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October-December, 2023

Perfect Love and the Mind of God

by Rev. Peggy Rivera, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

I have a friend I have been talking with who has been dealing with a lot of problems. She has had more on her plate than she feels she can deal with. I wondered how I can help someone who is visibly unhappy and seems to feel like a victim of their circumstances.

If I sit and listen and try to console, am I adding to the problem, because the Course says none of this is real. If I acknowledge that I hear them, am I acknowledging that it is real?

I asked Holy Spirit for guidance when I truly wanted to help. I got an answer so fast it was funny. As I was asking for guidance from Holy Spirit, the telephone rang and it was someone who was very distraught and upset with others saying that “they won.” She felt humiliated and like a loser. And Holy Spirit said to me that very moment, “There is no competition, you are love and so are they.”

This was perfect because it made her see she was believing a situation where one person is having to be better than another but, in God’s eyes, we are all perfect. God’s Love for us is perfect and there are no circumstances that makes that not true for any of us. I realized that here on planet earth this is what we can use the body for. We need to consult with the Holy Spirit’s help because this is the tool we are given.

The ego always tries to trap us into the thought process of making judgments and comparisons that create war between us. When we are not aware of His complete Love, we feel like we are guilty.

Most of the time we do not understand where that feeling of guilt comes from. We think it is circumstantial for the present moment. Little do we know that it originated a very long time ago and we re-create situations that keep this alive within ourselves.

I see patterns of thinking that mimic this pattern over and over again. So, as I reflect on the question I began with, I got my answer.

We can listen and feel empathy and console, but we must also remind them that they are perfect in God’s eyes; that we do not need to create any chaos or drama in our lives.

Sometimes I think it is helpful to just listen and be in a state of love and peace. We remind each other to lift ourselves above the fray and gain a new perspective; the perspective of unconditional Love.

In A Course in Miracles it says, “To heal, then, is to correct perception in your brother and yourself by sharing the Holy Spirit with him. This places you both within the Kingdom, and restores its wholeness in your mind.” (T-7.II.2:1-2)

When I try to console without asking for help from Holy Spirit, my ego can try to insert itself to confirm their fears. I may try to agree with them and see others as being cruel to them. But under the guidance of Holy Spirit, I can remind them that they are all Love. When we judge others we also judge ourselves. That judgment keeps us feeling alone and afraid. If I am talking to someone who does not study the Course, I can word it in ways that they are able to accept.

I realize that as we live here in this world of duality, we need to continually bask in the Light of the Holy Spirit. That is why He is here — to remind us of our true Self.
It is so easy in this world of illusion to feel unloved and afraid, to feel judged by our peers. I remember feeling that way when I was younger and had not studied the Course.

Slowly I have integrated the realizations of truth. If I judge my brother, I become that which I condemn. I realize it is difficult to let go of the need to be right, the need to blame others for hurting me, but it adds to living a life of victimhood. It keeps us on the not-so-merry-go-round of “stinkin’ thinkin’.” While I explained to my friend that the people she was upset with were just confused and had not realized their true identity, she was meeting me with a lot of resistance and she so much wanted to lash out at them.

As we learn the law of the Kingdom, which is the law of Love, we can find It in ourselves to see others as innocent; as little children who have not yet learned to let go and let God. We let God in to heal our minds. God is Spirit and He can heal our mind. And as we heal our mind, we feel better.

The friend I was talking with said she felt like she was somehow being punished. She is not A Course in Miracles student. She is a Christian, but decided to convert to her husband’s religion of Judaism. I know she is searching for truth. I feel the need to just remind her how much God loves her. God’s perfect love cancels out all fear, all pain. When we forget that we are pure love in the mind of God, we live by the laws of ego. Here on Earth the ego tries to rule us and keep us in the prison of its laws.

“The first chaotic law is that the truth is different for everyone.” (T.23.ll.2:1) As long as we try to believe we are who the ego says we are and we live in duality believing that two things can be true, we will be imprisoned into fear and conflict. When we realize that we are not the body but Spirit in the Mind of God, we will know peace.

We are all innocent and have not sinned. We are all trying to find our way back into the realization that we are perfect and loved unconditionally.

When we perceive ourselves as being judged by another, we can see them as little children who lack the maturity to see what the truth is. We can take measures to nurture ourselves, and accept the Love that we are. We can see that they are not bad, they have just forgotten who they are. And if we judge others, we are also putting ourselves in that prison alongside of them.

We must remind each other that the Love of God is perfect. There is no war, there is no conflict in the mind of God. There are no differences. God is pure Love and we are perfect in the mind of Him Who created us in Spirit.

The second law of chaos is, “…that each one must sin, and therefore deserves attack and death.” (T.23.II.4:1)

Here we can see how my friend believed she was being punished and, furthermore, that she deserved it. We seem to make God a co-conspirator of hate and death and punishment. We need to remember Who we are and also remember Who God is, realizing He would never ever condemn His creations.

The third law of chaos is, “…if God cannot be mistaken, He must accept His Son’s belief in what he is, and hate him for it.” (T.23.II.6:6)

In the descent from Heaven, we have made God our enemy and we live in fear of Him. If we believe this, we can feel that we are forever lost and that there is nowhere to turn that is safe.

The fourth law of Chaos “…is the belief that you have what you have taken.” >(T.23.II.9:3)