Questions about being "Deserving vs. Worthy"

[Hatpin]

Hi!  Could someone talk a little it about the difference between being deserving and worthy?  I heard Michael talk about this with Robert Holden, but somehow I just didn't really "get" it......

Can anyone touch on this a bit?

I appreciate everyone in this forum!

[Tomwalked]

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WOW... I know!

   had the same kind of... "wait... what?" knee jerk reaction.


Robert says...
(paraphrased)
somewhere along the way we are taught/we learn that for good things to happen... we have to deserve them. We get caught up in the concern for being deserving of great things...
but if there is a God of Unconditional Love, then "all of the good things in life are freely given", they are there to enjoy, but what happens is that we as human beings create a self image, and it is this self-image that deprives us of us those things... making us believe we need to deserve those thing before we can have them.
He quotes a course of miracles, thusly:
"only you can deprieve yourself of anything, fundamentally, it is US that determines whether we are worthy or not, and therefore it is US that determines whether we let ourselves enjoy the good stuff or not."

when we get down to it... we have to see clearly that Happiness is not something we have to deserve, it is something we have only to accept.
(end paraphrase)


So... terms like worthy and deserving and entitled are perhaps really ways for us to keep away the good things.
By creating the voice (or affirmation) that says "I am worthy of good things"... We really miss the boat. You really don't have to be worthy or deserving of the good things, and you are setting up rubrics, expectations of behavior that need to be satisfied before you get all those good things.
So... it introduces the opportunity for us to NOT get the good stuff. It gives us an excuse. It gives that already mopey self-image reason to self perpetuate in a quagmire of despondency over those things that it does not have.

This is a wildly freeing realization.

The "Like Attracts Like" law...
if we are always "wanting" and pursuing and trying to be Deserving of good things... then the universe give us those things that prove to us that we need to try to be deserving, by depriving us of the good things so that we can continue to pursue worthiness.


what do you think?




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[Michael Neill]

Got it in one, Tom - beautifully put!

love,
michael