Lesson 55: Review: “I am determined to see things differently.”  “What I see is a form of vengeance.”  “I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.”  “I do not perceive my own best interests.”  “I do not know what anything is for.”

The Course is teaching us how to be emotionally empowered in the world.  There is emphasis here in the sentence “I am DETERMINED to see things differently.”  This means everything.  When we bring that determined sense and we feel totally committed to choosing differently, this is the way to get out of what we believe is hell.  We are learning how to get out of the nightmare.  It starts with our determination.  It starts with our powerful intention to change our minds.

Changing our minds is the only thing we need to do to change everything about the way we experience our lives.  Changing our minds is also the best way to approach living circumstances that feel difficult.  If we bring our intention of bringing love to what seems like a call for love in the ego’s insane world, this is the way to bring our miracle.  This is also the way to ultimately live in our own peace.  We have to accept that we play exactly the part that God wants for us in the world and so we don’t have to get anxious or upset that we may not know how to solve all problems we might face there.  If we simply bring our willingness to be resolute about our choosing, then nothing truly can change our peace of mind and open hearted approach to living.  We simply have to stay connected to this resolved mind.  We are just gaining practice in how to show up with the words always of our choosing God’s plan.  We just have to show up with our intention to be aligned with God’s plan.   If we don’t know how to make that arise within us, all we have to do is pray and ask God to show us how to do this.

However, our hearts and minds need to be willing.

Willingness is the first step to our peace. 

When we bring our willingness to align with God, then all of our seeming problems get resolved.  We don’t have to struggle any longer to find peace.  We just need that open mind to bring our hearts to be available to adopt God’s plan.  This willingness is the foundation upon which our choice for God rests.  We can talk about God until we are blue and say how great it would be to spend the quality time doing God’s plan.  This matters not.  What we are asked to do is just bring our own available mind.  Everything else can be figured out with God in time if we need help.  But we have to be connected to our sanity in truth which is the part of us that is always ready and able to meet with God mind within.  We have to just decide to do this and never falter.  We have to just do our part and bring whatever we can of our intention to join with God.  Then the process will not be difficult after that, once we are clear that our willingness is within us and given to God.

It is starling that all we have to do is give up our attack thoughts to escape the world.  The ego says we have big wars and people who bomb and we have people who are divorcing each other and people destroying each other’s homes.  We have such a propensity for drama and furthermore- damage to each other.   Our ego’s live on self-righteousness and they go out of their ways to perpetuate the attack we think comes from without of us.  Someone needs to start first ending the battle.  Sometimes people jump up to react and are so quick to attack back because the ego decides that we shouldn’t be the only ones to suffer from what appears to be a physical attack.  What we are learning in the Course is that we can absolutely change the scenario- we can end the cycle of violence when we attend to the state of our minds.  This may seem to the world as a minuscule action.  We may think this doesn’t matter because we can’t see it.

The Course teaches us how important our intention is.  When we change even that level of our behavior, this is enough to just halt the escalation of drama in the form of violence.  

This needs to be part of the solution, with of without any other option.  We have to make the change in our thinking first and also in the chosen response to that attack we thought happened to us.  This is the way to shift the situation.  We absolutely must not fail to bring our end to attack in our minds.