Saturday, December 19, 2015
Lesson 353: “What am I?” “My hands, my tongue, my feet today have but one purpose; to be given Christ to use to bless the world with miracles.”
The Course says we use our bodies for one purpose. The Course says the body isn’t real. Therefore, we want to be especially careful that we not get so identified with the body that we start to give it extra importance. When we live in the world our egos are bound for making attachment. This is very common and difficult for us to not get into the ego’s trap of this special love for the world and our bodies.
This happens because we often don’t realize deeply enough that our bodies are of no significance beyond the way they can be useful and specifically being useful for God’s purpose. What we want to do is not get overly invested in thinking what we call details about them matter. We want to not put this emphasis on the body because when we do- we lose sight of our joining with God and the others with whom we share the planet. The world has its very own story about how suitable the ego thinks it is.
What the Course teaches us is that this ego-defining of our bodies is surely false. It has no validity. The ego judges how much a body should be worth and makes an ongoing commentary about how much our body has all the power in the world. The Course says this is all an illusion. The ego says the body has a way of being seen and used in the world that we think is just what the body does. The world says that the body is made to achieve worldly possessions and make money which exists to saved. When the body earned enough money we often deem that body worthwhile.
The Course says that we want to have the body and use it but not make the body more important than Love, or God’s purpose. We want tot always understand that the body has a very specific purpose. God has planned for our bodies to be used to serve Him and thus the greater good on the earth. What we want to do is allow our bodies to simply be instruments. We want to know that the body is fully capable of living fully in God’s purpose. We want to understand that the bodies’ actions are never meant to deviate from God’s purpose on earth.
We are invited to celebrate the body. We can absolutely be detached from the body and simultaneously celebrate the body. Jesus says that we are given the gift of managing this emotionally in relation to our bodies. When we understand that our bodies have only one purpose and that is whatever the bidding of God is in the world then we don’t have to in any way feel conflicted about using our bodies in this way.
A lot of religions have a long history of making the body bad and so we would necessarily feel guilty about all kinds of ways we used our bodies. For a lot of of us, we would feel reluctant to fully enjoy the body and to fully engage in the body. We didn’t want to set up our ego minds to criticize our use of the body and, consequently, feel emotionally intoxicated from the excess guilt within when we could not prevent this process.
The Course so gently helps us get out of this old familiar pain of deciding the body is bad. The Course says rather, the body is not real. Therefore, we can still use the body but do away with that guilt we did feel in many religions. The Course says- live in love with our bodies and forgive our bodies for any moment we forget to stay centered in God’s specific use for our bodies. We want to be kind to our bodies as the Course teaches us to be gentle with all things. Know that God has a plan for everything. Use our lives as the way to show up with a miracle minded attitude toward all things with our bodies here to serve in God’s name and purpose.