Lesson 42
God is my strength. Vision is His gift.
You made the decision long ago to walk with God. You don’t even have to remember making that decision. It was made. Coming across A Course in Miracles, or any other such text, is just the playing out, the unfoldment, of that revelation you had once upon a time. That decision may or may not have been made in this lifetime or another. Who is to say? And does it really matter? The point is you are here and not by some coincidence.
You are not here by any sort of random event or existence. I have a talk coming up about the idea of coincidence. The more I have been contemplating coincidence I realize there is no such thing. That even coincidences themselves prove there are no coincidences. Coincidences in themselves prove that there is a Higher Power at work orchestrating the perfection that is our lives. It is the perfect dance. It is the perfect chess match. It is the perfect puzzle and we are the pieces. In a way, coincidences are the means in which God nudges us and says “Did you see what I just did?” I’m sure in some other parallel universe there is a primetime show that other higher beings are watching that displays all the perfect coincidences we are living out. Imagine it like a blooper show except with instances of “divine non-coincidences” that God puts in our paths to show how She moves in our lives and how quite often we don’t see it. Those higher beings probably get a good chuckle out of our clumsy attempts “to do our own lives” while there is this divine movement happening all around us. At least we can give the universe a good laugh.
But today we see! Today we see how we cannot fail in our attempt to awaken to Who and What we truly are. And how this Higher Power is moving without any of our will at all.
“You will see because it is the Will of God. It is His strength, not your own, that gives you power. And it is His gift, rather than you own, that offers vision to you (ACIM Lesson 42 1:3-5).”
You will notice that today does not ask you to exercise any strength at all. You do not have to go to the gym to exercise the strength to take on the world. None of the Course lessons thus far have sent you out to do push-ups and calisthenics, nor will they. It is the opposite, to just sit and observe and be with the God within. How is that for a strength program?
It is fine to go out and do specific exercises to strengthen the body to help maintain this vessel you are in. Just realize that the strength you are cultivating is metaphorical, the real strength you need to move through this experience of life is that which needs none of your physical strength at all. It is this invisible, mountain moving strength that is not of this world. It is that which only can come from Source.
In Hinduism, this sort of energy is called Prana, life force energy. There are some Hindus who practice breatharianism, life lived without food and sustained only by this life force energy. I do not personally know of anyone who lives this way but I can see where this subset of people are coming from. If you have ever done a cleanse or fast, you notice that a vital energy coarses through your body with the little to no food you are taking in. Often it is found that people have more energy while on a fast or cleanse then with his or her regular fitness and diet program. How could this be? I believe this ideas help us to understand on a physical sense how there is this unmistakable force that lies within us and around us. A force that emerges from us even when we do very little to cultivate it.
Many call this sort of strength, resilience. I like that word. It means “bouncing back in the face of adversity or change.” It almost feels like when trauma happens that we tap into a divine source of strength that we didn’t know we had within us. I believe this speaks to what we are referring to today because the strength that is given us of God is that of an eternal strength that lies deep within. A strength always part of us without any effort of our own. A strength that can be called up on in any moment. With that sort of strength, of course we will “bounce back.” What else would we do?
When tragedy happens, many are always in awe of the resilience of the human spirit. We are truly resilient. But it is not of our own making, it is actually in spite of,
“God is indeed your strength, and what He gives is truly given. The means that you can receive it any time and anywhere, whenever you are, and in whatever circumstances you find yourself (ACIM Lesson 42 2:1-2).”
Today, we try to connect to such gifts that do not need our efforting. Even in our practice periods were are encouraged to “not actively search for relevant thoughts (ACIM Lesson 42 6:1)” for today’s exercise. We carry on from yesterday as we come to that quiet place and let God’s strength and vision speak to us, giving us thoughts that relate to today’s idea.
As we sit in silence, we come full circle with our commitment to walk with God. The Course lessons thus far have been mini-unfoldments for that one commitment we have made. Today is our reminder that we are still committed to these same goal and that we cannot fail.
“The more often you repeat the idea during the day, the more often you will be remind yourself that the goal of the course is important you, and that you have not forgotten it (ACIM Lesson 42 8:1).”
This is also a reminder that although you have spent forty or so days repeating various statements, you do have the words inside of you and they come from your commitment to the Will of God. The Course is a beautiful tool but today we are shown the real tool of strength that courses through us. And the gift of that strength is Her vision. We see the Word. We know the Word. We are the Word.
“In the beginning there was only The Word…”
Namaste.