We don’t have to make judgments that are condemnations
By Sally McKirgan
The title of Lesson 20 of “A Course in Miracles, Manual for Teachers” asks “What Is the Peace of God?” It’s a very beautiful and comforting lesson that I turn to often.
Very few of us mean it when we say “I want the peace of God.” Or perhaps we mean it for five minutes, until we are distracted by the folly of the world. We say we want the peace of God, and then we turn on the TV, or start an argument, or remember an argument we had or wish we’d had, or remember who we are angry with. On the journey to peace, we encounter many obstacles along the way. All of them are to be forgiven. All! As we forgive them, we become more and more free from the ego’s attacks and more determined to ignore its silly ideas.
We are responsible for how we look at things. Our interpretation of whatever is up to us. We are in charge of how we view the world. OK, there is a war in the Middle East. So how are you going to see it? How you choose to see it is choosing the peace of God or not. Do you see it with the ego or the truth in your mind, that is, the Holy Spirit/Love? If we view it through the lens of giving love to both sides we are on the road to peace. If we choose sides, we will make an enemy of one. Yes, one is fiercer than the other, but this is what war and egos are for. Choose sides and make someone wrong, and you are in conflict.
For example, you may root for one side at a baseball game. One is your home team or perhaps your favorite. Unless you recognize both teams as beautiful and whole, you are choosing against the peace of God within. When one team wins, the other becomes the loser, so half of the stadium is sad and the other gleeful, right? Is that nice? Do you like being a winner? A loser? See how each team is good and gifted. Then you are not in conflict. Neither a loser or a winner be! Your ego may be mad, but you are not the ego. You are Spirit; a loving soul who loves and is loved.
About 8.1 billion people live in the world, according to Worldometer.com. Every one of them wants one thing: to be loved! Every one of them does not want to die. Everyone wants peace.
What they may not know is this: Everyone one is loved, no one dies and peace is a choice. We can choose to “see” differently from what the ego would have us see. We can’t judge right from wrong because we don’t know what that is. But we can decide to send love to everyone, to the victim and victimizer alike.
The world expects us to choose. We all have preferences, but we don’t have to make judgments that are condemnations, which echo our “seeming” separation from God and the love in our minds.
If you haven’t seen it, watch the series called “Ted Lasso” on Apple TV+. Ted is pretty close to having a tranquil mind. The show ran for three seasons, a total of 34 episodes. It is rather profound in content. Yes, there is plenty of swearing; after all, it is an English football (soccer) team. But there is humor, genuine friendship, love and defenselessness that is compelling.
Anyone who knows what God’s peace is probably is no longer here. Perhaps they may have had glimpses of the grandeur, but one thing to know for sure is: We are all on our way, and it’s guaranteed we will find it. Believe … a tranquil mind is possible!
Sally McKirgan, former editor of the Inner Peace column and author of “The Gift of the Great Rays,” lives in Olympia, Washington, and still misses the lovely and friendly small town of Ashland.
Want to contribute? Send 600- to 700-word articles on all aspects of inner peace to Richard Carey (rcarey009@gmail.com).
