ACIM Chapter 10. III. The God of Sickness, P 3, 4

ACIM Chapter 10. III. The God of Sickness, P 3, 4

III. The God of Sickness, P 3

3 To believe that a Son of God can be sick is to believe that part of God can suffer. Love cannot suffer, because it cannot attack. The remembrance of love therefore brings invulnerability with it. Do not side with sickness in the presence of a Son of God even if he believes in it, for your acceptance of God in him acknowledges the Love of God he has forgotten. Your recognition of him as part of God reminds him of the truth about himself, which he is denying. Would you strengthen his denial of God and thus lose sight of yourself? Or would you remind him of his wholeness and remember your Creator with him?

When Jesus talks about sickness he means that the mind is confused to the point that we do not know who we are. This is reflected in our lives as stories of suffering. We experience ourselves in lack, we suffer loss, our bodies become ill or injured, our relationships cause us pain. It doesn’t matter what form suffering takes. The cause is the same. We have chosen to see ourselves as if we could be outside Love.

Jesus explains to us that the remembrance of love will bring invulnerability.

As I remember who I am, I suffer less. I have less sickness, and my relationships are more loving and less conflicted. I am at peace far more than I am in fear. He also reminds us that it is our function to remember the truth for everyone. I do this very well most of the time. A confused brother is in my presence, and I see through his confusion to the truth about him. I know he is not his suffering. I know that he is the love in which he was created.

But I don’t see clearly all the time. Sometimes, I am triggered by someone else’s confusion. This happens when I am confused about the same thing, and actually, when this happens, it can be helpful to me. Sometimes, I am surprised by my reaction because I didn’t realize that this was a problem for me. In that moment I can ask for healing of my mind, which is also healing of my brother’s mind.

It can be difficult for me when the one suffering is very close to me.

Particularly when it is one of my children. I might find myself suffering with him or her. I used to think this was love, but now I understand it is not loving to strengthen someone’s denial of God. It certainly doesn’t help either one of us. Again, I have another option. I can use this moment to ask for healing. Jesus tells us that it does not matter where in the Sonship healing occurs because we share one mind. As I am healed, so is everyone else, including my sick child.

How do I remind someone of his wholeness? Sometimes, if appropriate, I use words. At other times, words would not be helpful. I can simply listen without judgment, waiting for the Holy Spirit to guide me to do what is needed. Regardless of what is said or not said, love is the intention, and so sometimes, all I need to do for someone is love them. And always, whether this is expressed out loud or not, I know for them who they are.

III. The God of Sickness, P 4

4 To believe a Son of God is sick is to worship the same idol he does. God created love, not idolatry. All forms of idolatry are caricatures of creation, taught by sick minds too divided to know that creation shares power and never usurps it. Sickness is idolatry, because it is the belief that power can be taken from you. Yet this is impossible, because you are part of God, Who is all power. A sick god must be an idol, made in the image of what its maker thinks he is. And that is exactly what the ego does perceive in a Son of God; a sick god, self-created, self-sufficient, very vicious and very vulnerable. Is this the idol you would worship? Is this the image you would be vigilant to save? Are you really afraid of losing this?

I have made a lot of progress toward accepting that the world is not real and that my life as I am experiencing it is not really my life. I believe that everything I see and everything I experience through my senses is an image I have made, including the body that experiences it. What I accept as true is that I am spirit, awareness, mind, whatever name I choose to give it. I am part of God, in God, and that is as far as I can go with it without feeling a little anxious. However, belief and acceptance, while a necessary step, is not the same as knowing.

Yes, I say I am the Son of God.

And I know this must be true for any of the rest of it to be true.  But if I am in God, if He created me as an extension of Himself and like Him, then I am God, too. Oh my, that is just too strange for me to say. I feel like I must say this, and yet I feel like apologizing for saying it. I don’t know if I am ready to step into that yet.

God created me to be like Him, and so I must be. but I just have trouble with completely embracing this thought. Well, of course, I do. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be running around here pretending I am an aging body, moving relentlessly toward death. If I believed, no, let me rephrase that: If I knew what I was, I would know that all others are part of the same God Mind, and I would treat them as if they are my Divine Family.

Maybe that is why I choose sickness and other forms of suffering.

Maybe I am too afraid to be what I am, and so I deliberately choose to be small in every way I can. I have been stepping out of that self-created image I made of myself. I am closer to accepting my Divinity than I think. But writing this helps me see the resistance to reclaiming my true Self. It helps me understand how and why I am constantly, moment by moment, sustaining this false image of self.

Jesus is helping me, in this paragraph, to see that what I am doing is a form of idolatry. I have chosen an image of a sick god to represent me. That has to be the most ridiculous and clearly insane choice of all. And yet, here I am, worshiping this frail, weak, and very vulnerable image of my self, and sickness, in all its forms, is a most effective defense against what God made me to be. Really? That’s what I want to protect? I think not.