Day 160: I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.

Today's workbook lesson of A Course in Miracles begins with this: "Fear is a stranger to the ways of love.  Identify with fear, and you will be a stranger to yourself."  Fear is the devil's playground - the devil, of course, being our ego.  The ego is like the devil on our shoulders.  It is the part of our mind that has convinced us we are separate from one another.  It is the part of our mind which would have us believe that we are our bodies and will one day die.  It is the part of our mind which feeds upon our fears, growing stronger every step we take away from the Truth of Who We Are.

We are at Home in God, and God's Home is not complete without us there.  We have never really left Him, but we have imagined that we have.  This is the trick the ego's played on us.  This is the basis of all fear - that we are all alone, isolated from each other, apart from God and of only temporary existence.  This may be the truth about our bodies, but our bodies are not Real.  Anything of temporary being is not Real in the Mind of God, for in the space of God there exists but Here and Now - an Eternal State of Being.  This is the Home where our souls dwell.  This is Who We Really Are.

I am at home.  Fear is the stranger here.

Have you ever felt a stranger to yourself?  I know I have.  Heck, we all have.  It's called "adolescence."  Seriously.  Can you think of a period of time in your life more terrifying than that?  During adolescence, we are more apt to identify with our bodies than at any other age, and that is where belief in separation all begins.  The physical changes are apparent.  We begin to feel strange within our very skins.  But then the social pressures take us like a great big wave - the popular and outcast groups emerge, and dividing lines grow wider.  Remember that Pure Love will only join together.  Fear is what divides us.  If anything for certain can be said of adolescence, it's that divisions are made clear.  You're either "in" or you are "out," and even when you're "in" you can't help feeling all alone.  We are classified as one thing or another, and no longer do we have a place that we can call our home.

Thankfully, this traumatic period does pass.  But it sets in us a fear that lingers with us for a while.  For some this fear will last for the remainder of their lives.  For others (like yourself), by seeking Truth within themselves, they come to recognize that they are not what they once thought they were.  They come to realize that those dividing lines - from "loser" to "most popular" - are only in our minds.  We are all Worthy.  Otherwise, we would not Be.  And if we are all worthy, then we must be tied to something Greater which has made us so.  Every single one of us is Great.  But joined together, we are Greater - joined together, we are the Son of God Himself.  And what but Love could have the power to connect us so?  What but fear could try to tell us that we are not Whole?  The Truth of Who We Are is certain.  We are at Home in God, joined together by His Love.  There is no power that could alter this.  And that is why fear is the stranger here.

Break down those lines that divide you from the rest of the world today.  Do it with Love, and you will remember the Truth of Who You Are.  A Light will start to shine so bright and so familiarly that you will know it is the Light that takes you Home.

So take off those "Kick Me" signs, people... It's time.

Until tomrorow,
Journeyman