Lesson 170. There is no cruelty in God and none in me.
A skunk does it. A snake does it and family members will even do it. What’s that, you may ask. We defend ourselves from fear with attack.
You have all probably heard Jacquelyn tell stories about when she, our Mom and I were living together on my property and contemplating turning the property into a spiritual community. In our process there were many lessons learned. If you listened to Jacquelyn, her stories consist of how Mom and I were mean to her and would gang up on her. Mom and I always seemed to be in a state of disbelief when Jacquelyn, totally unprovoked, would verbally attack one or both of us. I suppose the reason we didn’t kill one another and grace would drop in to save was because we all had a sublime intent to create a community for the purpose of awakening.
I remember one evening in particular when Mom and I had just sat down to dinner. Jacquelyn came into the room and said something that appeared at the time to be harsh to Mom. I heard it as if someone had leaned over and whispered into my ear, “This has nothing to do with you.” I am quite sure without the grace, I would have sensed fear and defended Mom via an attack on Jacquelyn (maybe we did gang up). Just like the skunk and the snake do, I would have become defensive and attacked out of my fear. I know this because this scenario habitually played out many times as the three of us struggled to get the spiritual community set up.
To give up the habit of attack we need the desire or the grace to give it up. We resist the urge to attack by practicing rest, accept and trust when energy arises that would seem to advocate a need for attack. Our lesson today tells us fear is protected, not escaped when we use cruelty as a means to protect ourselves. Today’s lesson also tells us , “You make what you defend against, and by your own defense against it is it real and unescapable.” Every defense if truly seen is an attack. Jacquelyn was right. We thought we were merely defending ourselves, but in reality we attacked her because we allowed fear to become our safety and protector of our peace when we turned to it for solace.
If in the moment you hear a call for defense and Grace doesn’t come and whisper in your ear to drop the cruelty of attack, then lets be prepared to release this cry for defense. Again, lets give up the habit of attack and defense. Let us rest, accept, and trust that all defense is foolish and be released from what our lesson calls abject slavery. This is within our grasp with this simple practice of rest, accept and trust. With this practice, our lesson tells us, “Now do your eyes belong to Christ, and He looks through them. [Now] there is no cruelty in God and none in me.”
