Friday, June 5, 2015
Lesson 156: “I walk with God in perfect holiness.”
The Course teaches us that our only task is to do everything with God. I love the image of ‘walking’ with God. It is the most basic of tasks we do to get through our day. Of course we breathe and eat and sleep and those are all certainty essential that we do with God. Though the word ‘walk’ leaves me with the image that every little thing we do in the world, it all must be in the energy and connection with God. The world is a strange place that sure feels foreign in some of the most basic areas we need to function. We have to engage our bodies in the world because this is a place where bodies seem real.
God is saying- go with the illusion and believe in it if that suits you. But without any hesitation, make sure that we walk with God in all we are doing in the world. This is the way to turn our experience of the world from riding with a stranger and to rather living there with the gentleness and certainty of God’s love. We are asked to leave no rock unturned without the assistance of God. The world has all kinds of bizarre customs. We live in a strange context and strange belief system. Accept the insanity and then forgive it for being so incredibly bizarre. Then march right up to the Holy Spirit, and say, “Now what? You have my attention…”
We are invited to celebrate and identify with our perfect holiness. But holiness and perfect are words the ego in no way associates with. We think we are sinners and the worst of the lot. The ego gives us every reason to doubt and entirely resist the idea of our perfect sinlessness. We are bucking at this reality and saying, “Tell me something else! That is never in any way true.” The ego is invested in believing our flaws and blemishes. The ego is not even neutral. Our egos spend every waking moment going over our mistakes and faults. Our egos won’t even entertain a sense of non-judgement. We are asked to make space for the possibility that the ego has the wrong story. In fact the separation never happened so we never fell from grace. Therefore any moment affirming this illusion is simply an error in our thinking.
All we have to do is see this mistake for what it was- a moment of mental lapse in our evaluative senses. We lost our way. The Course says take a step back and reunite with the thinking that we are the most precious and untainted expression of God that ever was or will be. All we have to do is remember this. The energy then becomes our perspective and then any worldly challenges goes away instantly because our minds are cleared of any misalignment.
This lesson says, “This is how salvation works. As you step back, the light in you steps forward and encompasses the world. It heralds not the end of sin in punishment and death. In lightness and laughter is sin gone, because its quaint absurdity is seen.” We are asked to simply be the light of God, feel His energy and trust that it will exude out from our hearts and touch all whom we meet. This is the way to change the world and heal the people around us. We also are asked to be light and laughter, to let play be the way to change all we encounter. The world is healed when we stop our heavy worries and the burden of guilt. These are the constant reminders we must apply the lightness of God.