Lesson 133: I will not value what is valueless
As I write today’s reflection, my 7- year-old German Shepherd dog, The Lord, (because, “The Lord is my shepherd), is undergoing surgery to remove a dead tooth. I have been an anxious fur-baby mama all day, on pins and needles until I heard from the vet. The extraction is underway, but I will still be a bit of a wreck until I have her back safe and sound at home.
I turn to write today’s lesson and my ego gets in a bit of a pique. “Are you calling my dog valueless, you snooty excuse for a spiritual teacher?” it snorts. “My dog is valuable to me. Priceless, even.”
Of course she is, but not because of her form. Instead, her value turns on the Love I carry for her – the love that is eternal, the Love that gives birth to compassion and joy within me – two more eternal qualities that are priceless. My Love for her, and for all my other precious pets, gives me a window into the eternal nature of Love. I still Love all the pets that have preceded her. What I feel for them has not died or even wavered for one minute in its strength. They are not here in form, but they remain with me because my Love for them was real and continues to be real.
The Course may, indeed, at its core be asking us to literally turn our back on this world, and I suspect if we ever could truly do that, we would no longer need these bodies. That, as far as I can discern, is the goal of every religious or spiritual system – to free you to move on from this trivial plane and its valueless concerns.
Jesus himself warned people not to store up earthly treasures for themselves – they do not last and you can’t take them with you. What can you take with you? Only what is eternal – Love, joy, peace, compassion, mercy, grace, unity.
While we are in these bodies, the material things we have – or even desire – are of no true value. They are tools we can use to bring more Love into this world, tools we can use to become more open channels for that Love, but they have no inherent value. Use the tools, this lesson tells us, but put your heart where true treasure lies – in the eternal Love that will ultimately obliterate the ego and bring us all back into the awareness of the unity we have never truly left.
“You do not ask too much of life,” this lesson says, “but far too little.”
It’s not the material things we should be stocking up on, this lesson says. We do not ask life to bring us more eternal things, but far too many material things. Those are of no value. Only what brings us everything is worth asking for, but we’re often too focused on getting more material stuff to realize we’re asking for the wrong thing.
When we ask for what lasts forever, we’ll find we stop grasping for material things, and yearn more and more to become an eternal channel for love.
We only reach heaven, this lesson says, “with empty hands and open minds, which come with nothing to find everything and claim it as their own.”
Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash