Are You Waiting for the World to Save You?

A Course in Miracles asks us to look carefully at wanting because beneath every want is the belief that something is missing. I want more money because I believe it will give me something I do not have. I want the relationship to change because I believe I will feel better when it does. I want my health, my home, my work or my circumstances to be different because I have decided that my present experience is somehow incomplete.

This does not mean we stop making choices in the world. We will still prefer one outcome over another. We may prefer to keep the house rather than sell it, to have more money rather than less, or to receive an opportunity rather than have it pass us by. But there is an important difference between preference and need. The problem begins when I believe the outcome will give me something I do not already have within me.

That is where the search for a worldly miracle begins. Something outside me becomes the answer to something I believe is missing inside me. If only this happens, I will be safe. If this opportunity comes through, I will be okay. If the money arrives, I can relax. If this person changes, I can be at peace. The ego continually sends us into the world looking for what will complete us because its entire thought system rests upon the belief in lack. If I believe I separated from God, then I must also believe I lost something. Now the world becomes the place where I try to get it back.

Sometimes, without realizing it, we begin waiting for a worldly miracle. We hope for the unexpected cheque, the perfect opportunity, the person who will finally recognize our value, the medical result we want, the relationship that will make us feel secure, or the sudden change in circumstances that will make everything okay. We may even call this trust. We tell ourselves that we are trusting God, trusting the universe or believing that something will come through.

But there is an important difference between trust and waiting to be rescued.

When the Miracle Is Really Magic

A Course in Miracles makes a distinction between miracles and magic that can be uncomfortable when we begin applying it to our own lives. Magic attempts to solve a problem by changing something within the world. The miracle changes the mind that believes its peace depends upon that world.

If I believe I cannot be safe unless I receive a certain amount of money, my mind has already decided where safety comes from. If I believe I cannot be okay if I have to sell my house, lose a relationship, change careers or face an uncertain future, I have made the external circumstance responsible for my internal state. Then my prayer can quietly become, “Please change this so I don't have to feel what I am feeling.”

That is very different from asking to see the situation differently.

The ego is perfectly happy to believe in miracles if a miracle means getting what it wants. It would love a God whose primary function is rearranging circumstances so that we never have to question the beliefs underneath our fear. Yet ACIM's miracle does something much more radical. It challenges the belief that the circumstance had the power to determine our peace in the first place.

When Hope Keeps Us Stuck

Hope can be helpful. It can keep us open to possibilities we cannot currently see. But hope can also become a way of postponing what is directly in front of us. There is a difference between remaining open to an unexpected possibility and needing that possibility to rescue us. We can spend months or even years thinking that something is about to happen that will remove the need to make a difficult decision. Maybe the money will arrive. Maybe someone will change. Maybe the business will suddenly take off. Maybe an extraordinary opportunity will appear. Maybe something will happen so we don't have to deal with what is happening now.

At that point, hope may no longer be opening the mind. It may be protecting us from acceptance.

This does not mean we should automatically dismiss unlikely possibilities. Wonderful and unexpected things happen. Apply for the unusual job. Buy the occasional lottery ticket if you enjoy it. Pursue the opportunity that excites you. ACIM is not asking us to calculate the statistical probability of everything before participating in life.

The more useful question is: What am I asking this possibility to do for me?

Am I enjoying the possibility, or am I depending upon it? Am I open to an outcome, or have I secretly decided that this outcome is how I will finally become safe, worthy, successful or secure?

Trust Does Not Dictate the Outcome

We often say, “I trust that everything will work out.” Usually we mean that circumstances will eventually work out in a way we recognize as favourable. The house will be saved. The relationship will survive. The money will arrive. The health problem will resolve. The opportunity will appear.

That is understandable, but it is still conditional trust.

Deeper trust sounds more like: I don't know what this needs to look like, but I am willing to stop insisting that my peace depends upon a particular outcome. That is much harder because it removes our bargain with God. We are no longer saying, “I will trust as long as You fix this.” We are allowing the possibility that the answer may not look anything like the one we imagined.

Sometimes the answer may even involve something we have been desperately trying to avoid. Ending something might not mean we made a mistake. Beginning again might not mean we have been abandoned. An opportunity disappearing might not mean another one will not appear.

We simply do not know enough to decide that one particular outcome is salvation and another is disaster.

What Worldly Miracle Are You Waiting For?

This is worth asking ourselves because most of us have one. What needs to happen before you believe you can relax? Perhaps someone needs to change. Perhaps your body needs to behave differently. Perhaps you need more money. Perhaps your children need to make different choices. Perhaps someone needs to acknowledge what they did. Perhaps you need your business to succeed, your relationship to work, your home to remain yours or your future to become more predictable.

Then ask another question: If that never happens, what am I afraid it would mean?

That question often takes us much closer to the real problem.

It may mean, “I am not safe.” It may mean, “I failed.” It may mean, “I am alone.” It may mean, “God isn't looking after me.” It may mean, “I made the wrong decision.” Or perhaps the deepest fear is simply, “I don't know what will happen next.”

These are the beliefs the miracle can address.

Preferences Without Making Them Salvation

Life involves choices and preferences. We can prefer that something work out a particular way without believing our completeness depends upon it. The distinction is subtle but important.

I can take steps to keep my house while questioning the belief that losing it would take away my safety. I can pursue an opportunity without believing it will establish my worth. I can work toward greater financial stability without asking money to give me peace. I can care for my body without believing its condition determines who I am. The practice is not necessarily to stop participating in the world. It is to notice what I am asking the world to give me.

When I recognize that I am already complete, the outcome loses some of its psychological power. I may still strongly prefer one result, but I no longer need that result to prove that I am safe, worthy or cared for.

The worldly miracle says, “Give me what I am missing, and then I will be at peace.” The miracle reveals that what I truly am was never missing anything in the first place.