What If ...

ACIM Workbook Lesson #309 “I will not fear to look within today.”

Why would we fear to look within? Why would we fear seeing our true self? I think it's because we believe that all the little horrible things we've done in our lives are what we’d be looking at. Perhaps we feel that to look within would involve some sort of life review which would require us to answer for every supposed sin we've committed. But what if we're looking within at our pure and perfect Self, as we are created by divine Mind? And what if, after we find what we've forgotten, we allow it to come forth and live with us, as us? In the process, we truly forgive ourselves for all of it, allowing thought to stay in the realm of Oneness, releasing guilt and fear, living only in Love. What if ...

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its unlikeness, mortality.” Science & Health Page 491:3-6

Piano Lessons With Chili Dog

Chili-Dog 

ACIM Workbook Lesson #48: "There is nothing to fear."

I’ve spoken often of things I have learned from my dog. Today I’ve had yet another revelation, courtesy of Chili Dog. For the past couple of months, he has had physical problems which kept him from easily jumping into the car. Even though the impairment is gone now, he was still wary of stairs or the hop into the car. While visiting one of our favorite walking spots today, I was thinking about his fear and how to guide him past it, when it came to me that I had been doing the same thing. Although I began playing the organ and electronic piano at local churches more than a year ago, I have steadfastly held to the belief that I couldn’t play a conventional piano. I had all sorts of reasons for this, convincing myself they were true. As the lightbulb went on over my head today, I opened all the car doors and sat in the driver’s seat, quietly feeling gratitude, and Chili built up the courage to vault into the car. I drove straight to the beautiful upright Baldwin piano I have insisted I can’t play and fearlessly did so. Woo-hoo!!

Mary Baker Eddy quote: “The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace. Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each successive stage of progress.” Science & Health Page 506:11-14

Resolve Into Action

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #240

“Fear is not justified in any form."

Has fear kept you from doing something you really want to do? A few years ago, through these writings, I became acquainted with a man who lives halfway around the world. Recently, he asked if he could come to visit and get to know me and our sweet village in person. I immediately said, “Yes”! When telling a close friend of this impending visit, she stated that she could never do anything like that because she would be too afraid. I reflected on this statement of hers, realizing how many events cause a fear response to rise up within us. And I also realized that to settle for anything which brings us less than joyful existence is to dishonor ourselves, hence dishonoring God. How could I do anything other than go forward with joy?? And this meeting of Mind with a kindred spirit has been nothing but joyful and filled with Love. And so, the next time I think I'm feeling what we call fear, I'll choose to interpret the emotion as excitement about what will come next!

Mary Baker Eddy quotes:

“Had Blondin believed it impossible to walk the rope over Niagara's abyss of waters, he could never have done it. His belief that he could do it gave his thought-forces, called muscles, their flexibility and power which the unscientific might attribute to a lubricating oil. His fear must have disappeared before his power of putting resolve into action could appear.” Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures Page 199:25-31

Nothing But Peace

photo credit: Arthur Lau-Sed

ACIM Workbook Lesson #48:

"There is nothing to fear."

Fear stems from the idea that we can be separated from joy and love, from peace and security. Imagine telling someone in the middle of a war zone that there is nothings to fear. Or perhaps you've known someone who has just been attacked in some violent way and you tell them that there is nothing to fear. This would seem to be a case of sticking your head in the sand and denying reality. At this stage of our evolution, perhaps it's best to think this truth silently, affirming within that illusions are not facts and there is, in reality, nothing to fear. Let's take a case which could be thought of as minor, one where a friend has been in a car accident and is now afraid to drive outside of her small hometown. While I did not make light of her fear, I also steadfastly refused to reinforce her fears by agreeing with them. I can no longer pretend compassion by agreeing with error, but must insist on dispelling erroneous thought by asserting the truth of our being as an expression of  God. I pray  for the grace which will guide me to silence or action!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace. Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each successive stage of progress.” Science & Health Page 506:11-14

November 5, 2014 - What if ...

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #309

“I will not fear to look within today.”

Why would we fear to look within? Why would we fear seeing our true self? I think it's because we believe all the little horrible things we've done in our lives are what we'll be looking at. Perhaps we feel that to look within would involve some sort of life review which would require us to answer for every supposed sin we've committed. But what if we're looking within at our pure and perfect Self, as we are created by divine Mind? And what if, after we find what we've forgotten, we allow it to come forth and live with us? In the process, we truly forgive ourselves for all of it, allowing thought to stay on the good and the true, releasing guilt and fear, living only in Love. What if ...

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“When speaking of God's children, not the children of men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;" that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal."

 Science & Health Page 476:28-32

August 28, 2014 - Fear or Excitement?

ACIM Workbook Lesson #240

“Fear is not justified in any form."

Our lives tend to fall into familiar patterns as we move through our days. We may find ourselves going to the same places, saying the same things, thinking the same thoughts -- and all of  these habits become comfortable. Even if we're experiencing disharmony, we often fear change. We may say, "Something told me I should do so-and-so". We often hear this calling, this inner voice leading us toward a different path than we're on, but we feel it takes courage to walk a road less or never traveled, and so we settle. To settle for anything which brings us less than joyful existence is to dishonor ourselves, which is to dishonor God. The next time I think I'm feeling this thing we call fear, I'll choose to interpret the emotion as excitement about what will come next!

Mary Baker Eddy quotes:

“Walking in the light, we are accustomed to the light and require it; we cannot see in darkness. But eyes accustomed to darkness are pained by the light. When outgrowing the old, you should not fear to put on the new. Your advancing course may provoke envy, but it will also attract respect.”

Science & Health Page 452:7-12

May 8, 2013 - No fear of New Ideas

"Aaron at Arches National Park"
photo by Becca Babicz

ACIM Workbook Lesson #128

"The world I see holds nothing that I want."

Let's not be frightened when facing new ideas. If we've been taught to think that new thought is subversive and dangerous, let's wonder why we were taught that! Time-honored concepts are engrained in our thought, and this lesson is asking us to realize that these concepts are not valid in the development of spiritual sense. By asking ourselves to set aside accepted ways of seeing the world, we are breaking the same thought barriers which once held us in fear of falling off the edge of the world. During this time of shifting views of reality -- and a deepening sense of our capabilities -- many long-held beliefs are being challenged. We face opposition within ourselves to our own acceptance of this new-old thought. When I question if this is what I should be doing, I remember the obstacles Jesus faced when he brought us these ideas over 2000 years ago. And I thank Mary Baker Eddy who planted the seeds of quantum thought more than 150 years ago. By reiterating the "primitive Christianity" which was taught by Jesus, she has ushered in a new age, which has been ripening steadily and is now ready to be joyfully demonstrated.  As the Beatles lyrically told us: "Nothing is real, and nothing to get hung about."

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"In the material world, thought has brought to light with great rapidity many useful wonders. With like activity have thought's swift pinions been rising towards the realm of the real, to the spiritual cause of those lower things which give impulse to inquiry. Belief in a material basis, from which may be deduced all rationality, is slowly yielding to the idea of a metaphysical basis, looking away from matter to Mind as the cause of every effect." 

Science & Health Page 268:1-9

February 17, 2012 - No Fear

ACIM workbook lesson #48:

"There is nothing to fear."

Photo from watermark on it

In thinking about the things that we fear, it seems they all have to do with lack and separation. Fear stems from the idea that we can be separated from the joy and love, peace and security, which we feel in a particular instance. I remember when my son left home for a boarding school at the tender age of fourteen. I was so sad that I felt I'd never laugh again. I literally couldn't imagine happiness, as everything I looked at reminded me he was gone. After a week or so of living in this maudlin state, I realized I was thinking of him as though he were dead. This led me to examine that avenue. What if he was dead? Wouldn't the love we felt still be alive? Of course, I would miss being around him, enjoying his company -- just as I was missing him right now with 300 miles of physical separation. This seeming loss was caused by separation. So I examined  what it is that allows us to be together no matter where we seem to be in this world. And that something is Love. The Love that we both are as the reflection of the one God is a connection which cannot be broken by any set of material circumstance. When I'm really feeling the security of divine Love, I'm reminded of the way a baby is swaddled in a blanket. The closer and tighter the swaddling is, the more secure the baby feels. Divine Love swaddles us in its ever-present protection. While we may seem to face uncertainties and losses, "Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God." (ACIM text)

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The Apostle John says: 'There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love casteth out fear. . . . He that feareth is not made perfect in Love.' Here is a definite and inspired proclamation of Christian Science." 

Science & Health Page 410:17-21