Lesson 52
Review I
Practice Instructions
See Practice Instructions Review I
Commentary
Remember that the general practice for these reviews is to read all five thoughts and comments twice daily, morning and evening, and to spend at least one two-minute period with each of the five ideas during the day.
The thoughts are thick in these reviews, so I offer only a few observations on things that stand out for me.
“Reality is never frightening” (1:2). Reality is, of course, what God created. When I feel frightened, I find it useful to remind myself that I must be seeing something that isn’t really there.
I am the one who makes up frightening illusions. How reassuring to be told, “Nothing in God’s creation is affected in any way by this confusion of mine” (1:7). That is the basis for letting go of guilt. I may be confused, mistaken, deceived, and deceiving, but none of it affects what is real. What’s real is real no matter what I do. The sun doesn’t go out when I cover my eyes. So all that I have done has had zero real effects! I have nothing about which to feel guilty.
“If I see nothing as it is now, it can truly be said that I see nothing” (4:2). A thing is as it is now. It isn’t as it was yesterday; it isn’t as it will be tomorrow. Things exist now. That is the only way I can see them. That is how they are. If I am seeing the past, I’m not seeing anything. The past isn’t here.
“I have no private thoughts” (5:2). What if everyone in the world could see right into your mind? What if the way you thought about your boss affected the war in Bosnia? Guess what? They can. It does. And yet, “they mean nothing” (5:5). If you think thoughts you believe to be private, they are meaningless. They have effects within the illusion, but they affect nothing real. Only thoughts that are shared have real effects, and the only thoughts that can be truly shared are the thoughts you think with God.