Our Inner Heaven Offers a Joy that Knows No Bounds

“The life of the physical self became a life of suffering and strife only because the physical or personal self forgot that it exists in relationship and believed itself to be separate and alone. In its fear, it made an ego-self which, because it sprang from fear, was not consistent with the laws of Love or of creation. Knowing it existed in a state inconsistent with that of the laws of God, it made of God a being to be feared, thus continuing, and being unable to find release from, the cycle of fear.” (ACOL, T3:12.9)

This quotation is part of the theology of A Course of Love. If we can believe this quotation, we will find an answer to much of our previous questioning. We will know why fear intervened in a paradise that the earth could have been. We will know why we exited, metaphorically, the Garden of Eden. And we will get an inkling of how to find our way to a new Garden, a House of Truth, and with this we will exit the house of illusion, the illusion that has covered our eyes with scales, preventing our vision of something new, different, and better.

Surely when we imagine ourselves all alone in the universe, fear is not far behind. When we destroy relationships that could be an oasis of peace, we suffer. And this suffering prompts fear to arise. We wonder how we could have gone so wrong. And how could God allow us to go so wrong? How could a loving and compassionate Father not rescue us from ourselves?

He does do so, not by intervening and destroying our freedom of will, but by consoling when times are tough. When we feel love for our Creator, we are reaching for the heavens, and in this reach, we find Who we are seeking. He is reaching back down to us as well, coming out from deep within each of us, transforming our psyche so that we will never have to fear fear again. God is not “other than” we are; we are a part of Him. This is a tenet of both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love, and when we believe it, we stop looking heavenward for a Deity. We see that heaven is really within each of us, that the elevated Self of form, being formed now, will make us well people. Our fear will be gone, our love will be all-consuming and all-transforming.

Let Love show the way. When fear beckons, know that this is the house of illusion beckoning to us once again. But don’t enter that place. Know that the House of Truth, God’s Kingdom, is our legitimate home and our inheritance. Know that our understanding of God will grow as we reside longer in this House of Truth.

Fear aside, we welcome Love into our hearts and minds. Our way home is assured, finally.

Prayer

I know in my innermost mind and heart that heaven is within me. When I don’t reach inward often enough, I forget, and then the problems start. Help me to reach inward today. Help me to find You.

Heaven is a promise to us of improved conditions. And with this promise comes a joy that knows no bounds.

Thank You.

Amen.