Turning our lives over to the Holy Spirit:

Willfulness or willingness?

Turn it over.

I have been a student of A Course In Miracles for over 35 years. The Course In Miracles provides a framework for spiritual development based on a non dual philosophy of the Divine, God, Truth, Higher Power, Transcendent Source, Ultimate Reality, whatever people call “God.” 

The non dual frame of reference is best summed up in the joke about the monk who asked the hot dog vendor to make him one with everything.

The original sin in the non dual frame of reference was when human beings separated themselves from the unconditional love of God because they thought they didn’t need God and could go through life without God on their own. 

On top of this crazy idea that human beings can exist totally on their own and self-sufficiently, we forgot that we did this to ourselves when we separated ourselves from our Transcendent Source and thought we were fine by ourselves. When we get this situation in perspective, we realize how crazy this self serving idea is. 

It is written in the Course, “Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh. In his forgetting did the thought become a serious idea, and possible of both accomplishment and real effects. Together, we can laugh them both away, and understand that time cannot intrude upon eternity. It is a joke to think that time can come to circumvent eternity which means there is no time.” T-27.VIII,6: 2-5

In Alcoholic Anonymous, the Twelve Step program, one of the best spiritual development programs in the world, the third step is to make a decision to turn our will and lives over to the care of God as we understand Him. In other words we decide to  return to the non dual Oneness with our Transcendent Source and give up our willfulness. In AA a wonderful distinction is made between “willfulness” and “willingness.” The AA slogans “Turn it over,” and “let go and let God” make it easy to remind ourselves to call on the Holy Spirit for guidance. As the joke reminds us, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell God your plans.”

I have been practicing turning to the Holy Spirit for guidance several times throughout the day. The more I do this, the more natural the practice becomes and the greater confidence and peace I experience as I go through my day. I highly recommend this practice to you.

This post is one in a series on A Course In Miracles and Spiritual Intelligence. These posts can be accessed as a group by clicking on the link ACIM, or Spiritual Intelligence in the masthead.