L e s s o n  323

I gladly make the "sacrifice" of fear. 
 <AUDIO> <VIDEO> 
 Hear Today's Lesson~Voice & Music by Martin Weber-Caspers[maz] 

IAMBIC PENTAMETER 
format from URTEXT by Lee Flynn

   Creation is the sum of all God's Thoughts,

   in number infinite, and everywhere

   without all limit. Only Love creates,

   and only like Itself. There was no time

   when all that It created was not there.

   Nor will there be a time when anything

   that It created suffers any change.

   Forever and forever are God's Thoughts

   exactly as They were and as They are,

   unchanged through time and after time is done.

   God's Thoughts are given all the power that

   Their own Creator has. For He would add

   to Love by Its extension. Thus His Son

   shares in creation, and must therefore share

   in power to create. What God has willed

   to be forever one will still be one

   when time is over; and will not be changed

   throughout the course of time, remaining as

   it was before the thought of time began.

   Creation is the opposite of all

   illusions, for Creation is the truth.

   Creation is the holy Son of God,

   for in Creation is His Will complete

   in every aspect, making every part

   container of the whole. Its oneness is

   forever guaranteed inviolate;

   forever held within His holy Will

   beyond all possibility of harm,

   of separation, imperfection and

   of any spot upon its sinlessness.

   We are creation; we the Sons of God.

   We seem to be discrete and unaware

   of our eternal unity with Him.

   Yet back of all our doubts, past all our fears,

   there still is certainty. For Love remains

   with all Its Thoughts, Its sureness being Theirs.

   God's memory is in our holy minds,

   which know their oneness, and their unity

   with their Creator. Let our function be

   only to let this memory return,

   only to let God's Will be done on earth,

   only to be restored to sanity,

   and to be but as God created us.

   Our Father calls to us. We hear His Voice,

   and we forgive creation in the Name

   of its Creator, Holiness Itself,

   Whose holiness His own creation shares;

   Whose holiness is still a part of us.

   ~ Original Handscript of ACIM  January 12, 1971

One can wonder, why would we not give up fear readily? Why would we not want to give up all suffering, all loss, sadness, anxiety and doubt? Why would we not let go of "self deceptions and of images we worshipped falsely"? (2.1)  Because it seems that holding onto fear thoughts has served a purpose in our lives. That may seem like an unusual statement but if you have been with the Course for a while, and also if you have tuned into your thoughts, by now you can see that fear rules so much of our lives and serves a purpose in maintaining the separation.

We fear losing people we love; we fear being who we came to be in this world and actually seek out problems to stop or delay our greatness and our destiny. We are like the homeless person Jesus talks about that is dragging all his treasures behind him, not looking there but looking ahead at lack and loneliness. Until there is a recognition that we have everything already in our creation, there will be fear. What fear does is obscure the love that is there all the time. Why would we be so frightened of our abundance, of our success, of joy of our greatness, of intimacy? We hold a belief of unworthiness under all of this. There is judgment of ourselves that we are not deserving. There is a belief in guilt and punishment. But above all else there is a fear of loss of the self that we made. We hurt ourselves with loss, failure, suffering, scarcity and finally death. "How lovely do the laws of fear make death appear" (T.23.II.1.5.7) So for all of us there is some death temptation lurking behind our fears that makes death seem like a lovely option.

Fear keeps us from being playful, intimate, joyful, open, loving. We hide behind the images we have made that we think keep us safe. We keep our secrets hidden lest we be judged. We hide 'shameful' thoughts believing that they are the truth about us. We keep ourselves small, afraid of moving to a new level. Yet with each step we take to bring the darkness into the light, our confidence is renewed that there truly is nothing to fear. As the internal conflict in our minds is brought to healing, we get evidence in our lives of less conflict externally. It is not because things change in the world, but we change our minds about them. We no longer engage in that conflict. We look out from a place of greater peace. That is what forgiveness is all about. That is what brings more flow and greater giftedness into our lives.

 This lesson can really make us wonder at the insanity of the ego. How can we want to hold onto suffering? And yet we do. We choose to hold onto our sense of loss, our sadness, our anxieties, worries and any number of forms of fear. Why? For one thing, we think that it is thrust upon us and that there is nothing we can do about it. For another, we find something of value in it, otherwise we would let it go because we have the power to do so. "Look upon it, open-eyed, and you will never more believe that you are at the mercy of things beyond you, forces you cannot control, and thoughts that come to you against your will". (T.19.IV.D.7.4)The only thing it requires is willingness. With willingness we take the hand of Jesus and together go into the darkness and bring our dark and self condemning thoughts to the light of Truth. We need help as Jesus tells us in the Course that "you can never control the effects of fear yourself, because you made fear, and you believe in what you made". We have all seen that when we go into the dark places in our minds and bring them to the light, we look back and wonder what the resistance was all about.

It seems like a no brainer to "gladly make the 'sacrifice' of fear" which allows God's Love to "come streaming into our awareness" yet resistance is strong. How can giving up fear be a sacrifice? Because we think that God is asking a sacrifice of us. We think that we have to pay off our debt to Him. We are told in the Bible that God asked His only Son, Jesus to be sacrificed and die a horrible death. That is the image in our minds that we too have to pay off a debt to him. We do that all the time in our relationships don't we? We think that when we have done something hurtful that we have to somehow atone to the one we hurt. We need to find a way to make up for what we did. In the same way we think we have to do something to atone with God in order to restore the relationship. But here He says NO! He is only asking one thing of us. Only that we give up our fear. And in doing so what we sacrifice is nothing. 

Do you notice how you hold onto your suffering, your sadness, your anxiety, worries, doubt thoughts and any number of fear thoughts? We made these thoughts and only we can choose to release them. Holding onto them blocks the Love that God wants to bring streaming into our awareness. Yet holding onto these painful, distressing thoughts maintains an image that we still want. We seem willing to pay that cost for what it offers us. We seem willing to hold onto our self   at the cost of our joy. In order to maintain our individuality and specialness  we have been willing to pay the price of suffering.   It truly makes no sense to keep our fear thoughts when all we are doing is keeping love out. All God is asking of us is to give up our suffering. Is that a sacrifice? We only can benefit and thus benefit the world.

  Our entire journey in this world is about the undoing of fear which is an essential part of the Atonement. But where does this fear come from? The Course tells us that "all fear is ultimately reducible to the basic misperception that you have the ability to usurp the power of God". That is the foundation of it all. Of course it is not something that we consciously are aware of. We have chosen to forget and instead we now displace this fundamental fear, that we have changed our very nature, disrupted Heaven and made a self that is in opposition to God. But it is only a fearful dream and it is our choice how quickly we want to awaken from it. "If a light is suddenly turned on while someone is dreaming a fearful dream, he may initially interpret the light itself as part of his dream and be afraid of it" (T. 2.1.4.6). So all healing is essentially the release from fear so that we can know the truth about ourselves that we are only love and nothing else. Anything else that we think is only the dream....the illusion about ourselves. "The fear of God is fear of life, and not of death". (T. 23.IV.1.2) It is fear of love. 

This is a powerful lesson that we can apply specifically to any fear thought that shows up today. Notice any resistance to giving up these thoughts and recognize that the resistance is about justifying why you should feel the way you do. It truly is an option and a choice. We can make that choice today with every fear thought that crosses our minds. And thus we let Love return to our awareness.

Love and blessings, Sarah

Sarah's Home Page

Quotes in this article are from Foundation for Inner Peace edition; To locate the same quotes in the 'Original Edition', use this link:  http://www.jcim.net/acim_us/Acim.php  
[Use 'Advanced Search' and Exact Phrase' option]
 

^{A Course in Miracles
 TEXT
 Chapter Thirty
The New Beginning}

IX. Changeless Reality