PART II. SECTION 7. What is the Holy Spirit?
Lesson 282 I Will Not Be Afraid Of Love Today
- If I could realize but this today, salvation would be reached for all the world. This the decision not to be insane, and to accept myself as God Himself, my Father and my Source, created me. This the determination not to be asleep in dreams of death, while truth remains forever living in the joy of love. And this the choice to recognize the Self Whom God created as the Son He loves, and Who remains my one Identity.
- Father, Your Name is Love and so is mine. Such is the truth. And can the truth be changed by merely giving it another name? The name of fear is simply a mistake. Let me not be afraid of truth today.[1]
Clearly, there are a lot of things to fear in the world. As children we are warned against the strangers who would abduct us and do dirty things to our little bodies; we are warned about spiders and snakes, about playing in the streets, about brushing our teeth against decay. From the time we are born our parents and caregivers go to great lengths to keep our bodies from harm, and if we have a place with the more spiritually inclined we are warned against moral dangers such as lying, cheating, being lazy, settling for normal, stealing, and licking our chops over the flesh of other bodies. And then there are those of us who are raised in the hypervigilant homes of the spiritually warped who are taught to protect our bodies by hating them, being ashamed of them, and denying them as much earthly pleasure as possible in order to please a jealous, possessive God who is ready to stomp the be-Jesus out of you for exposing your chubby, lumpy thighs, reading books other than the bible, or liking (er, well perhaps more than liking) boys!
While few of us are taught outright to be afraid of love, all that teaching about fear and protection and reining our impulses, drives, and passions in and sacrificing them to God makes our natural and holy inclination for love, for affection, for unity dissolve in a sea of anxiety, worry, and strife.
It is only when we lay down our defenses and begin to love that the world can be saved from madness. We make the choice when we accept God’s version of our Selves and love our Selves as He loves us. Jesus says that this is a decision we make to awaken within the dream of insanity itself. When we see that the dream of death cannot and never could be our reality, our eyes are opened to the truth of eternal life, joy, and love. We accept our true identity which is the Voice for God, Holy Spirit, our true and eternal Selves, the Self that remembers, the Self that comforts, reminds, teaches, and guides because that Self never left God’s Kingdom.
We give up nothing to receive Everything. With our eyes open and our understanding attuned to our Holy Spirit, we realize that giving up insanity for sanity is only a sacrifice for the crazy, lying little creep that has been usurping our identity and leeching our God-given glory, majesty, and truth, filling our life with such distraction, demand, and drama that we had no time at all to consider that the substitutes it offered were fleeting, empty, and ended in death.
When our Holy Selves remember themselves, we are no longer afraid of the world, we are here to forgive it, to love it, and to see beyond it to the world it becomes. We are no longer here to worry about dwindling resources, melting ice caps, and getting our fair share of its mortifying pie. Living in love requires us to rise above the news that would fill our minds with mad tales of rudeness and despair. Living in love means we will find spiritual lessons which lead to spiritual growth and understanding in every single device ego uses to ensnare us. Living in love means we make the choice to align our minds with our Holy Spirit in a moment-by-moment devotion to all things of Love, Which is the Name of God.
Jesus teaches us today that when you and me, us and we are no longer afraid of love, the world reaches salvation. When we no longer choose to kill one another, scream obscenities at each other, lick our chops with greed and lust over one another’s goods, when we accept all of Creation as God created us and practice love, goodwill, and brotherhood we are saved, and the illusion world melts away and the real one returns to take its place.
Today we put down our fear of the world, and we see it through the eyes of Christ. We identify with our Holy Spirits, with love and love alone. We are no longer afraid of our brothers no matter how beastly and depraved they appear today, because we love them, we uphold them, we pray for them and help them remember who and what they are in Christ. When thoughts of hatred, resentment, unforgiveness, bewilderment, and confusion come to muddle our minds and crowd out our awareness of Love, we will simply call upon our Holy Spirit. We will no longer be tricked by the lies of the little creep for it would only lead us to despair and to our deaths. When ego tempts us to weaponize our spirituality and use it to interfere in the processes of our brothers, we will give that arrogant thought to the sanity, humility, and goodness of Holy Spirit, while we stay focused on our own journey, keep our noses in our own business, and put any concerns for others in the capable hands of God!
Borrowing from last year’s post, today when ego would fill our minds with worries for survival and distrust of friend and foe alike, we will remind ourselves that God is Love and so are we. When ego distracts us from devotion and holy practice with chores and activities that only appear again tomorrow and the next day, we will say that we simply made a wrong choice, for the Name of my Father is Love and so is mine, and my Holy Spirit will use everything to teach me and bring me home. Being afraid of love is not a sin – it is only a mistake, which is easily forgiven and even more easily corrected. We will accept Love’s call and correct that mistake today!
[1] A Course In Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 282. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). p. 438.
Audio credit: the friar patch @ http://www.eckiefriar.com
the friar patch 