Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Lesson 126: “All that I give is given to myself.”
The Course wants us to understand the laws of the Universe are different from what we learned in the world. The world thinks giving is a sacrifice and a dreaded deed because it takes from us and gives to the receiver. This is a perspective of scarcity, when we think that the world is limited, and only a few are worthy and lucky enough to be the ones to receive. And we have to take turns being the receiver because gifts are limited, so we can’t always be the fortunate ones. We are told we have to wait our turn. And we are likely to feel anxious that there won’t be enough left for us once other people have received because we are told there is but a limited supply. This is all predicated on the idea that we will not have enough and we have to suffer without sometimes because everyone does.
This is all just brainwashing. When we see the world as Jesus teaches us, we learn that God’s universe is built on abundance- so there is never a time when we will not have enough of what we truly want and need. We can always be assured that our needs are adequately met no matter what they are. This is why we simply need to understand that the world’s perspective is all based on false information.
Thus, all the statements I made in the first paragraph are all statements of lack and are commonly believed worldly statements. We so often hear that internally from our own ego voice or from the externals that are steeped in insanity. When we rather learn God’s way, we discover that there is always enough and thus we never need to have anxiety about not being able to meet our own needs.
God will always give us what we need and more because God is generous and so completely loves us that He is committed to giving us all we could ever want. We just have to ask ourselves, do we want the ego’s perspective or do we want God’s? When we take a moment to really look at the difference between these two realities it becomes clear that the world’s perspective simply always leaves us wanting.
Seeing the difference between the worlds we want to live in is a primary goal of the Course because when it spells out for us this difference, the choice then becomes obvious. Then when we have a moment to take this in, we can reach deep within ourselves and muster the little willingness we need to lead a life with God and not our ego. When we choose God instead of the ego, the amazing thing is that we are infinitely blessed to give in God’s world.
God gives us the great joy to be able to experience the love and joy and forgiveness we give to others and simply feel it within ourselves as well. This is perfectly logical that when we give a feeling, it goes through us to get extended to another, so it is natural for us to get to experience that feeling too, throughout this process. This is the greatest gift to ourselves because in giving, we get to join with the person to whom we are giving. This will create for us the exquisite feeling of utter joy because we are lifted by our own gifts of love.