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41 God goes with me wherever I go.

JC: How could it not be so? How could you walk the world without the Self?
MT: You're saying, how could I look for me when that's who I am? Somewhere in the Lessons you poke the ribs of "man, the only animal who does not know who he is and wanders the world in search of himself." I love it when you dip the pen in irony, JC.
JC: Glad to oblige. Irony is only one of many ways to reach my brother. You can indeed afford to laugh at fear thoughts.
MT: This is, then, the way out of fear--to know that I am never alone, that being alone is impossible because God is within, God is that which moves my body, the air I breathe, the light with which I see.
JC: God is life in matter, mind made flesh. Would the sun wander deep space searching for light? There is no escaping that which you are, but would you really want to, even if you could?

42 God is my strength. Vision is His gift.

MT: I had a very good day, yesterday, JC. Don't know how it happened--I'd
like to think it was something I did or did not do, but perhaps it was just
a gift from God.
JC: A good day is a gift. All you did was to open yourself to the
possibility.
MT: And today's lesson? What can you tell me about it?
JC: You have long associated God with weakness. Established religion would
tell you that God created you a miserable sinner. This erroneous belief
leads people to crawl on their knees and bellies, seeking atonement for
their imagined sins.
MT: How about vision? I am even afraid to ask the question! What kind of
vision are we talking about?
JC: This refers to the experience of God. It is possible, desirable,
essential to experience God directly. Everyone who walks the world must
eventually come to this point, so it may as well be now. It is only the
belief in your worthlessness that keeps you from the vision of God.

43 God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him.

MT: All this stuff about seeing, JC, and here I worry about my deteriorating eyesight! Is this a coincidence, or what?
JC: There are no coincidences. These are lessons you would do well to study closely.
MT: They freak me out, to tell you the truth. The Feldenkrais eye exercises freaked me out big time. I suspect there is a connection.
JC: You are so close to true seeing! It is a tiny step away, now.
MT: How do I need to think, in order to see?
JC: It helps to be vigilant for God. It helps to think with God. You know what those thoughts are. But ultimately, seeing is a gift of grace and it comes unbidden. Training your mind merely paves the way for seeing.
MT: What am I doing? I would rather sleep than do this lesson! Help!
JC: Who are you, and what do you want?
MT: I am the holy son of God, returning to his Father's house.

44 God is the light in which I see.

" . . . think of light, formless and without limit, as you pass by the
thoughts of this world." How sweet these words, JC. God as light, God as
energy, God as the pattern that connects all living things, God the
intelligence that moves planets in their appointed paths, God the mystery of
suns upon suns thousands of light-years away. How great Thou art!

45 God is the mind with which I think.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1) "Under all the senseless thoughts and mad ideas with which you have cluttered up your mind are the thoughts that you thought with God in the beginning." (ACIM Lesson 45)

MT: So that's where I came from. I was a Thought of God in the beginning. I have never left my Source. That's quite a task you set yourself, JC--to undo the illusion from within.
JC: It would be a task comparable to Herakles' cleaning of the Augean stables, except for the fact that the illusion is not Truth, so illusion has no weight and no substance and can vanish in an instant. In effect, I aim to pack your mind full of healing thoughts, leaving little room for worry, fear, guilt, anger. Reach beyond tick-tock now. Reach for the Mind that knows no limit.

47 God is the strength in which I trust.

How great Thou art! No longer do I trust in my own petty strength. God goes with me wherever I go. There is nothing to fear.

One gets the Course by bits and pieces. In dealing with various body infirmities, I "got it" this time: how essential it is to move attention away from sickness/lack/decay, and to focus firmly on God's opinion of me. "I have no more use for this" is the powerful affirmation that helps us look away from the body. In this pithy sentence, we are affirming our magnificence as a Son of God, taking responsibility for creating the illness, and letting it go.

49 God's Voice speaks to me all through the day.

We think we need gurus and politicians and kings to tell us how to behave in the world. The blind lead the blind, and when things go wrong, we always have someone else to blame. Must have been the Republican administration! But someday, out of nowhere, the Messiah will arrive and we'll be in Heaven. Meanwhile, let's wait and suffer our fate.

God's quiet Voice murmurs in the background: wait no longer, the Kingdom is here. The Kingdom is in you, the Kingdom IS you. The Messiah has come! --but not in the form you expected. Miracles usually arrive in unexpected forms anyway, you should have noticed by now. The miracle of the Second Coming is no exception. It requires from you only the relinquishment of your mad ideas of sin, suffering, and death. It requires your empowerment: Behold the glory of Creation! I am the Christ, and so are you! What were we thinking? How come we didn't notice it before?

50 I am sustained by the love of God.

I thought I was sustained by money, but I am sustained by the love of God.
I thought I was sustained by food, water, vitamins, sunshine, but I am sustained by the love of God.
I thought I was sustained by the government, but I am sustained by the love of God.
I thought I was sustained by my life partnet, but I am sustained by the love of God.
I thought I was sustained by fear, but I am sustained by the love of God.

MT: What's this about fear, JC?
JC: Fear is a learned reaction. It is now time to unlearn it.
MT: And the difference between fearless behavior and rash behavior?
JC: Walk the world in serene certainty, and nothing can hurt you. Defiant behavior is something else.
MT: I like "serene certainty." Defiant behavior is . . . oh my God, JC, I just realized, I engage in defiant behavior regarding food. I'll eat what I'm sure is not good for me, thinking that if I'm holy enough, God can save me from the consequences. That's defiant behavior, isn't it? And it leads to a dilemma.
JC: That is defiant behavior, unworthy of you. In God there are no dilemmas. In God there is only certainty.
MT: Today, I am sustained by the love of God.

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