Gentle Healing 2 ~ Day 192 – NTI Galatians 4 (v1-7) – (v8-20)

Today’s reading begins by reminding us not to judge ourselves. It says:

You can misunderstand My message when you listen through the ears of judgment. You can take my message of freedom and make of it a slave. In this way, My message is lost to you.

I ask you to lay down your judgment and listen to Me with clarity.

A good coach must show us what we are doing wrong so we can improve. Without that helpful guidance, we can’t make progress.

Imagine how useless a golf coach would be if he didn’t point out the error in your golf swing!

The same applies to the spiritual path. In order for a coach or teacher to be truly helpful, that coach must point out our errors. When we see that our mistakes are pointed out to help us improve, we listen with clarity. When we judge ourselves for the mistakes we make, the teacher’s helpfulness is lost to us.

Today’s reading points out that the world is a false god that we make and worship. The purpose of this false god is to tell us that we are separate. It could also be said that the world is made to give us a sense of self or a distinct feeling of “me.” The world does this through people, places and experiences, and through the differences found in each.

The world is an effective false god because it tempers its own message. If the experience of separation were overpowering without any sense of community or communion, we would reject the world entirely and awaken immediately. The reason we linger within illusion is because there is enough community and communion to keep us interested.

In other words, the sense of communion in the world isn’t a sign of an awakening world. The sense of communion is a trick to keep us mesmerized by a world that is made to be different from truth.