I taught a class last night called “Letting Go to Fly Solo”, about finding the courage to let go of a secure job to begin a career sparked by passion. As the group shared about the mental obstacles they faced, they came to a unanimous conclusion that it came much more naturally to dwell upon all the stuff that could go wrong rather than focus on a dream of success. Why is it that it often requires such work to believe in ourselves?

I’ve been a student of A Course in Miracles for years, yet it wasn’t until this past year that its message came alive in my heart. We tend to think of ourselves as a body ruled by a mind that is completely our own. Yet consider that as creations of a divine power, we are extensions of that power and that includes our mind. We may think that our ideas are exclusively from our own making, yet our minds are an extension of the divine mind. Think of your mind like a computer tied to a network server. You may think you operate on your own, yet there is really a greater source of power behind everything you do, including your ideas.

Can you see the strength and courage to be found in recognizing that you share and inherit your ideas from a divine source? Your desires, passions and skills have been extended to you by divine energy. Might that mean they’ve come to you with the intention of being expressed? Does it seem reasonable to expect that our dreams are doomed to failure when they come from the divine?

Believe me, I know what it is like to be afraid to let go of something secure to jump into unknown territory. I’ve been there. Yet it was when I came to trust that the universe was a loving enough place that it made sense that I’d be better taken care of doing what I am here to do than some meaningless job that I was no longer into.

I used to be very turned off at the bible’s message to serve God. It seemed so authoritarian, like I was a kid being demanded to live by the principal’s rule. Yet now I get what it means. And there is so much power in my understanding. It’s about recognizing what we are being divinely called to do and then surrendering to it so that the divine can have its way. And if we believe that the divine is a loving source that knows what is best for all of us, maybe we all need to learn to cooperate so that this world can become a better place.