Burnt Toast on the Highway

Too often, people think of their lives as a series of random but interesting events or encounters. We’ve developed phrases to describe certain of these incidents that seem to happen out of the blue. We’re standing in line at the grocery store, and we overhear the person in front of us on the phone talking about how they just lost one of their best pet-sitting clients. Meanwhile, I’ve been wondering all morning where I’m going to find a good pet sitter on short-notice for an upcoming business trip.When such things happen, we might say, “amazing coincidence, right?” Or “right place, right time.” Or, “what are the odds?” Or, maybe even, “Am I being punked?”But others of us respond differently. We might say, with a knowing grin to no one in particular, “God works in mysterious ways,” or “that’s just how it works,” or “thank you,” addressed to the Universe or some other higher power that we’ve learned to trust and depend on.These people are referred to in the book, A Course in Miracles, as being “miracle-minded” or in “miracle-readiness.” Living a miracle-minded life could also be described as living by what is more commonly called the “burnt toast” theory. Under the burnt toast framework, we choose to experience everything in our lives as working ultimately for our benefit one way or another. The way it works goes something like this: had I not burned the toast and thereby been delayed leaving the house this morning because of the extra time I spent cleaning up the mess, I would or would not have had this happen to me. And the “this” can be something we judge as either “good” or “bad” for us. Ususally, we don’t know whether a burnt toast consequence was beneficial or not until later.When we get attached to what we want, plan, expect or hope for, we fail to understand how the Universe or God really works. If we stay in miracle-mind, with no judgment but instead open to curiosity about the next opportunity or challenge life has for us, we live in acceptance that we control nothing outside of ourselves (on a good day). When we can surrender to a divine will or life force, then we can live in the peace of what A Course in Miracles calls the Holy Instant, the eternal now, where anything can — and does — happen, ultimately for our benefit. Both the past and the future are not reality. The only life we get to live is the tiniest slice we call now. Everything happens in the here/now. In fact, the moment that follows may depend entirely on what we do, say or think now.