Lesson 175

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
(159) I give the miracles I have received.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
(160) I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

My Review
Fear has been the hardest idea for me to relinquish and that makes sense as I consider that the ego is the idea of fear and God the idea of Love. I used to be afraid of things like global warming and what that would mean to those who come after us. Lately, the world has given us other things, more immediate things to be afraid of. Now, I’m not afraid of these things, though the ego still tries to engage my interest and occasionally I feel myself being pulled into the stores.

What I know, now, keeps me from slipping too deeply into that rabbit hole. The world is an illusion. It is a story that played itself out long ago and so this life I seem to be living is just an ancient memory I have placed before these eyes. I cannot change the course of a memory but I can learn from it if I choose to and what I learn awakens me and others with me.

Recently, I became afraid for my son, but it is different now. When the situation arose, I felt fear but I also watched myself in fear. It is a strange thing. I felt the fear just as I would have before my shift. At the same time, I was completely aware that fear was there. I was also completely aware that it was just a thought in my mind. I kept up a running conversation with the Holy Spirit until the fear faded.

The bizarre nature of the event was this dual experience. I wonder if the next time there is a situation that in the past called for a fear reaction, what will it be like for me? Will these emotions continue to occur for Myron and will I continue to experience them even as I am, at the same time, detached from them? Or will I finally be so detached from the idea of being a body in a real-time situation that I am only the observer?

Perhaps this is how it will work for me. I will just keep backing away from the idea that the world is real and I am in a body until there is none of that belief left in my mind. This is possible since fear is just a belief and not real. I am still afraid of heights and apparently, I still fear for my son. I even get fearful for my granddaughter who is a fearless little explorer. What I do know about fear is that it is not real. It is the effect of believing in separation. As long as I identify with my humanness, I will have fear, but that fear lessens as I remember who I am. It lessens daily now. One day, I will shoo that stranger out of my mind altogether.

I went back to the Introduction to Review V this morning and let it remind me why it is I am doing these lessons.

W-pI.rV.in.7. My resurrection comes again each time I lead a brother safely to the place at which the journey ends and is forgot. 2 I am renewed each time a brother learns there is a way from misery and pain. 3 I am reborn each time a brother’s mind turns to the light in him and looks for me. 4 I have forgotten no one. 5 Help me now to lead you back to where the journey was begun, to make another choice with me.

W-pI.rV.in.8. Release me as you practice once again the thoughts I brought to you from Him Who sees your bitter need, and knows the answer God has given Him. 2 Together we review these thoughts. 3 Together we devote our time and effort to them. 4 And together we will teach them to our brothers. 5 God would not have Heaven incomplete. 6 It waits for you, as I do. 7 I am incomplete without your part in me. 8 And as I am made whole we go together to our ancient home, prepared for us before time was and kept unchanged by time, immaculate and safe, as it will be at last when time is done.

Jesus is making an impassioned plea that we help him awaken ourselves and our brothers, reminding us that he needs our help and that none of us are done until we are all done. Then I went back to the lesson with renewed spirit to use the steps we are given and to do so with all my heart.

The following is a message from Spirit from a time when I was just learning to master the belief in fear.

Holy Spirit, how would you have me use this lesson today?

Holy Spirit: When you see some form of fear in your mind today, Myron, remind yourself that God loves you. He loves you with a love that is complete and unchanging, that is unaffected by your imaginings. He delights in you and all that you do. He doesn’t know judgment, only love. By using the ego’s fearful moments in this way, you are allowing the root of fear to be shaken loose. Each time you do this, fear’s hold on you is permanently lessened.

Me: Of course. I see that when I try to avoid or change what seems to scare me, I am just teaching myself that it is real and the cause of my fear. If I am worried about money then try to earn more to alleviate my worry, I have brought myself deeper into the illusion. I have caused myself to believe that the world is real and the cause of my concerns.

Holy Spirit: Yes, that is true. Fear found a place in your mind and the mind created images to explain the fear. The fear came first. The circumstances that you see with the body’s eyes are simply a reflection of this fear. All are within your mind; the fear, the story, the body that seems to be experiencing the story. Healing, therefore, must occur within the mind. Do not worship fear for it is a false god. Turn your back to it, and look toward your Creator Who is Love and does not offer fear. In this way are all fearful symbols relinquished for all time.

I had an evening a while back where fear caught my attention and I let it consume me. But even then, I asked for help and received it. When it happened again the next night, I caught it faster and let go faster. The next night the ego-mind tried to engage me in that fear and I simply turned away from it out of disinterest. The Holy Spirit wants me to know this, to know that healing occurs in the mind and that I can trust that healing.

I had fear in my mind and projected it as a story in the life of Myron. I believed the fearful story, but instead of trying to change the story, I asked that my mind be healed of this belief. Once done, the ego-mind could no longer entangle me in that fear story. This happened pretty quickly for me because I have been doing this practice long enough that fear is not quite the hook it used to be.

Using this process in each fearful circumstance is helping me to undo the belief in fear itself. And that is how we undo the ego and this makes it possible for us to see what has been true all along. The fear stories are the illusion. The truth is that we are love. We are loved. We are perfect and perfectly innocent. We are safe in God.