This has been quite a weekend! There have been massive celebrations of excitement for a royal wedding, the beatification of a pope and now the death of Osama Bin Laden. Yet each of these has been met with an opposite reaction as well. It is said that the royals are an outdated notion, the Catholic Church needs to clean up its act, and that death is never a reason for celebration. This duality of responses should not be a surprise to any of us. After all, that is the world. There are always two sides to every issue.

Yet in the midst of this, God is still silently present. That, perhaps, is where we need to focus. Let us not condemn the celebrations as trivial or the stuff of unthinking people. Let us celebrate the message of their celebration … a chance to join together. It is joining that will defeat the egoic thinking of the world.

Today’s lesson in the Course is 122, “Forgiveness offers everything I want.” No matter your reaction to the activities of this weekend, this is your chance to look with loving eyes that cut through judgments to see truly. Let us step back and allow joining to reign in our lives today. Use this day as a day of healing for the judgments you may be holding about the activities of this past weekend or any issues in your own life. Don’t let another moment go by without realizing that God is with you now, ready to help you move past the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence. As lesson 122 says…

“Forgiveness offers everything you want. Today all things you want are given you. Let not your gifts recede throughout the day, as you return again to meet a world of shifting change and bleak appearances. Retain your gifts in clear awareness as you see the changeless in the heart of change; the light of truth behind appearances.
Be tempted not to let your gifts slip by and drift into forgetfulness, but hold them firmly in your mind by your attempts to think of them at least a minute as each quarter of an hour passes by. Remind yourself how precious are these gifts with this reminder, which has power to hold your gifts in your awareness through the day:
Forgiveness offers everything I want.
Today I have accepted this as true.
Today I have received the gifts of God.”
Our understanding is not necessary for God’s healing to take place, but our willingness is. May this be a day of stepping back and also stepping forward with willingness knowing that God goes with us wherever we go.