Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)There are no idolaters in the Kingdom, but there is great appreciation for everything that God created, because of the calm knowledge that each one is part of Him. 2 God's Son knows no idols, but he does know his Father. 3 Health in this world is the counterpart of value in Heaven. 4 It is not my merit that I contribute to you but my love, for you do not value yourself. 5 When you do not value yourself you become sick, but my value of you can heal you, because the value of God's Son is one. 6 When I said, "My peace I give unto you," I meant it. 7 Peace comes from God through me to you. 8 It is for you although you may not ask for it. (ACIM:T-10.III.6)
In me you have already overcome every temptation that would hold you back. 2 We walk together on the way to quietness that is the gift of God. 3 Hold me dear, for what except your brothers can you need? 4 We will restore to you the peace of mind that we must find together. 5 The Holy Spirit will teach you to awaken unto us and to yourself. 6 This is the only real need to be fulfilled in time. 7 Salvation from the world lies only here. 8 My peace I give you. 9 Take it of me in glad exchange for all the world has offered but to take away. 10 And we will spread it like a veil of light across the world's sad face, in which we hide our brothers from the world, and it from them. (ACIM:T-13.VII.16)
"Not as the world gives do I give to you." This seems to me to be the formal version of what I was taught as a little kid: that God's Help is not like Santa Claus, and does not offer wish fulfillment. Wish fulfillment is what the ego offers us, or so it seems. But there comes Jesus' warning "Take it of me in glad exchange for all the world has offered but to take away." Thus his consumer warning to us is simply that the world's offers, even the best ones, only give us "something" in lieu of "everything." The ego is thus the perfect "Indian giver," it gives but to get. What Jesus extends to us in these passages, is the full right of return, once we see that the gifts of the world did not work ("There must be another way!"), we can trade them in for his peace. All he needs from us is to give up our definition of what that looks like, because the ego's wishes will forever reinforce the problem instead of solving it, so we need to leave the form of his peace to the Holy Spirit.
Copyright, © 2008 Rogier F. van Vlissingen. All rights reserved.
