What Hinders You?

"For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation." -- The Bible; Romans 4:15

"I saw that the law of mortal belief included all error, and that, even as oppressive laws are disputed and mortals are taught their right to freedom, so the claims of the enslaving senses must be denied and superseded." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 227, Lines 3-7

"The illusion of material sense, not divine law, has bound you." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 227, Lines 26-27

"There are no laws but God's. There is no loss under the laws of God. Payment is neither given nor received. Exchange cannot be made; there are no substitutes; and nothing is replaced by something else. God's laws forever give and never take. The laws of God make free." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 76, 9:1, 3-6, 7:5

It took me a long time to realize that human laws are all made up. We live in a world of human constructs based on the belief in a punitive God, and the corollary belief that humans have to be limited or they will screw up and do evil things.

Human law is all about what we must not do. Even laws that say we must do certain things, like pay taxes or stop for red lights, are based on not running into somebody and not being a bad citizen. They are all some version of 'thou shalt not.' This is insanity. And by looking around at our world, we can see, plainly, it just doesn't work.

The good news that Jesus brought is that there are no laws but God's... and God's law is the Law of Love, and Love alone. God is All, and His Love is All. He told us that "God is no respecter of persons. He makes his sun (His Love) shine on the evil and the good." We don't have to earn God's Love by toeing the line. His law is One. "Thou shalt love God with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and strength; and your neighbor as your Self. This is the Law." It can't get much simpler.

Yet the simple can be the most challenging. Who among us is willing to leave our old ways, to shift focus from the material laws we have believed and valued, to the Truth of Being in the Allness of God's Love? Who among us is willing to question the so-called laws of health, behavior, and livelihood that we have been taught? Who among us is willing to love, not our personal lives and the people and things that populate our personal world, but God as All, above All?

What laws seem to hinder you? Are they the laws of diet and health? Are they the laws of being a 'good' person? Are they the laws of success and failure? Are they they the laws of human love and relationships? Whatever the human laws we believe in, they are the limits of our life. And when we don't live up to these self-imposed laws, even if no one else knows, we suffer. They are laws of fear and punishment... even the ones in the disguise of love and attachment. If there are no other laws but God's Love, what are all these things that get our heart and mind and soul and strength every day? What are all these things we think demand our time and allegiance? And what do we think will happen if we don't obey these laws of matter and material life? Thou shalt not fail to do this, because if you don't, something horrible will happen! Thou shalt not fail to do that, because you if you don't, you will never be happy! Thou shalt not fail to please them, because if you don't, you will be a bad, bad friend, a bad person. Thou shalt not fail to obey the rules of matter, because if you don't, you will die! Held hostage to the belief in so many fictional laws, we can't see that we are not just the prisoner, we are the jailer and the jail.

Your freedom depends on the courage and the vigilance to question even your most cherished beliefs, your most valued illusions. Whenever you take the time to question the many laws of behavior that seem to hold you hostage, you will always discover there is nothing there but unquestioned beliefs. What hinders you? Your own fear of self-inquiry and self-discovery. And nothing else. For God's Love is All, and the only Law there is.

"So I would liberate all things I see, and give to them the freedom that I seek. For thus do I obey the Law of Love, and give what I would find and make my own." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 349, 1:1-2