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ACIM Workbook - Lesson 160 (view source)
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<center>'''I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.'''</center>
I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.
Fear is a stranger to the ways of love. Identify with fear, and you will be a
stranger to yourself. And thus you are unknown to you. What is your Self
remains an alien to the part of you which thinks that it is real, but different
from yourself. Who could be sane in such a circumstance? Who but a
madman could believe he is what he is not, and judge against himself?
There is a stranger in our midst, who comes from an idea so foreign to the
truth he speaks a different language, looks upon a world truth does not
know, and understands what truth regards as senseless. Stranger yet, he does
not recognize to whom he comes, and yet maintains his home belongs to
him, while he is alien now who is at home. And yet, how easy it would be
to say, "This is my home. Here I belong, and will not leave because a
madman says I must."
What reason is there for not saying this? What could the reason be except
that you had asked this stranger in to take your place, and let you be a
stranger to yourself? No one would let himself be dispossessed so
needlessly, unless he thought there were another home more suited to his
tastes.
Who is the stranger? Is it fear or you who are unsuited to the home which
God provided for His Son? Is fear His Own, created in His likeness? Is it
fear that love completes, and is completed by? There is no home can shelter
love and fear. They cannot coexist. If you are real, then fear must be
illusion. And if fear is real, then you do not exist at all.
How simply, then, the question is resolved. Who fears has but denied
himself and said, "I am the stranger here. And so I leave my home to one
more like me than myself, and give him all I thought belonged to me." Now
is he exiled of necessity, not knowing who he is, uncertain of all things but
this; that he is not himself, and that his home has been denied to him.
What does he search for now? What can he find? A stranger to himself can
find no home wherever he may look, for he has made return impossible. His
way is lost, except a miracle will search him out and show him that he is no
stranger now. The miracle will come. For in his home his Self remains. It
asked no stranger in, and took no alien thought to be Itself. And It will call
Its Own unto Itself in recognition of what is Its Own.
Who is the stranger? Is he not the one your Self calls not? You are unable
now to recognize this stranger in your midst, for you have given him your
rightful place. Yet is your Self as certain of Its Own as God is of His Son.
He cannot be confused about creation. He is sure of what belongs to Him.
No stranger can be interposed between His knowledge and His Son's reality.
He does not know of strangers. He is certain of His Son.
God's certainty suffices. Who He knows to be His Son belongs where He
has set His Son forever. He has answered you who ask, "Who is the
stranger?" Hear His Voice assure you, quietly and sure, that you are not a
stranger to your Father, nor is your Creator stranger made to you. Whom
God has joined remain forever one, at home in Him, no stranger to Himself.
Today we offer thanks that Christ has come to search the world for what
belongs to Him. His vision sees no strangers, but beholds His Own and
joyously unites with them. They see Him as a stranger, for they do not
recognize themselves. Yet as they give Him welcome, they remember. And
He leads them gently home again, where they belong.
Not one does Christ forget. Not one He fails to give you to remember, that
your home may be complete and perfect as it was established. He has not
forgotten you. But you will not remember Him until you look on all as He
does. Who denies his brother is denying Him, and thus refusing to accept
the gift of sight by which his Self is clearly recognized, his home
remembered and salvation come.
[[Category: Workbook I]]
<center>'''I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.'''</center>
I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.
Fear is a stranger to the ways of love. Identify with fear, and you will be a
stranger to yourself. And thus you are unknown to you. What is your Self
remains an alien to the part of you which thinks that it is real, but different
from yourself. Who could be sane in such a circumstance? Who but a
madman could believe he is what he is not, and judge against himself?
There is a stranger in our midst, who comes from an idea so foreign to the
truth he speaks a different language, looks upon a world truth does not
know, and understands what truth regards as senseless. Stranger yet, he does
not recognize to whom he comes, and yet maintains his home belongs to
him, while he is alien now who is at home. And yet, how easy it would be
to say, "This is my home. Here I belong, and will not leave because a
madman says I must."
What reason is there for not saying this? What could the reason be except
that you had asked this stranger in to take your place, and let you be a
stranger to yourself? No one would let himself be dispossessed so
needlessly, unless he thought there were another home more suited to his
tastes.
Who is the stranger? Is it fear or you who are unsuited to the home which
God provided for His Son? Is fear His Own, created in His likeness? Is it
fear that love completes, and is completed by? There is no home can shelter
love and fear. They cannot coexist. If you are real, then fear must be
illusion. And if fear is real, then you do not exist at all.
How simply, then, the question is resolved. Who fears has but denied
himself and said, "I am the stranger here. And so I leave my home to one
more like me than myself, and give him all I thought belonged to me." Now
is he exiled of necessity, not knowing who he is, uncertain of all things but
this; that he is not himself, and that his home has been denied to him.
What does he search for now? What can he find? A stranger to himself can
find no home wherever he may look, for he has made return impossible. His
way is lost, except a miracle will search him out and show him that he is no
stranger now. The miracle will come. For in his home his Self remains. It
asked no stranger in, and took no alien thought to be Itself. And It will call
Its Own unto Itself in recognition of what is Its Own.
Who is the stranger? Is he not the one your Self calls not? You are unable
now to recognize this stranger in your midst, for you have given him your
rightful place. Yet is your Self as certain of Its Own as God is of His Son.
He cannot be confused about creation. He is sure of what belongs to Him.
No stranger can be interposed between His knowledge and His Son's reality.
He does not know of strangers. He is certain of His Son.
God's certainty suffices. Who He knows to be His Son belongs where He
has set His Son forever. He has answered you who ask, "Who is the
stranger?" Hear His Voice assure you, quietly and sure, that you are not a
stranger to your Father, nor is your Creator stranger made to you. Whom
God has joined remain forever one, at home in Him, no stranger to Himself.
Today we offer thanks that Christ has come to search the world for what
belongs to Him. His vision sees no strangers, but beholds His Own and
joyously unites with them. They see Him as a stranger, for they do not
recognize themselves. Yet as they give Him welcome, they remember. And
He leads them gently home again, where they belong.
Not one does Christ forget. Not one He fails to give you to remember, that
your home may be complete and perfect as it was established. He has not
forgotten you. But you will not remember Him until you look on all as He
does. Who denies his brother is denying Him, and thus refusing to accept
the gift of sight by which his Self is clearly recognized, his home
remembered and salvation come.
[[Category: Workbook I]]