ACIM VI. Fear and Conflict, P 4. The correction of fear is your responsibility.
ACIM VI. Fear and Conflict, P 4.
VI. Fear and Conflict, P 4
4 The correction of fear is your responsibility. When you ask for release from fear, you are implying that it is not. You should ask, instead, for help in the conditions that have brought the fear about. These conditions always entail a willingness to be separate. At that level you can help it. You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, and are passively condoning your mind’s miscreations. The particular result does not matter, but the fundamental error does. The correction is always the same. Before you choose to do anything, ask me if your choice is in accord with mine. If you are sure that it is, there will be no fear.
This paragraph has been very important to me. At first, it scared me to death. The first sentence was the scary part for me because Jesus was so clearly telling me that I couldn’t ask him to take my fear away, and I felt so helpless against my fear. I felt like fear was the driving force in my life, and I didn’t know what to do about it. Now here was my savior telling me to take care of it myself.
But eventually, I got over my upset enough to really read the rest of the paragraph, and I saw that he was telling me how to do this. No, he would not wave a magic wand over my fear and make it disappear. However, he would help me with the conditions that brought the fear about.
Learning the Secret
He also let me in on the secret to doing this. He said, “You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, and are passively condoning your mind’s miscreations.” In this sentence, he told me that I needed to watch my mind for thoughts that were miscreating the world I see. Once I understood this and accepted it, I began to experience the world differently. When I found Dan Joseph’s book, Inner Healing, I started using his three-step process for mind-watching, and I got really good at it.
I paid attention to my thoughts, and when they were not the thoughts I think with God, I asked that my mind be healed. In noticing how much this changed my life, I understood how I was projecting fearful stories from a mind steeped in fear. The stories themselves don’t really matter (although, from Myron’s point of view, they seem to matter a lot). But the belief that caused the stories does matter. Those untrue thoughts were taking me deeper into the illusion. Instead, I learned to use the story to signal an untrue belief that needed to be healed.
If It’s Not Love, It’s Fear
Remembering that there is only love or fear, I treat every thought that is not love as if it is fear. It really is fear. When I am angry, it is because I feel threatened in some way, and I am afraid. If I were jealous, it would be because I feared losing something or someone. When I am grieving, it is because I am afraid I have lost someone important to me. If I feel shame, it is because I am afraid I have lost esteem. If I feel guilty, it is because I am afraid I did something wrong. When it is not love, it is always about fear, whatever name we give it.
How this Works in My Life
One night I came home after being on the road working all week. This would have been in 2015, I think. I was excited to get there because I wanted to see if the contractor was through with my house as he anticipated. When I got home, he had made some progress, but not nearly what he led me to expect. I looked around at the unpacked boxes, the sheetrock dust on everything. I walked across the gritty floors and checked out the closet and bathroom he is putting in for me.
The tiles are in, and the walls painted, but there is a hole where the toilet will someday sit, or so I am told. The tub is there, but the plumbing is not. And so it went. I felt let down, frustrated, then angry. I argued with myself over these feelings for a while, then just gave in and cried. It felt silly that I was crying over such a temporary and relatively unimportant problem, but there it was. I felt like crying, so I did.
I had gone through such a display of emotion. There were so many different feelings about it, disappointment, frustration, and anger. Then I felt guilt for having this petty and “unspiritual” reaction. It was confusing. I would like to have asked the Holy Spirit to wave that magic wand and make it all go away, just heal my mind of everything so I felt like myself again. But that’s not how it works. We are free, meaning no one can give us what we don’t want or undo what we did without our permission.
He Showed Me Another Way to See
Just saying, “Hey, make me feel better,” is not the same as looking at my thoughts with the Holy Spirit and deciding that they are not true and not thoughts I want anymore. So, I asked Holy Spirit to help me see the untrue thoughts. Suddenly the fog lifted, and my mind cleared. He showed me what I thought that was not true. I began to remember the truth.
I remembered that this was not done to me. Always, I do this to myself. Everything that seems to be just happening is the projection of the thought forms from my mind. I am not a victim. These are not slow and lazy contractors. They are my brothers. They are the Son of God. Everything is in Divine order, and there is nothing to fear. I think I want my house to be finished, clean, and in order. But really, what I want is the peace of God. And just like that, faster than a speeding bullet, faster even than the mind can think, I recognized my mistaken thoughts and wanted to be healed, and everything changed.
This would have been a very different story if I had not done the practice that makes mind-watching second nature for me. I stopped tolerating mind wandering because I know that watching my thoughts is my way out of hell. I watch for the misthoughts, and I sincerely ask for healing because I want the peace of God. This is more important to me than whatever the ego thinks I need to be happy. So although I temporarily forget this, I always return to it.
Deciding With Jesus
Lately, these sentences have been important to me. “Before you choose to do anything, ask me if your choice is in accord with mine. If you are sure that it is, there will be no fear.” For a long time now I have asked, “What would you have me go, say or do?” But now, I have made it more specific at times. For instance, I got some extra money and wondered if I should use it to pay off a debt. Or perhaps save it for unexpected expenses on the house. I asked Spirit for guidance, but not before I tried to decide on my own. As a result, I was confused about which answer came from Him.
So, I made a decision about what to do with it, then I asked Jesus if my choice was in accord with his. I waited a bit, letting my mind rest in the certainty that I would be answered. And then followed through on my plan. I knew I would feel it if it were not a good idea. I would feel the wrongness of it because I wanted to be in accord with Jesus more than I wanted to make plans on my own or be in charge of this little kingdom of mine.
What Matters
Does it really matter that I use the money one way and not another? Not really. This is all an illusion, so how could my decision matter? But it does matter that I learn to set the ego aside, realize that I don’t want a will separate from God, and finally see that I do not have a will separate from God.
I learn this by practicing it, and then the result teaches me that God’s Will for me is happiness. As Jesus says, “The particular result does not matter, but the fundamental error does.” He said that before I do anything, I should check with him. So, every time I remember to do so, I follow his instructions, and the results of doing so motivate me to remember more often.
To read my Pathways of Light article on my morning with the Holy Spirit, CLICK HERE.