Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now
Review IV
Lesson 148 My Mind Holds Only What I Think With God.
(135) If I defend myself, I am attacked.
(136) Sickness is a defense against truth.[1]
Notes and Personal Application: In Review IV, our theme continues to be “My mind holds only what I think with God.” Let us be thankful that this is true! Our mind can only hold what we think with the everlasting – all else passes away when our lives in time are over. We return to God without any of the trappings of the world, and we no longer live by the laws of the world.
Here we love other people who are special to us, we love them because they are family, or friends, our husbands or wives, our bosom buddies, or our classmates. In God’s Kingdom we love one and all because we recognize our equality, our unity with God, and our brotherhood with Christ. Here when we give something away, we are poorer and those whom we contribute to are richer. In God’s Kingdom what we give, we receive – in fact, the only way to keep what we want is to give it away.
Today as we review Lesson 135, we learn that to defend ourselves invites attack. When we first read this concept, it seems a riddle of sorts. Defense and attack are two separate things in our world. Yet Jesus is saying that only when we defend ourselves are we under attack. In other words, we are to think with God we do not even recognize the feeble efforts of others to harm us or steal our joy as attack. The pure in heart and mind, though not simple-minded, do not enter into defense, simply because they see the world in time as already over. They see no need to defend that which can not be attacked. They see no need to beat a dead horse. They see no need to plot and plan on how to succeed over their enemies. They see no need to disturb their peace – they are just too busy being happy, loving Jesus, and enjoying the certainty and freedom of God to collect arms, put up shields, and insist on their righteousness, salvation, or innocence.
Lesson 136 would suggest that sickness is no accident, but rather a device of the ego used to deceive us. Sickness attempts to cast a shadow upon our holiness, our Sonship, our well-being, and wholeness. It is just one more way in which the ego defends against reality. Jesus tells us quite bluntly that we choose sickness when the truth becomes unbearable to us. We would rather believe in what we can see, rather than what is forever. While it may be difficult for us to believe or to confess that we choose sickness to defend against the truth, truth has power while defenses do not. When we are willing to lay down our defenses and cease to play with the “rewards” that sickness offers, healing will cleanse our minds of all the ill wishes that tempted it to sanction our bodies to obey. Lesson 136 offers us two prayers that whether we believe this concept or not, is helpful in our journey to God, and in our desire to have healed minds and bodies that serve us without pain and suffering. The first follows:
Sickness is a defense against truth. I will accept the truth of what I am, and let my mind be wholly healed today.[2]
Today as Coltin and I were doing his reading, comprehension, spelling, and math worksheets, he tearfully whined about how stupid he is. He was giving me a lot of grief for expecting him to do schoolwork during his summer vacation! It simply did not match his picture. Somewhere along the line, our grandson had picked up the notion that learning is too hard for him, that it is a dull enterprise, and a useless journey. He would much rather be looking at his IPad or watching TV!
It was not until we had a conversation about truth that Coltin realized that God does not make stupid people. He began to see that learning can be fun. He started to see how believing the truth about ourselves helps us get over any false messages that we may have made up from comparing ourselves with others, failing tests, or being put in special classes in school. While calling himself stupid may have won him pity and sympathy from others and lowered expectations, the truth does not coddle any such whims and wishes.
Throughout our lives, we can choose to be special cases in order to avoid facing the truth about ourselves, or we can lay aside all the purposes we gave to our body and receive the strength it needs to serve all useful purposes. Jesus says that our body’s health is fully guaranteed – it is not limited by time, weather, fatigue, by food and drink, or any laws of the world. Jesus says that as our minds are healed, as we remember who and what we are, we do not have to concern ourselves with our bodies at all, in fact sickness becomes impossible.
Do we dare to believe this, to reach for this, to experience this? Lesson 136 states with certainty that sickness comes from harboring attack thoughts, judging others, and making plans without God – in other words, as having forgotten who we are, for sickening our minds.
But the ending prayers offers an immediate remedy when this occurs. We do not have to allow our defenses to hurt us a moment longer or be in a state of confusion about what needs healed when we tell ourselves:
I have forgotten what I really am, for I mistook my body for myself. Sickness is a defense against the truth. But I am not a body. And my mind cannot attack. So I can not be sick.[3]
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 148 My mind holds only…Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). p. 276
[2] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 136, ¶15. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). p. 259.
[3]A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 136, ¶20. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). p. 260.
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