Lesson 59: Review of Lessons 41 – 45
Here are the main ideas from Lessons 41 – 45:
41. God goes with me wherever I go.
42. God is my strength. Vision is His gift.
43. God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him.
44. God is the light in which I see.
45. God is the Mind with which I think.
There’s a trite church billboard slogan I saw one day that I immediately scoffed at until I began doing the Course workbook. It read: “If God feels distant, who moved?”
My kneejerk reaction was negative, but as I ponder the review of these past five lessons, it seems cogent to ask who moved if we ever feel like we’ve lost our connection to God. God never goes anywhere that we are not. The Holy is always there to provide its presence and strength, to be our Source to meet all our needs, to provide the light of peace and love and guide our thoughts to become Holy.
If you’re not feeling that in any moment – you moved, not God. Whenever we feel “abandoned” by the Holy, we can be assured that our ego has thrown up a barrier of some sort, whether it’s a feeling of despair, fear or sorrow. The ego wants us to believe that we are on our own here in this world of form – that only it can “save” us from the suffering of the world through its weapons of attack, competition and fear.
It’s all a lie, of course. God is always available to us if we have even just a tiny willingness to move out of the ego’s illusory gravitational pull and realize that we have never truly left God’s orbit. We are always existing – in our true Self – within the Mind of God. We can think God’s thoughts in any moment – thoughts of love, peace, compassion and joy – no matter what the situation may appear to be like around us.
Author Martha Beck, in her book Steering by Starlight, reminds us: “Everything always passes, and everything is already okay. Stay in the place where you can see that, and nothing will resist you.”
That place we’re invited to stay in is that Mind of God that provides strength, is the Source of all things good, is a steady presence within us and provides the light we need to see this world clearly. This place is always accessible, even if the world seems to be in chaos. When we access this place, it doesn’t mean we withdraw from the world. Instead, we become the calm, joyful and loving presence of God in the world.
When we become that kind of presence in the world, it can be contagious, says Hafiz:
“I caught the happy virus again last night
when I was out singing beneath the stars.
It is remarkably contagious, so kiss me!”
Photo by Lidya Nada on Unsplash