Lesson 47: God is the strength in which I trust.
The first three steps in Alcoholics Anonymous can provide a great outline on how to approach today’s lesson. They are:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.
Most people come into 12-step programs after they have hit their so-called “rock bottom,” where they realize, as one program slogan goes, “Your best thinking got you here.”
That “rock bottom” – that turning point – according to A Course in Miracles is when we begin to recognize “however dimly, that there must be a better way. As this recognition becomes more firmly established, it becomes a turning point.” (Chapter 2, Section III)
Alcoholics admit they are powerless over alcohol. We who are strung out on the ego admit that we are powerless to overcome that ego by ourselves. Its ways are too enchanting, its reasoning too solid to our ego saturated brain. We cannot see past its tricks and fearful thoughts and beliefs on our own. Our “best thinking” – those thoughts that are not guided by the Spirit – is what got us into this mess of separation in the first place.
So, we seek that “better way” by admitting we are powerless – that a mind in the thrall of the ego needs a higher power to restore us to sanity. This lesson is an invitation to take step three and turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand God.
“If you are trusting in your own strength,” this lesson says, “you have every reason to be apprehensive, anxious and fearful.”
This is how we live our lives most of the time, apprehensive, anxious and fearful. It’s how the ego likes to have us, because we are more willing to trust in our own strength if we are in that state of mind.
We are invited in this lesson to repeat the main idea: God is the strength in which I trust, and recognize not just my sense of frailty and weakness, but dig deeper to find that place within myself where true peace and safety lie. It’s within us all and those who have had success with 12-step programs are happy to tell you about the peace they have achieved simply because they have surrendered their will and their strength to that higher power.
The prayer used in AA for step three may also be helpful: “God, I offer myself to You – to build with me and to do with me as You will. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do You will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Your Power, Your Love, and Your Way of Life.”
Today’s lesson is an invitation to approach the door of the Holy and fully enter into the peace that resides within each of us.
As Hafiz says:
We
Are not
In pursuit of formalities
Or fake religious
Laws,
For through
the stairway of existence
We have come to God’s
Door.
We are
People who need to love, because
Love is the soul’s life,
Love is simply creation’s greatest joy.
Through
The stairway of existence,
O, through the stairway of existence, Hafiz
Have
You now come,
Have we all now come to
The Beloved’s
Door.