I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
This is our last lesson before we begin the second part of the workbook. It is both a promise and a cautionary note. “There is no peace except the peace of God” (W-pI.220.1:1). How shall we respond to it?
In part, this review asks that we be clear that it is only on the path to peace that we are truly found and not lost (W-pI.220.1:2). When we deviate from lessons of peace, then we bring forth conflict, and the illusion that conflict is real. We forget that nothing real can be threatened (T-in.2:2), but we also forget that nothing unreal exists (T-in.2:3). We become agents of chaos. We pretend that we want peace and happiness, but really we just want a hot mess that we can blame on somebody else.
That’s the cautionary note. For you and me, at this juncture of our lives, there is no other way. This is the way. If we are serious about peace and happiness, then we have to devote ourselves to this study and application of it. Others have their paths; this one is ours.
So in that sense, we want to just restate our commitment to A Course in Miracles, which is our form of the “universal curriculum” (preface). We want to remember how far we have come, and we want to pledge that we will not stop now.
But the review also promises that if we stay the course, if we do not become casual and indifferent, then “peace is certain as the Love of God” (W-pI.220.1:3). Having found the way, and having consented to walk it with our brothers and sisters, we cannot fail. The end is sure, and the end is conflict-free and full of joy.
That’s the promise. If we heed the gentle warning, and remember the unwavering certainty, then we will be brought back home to God. Together we will become Christ, and as Christ, we will gather all our brothers and sisters and with them – for them and with them and through them – return to the home we never left.
Therefore, today’s lesson is a kind of way-station. It’s a moment when our practice gathers itself and steadies itself for the next leg of the journey. But it’s also when it celebrates itself, both for having come so far and for its confidence that it cannot fail. In a nontrival sense, when we know the journey will end in joy, then all that is left is traveling in joy.
Today, then, we take the first step into the new life we have been waiting for all our lives.
