Please see the Jesus Chronicles 2009 where a new post has just gone up. It is the first I’m sharing that was not “for” me but given “through” me for my friend Christina Strutt. It was Christina’s to share and she has chosen to share it here, with you. It’s a “still relevant” message and one that is both personal and universal, as Jesus’ offerings to us always are. It is also perfectly relevant to today’s theme of Sharing who you are to BE who you are.
The following passages, along with those of The Embrace, are my favorite among the Course of A Course of Love. They were what meant the most to me when they came (before the 1990’s had given way to the 2000’s!), and still do. They spoke of my truth—as it was—and as it could be. I longed to share all of myself but, just as Jesus said, had often held back and shared only what I thought was acceptable. This has changed, as you will see in my posts once in a while.
May these reminders I provide as I rest, be my gift of the Holy Birth in You. These are quotes from The Course. C:31.14-17
[I]n order to be your Self, you have to share your Self. What you keep you lose. This is the principle of giving and receiving that, being finally and totally understood, will free you to be wholehearted.
All that you would keep private and unshared is, in essence, who you think you are. I say who you think you are because it is important to distinguish who you think you are from who you truly are. On the one hand, you think that you are your past, your shame, your guilt; on the other that you are your future, your glory, your potential. You neither want to share your most negative nor your most positive thoughts about yourself. These are your great secrets, the secrets that fill your mind day-to-day with thoughts that keep you from your Self.
And so there is just a small portion of yourself you share, the portion that your ego has deemed safe, acceptable, presentable. The portion that your ego has deemed will cause you no risk. It is the ego that asks: Are you certain that if you share that feeling, you will still be loved? Are you certain that if you reveal that secret, you will still be safe? Are you certain that if you try something new, you will still be accepted? It is the ego that deems honesty a game; the ego that you let decide upon your truth. For what you live is what you believe is the truth about yourself. While you continue to live dishonestly, your notion of what your identity truly is cannot improve.
My dear brothers and sisters, what you truly are cannot be improved upon. But because you are in a state of unremembering, you must relearn who you are. You can only relearn who you are by being who you are.
You can only be who you are by sharing who you are.
C:14-17
Mari will be on sabbatical until mid February to complete “Memoria,” Book II of The Way of the Marys.