Monday, July 27, 2015
Lesson 208: Review: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” “The peace of God is shining in me now.”
This lesson says, “I will be still and let the earth be still along with me.” To see stillness in the earth seems like a crazy concept. The earth seems to be raging with starvation, poverty, war- people raging battles amongst each other and battling within. The earth seems to be dying slowly (or rapidly) from overpopulation and deforestation and global warming. The earth seems like it is desperately trying to hold on- to let us humans live for a while longer. But it can seem like such a futile task. The earth seems to be filled with challenges that seem to be beyond the reach of our hand that can prevent the earth’s eventual and immediate deterioration and possibly destruction. This can feel like a terrible prognosis for the place we currently call home.
We woke up and found ourselves on the planet earth and it seems like a desperate condition of certain end. Therefore, living on the earth can feel frightening and desperate because we don’t have a way to get out of the earth’s demise unscathed. This is an incredibly sad predicament in which we find ourselves. The earth very probably is mismanaged by most people on the planet because our egos seem to be running the show in most people’s existence. We can’t even fathom a little bit an earth that is quiet. The earth seems like it is in the path of its own destruction both inside and outside the planet.
What we are asked to do is sit down and be willing to get involved in the repair of the earth. We as a race of humans generally overlook what we can do to bring both flourishing of the earth itself as well as the nourishing and flourishing of the human race as well. We forget to get out of our ingrained habits and be willing to meet the earth in a loving and compassionate way so that there is stillness and optimal health there and also what it needs to sustain itself.
What we can do is show up on the earth and bring our own sense of quiet. Understand how imperative this is to give the earth and humanity the space to heal adequately as well as optimally. What we can do on the earth to meet our stillness there is understand that quiet is our need to get to God. When things are quiet, this is our most perfect opportunity to enjoy our own peace of mind when we commit ourselves to God’s quiet and peace.
One of the ways we can let the earth be still with us is to simply deny in our hearts that the earth has any sense of yearning or need. Deny that the earth is anything other than perfect. Use the Course’s idea of denial to simply assert that the earth is perfect as it is. We want to do this so when we are doing whatever the Holy Spirit directs us to do to heal the earth we don’t end up perpetuating the problem. When we feel called to support the earth we need to do so with our own mind already perceiving and connecting with the current perfection of the earth.
That is so we don’t allow our minds to make the problems there real. We need to already be in the mindset of God (in perfection) so that we carry that energy in our hearts while we work in whatever way to heal what needs to be healed in the earth. This is the only true way to heal the earth. When we meet its challenges with the knowing that it has never had a problem then the earth will in fact heal in the most optimal way. This is the way to heal the earth and humanity so that we have stillness and peace within and without.