ACIM Workbook Lesson 160 – for Thursday, June 9, 2011
Affirmation: “I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.”
“Fear is a stranger to the ways of love. Identify with fear, and you will be a stranger to yourself, and thus you are unknown to you. What is your Self remains an alien to the part of you which thinks that it is real, but different from yourself. Who could be sane in such a circumstance? Who but a madman could believe he is what he is not, and judge against himself? (WB302)”
Reflections:
It is a glorious blessing to be free of fear. It may not happen immediately for those who read ACIM, but the promise is there. If we fail to identify with the fear thoughts, we will go a long way toward dispersing them.
We are not meant to be afraid. We may use pills to help us, because Jesus says that though these are forms of spells (an ACIM tenet), we do not want to do anything to exacerbate our fear. Pills are a temporary expedient in our world, the world still ruled by the ego. In Awakening, fear disappears entirely. Eckhart Tolle has written extensively about this cessation of fear–this miracle.
We do not want to be ruled by madness. And the ego is a form of madness. Let us leave it behind today. This is our goal, and the day will come when we see that withering away of the ego as a reality. We have lived with the ego for a long time, and it is not always realistic to think that it will disappear immediately, upon asking. But Jesus is in charge of time (an ACIM tenet), and turning to him is our best hope.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
I thank You for the assertion that I am at home. I take this as evidence that I am at home now–not some distant time in the future when my fears will all have dissipated forever. I would diminish fear in every situation in which I can realistically hope to do so. I pray to You for the relinquishment of all fear as a manifestation of the ego which I no longer want.
I will enjoy being home today. I often think about being home with You, and today’s lesson makes this clear in a way that helps me immensely. Thank You.
Amen.
