God's Will

First I want to let my readers know that I have a CD for sale, with proceeds going to The Claire Foundation Animal Sanctuary.  All the hymns on it are Acappella, and recorded live at St. Vincent's-in-the-Vineyard.  You can hear cuts from it on my YouTube channel.  Thanks for supporting the animals!  And FYI, you can download individual mp3s for only $1.99 each.

Now for the quote that inspired today's blog:
"God's Will is One, not many.  It has no opposition, for there is none beside it." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 19, IV, 3:5-6

It's hard to find a phrase that instills such varied reactions as 'God's Will.'  For many of us, it conjures pious, judgmental comments made after natural disasters or sudden deaths.  For almost everyone it raises a sense of unease and fear... because hey, who the heck knows what God's Will for us is?  It could be bad, it could be something punitive so we can 'learn our lessons.'  Isn't that how most human parents operate?  Don't we unconsciously model our ideas of God after our human notions of authority?

So this quote can be hard to take in.  We may hear it, but gloss over it.  God's Will is ONE, not many.  IT HAS NO OPPOSITION, because there isn't anything else.  Only God.  We live and move and have our being IN THIS ONENESS.  So logically there isn't my will and then God's Will imposed on me from without.  There is only God, only God's Will, appearing AS me, and AS you.  That we have convinced ourselves and each other that we are separate bodies and lives is irrelevant, because it's not true. 

This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the movie "The Matrix."  A little psychic boy is bending spoons with his mind, and offers Keanu Reeves' character the chance to try it.  He isn't having much luck, and the little boy simply says, "Don't try and bend the spoon.  Know that there is no spoon."  And then of course, the spoon bends.

Joel Goldsmith told a similar story.  He was traveling and arrived at his destination only to hear that his luggage had been lost.  He spent the next couple of days practicing scientific prayer, knowing that what belonged to him could never be lost, etc.  But his luggage did not show up.  Finally in meditation the answer came to him... there was no lost luggage!  There are no opposites or oppositions in all God's Kingdom, there is only God!  Of course, his luggage then 'showed up' unexpectedly.

Jesus taught us this Truth when he said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom (the Oneness of God) and all else will be added unto you."  We just have it upside down and backwards, thinking that cause and effect lie within the world, in our actions and reactions, or even in our thoughts.  If there is no Will but God's, it also holds that there are no real Thoughts but God's.  Everything else is the dreaming of the mind that imagines itself to be separate.  And no matter what we imagine in our dreaming, we remain safe in God, eternally.

There is great peace in this awareness.  "Peace has replaced the strange idea that you are torn by conflicting goals.  As an expression of the Will of God, you have no goal but His." (ACIM; Workbook 74, 1:5-6)  We don't have to struggle humanly to figure it all out.  God's Will is always Love, Goodness, Happiness, Peace, Abundance, Joy, and endless Life.  And as we trust God with each holy instant of our lives, we are led by Grace. 

"He leadeth me in paths of righteousness, for His Name's sake." -- Psalm 23

"Today I will recognize that all this has not occurred.  I am safe because there is no will but God's." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 87, 3:5-6