How Is Peace Possible In This World?

There is a great deal of anxiety, doubt and fear following the election and watching Mr. Trump announce his pick for cabinet posts. A naturopathic healer we know, trust and refer to for assistance told my wife how many people she knows – from her own practice, as well as practices of other physicians, therapists and healers – that are suffering from this anxiety and the stress it causes: sleeplessness, digestive issues, heart palpitations, inability to focus on even routine tasks, etc. I, too, have noticed some of these symptoms.

Then, in our most recent weekly Course In Miracles (ACIM) meeting, we studied in the Manual for Teachers the 11^th of 29 topics entitled. “How Is Peace Possible In This World.” That was associated with the Workbook lessons associated with topic 13: “What Is A Miracle.” These two selections blessed me right where I hurt. Perhaps they will bless you too.

Quotes from these passages follow, but the underlined emphases are mine:

11.  HOW IS PEACE POSSIBLE IN THIS WORLD?

1 This is a question everyone must ask. Certainly peace seems to be impossible here. Yet the Word of God promises other things that seem impossible, as well as this. His Word has promised peace. It has also promised that there is no death, that resurrection must occur, and that rebirth is man's inheritance. The world you see cannot be the world God loves, and yet His Word assures us that He loves the world. God's Word has promised that peace is possible here, and what He promises can hardly be impossible. But it is true that the world must be looked at differently, if His promises are to be accepted. What the world is, is but a fact. You cannot choose what this should be. But you can choose how you would see it. Indeed, you must choose this.

2 Again we come to the question of judgment. This time ask yourself whether your judgment or the Word of God is more likely to be true. For they say different things about the world, and things so opposite that it is pointless to try to reconcile them. God offers the world salvation; your judgment would condemn it. God says there is no death; your judgment sees but death as the inevitable end of life. God's Word assures you that He loves the world; your judgment says it is unlovable. Who is right? For one of you is wrong. It must be so.

3 The text explains that the Holy Spirit is the Answer to all problems you have made. These problems are not real, but that is meaningless to those who believe in them. And everyone believes in what he made, for it was made by his believing it. Into this strange and paradoxical situation—one without meaning and devoid of sense, yet out of which no way seems possible—God has sent His Judgment to answer yours. Gently His Judgment substitutes for yours. And through this substitution is the un-understandable made understandable. How is peace possible in this world? In your judgment it is not possible, and can never be possible. But in the Judgment of God what is reflected here is only peace.

4 Peace is impossible to those who look on war. Peace is inevitable to those who offer peace. How easily, then, is your judgment of the world escaped! It is not the world that makes peace seem impossible. It is the world you see that is impossible. Yet has God's Judgment on this distorted world redeemed it and made it fit to welcome peace. And peace descends on it in joyous answer. Peace now belongs here, because a Thought of God has entered…. Now is the question different. It is no longer, "Can peace be possible in this world?" but instead, "Is it not impossible that peace be absent here?"

The Workbook For Students, which contains 365 lessons, is broken into two parts. Part II is organized around 14 Questions. The 13^th Question is “What is a Miracle.” Lessons 341-350 expand on that question, which address this stress and anxiety we all may be experiencing.

13. What is a Miracle?

1 A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change at all. It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. It undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness….

2 A miracle contains the gift of grace, for it is given and received as one. And thus it illustrates the law of truth the world does not obey, because it fails entirely to understand its ways. A miracle inverts perception, which was upside down before, and thus it ends the strange distortions that were manifest. Now is perception open to the truth. Now is forgiveness seen as justified.

3 Forgiveness is the home of miracles. The eyes of Christ deliver [miracles] to all they look upon in mercy and in love. Perception stands corrected in His sight, and what was meant to curse has come to bless. Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love….

4 The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand. Yet faith will bring its witnesses to show that what it rested on is really there. And thus the miracle will justify your faith in it, and show it rested on a world more real than what you saw before; a world redeemed from what you thought was there.

5 Miracles fall like drops of healing rain from Heaven on a dry and dusty world, where starved and thirsty creatures come to die. Now they have water. Now the world is green. And everywhere the signs of life spring up, to show that what is born can never die, for what has life has immortality.

Subsequent lesson titles [344-347] elaborate on this Truth:

344. Today I learn the law of love; that what I give my brother is my gift to me.

345. I offer only miracles today, for I would have them be returned to me.

346. Today the peace of God envelops me, and I forget all things except His Love.

347. Anger must come from judgment. Judgment is the weapon I would use against myself, to keep the miracle away from me.

I hope this helps you as it helped me.

As I’ve stated before, “I have to understand, on a visceral level, who the “Me” or “I” really is when I am speaking or thinking. The “I” that says to myself, “I really need a newer, more reliable car” is a different “I” than the one that says to Spirit, “I can’t do this anymore; help me perceive things the way You see them.”

Although these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening to me and getting to know me – warts and all. As always, feel free to forward this message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.

Don

#2 Dec 2016

Copyright 2016