving up the false beliefs we now hold. To take on new beliefs, though they may be entirely spiritual, is simply to substitute an intellectual perspective and develop a spiritual ego. The idea here is not to make a better self (ego), but to undo all concepts of who we think we are. It is about truly accepting the Atonement for ourselves. It is about giving up our privately held thoughts and opening up all self-concepts to the truth of the Self that we all share.

"The power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world." (T.12.VII.9.1)(ACIM OE T.11.VIII. 70) The decision we make in each encounter today is to participate in the liberation or crucifixion of our brothers, and thus ourselves. In other words in each situation we can choose Heaven or hell for ourselves because whatever we give we receive. "His power of decision is the determiner of every situation in which he seems to find himself by chance or accident." (T.21.II.3.3)(ACIM OE T.21.III.17) And of course we know there are no accidents in salvation. "Whenever two Sons of God meet, they are given another chance at salvation." (T.8.III.4.6)(ACIM OE T.8.IV.19)

"Our Father knows our needs. He gives us grace to meet them all. And so we trust in Him to send us miracles to bless the world, and heal our minds as we return to Him." (W.349.2.1-3) Our only need is the undoing of our mistaken choice for the separated self. The Answer has been given us by God, who brought His Love into the dream, where it awaits us in the right-mind whenever we are ready for the miracle. The miracle's correction for our wrong-minded perspectives reflects God's Love in this dream. Thus, healing is always available to us regardless of the situations that confronts us today. Welcome those situations and events as they are our teachers, showing us what is in our minds that needs healing. In that welcome, we become happy learners.