Another Oxymoron

I thought of another oxymoron. God-damn

So Beautiful!

I just picked up my Course book...you know the one that was published by the Foundation for Inner Peace, which for the record, is the only one that I care to read on account of it is the only one that Jesus and Helen and Bill along with Ken and Bob and Judy published for me to read.

Anyway, I got the urge to pick it up just a moment ago, and I happened to read the Epilogue and me oh my! It is such a beautiful thing, and so, I'm passing it along right now!

EPILOGUE

1. Forget not once this journey is begun the end is certain. Doubt along the way will come and go and go to come again. Yet is the ending sure. No one can fail to do what God appointed him to do. When you forget, remember that you walk with Him and with His Word upon your heart. Who could despair when hope like this is his? Illusions of despair may seem to come, but learn how not to be deceived by them. Behind each one there is reality and there is God. Why would you wait for this and trade it for illusions, when His Love is but an instant farther on the road where all illusion end? The end is sure and guaranteed by God. Who stands before a lifeless image when a step away the Holy of the Holies opens up an ancient door that leads beyond the world?

2. You are a stranger here. But you belong to Him Who loves you as He loves Himself. Ask but my help to roll the stone away, and it is done according to His Will. We have begun the journey. Long ago the end was written in the stars and set into the Heavens with a shining Ray that held it safe within eternity and through all time as well. And holds it still; unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable.

3. Be not afraid. We only start again an ancient journey long ago begun that but seems new. We have begun again upon a road we travelled on before and lost our way a little while. And now we try again. Our new beginning has the certainty the journey lacked till now. Look up and see His Word among the stars, where He has set your Name along with His. Look up and find your certain destiny the world would hide but God would have you see.

4. Let us wait here in silence, and kneel down an instant in our gratitude to Him Who called to us and helped us hear His Call. And then let us arise and go in faith along the way to Him. Now we are sure we do not walk alone. For God is here, and with Him all our brothers. Now we know that we will never lose the way again. The song begins again which had been stopped only an instant though it seems to be unsung forever. What is here begun will grow in life and strength and hope, until the world is still an instant and forgets all that the dream of sin had made of it.

5. Let us go out and meet the newborn world, knowing that Christ has been reborn in it, and that the holiness of this rebirth will last forever. We had lost our way but He has found it for us. Let us go and bid Him welcome Who returns to us to celebrate salvation and the end of all we thought we made. The morning star of this new day looks on a different world where God is welcomed and His Son with Him. We who complete Him offer thanks to Him, as He gives thanks to us. The Son is still, and in the quiet God has given him enters his home and is at peace at last.

One Time

I remember this one time when I was a teenager growing up on an Indian Reservation in Salamanca, New York. I was shopping at the local mall which at the time consisted of maybe two stores and a snack counter.

Anyway, one of the stores was called McCrory's which was a popular five and dime chain. Inside were bins and bins full of different odds and ends. I came across this bin full of giant butterflies. They looked like the Monarchs I see flying around the back yard all summer, but they were fake of course and huge like the size of a basketball.

I walked up to that bin and thought, "What are these for?"

I picked one up and saw that underneath it had a metal ring on it, and so, I slipped it on my finger. The idea of wearing this huge thing as an actual ring for your finger was so ridiculous that it cracked me right up. I laughed my freakin' head off.

My laughter became uncontrollable. I couldn't seem to stop no matter how hard I tried, and I hadn't even been drinking or anything. I started to get embarrassed and ended up having to leave the store because there was just no stopping this laughter. Tears were streaming down my face. I think I was truly hysterical.

When I think about that day now, I am reminded of J's counsel for us to learn to ask the question, "What is it for?" in conjunction with everything. I am also reminded of that section in the Course called The Hero of the Dream where J says, "No one believes there really was a time when he knew nothing of a body, and could never have conceived this world as real. He would have seen at once that these ideas are one illusion, too ridiculous for anything but to be laughed away."

LOL!

Crazy

I was just chatting with my little brother, Brian. He told me he thinks I'm the craziest person he's ever even heard of. I was shocked. I said, "Crazier than that guy who took the Discovery Channel employees hostage today?" And he said, "Yes."

So then I tried to prove to him that I'm really not crazy by pointing out how very open minded I am and how stable and how my behavior is so normal and consistent. Then he had to go do something, and so he asked me to call him back in five minutes to which I said I needed and hour.

So, I forgave it and realized it doesn't really matter what he thinks of me. It just matters what I think of him. I called him back in an hour and the subject didn't even come up again, and that was that.

Although, I'm thinking he was probably right. I mean if I wasn't crazy I wouldn't think I was here in the first place, right?

All I can say is thank God for true forgiveness which apparently leads away from crazy rather than towards it. Good God, I hope I'm doing it right.