I am sustained by the Love of God.
Here in Lesson 50 is the truth: here is the one fact that will save us. Here is the cause of joy and peace. Here we are brought home in perfect stillness and equanimity. Here we remember what we are in truth.
Lesson 50 is penultimate – one of several times over the course of the workbook in which we are given the so-called bottom line and invited to use it to bring to an end all our wandering and confusion. If you want to know what the endgame of A Course in Miracles is, look no further.
Only the Love of God will protect you in all circumstances. It will life you out of every trial, and raise you high above all perceived dangers of this world into a climate of perfect peace and safety. It will transport you into a state of mind that nothing can threaten, nothing can disturb, and where nothing can intrude upon the eternal calm of the Son of God (W-pI.50.3:1-3).
And yet this is not our experience. Why?
The answer is simple: our attention is given not to the Love of God but rather to idols which are intended to obscure that Love. The whole world and the whole long sordid story of our life in the world is a vast orgy of idolization the functions as a dense cover over the clear and helpful light of God’s Will for us (e.g., W-pI.49.4:3).
All these things are your replacements for the Love of God. All these things are cherished to ensure a body identification. They are songs of praise to the ego (W-pI.50.2:1-3).
We need to resolve to “see things differently” (W-pI.21), and to become responsible for the way in which our minds function. It has to be a sincere desire to remember our Creator, and to bring forth only what our Creator wills that we bring forth.
We must be determined to remember that awareness of love’s presence is our “natural inheritance” (T-in.1:7) and resolve that nothing will stop us from coming to this awareness and resting in it. This is possible not as a function of the body in the world, but as the self which God created like unto love (e.g., W-pI.42.1:3-4).
Put not your faith in illusions. They will fail you. Put all your faith in the Love of God within you; eternal, changeless and forever unfailing (W-pI.50.4:1-3).
Thus, when we notice that we are invested in our lives in the world – how much money we are making, what we look like, who we are sleeping with, how often we are comparing ourselves to our brothers and sisters – we simply laugh and remember that we have mistakenly replace the Love of God with a cheap and unhelpful idol.
And then we give our attention to the Love of God, which is our inheritance as creations of God, and never removed from us.
. . . allow peace to flow over you like a blanket of protection and surety. Let no idle and foolish thoughts enter to disturb the holy mind of the Son of God. Such is the Kingdom of Heaven (W-pI.50.5:2-4).
This is the practice that ends our need for practice. This is the truth that undoes all illusions. This is the strength that dissolves our reliance on idols. This is the peace which surpasses understanding.
Yes. The same.
On my slow sojourn through the lessons again I did this one yesterday. Today I think, did I do it ‘enough’? Shall I do it again this morning or move, seemingly recklessly, on to 51? I did do both 10 mins. I may have drifted into sleep slightly on the night time one. Did I think of it often enough through the day? Have I attended to it sufficiently? It is no wonder I have been bed bound for most of the day for all of 2014. It is laughable how much I exhaust myself with the effort I think is required in the living of this dream and in the seeing past it.
And yet I don’t take my efforting seriously. I notice that I do just notice it. My longing to get it right. As if I have to perform some physical acrobatics and earn 10 marks before I’m done. It seems not to matter how much I understand it all intellectually I’m still running the program of ‘do it right or else do it again till you get it right’.
But even as I write this I cannot take myself seriously. I hear the laugh that tells me there’s nothing to worry about. And have a look at 51 …
Hi Annie,
I apologize for the late reply . . .
Yes, that laugh is helpful!
Sometimes I remind myself that it is not possible to make a mistake! And that the belief that mistakes are possible – in particular the indulgence of that belief – is all that’s really causing me any trouble. I literally have to say: “even though I don’t believe it, it’s okay. It’s good.”
The willingness to do the lessons in part includes our willingness to let outcomes and results go, to just do the lesson without any expectation that it will or should yield some particular result. As the course says – here paraphrased – some of our greatest advances often feel like failures, and vice-versa. We really are terrible judges of reality!
Of course, you know all this . . . and are simply giving me a chance to remember it again for myself, for which I am most grateful! Loving myself in a gentle and forgiving way – just being okay with what is – has never come easy. I need all the help I can get . . .
Love,
Sean
This is the lesson so far that triggered the most resistance in me. To the point of doubting the course and feeling the urge to stop it. The same day, I picked a card from the ACIM deck:
“do you prefer to be right or to be happy?”.
In the moment it almost felt insulting.
Thankfully, this morning some kinder thoughts came to me, and I realized I am simply resisting “being loved”. My ego fights “to be right”, to demonstrate how “unlovable” I am.
But I prefer to be happy than “right”. So I will keep studying the course, no matter how uncomfortable things get at times.
Thank you for holding this space for us to share and support each other. It really helps.
You’re welcome, Audrey. Thank you for being here.
Truly, if one’s practice does not include the desire from time to time to throw the book across the room and walk away from it forever, then one is not practicing!!
I hear you 🙂
And yes, ego is vicious sometimes in its attempts to steer us away from love and back into fear.
Keep the faith 🙏🙏
~ Sean
Dear Sean,
I have really appreciated watching your videos as I work the ACIM lessons for the first time.
In practicing lesson 50 today, I thought of the bookmark prayer by St. Teresa of Avila: “Let nothing disturb you,/Let nothing frighten you,/All things are passing;/God only is changeless./Patience gains all things./Who has God wants nothing./God alone suffices.”
Thanks so much for your help with the lessons.
Will
You’re welcome, Will. Thank you for sharing. I appreciate that prayer very much; there is something sweet and affirming finding connections to other traditions and eras. Makes me feel like we’re one big family finding our way together.
Love,
Sean