PART II. SECTION 5: WHAT IS THE BODY?
Lesson 267 My Heart is Beating in the Peace of Go
- Surrounding me is all the life that God created in His Love. It calls to me in every heartbeat and in every breath, in every action and in every thought. Peace fills my heart and floods my body with the purpose of forgiveness. Now my mind is healed, and all I need to save the world is given me. Each heartbeat brings me peace; each breath infuses me with strength. I am a messenger of God, directed by His Voice, sustained by Him in love, and held forever quiet and at peace within His loving Arms. Each heartbeat calls His Name, and every one is answered by His Voice, assuring me I am at home in Him.
- Let me attend Your Answer, not my own. Father, my heart is beating in the peace the Heart of Love created. It is there and only there that I can be at home.[1]
Notes and Personal Application For the past five days while we visited our family in Tennessee, I took a little breather from the workbook lessons and from the ACIM blog. Not only was this time away necessary for me to process the spiritual truths I have been studying, but lately I have felt as if some of the old traditional fear of not pleasing God was creeping back into my spiritual practices. There was a feeling of obligation and perhaps even obsession that I was experiencing in my devotionals, and so the six-day respite was a good way to bring the mind/body levels back into their proper perspective.
It was wonderful to see our daughter and her family, the brothers, my sister-in-law, and nephew. Zachary, our middle grandson went along, which was an added treat. The early fall foliage was just popping, affording us beautiful vistas; it was fun not cooking, cleaning, gardening, or gathering eggs for nearly a week, and the grandboys and I had a blast playing Marco Polo in the hotel swimming pool.
However, it would be less than honest or helpful if I did not address the stress inherent in travel, in reconnecting with distant family members, in adjusting to different parenting and relating styles! For instance, when we got to the hotel there were several aggravations which could have spoiled our stay. Zachary’s bed was not prepared, and we had to wait while the night manager rousted some sheets and pillowcases from somewhere else in the hotel. The fireplace which had been a key factor in reserving this particular suite did not work. The garbage disposal was out of order. After we unpacked and had all our clothes in drawers or on hangers and had comfortably settled in, we were informed that there would be no daily housekeeping services and that our used towels and washcloths would have to be turned into the front desk in order for us to receive fresh ones. On top of that there were dozens of preschoolers attending a birthday party in the room across the hall from us, complete with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends making a lot of racket and leaving a trail of disarray behind them.
Yes, there were several instances during our time away when it seemed impossible to connect with the inner world of love. Traffic backups, lukewarm coffee, whining, noise, too many demands, disappointment, exhaustion, headaches, grumpiness all served to distract us from the peace that fills our hearts and floods our being with resolutions of forgiveness.
And yet in today’s lesson, Jesus assures us that we are surrounded by life created by God’s Love. That it is everywhere if we choose to see it. We can look upon the world with our human’s eyes and see crowds of people swarming here and there like beetles, taking the parking space we wanted; pushing in front of us in line; not flushing their toilet properly in the restroom; dropping trash and not bothering to pick it up.
Or we can look with the Vision of Christ and see God’s Love beyond the separation. We can offer forgiveness and embrace His peace. We can let human foibles, aggravations, and pet peeves roll off our consciousness and into the nothingness where they came from! They do not matter. Forgiveness matters. Peace matters. With forgiveness comes peace and with peace comes healing and with healing the world and all who are in it are saved.
When our minds are one with God, we are at one with all. We step out of the need to prove our point, to promote our values, to defend our belief system. We no longer embrace the symbols of the world to justify or condemn. As we recognize our oneness with God, we are no longer motivated by worry, guilt, fear, or a sense of obligation. Our mind is not obsessed or possessed by the idea to save humanity. Our minds are not fixated on the world of bodies, our minds are fixed upon the reality of oneness. We can relax into our quiet, knowing, certain minds and have a good, good time.
[1]A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 267. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
Audio credit: the friar patch @ http://www.eckiefriar.com
the friar patch 