I am as God created me.
This simple statement is the foundation of the peace that we remember in our practice of A Course in Miracles. We remain as God created us. This is the idea that silences ego, ends temptation and brings “complete salvation” (W-pI.94.1:1). This is the hinge on which all our spiritual learning and practice turns. This is all we have to remember.
And yet . . . we forget it. We deny it. Or we accept it but hide it where we can’t make use of it. Maybe someday, we tell ourselves. Or maybe we find it so terrifying that even to imagine its healing potential feels impossible. How many times do ACIM students – including you, including me – reach this lesson and gloss over it, or promise themselves they’ll get to it tomorrow, or next time, and just continue on in the shadow of hate and fear?
It happens to all of us. If it didn’t, A Course in Miracles wouldn’t exist.
This handful of syllables – just a few words – can function as a beautiful shot in the arm, bucking us up for what seems to be a long and wearisome road. We need that. We need to know that we’re going to be okay and that it’s going to work out.
If you remain as God created you, you must be strong and light must be in you. He Who ensured your sinlessness must be the guarantee of strength and light as well . . . Darkness cannot obscure the glory of God’s Creation (W-pI.94.2:2-3, 5).
The heart of this lesson lies in its emphasis on how little we have to do to realize it. What God created does not need to be recreated. It does not need to be spit-polished. It does not need to go through rehearsals to be ready for the limelight. It does not need to be improved upon in any way. It is perfect as it is. In that simple fact, the past and the future are both undone, and only the present moment remains.
Nothing is required of you to reach this goal except to lay all idols and self-images aside; go past the list of attributes, both good and bad, you have ascribed to yourself; and wait in silent expectancy for the truth (W-pI.94.4:1).
Yes, I know. After that “nothing is required” comes a long list of what we do have to do – and it seems like a nontrivial obligation. We are called to lay aside not just a handful of idols, or the really big and bad idols, but all idols. In other words, we have to see every last projection and own every last denial. We have to give it all up to the light of the Holy Spirit.
This is non-negotiable. And not easy. Nothing is required – except everything.
But here’s the thing. It is not so hard to let all that go. If you are willing to let it go, and if you are able to bring that willingness to bear with the Holy Spirit, then all that egoic baggage will fall away. It will fall away like nothing at all because it’s not real. It has no bearing on what we are in truth. And thus it has no effect. And when at last we see this – truly, when we are even just a little willing to see it – then it disappears like morning mist in at warm sun.
And so in truth not much at all is being asked here except that we consider the possibility that we’ve been wrong about literally everything and, on that basis, become ready and willing now to learn what is right. That’s all. We have made a mess of inner inner peace and joy and now we’re ready to admit that fact and let the One who knows better instruct us.
Our learning will be sweet and total, because we learn the only lesson that matters, from the only Teacher who knows: we remain as God created us. Alleluia!
