Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now
Lesson 170 There Is No Cruelty in God and None in Me
- No one attacks without intent to hurt. This can have no exception. When you think that you attack in self-defense, you mean that to be cruel is protection; you are safe because of cruelty. You mean that you believe to hurt another brings you freedom. And you mean that to attack is to exchange the state in which you are for something better, safer, more secure from dangerous invasion, and from fear.
- How thoroughly insane is the idea that to defend from fear is to attack! For here is fear begot and fed with blood, to make it grow and swell and rage. And thus is fear protected, not escaped. Today we learn a lesson which can save you more delay and needless misery than you can possibly imagine. It is this: You make what you defend against, and by your own defense against it is it real and inescapable. Lay down your arms, and only then do you perceive it false.
- It seems to be the enemy without that you attack. Yet your defense sets up an enemy within; an alien thought at war with you, depriving you of peace, splitting your mind into two camps which seem wholly irreconcilable. For love now has an “enemy,” an opposite; and fear, the alien, now needs your defense against the threat of what you really are.
- If you consider carefully the means by which your fancied self-defense proceeds on its imagined way, you will perceive the premises on which the idea stands. First, it is obvious ideas must have their source, for it is you who make attack, and must have first conceived of it. Yet you attack outside yourself and separate your mind from him who is to be attacked, with perfect faith the split you made is real.
- Next, are the attributes of love bestowed upon its “enemy.” For fear becomes your safety and protector of your peace, to which you turn for solace and escape from doubts about your strength, and hope of rest in dreamless quiet. And as love is shorn of what belongs to it and it alone, love is endowed with attributes of fear. For love would ask you lay down all defense as merely foolish, and your arms indeed would crumble into dust. For such they are.
- With love as enemy, must cruelty become a god. And gods demand that those who worship them obey their dictates and refuse to question them. Harsh punishment is meted out relentlessly to those who ask if the demands are sensible or even sane. It is their enemies who are unreasonable and insane, while they are always merciful and just.
- Today we look upon this cruel god dispassionately. And we note that though his lips are smeared with blood, and fire seems to flame from him, he is but made of stone. He can do nothing. We need not defy his power. He has none. And those who see in him their safety have no guardian, no strength to call upon in in danger, and no mighty warrior to fight for them.
- This moment can be terrible. But it can also be the time of your release from abject slavery. You make a choice, standing before this idol, seeing him exactly as he is. Will you restore to love what you have sought to wrest from it and lay before this mindless piece of stone? Or will you make another idol to replace it? For the god of cruelty takes many forms. Another can be found.
- Yet do not think that fear is the escape from fear. Let us remember what the text has stressed about the obstacles to peace. The final one, the hardest to believe is nothing, and a seeming obstacle with the appearance of a solid block, impenetrable, fearful and beyond surmounting, is the fear of God Himself. Here is the basic premise which enthrones the thought of fear as god. For fear is loved by those who worship it, and love appears to be infested now with cruelty.
- Where does the totally insane belief in gods of vengeance come from? Love has not confused its attributes with those of fear. Yet must the worshippers of fear perceive their own confusion in fear’s “enemy;” its cruelty is now a part of love. And what becomes more fearful than the Heart of Love Itself? The blood appears to be upon His Lips, the fire comes from Him. And He is terrible above all else, cruel beyond conception, striking down all who acknowledge Him to be their God.
- The choice you make today is certain. For you look for the last time upon this bit of carven stone you made and call it god no longer. You have reached this place before, but you have chosen that this cruel god remain with you in still another form. And so the fear of God returned with you. This time you leave it there. And you return to a new world, unburdened by its weight; beheld not in its sightless eyes, but in the vision that your choice restored to you.
- Now do your eyes belong to Christ, and He looks through them. Now your voice belongs to God and echoes His. And now your heart remains at peace forever. You have chosen Him in place of idols, and your attributes, given by your Creator, are restored to you at last. The Call for God is heard and answered. Now has fear made way for love, as God Himself replaces cruelty.[1]
Note and Personal Application: Today Jesus expounds upon the idea that there is nothing to fear in God for God is love. Loving God and fearing God is not the same thing – in fact, it is impossible to love and fear God or anyone else at the same time. There is no cruelty in God and therefore nothing to fear in Him. God’s Will is always for our supreme happiness, our comfort, our joy. He gives us peace. There is no peace outside of God’s Will. Outside of God’s Will is the god of fear.
When we worship the god of fear we may say we love God, but the truth is far from us. For we have smeared God’s reputation with the blood of our brothers whom we would smite in God’s name and call it holy. When we worship fear as god, we devise cruel ways in which to kill our brothers, to attack them, to cause them sorrow and shame and we call it defense. When we embrace fear and call it love, we subjugate others to our will and call it God’s Will. We get ourselves into a frenzy and point fingers and blame others, taking up placards and marching against those who are evil, because we are afraid to look at our dirty, cluttered altars and bring our own darkness to light. We are so afraid that God will deny us heaven, will send us to the fiery pit, will abandon us to those who would make our lives a living hell, that we forget that none of this can be true. There is no cruelty in God, and all we must do to escape this illusion of fear, of darkness, of attack and defense taking the place of love is to remember this.
Today Jesus is urging us to put aside all these vain ideas about God once and for all. God is Love; His thoughts toward us are of love and we have no need to worship a god of fear, of bloodshed, of vengeance, and spite. These hateful ideas of our Creator are insane; they bring sorrow and suffering to those who believe in such lies, who practice cruelty in the name of God, and lead others into paths of bondage and oppression. We will no longer sing hymns or recite scriptures that depict our Father as making enemies of the brotherhood of Christ, who craves bloodshed, demands sacrifices, and has favorites. We will no longer blame our Creator for the unholy world, a blip in time, devised by the wayward minds of God’s wayward sons, who have taken on a human form to make a world of fear and limitations in place of the kingdom of God. We will no longer form allegiances with the princes of this world who would lead us to fear God instead of love Him, who would bid us take up arms against another rather than seek to unite and remember our brotherhood.
We bring our love for cruelty and hostility to our inner altar, Father, and we lay it down once and for all before You. We are like You. No cruelty abides in us, for there is none in You. Your peace is ours. We bless the world with the love we have received from You alone. Once again, we choose to love our brothers, knowing that no matter what it may appear, they are one with us, we are not whole without them. When we are saved, they are saved. We are not saved alone. And for this we are so grateful, for Your Kingdom would be incomplete without all of us. Instead of seeing enemies in our brother, we see Your glory. Instead of going to war, we find in them Your peace. We are holy because we are like You, and holiness has set us free from our identity in the flesh to one of spirit and wholeness. Thank you, Father. In Jesus name. Amen.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 170. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
Audio credit: http://www.eckiefriar.com
the friar patch 