Gang Wars

"You always choose between your weakness and the strength of Christ in you.  And what you choose is what you think is real.  Simply by never using weakness to direct your actions, you have given it no power.  And the light of Christ in you is given charge of everything you do." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII, 2:3-6

I was watching some crime drama on T.V. (don't ask me why!) and I saw very clearly the choices that led a young man from a good family to become a member of a street gang... and not just a member, but an active participant in an ongoing war against other street gangs.  The choices he made were always based on who he thought he was, and where his safety and fulfillment could be found.  Wrong choice after wrong choice led him to a nasty ending.  Does this sound familiar?

I love how extreme examples in our lives and cultures serve to show us our own mental choices.  We project them and create cultural stories and tragedies to pretend they are 'out there.'  We live in perpetual cultural gang wars... clashing ideas, values, stories, all seemingly competing for our time, our allegiance, our money, and our very souls.  What gang do you belong to?  What are your colors?

I used to belong to the 'spiritual' gang.  We tend to act like we're not a gang, but we are.  We pretend we're lacking enlightenment, so we have to perpetually seek fulfillment.  We attack the culture and society that seem to prevent us from living as we want to live, that doesn't seem to honor us or understand us.  We pretend to be 'better' and more evolved, and so we are entitled to judge the other gangs.  We think our safety and fulfillment lie in these games.  We are no different than any other gang.  We are mentally at war with the world.

Every country, every culture, every political party, every passionate cause, and even every family has its colors and its gang culture.  We all belong to gangs within gangs, and sometimes our gang wars overlap and intertwine with each other.  But make no mistake... every conflict, no matter how mild, is the result of gang wars, always based on choosing to value a weak and fictional self as real.  "Trials are but lessons that you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make a better one, and thus escape all pain that what you chose before has brought to you.  In every difficulty, all distress, and each perplexity Christ calls to you and gently says, "My brother, choose again."  He would not leave one source of pain unhealed, nor any image left to veil the Truth." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII, 3:1-3 

How simple to realize that we are always choosing between the false self, the gang member, or our True Self, the Christ in us!  The false self is like that boy in the crime drama... he thought he was weak and limited, thought he needed to belong to a gang to be strong and protected.  Was he ever wrong!  And so are we.  "The images you make cannot prevail against what God HimSelf would have you be.  Be never fearful of temptation then, but see it as it is; another chance to choose again, and let Christ's strength [your True Self] prevail in every circumstance and every place you raised an image of yourself before.  You are as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon, regardless of the images you see.  What you behold as sickness and as pain, as weakness and as suffering and loss, is but temptation to perceive yourself defenseless and in hell.  Yield not to this, and you will see all pain, in every form, wherever it occurs, but disappear as mists before the sun." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 31, Section VIII, 4:1-2 & 6:1-3

Wow.  This seems too good to be true, doesn't it?  And besides, we are loyal to our gangs.  Our family is still our family.  We should be grateful to belong to (fill in the blank).  Our family, country, church, school, group, etc.  is so much better, isn't it?  What if we belonged to that country?  What if we had those people as relatives?  What if, what if, what if... an endless litany of justification for our choices of misplaced allegiance and mis-identification.  We feel safe and protected by the numbing familiarity of belonging.  And we never question.

But we can always choose again.  As Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is another day."  Each instant is new, fresh, infinite in possibility and beauty.  We have only to choose again.  Gang wars only go on as long as we think there are separate, conflicting gangs.  When we remember that we are collectively One Self, one with God and everything that lives, there can be no more war... only endless love, appreciation, and joy.  We have simply awakened to the Truth, safe in God.

"Learn then the happy habit of response to all temptation to perceive yourself as weak and miserable with these words:  I Am as God created me.  His Son can suffer nothing.  And I Am His Son.  Thus is Christ's strength invited to prevail, replacing all your weakness with the strength that comes from God and that can never fail.  And thus are miracles as natural as fear and agony appeared to be before the choice for holiness was made.  For in this choice are false distinctions gone, illusory alternatives laid by, and nothing left to interfere with Truth." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII, 5:1-7