ACIM Chapter 10. III. The God of Sickness, P 1, 2

ACIM Chapter 10. III. The God of Sickness, P 1, 2

III. The God of Sickness, P 1

1 You have not attacked God and you do love Him. Can you change your reality? No one can will to destroy himself. When you think you are attacking yourself, it is a sure sign that you hate what you think you are. And this, and only this, can be attacked by you. What you think you are can be very hateful, and what this strange image makes you do can be very destructive. Yet the destruction is no more real than the image, although those who make idols do worship them. The idols are nothing, but their worshippers are the Sons of God in sickness. God would have them released from their sickness and returned to His Mind. He will not limit your power to help them, because He has given it to you. Do not be afraid of it, because it is your salvation.

What a relief to read the first sentence. I have not attacked God, and I do love Him. The belief that this is not true is the reason I am still dreaming, and since it is time I woke up, I am glad to know that I am innocent, that I do want to return to my Father, and that it is safe to do so.

Here is the thing about our bodies.

They are our idols, and we love them or hate them. Sometimes, we do both. I loved my body for its strength and stamina when I was young. I would run just for the pure joy of it. It felt so good. As I got older, I began to feel disappointment in my body. This was when I began to compare it to other people’s bodies, but it didn’t measure up. I felt like it was never as pretty as others. In my eyes, it weighed too much, even when it didn’t. Then, when things started to go wrong with it, I hated it and blamed it for what it was doing to me.

Because I thought it was me, I loved or hated myself for what I saw in the mirror. My moods were dependent on how I looked and felt. A bad hair day could leave me feeling despondent, and if I could, I would isolate myself so no one else knew my shame. I think about that now, and I have to laugh. I would bow down to my idol and pray that it would not have a zit on the day of the dance. It was all so ridiculous. But it was also destructive. Since I identified with the body, when I attacked it, I thought I was attacking myself.

Now for the good news.

As it happens, I am not the body, and what I am cannot be destroyed or affected in any way by what happens to the body. So, I am not really attacking myself, even though it seems I am. I’m actually only attacking what I believe about myself. This body and this personality that I call Myron and think of as myself is not really me. Jesus says that this strange image I have made of myself can feel very hateful and destructive. Yet the destruction is no more real than the image I have made and called myself. All I can say about that is, Thank you, God!

It is a sickness to worship something that doesn’t actually exist, that isn’t real. Even in the world of time, it is a fleeting image, a frail and pathetic thing that begins dying the moment we think it into existence. It is not what we are, and what we are is not in the least affected by what happens to this image we made. Is it something to be worshipped, this imaginary thing? Is it something so important that we would trade it for eternal bliss?

I remember a sentence in the Course where Jesus reassures us that the ego does sin, but we are not the ego.

He is giving this same reassurance now. All those times when I acted selfishly and all the times when I failed to be the person I wanted to be are not of consequence. They are important only as they allow me to see what belief in my mind needs to be released to the Holy Spirit. Since no guilt is involved, I eagerly bring them into the light so that the Holy Spirit can correct them.  I have opened my mind to the Holy Spirit so He can help me remember who I am. I decided to worship this false idol, but I have the power to change my mind. And I am doing that.

God would have us freed from this strange idolatry. and returned to His Mind, Our true Home. We are given the power to return the Son of God to His Father. We are told that we should not be afraid of this power. One time, years ago, I had an experience as I was reading something in the Course that put me, just briefly, into that flow of power. It scared me. I felt myself contract away from it. I realized I was afraid of that responsibility.

My reaction surprised me.

But it is evidently common and expected, so much so that Jesus is addressing it here. I suppose our misuse of that power and the unexpected and unfortunate results have left us power-shy. But God gave us the power to save ourselves, and so it is ours to use. God would no more give us something harmful than you would give your child sharp objects to play with. Because I am ready to embrace this power, I open my heart to healing. I released the fear I felt at the thought of doing so. I released it to the Holy Spirit to be removed from my mind.

III. The God of Sickness, P 2

2 What Comforter can there be for the sick children of God except His power through you? Remember that it does not matter where in the Sonship He is accepted. He is always accepted for all, and when your mind receives Him the remembrance of Him awakens throughout the Sonship. Heal your brothers simply by accepting God for them. Your minds are not separate, and God has only one channel for healing because He has but one Son. God’s remaining Communication Link with all His children joins them together, and them to Him. To be aware of this is to heal them because it is the awareness that no one is separate, and so no one is sick.

Oh, dear Jesus, brother of mine, please help me to understand and fully accept what you are saying here. I am to awaken the Sonship. This is my purpose. I understand that it is everyone’s purpose because we are all one. But from where I see myself, it is my purpose. This is not hard to do and not more than I can do. It is simple, really.

I have already accepted as deeply as I can right now that I am God’s child and that I share His Will. I live this as much as I am able. While I live this, I have no trouble knowing my brother is also part of this Sonship. No matter what seems to be happening in their lives, no matter how confused they might be at any moment, in my right mind, I know who they are.  What I know they know because we share the same mind.

I ran into someone from my past yesterday while shopping.

There used to be animosity between us. There has been a lot of conflict recently, and she is at the center of it.  But when I saw her, I felt only loving affection for her. No matter what she does, no matter how she feels about me, I know who she is.  The ego mind keeps warning me that she is not trustworthy and brings up past behavior. That in no way changes who she is, and I am so happy that I can be the channel for God’s healing power.

And if I forget, if I get caught in the ego web of deception and fail to be that channel, I will change my mind. I will change from using the ego mind to judge the situation and her part in it, to using the God Mind to see that there is only God and His Son is in that Mind. No one is separate from God, and in God, there is only Innocence. This is the way I save the world. I feel overcome with gratitude that this is so. I begin to understand what Jesus has told us: that every encounter is a holy encounter.

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