Lesson 94: I am as God created me.
We in the LGBTQ community are often told that we are “intrinsically evil” by religious institutions – that we were not created by God to love someone of the same gender or feel that we must change our gender identity. I lived for years with the soul-crippling idea that something intrinsic to my life as a human being was a “mistake” or that I was created somehow “less than” others around me.
Today’s lesson sure would have helped all those years ago – that I am as God created me. However, this lesson isn’t really about any sort of bodily identification such as gender or sexual orientation. Indeed, it calls us beyond our bodily labeling to discover the Divine Self that transcends the physical in every way.
Of course, it’s okay to be LGBTQ, just as it’s okay to not be. The ego loves to keep us confused and off balance about who we really are. We are not these bodies or gender identities. We are not our thoughts, we are not our past, and we are not our future. This world of time and space is an illusion, a classroom of our own creation so we can experience this life and learn to see, once again, who we truly are – innocent beings of light created by God. When we remember our true nature, we can allow it to shine through our physical manifestation to remind others of their true Selves. We are here to learn from each other and to teach one another.
Our ego tells us that means we’d better get to work on our spiritual path, but this lesson says differently.
“Nothing is required of you to reach this goal,” it says, “except to lay all idols and self-images aside; go past the list of attributes, both good and bad, you have ascribed to yourself; and wait in silent expectancy for the truth. God has promised that it will be revealed to all who ask for it.”
We don’t have to study great tomes, listen to any gurus or do any “work” on ourselves. Instead, all the Course ever asks of us to be willing to let go of the things we think we know or believe about ourselves and the world. The spiritual path isn’t about adding anything. It’s about subtraction – about letting go of ideas, identities, thoughts and beliefs that no longer serve us.
I have no more fear around being a lesbian, because my sexual orientation is simply something I am experiencing in this bodily manifestation. It’s part of my life’s lesson and when used in service to my higher Self it becomes a way for me to remember who I truly am – an innocent creation of Love that was meant to communicate that Love to another manifestation of God in flesh. All relationships can be made holy if the intention is Love and not competition or making it more “special.”
It’s only the fragile religious systems of this world that insist that those who defy their dogmas are somehow “special” cases that need to be redeemed, converted or destroyed. Hafiz says those egoic religious systems are simply seeking to destroy the Love they rightly fear will destroy them.
He writes:
I had a legitimate excuse for not going to the
mosque and temple to pray.
It was because love is so wild in me I might
break the fragile glass cage that all religions
are made of.
Photo by Morgan Basham on Unsplash