View source for 19.5 The First Obstacle: The Desire to Get Rid of It

[[Image:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Acim_small.jpg|right|frame]]

The first [[obstacle]] that [[peace]] must [[flow]] across is your [[desire]] to get rid of it. For it cannot extend unless you keep it. You are the center from which it [[radiates]] outward, to call the others in. You are its [[home]]; its tranquil dwelling place from which it gently reaches out, but never leaving you. If you would make it [[homeless]], how can it abide within the Son of God? If it would spread across the whole [[creation]], it must begin with you, and from you reach to everyone who calls, and bring him [[rest]] by joining you.

Why would you want peace [[homeless]]? What do you think that it must dispossess to dwell with you? What seems to be the cost you are so unwilling to pay? The little [[barrier]] of sand still stands between you and your brother. Would you reinforce it now? You are not asked to let it go for yourself alone. [[Christ]] asks it of you for himself. he would bring [[peace]] to everyone, and how can he do this except through you? Would you let a little bank of sand, a wall of dust, a tiny seeming barrier, stand between your brothers and [[salvation]]? And yet, this little remnant of [[attack]] you cherish still against each other is the first obstacle the peace in you encounters in its going forth. This little wall of [[hatred]] would still oppose [[the Will of God]], and keep it limited.

The [[Holy Spirit]]'s [[purpose]] rests in peace within you. Yet you are still unwilling to let it join you wholly. You still oppose the Will of God, just by a little. And that little is a limit you would place upon [[the whole]]. God's Will is One, not many. It has no opposition, for there is none beside it. What you would still contain behind your little barrier and keep [[separate]] from your brother seems mightier than [[the universe]], for it would hold back the universe and its Creator. This little wall would hide the purpose of [[Heaven]], and keep it from Heaven.

Would you thrust [[salvation]] away from the giver of salvation? For such have you [[become]]. [[Peace]] could no more depart from you than from [[God]]. [[Fear]] not this little obstacle. It cannot contain the Will of God. Peace will [[flow]] across it, and join you without hindrance. Salvation cannot be withheld from you. It is your [[purpose]]. You cannot [[choose]] apart from this. You have no purpose apart from your brother, nor apart from the one you asked the [[Holy Spirit]] to [[share]] with you. The little wall will fall away so [[quietly]] beneath the wings of peace. For peace will send its messengers from you to all the world, and [[barriers]] will fall away before their coming as easily as those that you [[interpose]] will be surmounted.

To overcome the world is no more [[difficult]] than to surmount your little wall. For in the [[miracle]] of your [[holy relationship]], without this barrier, is every miracle contained. There is no order of difficulty in miracles, for they are all the same. Each is a [[gentle]] winning over from the [[appeal]] of [[guilt]] to the appeal of [[love]]. How can this fail to be accomplished, wherever it is undertaken? Guilt can raise no real [[barriers]] against it. And all that seems to stand between you must fall away because of the appeal you answered. From you who answered, he who answered you would call. His [[home]] is in your holy relationship. Do not attempt to stand between him and his holy purpose, for it is yours. But let him quietly extend the miracle of your [[relationship]] to everyone contained in it as it was given.

There is a hush in [[Heaven]], a [[happy]] expectancy, a little pause of gladness in acknowledgment of the [[journey]]'s end. For Heaven knows you well, as you know Heaven. No [[illusions]] stand between you now. Look not upon the little wall of [[shadows]]. The [[sun]] has risen over it. How can a shadow keep you from the sun? No more can you be kept by shadows from the [[light]] in which [[illusions]] end. Every miracle is but the end of an illusion. Such was the journey; such its ending. And in the goal of [[truth]] which you [[accepted]] must all illusions end.

The little [[insane]] wish to get rid of him whom you invited in and push him out must produce [[conflict]]. As you look upon the world, this little [[wish]], uprooted and floating aimlessly, can land and settle briefly upon anything, for it has no [[purpose]] now. Before the [[Holy Spirit]] entered to abide with you it seemed to have a mighty purpose; the fixed and unchangeable [[dedication]] to sin and its results. Now it is aimless, [[wandering]] pointlessly, causing no more than tiny interruptions in love's [[appeal]].

This feather of a wish, this tiny [[illusion]], this microscopic remnant of the [[belief]] in [[sin]], is all that remains of what once seemed to be the world. It is no longer an unrelenting [[barrier]] to [[peace]]. Its pointless wandering makes its results appear to be more erratic and unpredictable than before. Yet what could be more unstable than a tightly organized [[delusional]] system? Its seeming stability is its pervasive [[weakness]], which extends to [[everything]]. The variability the little remnant induces merely indicates its limited results.

How mighty can a little feather be before the great wings of [[truth]]? Can it oppose an eagle's flight, or hinder the advance of [[summer]]? Can it [[interfere]] with the effects of summer's [[sun]] upon a [[garden]] covered by snow? See but how easily this little wisp is lifted up and carried away, never to return, and part with it in gladness, not [[regret]]. For it is nothing in itself, and stood for nothing when you had greater [[faith]] in its [[protection]]. Would you not rather greet the summer sun than fix your gaze upon a disappearing snowflake, and shiver in remembrance of the [[winter]]'s cold? 




[[Category: Chapter 19 - The Attainment of Peace]]
[[Category: Peace]]
[[Category: Barriers]]