Lesson 240: “What is salvation?”  “Fear is not justified in any form.”  

The Course reminds us there are no small upsets.

Everything that is a form of anxiety disturbs our minds. 

We have the chance to make our life experience a wonderful and peaceful one or we can create one that is one with ceaseless emotional turbulence. 

Even the smallest piece of energetic intrusion is a ripple in the ocean of our placid mind

Even the most minuscule speck of unsettling news all affects us acutely and unfavorably if we let it go unchecked.  

We must realize that our experience is something that occurs when we think in a certain way.

The Course teaches us to become aware of what our thinking does to impact the level of peace and happiness we feel.  And it also gives us instruction about how necessary it is to watch our minds and catch these disruptions in our peace.

We learn to do a little bit every day.  We must be vigilant in the process.

We must first become aware of the thought; this is imperative in the process.

However, from there, we also need to realize that it is our calling to choose again. 

 

Our peace of mind is everything; this makes or breaks the quality of our lives.  This is not a small thing.  

Everyone wants peace of mind, even if they don’t realize in the moment that is what matters to them.  Sometimes for a spell they will interpret that some worldly accomplishment will bring them the joy they want.

But inevitably, as a matter of course, they will ascertain that even after achieving x, y, or z accomplishment, that this furnishes only a short-lived high and they will be back searching for something else to fill the vacuum. 

Sometimes people are not aware that they truly want peace, but eventually people realize this.  The bottom line is that we all want peace. Therefore, the logic follows that we are meant to stay committed to what will lead us to feeling peaceful to satisfy that longing.

Our vigilance works when we do it.  

Fear especially seems to squeeze right into the equation to everything we do.  That background noise of anxiety seeping through seems to be constant.  Fear is like an old friend unfortunately.

We are so familiar with living with it that we give it special privilege and let it run unchecked.

The Course teaches- sit and notice that fear that pervades our thinking.

We give that attention to it initially.  Then we can simply be firm with it.  We ask it to end its journey with us.  We are asked to make fear that stranger to our minds and hearts.

We show up and renegotiate that permanent permission we gave it. 

We are not meant to feel guilty about reclaiming our minds.

We just want to be a clear messenger and allow the fear to appreciate we mean business.  We simply remind that fear within us that we are the only ones in charge of our lives and we want more for ourselves than this fear that permeates our minds.  We must insist on letting fear know that the fear no longer serves us to feel it as our mind’s background noise.

We must sit in respect for ourselves.  Be gentle and kind and clearly committed to giving fear back to God where it is meant to be instead. 

God’s altar is always available for us to bring and surrender with love what we no longer want and be healed of our attachment to living with it. God has the answer we need to shift that mistake in our thinking.