Lesson 153

In my defenselessness my safety lies.

You might as well hear it:

“The world provides no safety.”

Somewhere, you already know this is true. Anything could happen at any moment – a car crash, a house burning down, sickness, death, terror, war, poverty – and usually does occur just when you least expect it.

The reason is because “the world is rooted in attack, and all its “gifts” of seeming safety are illusionary deceptions.”

Okay? Got it?

So the only thing to do is to get out of the world. Rise above it. Get with God.

In your defenselessness is where your safety lies.

You won’t find it in the world. All you will find in the world is despair and sorrow.

But as you align your mind with God, with the thinking of God … you are perfectly safe.

Lesson 153 is an accurate (horrifying) description of how the human being constructs itself in time & space. It says:

“Defenses are the costliest of all the prices which the ego would exact. In them lies madness in a form so grim that hope of sanity seems but to be an idle dream, beyond the possible. The sense of threat the world encourages is so much deeper, and so far beyond the frenzy and intensity of which you can conceive, that you have no idea of all the devastation it has wrought.”

Did you read that? I want you to read it again.

“The sense of threat the world encourages is so much deeper, and so far beyond the frenzy and intensity of which you can conceive, that you have no idea of all the devastation it has wrought.”

At some point – hopefully today – you WILL see it, and you will suddenly get a glimpse, an “idea of all the devastation it has wrought” and from that moment of clarity, where you recognize you are the cause of the devastation which “is so much deeper, and so far beyond the frenzy and intensity of which you can conceive” you will take responsibility for all your public and private thoughts, and allow the purification process to begin.

It’s quite simple, once you see the picture clearly.

“We look past dreams today, and recognize we need no defense because we were created unassailable, without all thought or wish or dream in which attack has any meaning.”

“Now we cannot fear, for we have left all fearful thoughts behind.”

And in defenselessness, we stand secure, serenely certain of our safety now, sure of salvation; sure we will fulfill our chosen purpose, as our ministry extends its holy blessing through the world.

Be still a moment.

Be still a moment, and in silence think how holy is your purpose, how secure you rest, untouchable within its light.

God’s ministers have chosen that the truth be with them.

Who is holier than they?

Who is holier than you?

“It is the function of God’s ministers to help their brothers choose as they have done. God has elected all, but few have come to realize His Will is but their own.”

God has elected all. He has elected you. He has called your name to take your place as a minister, as a teacher of truth, to help your brothers choose as you have done.

Will you answer? Will you accept?

“And while you fail to teach what you have learned, salvation waits and darkness holds the world in grim imprisonment. Nor will you learn that light has come to you, and your escape has been accomplished.”

For you will not see the light, until you offer it to all your brothers.

You might as well hear it.

Salvation is not serious business. It is a “game that happy children play.”

It is a game “designed by One Who loves His children, and Who would replace their fearful toys with joyous games, which teach them that the game of fear is gone. His game instructs in happiness because there is no loser.”

I love this lesson. It is in my Top 10 favorites.

“You who have played that you are lost to hope, abandoned by your Father, left alone in terror in a fearful world made mad by sin & guilt; be happy now.

And the “other things” you should turn your attention to is God and helping others find their way.

Try it, and see. Happiness will come finding you.

“We pause but for a moment more, to play our final, happy game upon this earth.”

“And then we take our rightful place where truth abides and games are meaningless.”

So is the story ended.

You are a minister of God. You have been ordained.

From Jesus:
“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”
- John 15:16

“We will observe our trust as ministers of God, in hourly remembrance of our mission and His Love. And we will sit quietly by and wait on Him and listen to His Voice, and learn what He would have us do the hour that is yet to come; while thanking Him for all the gifts He gave us in the one gone by.

You see? Stay in unbroken communion with God. It is possible to keep the Thought of God in your mind every moment of every day.

“In time with practice, you will never cease to think of Him, and hear His loving Voice guiding your footsteps into quiet ways, where you will walk in true defenselessness.

For you will know that Heaven goes with you.

Nor would you keep your mind away from Him for a moment, even though your time is spent in offering salvation to the world.

Think you He will not make this possible, for you who chose to carry out His plan for salvation of the world and yours.

I really love A Course in Miracles.

Today our theme is defenselessness.

Your practicing will now begin to take the earnestness of love, to help you keep your mind from wandering from its intent.

Be not afraid nor timid.

There is no doubt that you will reach your final goal. The ministers of God can never fail, because the love and strength and peace that shine from them to all their brothers comes from Him.

These are His gifts to you.