What is a Miracle?

Most people think of miracles as physical healing. They are associated with those in the Bible who received miraculous cures for physical and mental ailments that seemed beyond repair — when Jesus cured leprosy, blindness, and even death.

Others think of miracles as impossible accomplishments — like Albert Einstein, who accessed scientific information about time, mass, and space, being entirely relative and different from what we thought, leading to scientific transformations beyond belief. Or like the Dodgers vs. the Yankees Grand Slam win on October 25^th. For the first time in baseball history, the game was won when 36-year-old Freddie Freeman (with an injured ankle) hit a home run with the bases loaded in the 10^th inning.

According to A Course in Miracles, a miracle is a “change in perception.” In its simplest form, the glass is half full instead of half empty. But miracles aren’t the result; they are the mental shift that occurs before the result. The above examples show that each person could not have accomplished what they did without first believing in the “impossible.” They perceived success instead of failure. The miracle was in their mind before it manifested in external form. None of these things could have happened without first believing.

Most people (unconsciously) fall to lower levels of thought. We tend to focus on the negative or the impossible. Consequently, we suffer anxiety, depression, or just plain dissatisfaction with life.

Miracle-minded people are happy because they look for the silver lining in every situation. This doesn’t mean they are delusional or starry-eyed fools. They simply believe in things that many of us don’t or won’t. Jesus saw the power of the healing spirit in every person. Einstein used the power of his mind to access the inaccessible. Freeman used the power of persistence and positivity to accomplish the impossible. They all focused on what was or what could be instead of what was missing.

We could be happy most of the time if we were miracle minded. If we could decide to be grateful for what we have instead of what’s missing, have a consciousness of faith instead of doubt, and have the patience to know that hard work and diligence always produce an outcome, then we would access more joy than our natural human thoughts allow us. Instead, most of us (me included) fall into the trap of “Why is this happening?” “This will never happen,” and “The world is all wrong.” But if we’d simply stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and ask to see things differently, suddenly, the world is a different place. Despite all its challenges and misfortunes, beauty, love, and success are abundant in every moment of every day. If only we’d focus on these three things in our immediate as well as our distant surroundings, we could shift our perception from lack to abundance and from sorrow to joy. And then those small miracles would lead to many more — such as worldwide unity as we find for brief moments when we witness miraculous healings, scientific discoveries, and impossible wins. In those moments, we are unified in awe and aha. We are one.

To share and receive love is the reason for miracles. After all, don’t we all need love?

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