Lesson 157: “Into His Presence would I enter now.”

The Course teaches us how to listen to God.  We also learn from perusing the book- the text and workbook how to think in ways that are harmonious.

We learn how to choose our thinking and we can continue to pare away the thinking that we don’t want to preserve in our ideal minds. 

We learn that choosing is our responsibility and our right because we are the children of God.  He gives us the keys to the kingdom of heaven because we are the recipients of God’s goodwill.  Choosing our thinking is our responsibility and we learn to take seriously the fact that we can choose.  We learn that our minds are generally swarmed with random thoughts which often comprise attack  We can choose our thinking because we are the ones in charge of creating for us a happy life or a tough life.

We just need to own this and be willing to take responsibility for the fact that choosing is the only way to make our happy dream come true.

The Course says that we listen to the teachings of the book so that we come to a deeper understanding of how to surrender our attachment in the world and not perpetuate attack energy that we may do unconsciously.  We simply are given the opportunity to glean from the philosophy a big picture understanding of the Course.  The big picture is when the ideas begin to flow together and thus, we resolve our questions about what it means. Then we can steadily carry this philosophy into our thinking by repetition.

This is the way to get good at the training, by practice. 

We show up again and again and simply let these ideas take form in our inner consciousness.

We do this because it is the only way to make it our habit.  That is what carries this energy with us always.  This repetition gets us on track with how to integrate this material deep within our minds and souls.  This is the reason we want to keep reading the lessons or at least something that gives us a hit of the God we love from the Course’s description.

This is the God who loves us infinitely and carries us through every tribulation because He is happy to care for us.

In time, we come to understand that the Course gives us clarity about how to connect with this God who always loves us. 

However, also what we want to do in time is get comfortable in being with God without words. 

Language is imperfect and it always takes us a step away from God.

When we talk about God, we naturally are speaking in a way that leaves God only in the past.

God is not of the past because if there is no moment except the present. 

Then, by the time we respond to someone’s portion of our discussion about God, we are both responding in what is now the past.  This is why it is imperative that we forgive this process and just do the best we can with it.

We have to have forgiveness for the human dilemma that we can’t even explain how God truly is because language is always limiting.  This is why we simply have to get to a place where we realize that we can’t connect with God truly in the present unless we are simply feeling and experiencing God’s energy.  When we try to connect with God in any other way, it doesn’t work quite well.  The Course says to just let this go and forgive the situation.  We don’t know how to make this work differently.

We simply do what we can to simply understand that the most clear and accessible way to reach God is in our experience of His energy. 

This is why we want to practice getting quiet.  We want to not try to reach God through excessive talking.  Appreciate that this is always possible with God to some degree when we use a lot of words to get to God because God is everywhere.

The Course teaches us the point that getting quiet within and feeling God’s presence is the most direct way to reach God.