Lesson 261
God is my refuge and security.
“Let me not seek for idols. In would come, my Father, home to You today. I choose to be as You created me, and find the Son whom You created as my Self” (ACIM Lesson 261 2:1-3).
Where do we seek false security and refuge? This list can run from jobs, money, our homes, our second homes, our savings account(s), the way we treat our bodies, and to the way we treat others. In particular, today, let us talk about the way we treat others and ourselves.
Often we are not aware of what fear triggers us to do to ourselves, leading us to hide within our bodies. We reach for the chips, the sodas, the fast foods, and the sex, in order to conceal the fact that we uncomfortable with life. Perhaps we feel threatened by the world or even our own presence. We distract ourselves from facing and feeling ourselves. We believe we are saving this body by engaging in reactive behavior, when in truth we are abusing ourselves. We take our overwhelming lives and use it as an excuse to attack ourselves with food, sex, money, new jobs, new phones, etc. Rather than stopping and looking at our false securities, we keep striving for more and more and more, living our lives in reaction mode, ready to attack at any moment.
“Let me today seek not security in danger, nor attempt to find my peace in murderous attack. I live in God. In Him I find my refuge and my strength. In Him is my Identity” (ACIM Lesson 261 1:3-6).
We also defend ourselves from others by being the first to attack. This can be through thought, word, or action. We may even retreat from the world because we believe we are safer in our own homes, hidden. Eventually defending ourselves will have to come to an end. We cannot keep hiding in, and abusing, our bodies. At some point, we will have to face how we treat others and ourselves. We will have to recognize that we have not been the most loving of stewards. And, again, this is okay. We have not sinned. We have just misused our divine energy. But today, we gather up all of our attack thoughts and manners and notice how with them, we never received true safety and refuge. Rather we had to be on guard for the next blow. However, when we abide in union with God, we see that we truly need nothing but let go and rest in peace.
The body, itself, can lend us to false refuge or it can lead us home to our Mother-Father God, where true safety lies. It all comes down to how we use our awareness, for that of love or fear? It just takes one step, and one step only, to begin trusting in the safety of our Creator. Why not start today? We will be given many chances in this section entitled, “What is the Body?” that we might as well begin right here and right now. One morsel of willingness is all She asks to show you how true and sure She is. You can let go of the striving and fortifying of your fortress. She is already inside and ready to help break you free from the chains that bind you, those created by your own thoughts. Abiding with God will be the safest move you have ever made, and you didn’t even have to move anywhere at all.
As you abide with God, be kind to yourself and others. Greet the person in the mirror as the Child of God she is and let this experience radiate out into the world. This recognition and abiding in Truth is your holy refuge. Namaste.
