Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now
Lesson 92 Miracles Are Seen in Light, and Light and Strength are One
- The idea for today is an extension of the previous one. You do not think of light in terms of strength, and darkness in terms of weakness. That is because your idea of what seeing means is tied up with the body and its eyes and brain. Thus you believe that you can change what you see by putting little bits of glass before your eyes. This is among the many magical beliefs that come from the conviction that you are a body, and the body’s eyes can see.
- You also believe the body’s brain can think. If you but understood the nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth; or that you held the world within your hand, securely bound until you let it go. Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body’s eyes can see; the brain can think.
- It is God’s strength in you that is the light in which you see, as it is His mind with which you think. His strength denies your weakness. It is your weakness that sees through the body’s eyes, peering about in darkness to behold the likeness of itself; the small, the weak, the sickly, and the dying, those in need, the helpless and afraid, the sad, the poor, the starving, and the joyless. These are seen through eyes that cannot see and cannot bless.
- Strength overlooks these things by seeing past appearances. It keeps its steady gaze upon the light that lies beyond them. It unites with light, of which it is a part. Is sees itself. It brings the light in which your Self appears. In darkness, you perceive a self that is not there. Strength is the truth about you; weakness is an idol falsely worshipped and adored that strength may be dispelled, and darkness rule where God appointed that there should be light.
- Strength comes from truth, and shines with light its Source has given it; weakness reflects the darkness of its maker. It is sick and looks on sickness, which is like itself. Truth is a savior and can only will for happiness and peace for everyone. It gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless supply. It sees that lack in anyone would be a lack in all. And so it gives its light that all may see and benefit as one. Its strength is shared, that it may bring to all the miracle in which they will unite in purpose and forgiveness and in love.
- Weakness, which looks in darkness, cannot see a purpose in forgiveness and in love. It sees all others different from itself, and nothing in the world that it would share. It judges and condemns but does not love. In darkness, it remains to hide itself and dreams that it is strong and conquering, a victory over limitations that but grow in darkness to enormous size.
- It fears, and it attacks and hates itself, and darkness covers everything it sees, leaving its dreams as fearful as itself. No miracles are here but only hate. It separates itself from what it sees, while light and strength perceive themselves as one. The light of strength is not the light you see. It does not change and flicker and go out. It does not shift from night to day and back to darkness till the morning comes again.
- The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself away, because it cannot give but to itself. No one can ask in vain to share its sight, and no one who enters its abode can leave without a miracle before his eyes, and strength and light abiding in his heart.
- The strength in you will offer you the light and guide your seeing, so you do not dwell on idle shadows that the body’s eyes provide for self-deception. Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its Own. Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest in, for the peace of God is where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet Itself again, and be as one.
- Let us give 20 minutes twice today to join this meeting. Let yourself be brought onto yourself. Its strength will be the light in which the gift of sight is given you. Leave, then, the dark a little while today, and we will practice seeing in the light, closing the body’s eyes and asking truth to show us how to find the meeting place of self and Self, where light and strength are one.
- Morning and evening, we will practice thus. After the morning meeting, we will use the day in preparation for the time at night when we will meet again in trust. Let us repeat as often as we can the idea for today, and recognize that we are being introduced to sight, and led away from darkness to the light where only miracles can be perceived.[1]
Notes and Personal Application: This lesson is radical. Jesus tells us that we do not really see anything with our eyes or think anything with our brains. If we understood the nature of thought, Jesus says, we would laugh at the insane idea. We have so identified with our human bodies that we hold it in high esteem and think of it as far more important and valuable than it could possibly be. Just like everything else in time, it fades away and never was.
Strength, Jesus tells us, sees past appearances. When I get so caught up in bodies that I hold them accountable for my worries, despair, and loneliness, I am not keeping my gaze steady upon the light that lies beyond them. Strength is what compels us to unite with light because strength is part of light. Here is where the miracle resides.
Jesus tells us that strength is the truth about us! The fearful, withering self is an idol that we have wrongly worshiped by identifying ourselves and others with its physical appearance that, in reality, hides a shriveling, sniveling cowardice illusion of our true Self. Where God appointed there be light, this false god is dispelled. Only when we give up its lies, do we begin to get an inkling of who and what we really are!
While light is a savior and can only desire for happiness and peace for all, weakness reflects the darkness of its maker. To admit wrongdoing and ask forgiveness is strength, while making up stories and projecting our wrongful acts on others, making them the “bad guys,” so that we can uphold an innocent appearance is gutless. This kind of darkness may seem to save us but make no mistake – it is not a savior. It does not heal. There will be no miracles. Our lies weaken and deplete us; they teach deceit; they beget more of their kind. Lies are a fabrication of cowardliness.
God’s strength gives us the light in which we see, and He gives us His mind in which to think. When we see with the light of God, we know that admitting our mistakes is not weakness but strength! We realize that asking forgiveness is not frailty, but courage driven by a deep desire to heal and to bring restoration. With the vision of Christ, instead of throwing people under the bus to save our own skins, we tell the truth of the matter. We bring our darkness to the light. We refuse to let lies keep us cowering in darkness. It takes courage to say, “I will accept the consequences of my actions. I will tell the truth. I will ask forgiveness so that I may forgive.” In light, we find our forgiveness that reflects the love of God, thus exemplifying that light and strength, as well as giving and receiving, are one. In the light is where we find miracles.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 92 Miracles are seen…Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). pp. 159-160.
the friar patch 