Lesson 109

I rest in God

We ask for rest today, and quietness unshaken by the world’s appearances. We ask for peace and stillness, in the midst of all the turmoil born of clashing dreams. We ask for safety and for happiness, although we seem to look on danger and on sorrow. And we have the thought that will answer our asking with what we request.

“I rest in God.” This thought will bring to you the rest and quiet, peace and stillness, and the safety and the happiness you seek. “I rest in God.” This thought has power to wake the sleeping truth in you, whose vision sees beyond appearances to that same truth in everyone and everything there is. Here is the end of suffering for all the world, and everyone who ever came and yet will come to linger for a while. Here is the thought in which the Son of God is born again, to recognize himself.

“I rest in God.” Completely undismayed, this thought will carry you through storms and strife, past misery and pain, past loss and death, and onward to the certainty of God. There is no suffering it cannot heal. There is no problem that it cannot solve. And no appearance but will turn to truth before the eyes of you who rest in God.

This is the day of peace. You rest in God, and while the world is torn by winds of hate your rest remains completely undisturbed. Yours is the rest of truth. Appearances cannot intrude on you. You call to all to join you in your rest, and they will hear and come to you because you rest in God. They will not hear another voice than yours because you gave your voice to God, and now you rest in Him and let Him speak through you.

In Him you have no cares and no concerns, no burdens, no anxiety, no pain, no fear of future and no past regrets. In timelessness you rest, while time goes by without its touch upon you, for your rest can never change in any way at all. You rest today. And as you close your eyes, sink into stillness. Let these periods of rest and respite reassure your mind that all its frantic fantasies were but the dreams of fever that has passed away. Let it be still and thankfully accept its healing. No more fearful dreams will come, now that you rest in God. Take time today to slip away from dreams and into peace.

Each hour that you take your rest today, a tired mind is suddenly made glad, a bird with broken wings begins to sing, a stream long dry begins to flow again. The world is born again each time you rest, and hourly remember that you came to bring the peace of God into the world, that it might take its rest along with you.

With each five minutes that you rest today, the world is nearer waking. And the time when rest will be the only thing there is comes closer to all worn and tired minds, too weary now to go their way alone. And they will hear the bird begin to sing and see the stream begin to flow again, with hope reborn and energy restored to walk with lightened steps along the road that suddenly seems easy as they go.

You rest within the peace of God today, and call upon your brothers from your rest to draw them to their rest, along with you. You will be faithful to your trust today, forgetting no one, bringing everyone into the boundless circle of your peace, the holy sanctuary where you rest. Open the temple doors and let them come from far across the world, and near as well; your distant brothers and your closest friends; bid them all enter here and rest with you.

You rest within the peace of God today, quiet and unafraid. Each brother comes to take his rest, and offer it to you. We rest together here, for thus our rest is made complete, and what we give today we have received already. Time is not the guardian of what we give today. We give to those unborn and those passed by, to every Thought of God, and to the Mind in which these Thoughts were born and where they rest. And we remind them of their resting place each time we tell ourselves, “I rest in God.”

Initial Insight: This is a past entry. I loved reading it because it was a reminder to me of how life is when I spend more and more time resting in God.

What a perfect lesson to help me bring to a close my time here at the Conference. It has been exciting and fun. I have loved meeting new people, reuniting with old friends, discovering folks I know in the virtual world of social media and having them come “alive” right in front of me. How wonderful that is!

I have reveled in the energy of love I feel in the presence of my brothers and sisters. It is not that I can’t feel that love elsewhere, or for that matter everywhere, but that I don’t usually do so. Here with five hundred of us joining in purpose, intent on being the love we are, the energy is apparent, and I am less likely to dilute it with the concerns of everyday life.

There is a lesson in this for me, as I wonder why I would dilute my joy on any day by indulging the ego in its obsession with the past and future. I have a feeling that if I continue this lesson, continue to take time out of each hour, I will learn to love being at rest in God, and to value it over the judgments and petty concerns that ego offers me in its stead.

Because those who are here with me now are focused on the idea of sharing and joining, and so, for that reason, are perhaps more willing to release the inevitable ego judgments, fear, and guilt, I am able to do so more willingly and more quickly. Our minds are joined and in that joining is great power. I feel love for those around me and all over the world, who daily, in their own ways, seek the peace of God. I feel grateful to them for their work because their work uplifts me.

While there is so much energy of love here, there is also the energy of excitement and the energy of conflict. One of the benefits of being with others over the last few days is that our fears and judgments get triggered. We get to see thoughts in our mind that perhaps we had been avoiding. This is good. This is where the potential for shifts is strongest as we see the thoughts, recognize they are not the thoughts we think with God, and release them to the Holy Spirit.

The conflict comes from the ego reluctance to release some of its favorite stressors. I have noticed that I can have quite the little internal battle at times. I don’t literally fight the ego because the ego is not real and has no strength apart from what I give it with my beliefs. But I still get tired as I continue to meet my own resistance.

It feels like when my kids were young and would be unruly. I didn’t fight them or try to beat them down, but would just patiently (or impatiently) keep moving them in the direction I wanted them to go. So, as the days go on and I see one ego thought after another try to gain my attention and compel my belief, I simply turn it back toward the Holy Spirit. The tension occurs when I become attracted to its offerings.

So this morning, I am so grateful for this lesson. I sit in quiet and give my heart to God and He offers me respite in His peace. The mind is busy still, remembering and planning, and like the unruly child it is, stomping its metaphorical foot at my inattention. I can’t help but long for the time when I can be in God without any thought intruding at all, but I am learning patience and I am learning to love and honor myself, all of me, the human version I made, and the spirit that is my eternal self.

Daily Application: One of the things I love about the previous entry is that I can see how different my life is now when I read entries from my past journals. My mind is not completely healed as there are times when I feel some anxiety or uncertainty, but those times are few and I move through them quickly and easily. Mostly, my mind does rest in God. I don’t judge or hold grievances. I don’t indulge guilt or fear. If they show up at all, I choose happiness instead.

Every so often, I notice something in my mind that still needs my attention, a belief that has not been healed. I did that yesterday. My friend sent me a note. It said: On the call with Cate yesterday, she said she got to a point where she just had to accept everything Jesus said in the Course as true for her.  That mindset eliminates a lot of ego muddling.

I thought, “Well sure. I do that.” Then later that evening while taking my shower, the thought entered my mind then why do I get sick? Why do I take precautions against the virus? I say that I accept that nothing outside my mind can affect me in any way and yet this isn’t true, is it? So here is something in my mind, an ego belief that I have not released. Today, I will rest in God and let Him inform me.

Insights from Holy Spirit: Myron, you look at your body and see it aging and experience sickness and wonder how it could be that sickness is not possible. Don’t look to the world (your body) for proof of the truth because you will not find it there. Just look to Me. Listen to Me. Have I not been guiding you to this very thing? I have led you to the places in the Course I want you to read and practice, to the courses you share with others that will help you see what is possible, to the lessons that help you practice what I want you to know and to accept. Turn away from the false proof of the ego and keep looking toward Me.

Gratitude: Ok. I can see how today’s lesson is perfect for me right now. I will rest in God today and know that I am resting in God, not living in the fantasy world that I am imagining. I will do this to the best of my ability and trust that my efforts will be strengthened by You. This is exciting!