# A New Vision Of Money - 14: Let Him take care of the details When we think of needs, we usually think of big or important things. For example, we might think of housing, food, transportation, etc. The needs the Course wants us to leave in the hands of the Holy Spirit also include the smallest trivialities. The small things are just as important to place in His care. The reason it is important to leave the details in His hands is that small things tend to occupy most of our time. Who hasn’t spent hours looking at options online just to buy a single item? Searching different stores, prices, reviews, making sure the payment is secure, and so on. Those hours could instead be devoted to accumulating real wealth—meaning, giving miracles. The most prominent example was given to us through Helen, thanks to a conversation with Jesus that appears in her original notes. When Helen needed a winter coat, Jesus told her that He wanted to help her take care of the details so she would have time to take care of what truly mattered. Helen did not like this idea. She felt it was an intrusion on her free will. She did not feel comfortable with the idea of letting Jesus into such a personal area: her shopping. Jesus began by offering Helen this: if she needed a coat, she should ask Him where to find it. After all, Jesus said, He knew her tastes and also knew where the coat was that she would end up buying anyway. Helen ended up buying the coat Jesus recommended, but she still got upset because she didn’t like the purchase. Jesus replied to her: > If you do not like the coat afterwards, that is what would have happened > anyway. I did not pick out the coat for you. You said you wanted something > warm, inexpensive, and capable of taking rough wear. I told you you could get > a Borgana, but I let you get a better one because the furrier needed you. ([CE Cameo-6.4](https://acimce.app/:Cameo-6.4))  Even though Helen was not happy with the coat she had chosen, Jesus reminded her that she herself had set the criteria. The most interesting part of His response is that, because she followed the guidance about what to buy, Jesus was able to use the opportunity to send Helen to help someone. The shopkeeper had a daughter with a mental disability—the very area of Helen’s professional expertise—and he needed help. What I find interesting about this story is that it really involved no sacrifice at all; it only required the willingness to follow guidance and a shift in purpose. Jesus did not want to deprive her of shopping or remind her that she was not a body and therefore did not need coats. On the contrary, He wanted to help her find the coat that best matched her requests. But Jesus was not truly interested in the coat itself; the purpose of the purchase was really to offer help to someone. The coat was simply the pretext for bringing these two people together. There was no sacrifice for Helen either, even though she did not like the coat. After all, she found exactly the coat she was looking for and at a much lower price than she expected to pay. Her dissatisfaction with the purchase could be due to the many reasons we have already studied. Possessions do not have the power to make anyone happy. What Jesus is teaching Helen is that time must not be wasted. And we often waste it on trivial things. How much of your day is wasted on meaningless activities, like going from store to store looking for something you need to buy? This story teaches us that there is a difference between trivialities and the important things in life. Shopping and procuring the things needed to sustain ourselves in this world, according to Jesus, are trivialities. These are the things Jesus would be very happy for you to leave in His hands so you may have time to do what is important: perform miracles. As He tells us: > The reason I direct everything that is unimportant is because it is no way to > waste your free will. If you insist on doing the trivial your way, you waste > too much time and will on it. Will cannot be free if it is tied up in trivia. > It never gets out. I will tell you exactly what to do in connection with > everything that does not matter. That is not an area where choice should be > invested. There is a better use of time. > > You have to remember to ask me to take charge of all minutiae, and they will > be taken care of so well and so quickly that you cannot get bogged down in > them. ([CE T-1.25.3-4](https://acimce.app/:T-1.25.3-4)) Imagine having someone in charge of all the details of your life. Not just anyone, but someone who will take care of them so quickly and so well that you cannot get tangled up in them. Doesn’t that sound like anyone’s dream? I believe that everyone who dreams of being a millionaire dreams of exactly that scenario: not having to worry about any problem because there will always be someone who takes care of it for you. What good news to know that we do not need money for that! The bad news is that most of us do not want that. We want to be in charge of the whole process. Have you ever criticized someone for taking the easy way out? Have you ever thought less of someone for not working as hard as you do, even if that person is better off than you financially? The ego takes pleasure in doing things the hard way and with suffering, because it helps exalt its heroic self-image. That is precisely the reason why Helen was upset that Jesus was getting involved in her shopping. Her resistance was so strong that He dictated another paragraph to explain why she felt this way: > The only remaining problem is that you will be unwilling to ask [that Jesus take care of the details], > because you are afraid not to be bogged down (in minutia). Do not let this > hold us back. If you will ask, I will arrange these things, even if you’re not > too enthusiastic. I am not intruding on your will, but I am trying to free it. ([CE T-1.25.4:2-5](https://acimce.app/:T-1.25.4:2-5)) How interesting that He tells her her fear is of not getting entangled in trivialities. There is something within each of us that prefers to stay distracted and tangled up in the day-to-day problems. It is not very different from someone who avoids important tasks by distracting themselves with Instagram or staying glued to the news. The idea that our will is imprisoned should not be hard to understand. If you have so many problems or activities in your life that you have no time left to do what you truly want, you cannot say your will is free. It is imprisoned by the circumstances of each day. This is also true even if you are filling your time with activities you say you enjoy. For example, Helen loved going shopping. What Jesus is trying to say is that our will is equally imprisoned by that kind of activity. Jesus is trying to free our will, not deprive us of it, when we ask Him to take care of the trivialities. We can let Him handle them and devote ourselves to carrying out our true function in this world. How do we do that? Jesus gives us some guidance: > Remember, the specific answer you get depends on the specific question you > ask. The fewer limits you impose, the better the answer you’ll get. For > example, you could ask, “Where can I find a particular brand of coat?” Or, > “Where is the coat I want?” Or, “Where is the coat I should get?” And so on. > The form of the thought determines the level of the answer. ([CE T-1.25.7](https://acimce.app/:T-1.25.7)) The key lies in asking in a way that does not restrict the possibilities the Holy Spirit wants to offer us. We can only hear according to the question we ask. If you remember what we have learned so far, withdrawing our investment from this world will make the quality of the questions we ask Him increase. Always remember the reward. The Holy Spirit wants to take charge of your life in a way that allows you to feel cared for, loved, and free of burdens: > Leave, then, your needs to Him. ... Under His guidance, you will travel light > and journey lightly, ([CE T-13.VIII.4:1-4](https://acimce.app/:T-13.VIII.4:1-4)) ## Practice ### In the morning The morning meditation will focus on finding and handing over examples in which you want to remain stuck: 1. Close your eyes and quiet your mind using any of the techniques we have learned in this workshop. 2. Now bring to mind examples of small situations in which you feel your time is being drained. These may be small problems, but also small pleasures or distractions. A common example is spending too much time on your phone. 3. See if you can honestly accept that you are using that problem or distraction as a way to keep God at a distance by not having time for Him. 4. Hand that small matter over to the Holy Spirit. You may say: “I want You to take care of this for me, because I want my will to be free.” 5. Spend the last minutes of the meditation in silence with God. ### During the day Throughout the day we will simply ask for guidance. Every 20 minutes, remember: > "Holy Spirit, I want You to take care of the details of my life because I want > a free will." If you find yourself in a situation where you are trying to solve it by your own strength or wasting time, respond with this phrase: > "Take care of this situation for me, Holy Spirit."