Day 170

Today's Lesson:

There is no cruelty in God and none in me.

No one attacks without intent to hurt. This can have no exception. When you think that you attack in self-defense, you mean that to be cruel is protection; you are safe because of cruelty. You mean that you believe to hurt another brings you freedom. And you mean that to attack is to exchange the state in which you are for something better, safer, more secure from dangerous invasion and from fear.

How thoroughly insane is the idea that to defend from fear is to attack! For here is fear begot and fed with blood, to make it grow and swell and rage. And thus is fear protected, not escaped. Today we learn a lesson which can save us more delay and needless misery than we can possibly imagine. It is this:

You make what you defend against, and by your own defense against it is it real and inescapable. Lay down your arms, and only then do you perceive it false.

It seems to be the enemy without that we attack. Yet our defense sets up an enemy within; an alien thought at war with us, depriving us of peace, splitting our minds into two camps which seem wholly irreconcilable. For love now has an "enemy," an opposite; and fear, the alien, now needs our defense against the threat of what we really are.

If we consider carefully the means by which our fancied self-defense proceeds on its imagined way, we will perceive the premises on which the idea stands. First, it is obvious ideas must leave their source, for it is we who make attack, and must have first conceived of it. Yet we attack outside ourselves, and separate our minds from him who is to be attacked, with perfect faith the split we made is real.

Next, are the attributes of love bestowed upon its "enemy." For fear becomes our safety and protector of our peace, to which we turn for solace and escape from doubts about our strength, and hope of rest in dreamless quiet. And as love is shorn of what belongs to it and it alone, love is endowed with attributes of fear. For love would ask us lay down all defense as merely foolish. And our arms indeed would crumble into dust. For such they are.

With love as enemy, must cruelty become a god. And gods demand that those who worship them obey their dictates, and refuse to question them. Harsh punishment is meted out relentlessly to those who ask if the demands are sensible or even sane. It is their enemies who are unreasonable and insane, while they are always merciful and just.

Today we look upon this cruel god dispassionately. And we note that though his lips are smeared with blood, and fire seems to flame from him, he is but made of stone. He can do nothing. We need not defy his power. He has none. And those who see in him their safety have no guardian, no strength to call upon in danger, and no mighty warrior to fight for them.

This moment can be terrible. But it can also be the time of our release from abject slavery. We make a choice, standing before this idol, seeing him exactly as he is. Will we restore to love what we have sought to wrest from it and lay before this mindless piece of stone? Or will we make another idol to replace it? For the god of cruelty takes many forms. Another can be found.

Yet do not think that fear is the escape from fear. Let us remember what the text has stressed about the obstacles to peace. The final one, the hardest to believe is nothing, and a seeming obstacle with the appearance of a solid block, impenetrable, fearful and beyond surmounting, is the fear of God Himself. Here is the basic premise which enthrones the thought of fear as god. For fear is loved by those who worship it, and love appears to be invested now with cruelty.

Where does the totally insane belief in gods of vengeance come from? Love has not confused its attributes with those of fear. Yet must the worshippers of fear perceive their own confusion in fear's "enemy"; its cruelty as now a part of love. And what becomes more fearful than the Heart of Love Itself? The blood appears to be upon His Lips; the fire comes from Him. And He is terrible above all else, cruel beyond conception, striking down all who acknowledge Him to be their God.

The choice we make today is certain. For we look for the last time upon this bit of carven stone we made, and call it god no longer. We have reached this place before, but we have chosen that this cruel god remain with you in still another form. And so the fear of God returned with us. This time we leave it there. And we return to a new world, unburdened by its weight; beheld not in its sightless eyes, but in the vision that our choice restored to us.

Now do our eyes belong to Christ, and He looks through them. Now our voice belongs to God and echoes His. And now our heart remains at peace forever. We have chosen Him in place of idols, and our attributes, given by our Creator, are restored to us at last. The Call for God is heard and answered. Now has fear made way for love, as God Himself replaces cruelty.

Father, we are like You. No cruelty abides in us, for there is none in you. Your peace is ours. And we bless the world with what we have received from You alone. We choose again, and make our choice for all our brothers, knowing they are one with us. We bring them your salvation as we have received it now. And we give thanks for them who render us complete. In them we see Your glory, and in them we find our peace. Holy are we because Your Holiness has set us free. And we give thanks. Amen.

Miracles I'm noticing:

People just keep showing up in my life just when I need them. I'm so blessed and grateful now that I have a successful business that supports people in getting new results in their lives - at work and outside of work. I'm blessed and grateful that I have the ability to learn and grow and the desire to share what I'm learning with others. I blessed and grateful now that I am attracting people who are ready to make those changes in their own lives that will allow them and me to move to bigger topics of conversation that lead to shifts in the collective consciousness. I am blessed and grateful now that I can see that people who feel the need to attack simply don't know any better - yet. That any cruelty in the world is simply a cry for love and the way to alter that is to give more love.

That shift for me is truly a miracle!