PART II. SECTION 3: WHAT IS THE WORLD
Lesson 246 To Love My Father is to Love His Son.
- Let me not think that I can find the way to God, if I have hatred in my heart. Let me not try to hurt God’s Son and think that I can know his Father or my Self. Let me not fail to recognize myself, and still believe that my awareness can contain my Father, or my mind conceive of all the love my Father has for me and all the love which I return to Him.
- I will accept the way You choose for me to come to You, my Father. For in that will I succeed because it is Your Will. And I would recognize that what You will is what I will as well, and only that. And so I choose to love Your Son. Amen.[1]
Notes and Personal Application Until we are willing to lay down our hatred, grudges, spite, and resentments toward others, until we see others as the Son of God, we cannot find our way back to our Father. Until we see our family, our friends, our enemies, our romantic and political rivals, our abusers, stalkers, murderers, and rapists as the Son of God, we cannot find our way to God. For we are one with them. No matter the special circumstances, we are one with all; they are one with us. If one sins, we all sin. If one is condemned, we all are condemned. This is the message of Christ.
Beyond all the modern posturing of Christianity, all the political leanings and self-righteousness stances, the weaponizing and defense, the pointing of fingers and sending to hell that goes on in the name of Christianity – this is the message of Christ. It is inclusive, it is embracing, it is salvation. It is offered to all. It is guaranteed to all. It has no enemies. It is the truth and only the truth stands.
When we see others in the light of Christ, we can offer only forgiveness. Fear is gone because we see to the heart of the matter. Fear is gone because the flesh is not who we are or what we are about. Fear is gone because the love of God and the love of Creation has come to take its place. Although it feels like surrender to lay down our useless weapons, this is no sacrifice! Although our egos will feel abased, there is no defeat involved. We are Sons of God, not sons of man. We give God our humanity – which is death; and we take on our true identity which is Life.
We cannot do this on our own. We cannot put freeing ourselves from hatred and unforgiveness on our daily to-do list and get anywhere with it. Hatred is sneaky – we will think it is gone and it will creep back in – our past holds on to it for dear life. Yesterday my friend and I were giggling together over a longstanding grudge that a brother has toward his elementary school teacher for paddling him in front of the whole class. We are in our sixties and while his grudge seemed so infantile and amusing for us, when we examined our own minds we found much more trite and childish memories which we cherish and love to recall for one another. The past lives on in such stunted memories. They are instilled in our brains. They come to haunt us, to remind us, to wake us up at night, to keep us distracted from the path to God. No matter to what extent we are abused as children, teenagers, or adults, a one-time humiliation or an ongoing offense, our false selves, our humanity, our egos will cling to it, pet its little head, caress its cheeks, feed it gumdrops and bloat it on French fries all in an attempt to obstruct us from seeking God. We will rehash it to our family and friends. We may hold them tight and cherish them in the dark corridors of our mind until they turn on us and make us ill. We may turn to the medical professions. We can take pills to drive those memories from us or drown them in substance abuse – but none of this will lead us to God.
The only way we can rid ourselves of our hatred, our thoughts of vengeance and spite, our hugging and petting and making much over what keeps us from God is to recognize our oneness in Christ. We must be willing to abstract ourselves. We must be willing to lay down our personal story and realize we are all part of a much larger story of separation, despair, and death. Chances are very good that if we were in the same position as our elementary school teachers we would have done far worse than paddle some undeserving little backsides. We can all reflect upon the times in our lives in which we were not kind, we were not patient, we struck out in anger, retaliation, and blind assumptions of guilt and condemnation. We must put ourselves as one with all of those who hurt us, robbed us, made light of our worth, were jealous of our achievements, begrudged our little triumphs, and gloated over our misfortunes. We are all in the same rocky boat. We are all the same story. Flesh and blood attempting to make a separate kingdom.
Today ask the Lord to release you from all that would obstruct your way to Him. Lay down those burdens of hatred you may carry toward your sister, your brother, your parents, your former friends, and lovers. Recognize how powerless you are to get over your past and present afflictions, sorrows, and blame. When we see others as God’s Son, we have no desire to hurt them, get even with them, or teach them lessons. When we see others as ourselves, we want only good things for them. The things that they may have said or done, the lies that have told about us, the misunderstandings, the ways in which they betrayed our trust, damaged our bodies, stunted our development, and seemed to waste our time can be a thing in the past and no part of our present moment. We can let it go when we are willing to take our “little me” out of the picture and embrace the majesty of our identity in God. Jesus is calling to us to be saviors of the world with Him. He is not calling us to stay in our humanity and lick our wounds and tell stories about our victimization, all the while keeping ourselves and our brothers in hell. This is not the place to seek justice, to be recompensed, to demand reparation. It is impossible to heal the wounds of the past. Jesus says that the past is the land of Never Was, just as the present moment is already over and joins the Never Was from the eyes of eternity. We are called to stand with Him. Today. In this present moment.
Join with me in today’s prayer. Put it into your words and speak it from the depths of your heart and mind. Give it your full attention.
Dear Heavenly Father: I will accept the way You choose for me to come to You. I see my past for what it really is – a hallucination, a holographic personalized lesson in separation. I forgive all the players who taught me the hard lessons of the hellish realm. I choose Your Will for my life because Your Will is my will. I am Your Son. I stand with Christ. Love reigns in my heart and mind. I do not allow dislike for this one and that one to hinder my path to You. I love Your Creation, Your Son as You love Your Son – with no specialness or favor. I apply my mind to learn Your ways and teach my heart to will with You and Your Son. In the name of Jesus, with Whom I am one. Amen.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 246 To love my father is to love his son. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
Audio credit: the friar patch @ http://www.eckiefriar.com
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