The peace of God is everything I want (W-pI.205.1:2).
Clarity matters. Honesty matters. Can we say "the peace of God is everything I want" or are we still hedging? Hedging isn't a crime; there are no consequences.
But it's not unlike wanting a cake: you have to buy one or bake one or persuade someone to make one for you. You can't just say over and over "I want a cake." Do you want it or not? Are you ready to be responsible for your want or not?
Are we serious about the peace of God or not?
We have to ask this and be honest in our answer: what else do we want beside the peace of God? Sex? More money? To live in another part of the country?
It's not to say those things are bad - they're neither good nor bad. But wanting them obscures the awareness that the peace of God is already inherent in us. It is already given.
When we can say in honesty that the peace of God is everything we want, then we will remember that we already have it. We don't have to do anything but want the peace of God without qualification or condition because . . .
. . . your completion is God's, Whose only need is to have you be complete. For your completion makes you His in your awareness. And here it is that you experience yourself as you were created, and as you are (T-15.VII.14:8-10).
Our "completion" has nothing to do with our bodies or the world. It is not about the right partner or the perfect home. It is not about A Course in Miracles being better than Catholicism. It's not about who wins an election.
Our completion is beyond us. It is not a personal accomplishment. It didn't happen yesterday and it won't happen tomorrow because it is outside of time altogether. If we could do it ourselves, then we'd already have done it.
All we can actually do is choose the form of the altar that's most helpful and then pray at it as often as possible, with as much integrity as possible. The ACIM workbook lessons, meditation, long walks in the forest . . .
Your "altar" is the place and practice that brings you to stillness most consistently and effectively.
All we can do is bring the drama of our external wanting to a close, which is simply to disregard it and then give attention to the faint light - the faint voice - inside us whose whispers are stillness and healing itself.
We don't undo want. We simply realize that we can't undo it, and then . . .
. . . wait on the Peace of God.
When we take an aspirin to reduce our fever, we don't follow the aspirin into our body, giving it orders and making sure it does its job. We take our medicine and then wait. We don't have to do anything else because there is nothing else to do.
This is what it means to wait on God, Whose Peace is all we want. We become still and quiet; we remind ourselves that no matter what we might think or say, God's Love and Peace are already given. We can be confused about this but we cannot be wrong about it.
And then we wait. And then our waiting is answered.
"The peace of God is everything I want."
Is this your truth? Does ego still worm its way in and make you forget your truth? Or attempt to substitute for your truth?
There is way that today you can speak your truth with clear conviction, and then enter the holy space inside you where God's Teacher will quietly remind you that God's Peace is all you have, because it is what you are. Be quiet; be attentive; be honest. No more than this is asked that all might be restored to awareness.
Thank you, as always, for being with me.
Love, Sean
“All we can do is bring the drama of our external wanting to a close,...”
Yes - the drama. The self-inflicted pain. The distraction.
Yes - I can choose to disregard it and give attention to the whispers that come in stillness. I can practice stillness. I don’t have to undo the want - I can just let it go and wait.
Thank you.