The Good News Should Feel Like Coming Home.

When I was younger, I would hear, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand,” and immediately think, Oh, I am such a sinner.

I heard it as a warning. God is coming soon. You had better repent because you are going to burn in hell.

Then there was a time in my life when I thought, “I’m good”. I don’t commit adultery. I don’t fornicate. I don’t steal. I don’t gossip. I don’t do bad things. I think I’m good in God’s eyes.

I was ticking the boxes. Okay, I don’t do that. I do this. I don’t do that either.

But I have come to understand repentance differently.

Read at face value, the English sounds like a threat. Repent. The kingdom is at hand. Get ready. That is how I heard it for years, and it left me afraid of God.

But look at what Jesus actually said. The Greek word is metanoeite: meta, beyond, and nous, mind. Change your mind. Not “grovel.” Not “feel ashamed.” Change the way you are seeing.

And why? Because the kingdom of God ēngiken, has drawn near. Not “will arrive someday.” Has drawn near. It is not far away, waiting to judge you. It is right here, and the only thing between you and it is the way you are looking.

That is the message I hear through A Course in Miracles. The ego tells us we are separate from God and need to be afraid. Jesus says: change your mind. See differently. The kingdom was never lost. We just stopped seeing it. And that is why he calls it good news.

What the good news feels like

Once I heard it that way, everything about his message felt different. I truly know that the message of Jesus is tender. It is loving and comforting. When I listen to it, I feel like my whole being is wrapped in the warmest, softest, plushiest blanket ever. Like I am cared for.

Jesus said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” And I believe he meant it.

His message should fill the heart with home. You know that feeling? Like you can finally rest. Like you belong.

That is how I have come to recognize his voice through A Course in Miracles (ACIM). When something presented in his name tells me I am unworthy, less than, or someone God is waiting to condemn, I question whose voice I am hearing.

As I understand it, Jesus brought the good news. Not the sometimes good, sometimes bad news, or the sometimes loving, sometimes shameful news. The good news. He came to set us free.

His news is about mind change, mind freedom. In my experience, when your mind is free, physical and worldly freedom often follows, or at least becomes easier to face. When you change your mind about who you are, what you stand for, and who the person in front of you is, your behaviour follows. You begin to live from that understanding.

A quick note before we go further: ACIM(a course in Miracles) uses some familiar terms differently than many of us learned them in church. Here is how I understand them.

- Ego: the part of the mind that believes we are separate from God and from each other. It is the voice of fear, defense, guilt, and judgment.

-  Holy Spirit: the Voice for God in our minds. It is the gentle part of us that remembers the truth and helps us see differently when we ask.

I am sharing this through my own understanding of ACIM. This piece is an invitation to consider another way of hearing Jesus’s message.

Through the lens of ACIM, I hear Jesus inviting us to look at the mind from which our behaviour comes. How am I seeing myself? How am I seeing you? Am I listening to the ego, or will I let the Holy Spirit help me see?

Even “the kingdom of God is at hand” sounds different to me now. I hear it as an invitation to recognize what is already here. God is already here, and when you see differently, you will see him and come to truly live in him and know him fully.

What this looks like in real life

Sometimes this can feel preachy. Sis, how does this apply to me? How can I live this day to day? Okay, let me give you two scenarios.

Scenario 1: Relationships

Not so long ago, when I argued with my Husband, I would get so distressed. I would defend my position and try to prove I was right, and sometimes I wouldn’t speak to him for days. My internal dialogue went something like: Who does he think he is? I cannot believe he did that. Let him go to hell. I’m ready to burn it all down. And so on. This could last for days. (Damn the marriage advice that told us never to go to bed angry.)

These days, I allow the Holy Spirit to come in. I literally say, “Holy Spirit, I give this to you. Help me change my mind. Metanoia.” Then I can begin to see my husband’s perspective. I can understand him. I can truly forgive, remembering that he is a perfect child of God, unchanged by all of this, still as God made him. And I truly love him. I can honestly say I don’t go to bed angry 90 percent of the time. (I’m still a work in progress, lol.)

My behaviour changes because I am seeing him differently.

This applies to my own unloving thoughts too. When I notice them, I quickly admit, “God, I was wrong,” and then remember who I am: a child of God, still as God made me. I forgive myself and ask for guidance to choose again. Prior to this time, I could stay in a negative headspace for days or even weeks. Now I say, “Holy Spirit, help me see differently,” and somehow things shift. It isn’t always immediate. Sometimes an hour or two later, I realize, Oh, I’m not upset anymore. The Course in Miracles calls this shift in perception a miracle, an allowing of God’s voice to help us see differently. Metanoia!

Scenario 2: I woke up on the wrong side of the bed!

We have all had this, a day that feels like literal hell for no reason at all. This was me a couple of days ago; I was in a bad headspace for no particular reason. Maybe it was hormonal shifts, that time of the month, hell, I don’t know, but I just felt upset for no good reason at all!

I gave it to the Holy Spirit and suddenly felt inspired to go to the gym with my kids. Mind you, I had not been to the gym in over six months. So, I knew this was not a thought that came without some heavenly inspiration 😊. So I dragged my 2 younger kids, who were complaining the whole time, to the Gym. At the Gym, I just walked on a treadmill for 30 minutes; there was literally no sweating or panting involved. It was an absolutely lazy gym day lol. But it was a good gym day. I felt better. Clarity came, and I felt the gentleness and love of God in my heart.

Sometimes that is how it happens for me. I ask for help, feel moved to do something, and only afterwards realize, Oh, I’m not upset anymore.

That is the gentleness I am talking about.

One of my favourite lines in the Course is, “My brother, choose again.” I love that I can choose again.

This is Jesus’s message. He came to give us the good life, not riches per se, but a life of peace, love, happiness, and deep fellowship/ deep knowing of God, aka Our Father. We can see and experience God’s kingdom even here on earth.

My battle cry: Metanoia, for God has come!

The Jesus I have come to love

The Bible holds deep spiritual wisdom for me, and it also contains passages I question. I read it with discernment.

Some people understand the freedom he offers primarily as freedom from Satan. I have come to understand it as freedom from everything in the mind that keeps us bound: fear, guilt, condemnation, and the belief that we are separate from God and from one another.

I love Jesus so much. I love God so much. That love has deepened as I have come to understand his message this way.

I can bring him my confusion, my judgments, and the places where I am still afraid. I can ask for help. I can be wrong about something and still be loved.

There are moments when I feel it so strongly that all I can think is, Damn. I have a Father who is on my side.

That is the good news I have come to know.

And it fills my heart with home.