If
you cannot hear the Voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen. That you do
listen to the voice of your ego is demonstrated by your attitudes, your feelings and your
behavior. Yet this is what you want. This is what you are fighting to keep, and what you
are vigilant to save. Your mind is filled with schemes to save the face of your ego, and
you do not seek the face of Christ. The glass in which the ego seeks to see its face is
dark indeed. How can it maintain the trick of its existence except with mirrors? But where
you look to find yourself is up to you.
I
have said that you cannot change your mind by changing your behavior, but I have also
said, and many times, that you can change your mind. When your
mood tells you that you have chosen wrongly, and this is so whenever you are not joyous,
then know this need not be. In every case you have thought wrongly about some brother God
created, and are perceiving images your ego makes in a darkened glass. Think honestly what
you have thought that God would not have thought, and what you have not thought that God
would have you think. Search sincerely for what you have done and left undone accordingly,
and then change your mind to think with God’s. This may seem hard to do, but it is
much easier than trying to think against it. Your mind is one with God’s. Denying
this and thinking otherwise has held your ego together, but has literally split your mind.
As a loving brother I am deeply concerned with your mind, and urge you to follow my
example as you look at yourself and at your brother, and see in both the glorious
creations of a glorious Father.
When
you are sad, know this need not be. Depression comes from a sense of being deprived of
something you want and do not have. Remember that you are deprived of nothing except by
your own decisions, and then decide otherwise.
When
you are anxious, realize that anxiety comes from the capriciousness of the ego, and know
this need not be. You can be as vigilant against the ego’s dictates as for them.
When
you feel guilty, remember that the ego has indeed violated the laws of God, but you
have not. Leave the “sins” of the ego to me. That is what Atonement is for. But
until you change your mind about those whom your ego has hurt, the Atonement cannot
release you. While you feel guilty your ego is in command, because only the ego can
experience guilt. This need not be.
Watch
your mind for the temptations of the ego, and do not be deceived by it. It offers you
nothing. When you have given up this voluntary dis-spiriting, you will see how your mind
can focus and rise above fatigue and heal. Yet you are not sufficiently vigilant against
the demands of the ego to disengage yourself. This need not be.
The
habit of engaging with God and His creations is easily made if you actively refuse to let
your mind slip away. The problem is not one of concentration; it is the belief that no
one, including yourself, is worth consistent effort. Side with me consistently against
this deception, and do not permit this shabby belief to pull you back. The disheartened
are useless to themselves and to me, but only the ego can be
disheartened.
Have
you really considered how many opportunities you have had to gladden yourself, and how
many of them you have refused? There is no limit to the power of a Son of God, but he can
limit the expression of his power as much as he chooses. Your mind and mine can unite in
shining your ego away, releasing the strength of God into everything you think and do. Do
not settle for anything less than this, and refuse to accept anything but this as your
goal. Watch your mind carefully for any beliefs that hinder its accomplishment, and step
away from them. Judge how well you have done this by your own feelings, for this is the
one right use of judgment. Judgment, like any other defense, can be used to attack or
protect; to hurt or to heal. The ego should be brought to judgment
and found wanting there. Without your own allegiance, protection and love, the ego cannot
exist. Let it be judged truly and you must withdraw allegiance, protection and love from
it.
You
are a mirror of truth, in which God Himself shines in perfect light. To the ego’s
dark glass you need but say, “I will not look there because I know these images are
not true.” Then let the Holy One shine on you in peace, knowing that this and only
this must be. His Mind shone on you in your creation and brought your mind into being. His
Mind still shines on you and must shine through you. Your ego cannot prevent Him from
shining on you, but it can prevent you from letting Him shine through you.
The
First Coming of Christ is merely another name for the creation, for Christ is the Son of
God. The Second Coming of Christ means nothing more than the end of the ego’s rule
and the healing of the mind. I was created like you in the first, and I have called you to
join with me in the second. I am in charge of the Second Coming, and my judgment, which is
used only for protection, cannot be wrong because it never attacks. Yours may be so
distorted that you believe I was mistaken in choosing you. I assure you this is a mistake
of your ego. Do not mistake it for humility. Your ego is trying to convince you that it is
real and I am not, because if I am real, I am no more real than you are. That knowledge,
and I assure you that it is knowledge, means that Christ has come
into your mind and healed it.
I
do not attack your ego. I do work with your higher mind, the home of the Holy Spirit,
whether you are asleep or awake, just as your ego does with your lower mind, which is its
home. I am your vigilance in this, because you are too confused to recognize your own
hope. I am not mistaken. Your mind will elect to join with mine, and together we are
invincible. You and your brother will yet come together in my name, and your sanity will
be restored. I raised the dead by knowing that life is an eternal attribute of everything
that the living God created. Why do you believe it is harder for me to inspire the
dis-spirited or to stabilize the unstable? I do not believe that there is an order of
difficulty in miracles; you do. I have called and you will answer. I understand that
miracles are natural, because they are expressions of love. My calling you is as natural
as your answer, and as inevitable.
A Course in Miracles
Chapter 4
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