02 Apr Refreshing Atonement

Refreshing Atonement

I’ve been sitting with the word atonement for years. I didn’t like it. It felt punishing. Like I had to get on my knees and ask myself or God to be forgiven.  Though I didn’t like the word I kept find myself being called to look at it again and again.

I’m a former Course of Miracles reader. The Course of Miracles  uses that word often. With each read of that word, I could feel myself triggered by the religious view I grew up with about the wrongness of my being.  Yet, I couldn’t deny the intrigue of my soul, despite  my mind trying to tell me how to feel about the word atonement.

My most recent posts about death and transformation already had me on my knees, so  it was good time to revisit atonement. There is also the fact that I am a spiritual wordologist who looks for the resonance of words and reinserts them back into vocabulary for the soul purpose of expanding consciousness and deepening love for self and one another. It wasn’t the word, it was my perspective about the word that kept me from embracing it.

A friend recommended the book “Thou Shall Prosper.” Ignoring my anti-religious ego’s prompt to discount the book, I downloaded it and there it was. Atonement revisited, rewired, re-purposed:

“the origin of the word atone was when one viewed oneself as being at one with God…. to reset the odometer of one’s moral self evaluation back to zero.”

The sentiment felt like I could hit the refresh button without being harsh with myself. There was no sense of “payment” due. Hadn’t I already paid enough with the consequences of my own actions? Not to mention how laden with sadness and stress I must have become by those actions.  I have only to simply view myself as God to reset the odometer.

This is how I feel when I sit in the sweat lodge – the opportunity to hit the refresh button or reset the odometer always lightens me and puts me in love.

However you refresh, do it often.

With love,

Melanie