ACIM Mentor

            The word God is a loaded word because it can mean many things to many people. The meaning of the word has evolved for me, which is why in writing I often put in parenthesis what I mean by God or I write what I mean and put the word God in parenthesis. With my life-coaching mentorees in the A Course in Miracles community, I typically run into God meaning one of three things primarily —often what a client means by God is a mishmash of two or more of these three things:   The Christian Father-God : An anthropomorphized, distant judge, usually stated to be benevolent, but often still feared. No one ever experiences this God, it’s really only a concept. For these students, what occurs in the world is intimately tied to God, so they feel there are right and wrong thoughts and actions, if not morally, at least in terms of what is in line with God. They generally do not think in terms of Truth and illusion or are confused about what is supposed to be an illusion.  

             To continue with the theme of acceptance from last week … Sometimes, people have a mystical experience of some kind that shows them that the world (consciousness) is out of accord with the wholeness and peace and love of Reality (God) They may come out of it saying, “This isn’t how things are supposed to be!” or “We’re supposed to love one another!” But of course, what is unfolding in consciousness is exactly what is to unfold in consciousness. It is not wrong or bad to not be loving. If this is occurring, this is meant to occur. It is just what is unfolding in consciousness right now.   Consciousness is the illusion of a reality opposed to Reality (God), and it depicts the Atonement (correction) over time . So much of it is out of accord with Reality for now and depicts what is to be corrected, not yet the correction. What those who have mystical experiences feel is that Spirit is also here in consciousness and that Spirit reflects Reality (God). This results in that

             What is unfolding in time and consciousness depicts the moment the idea of not-God arose and was simultaneously undone by God’s All-encompassing nature. It depicts, over time, the Atonement , or the correction of the idea that God can have an opposite. In time, there can appear to be a gap between the idea of not-God arising and its being undone. So, at any given moment, you might not be able to see the Atonement. But you would if you could see the whole story.     “It is necessary for the teacher of God to realize, not that he should not judge, but that he cannot…In order to judge anything rightly, one would have to be fully aware of an inconceivably wide range of things; past, present and to come. One would have to recognize in advance all the effects of his judgments on everyone and everything involved in them in any way. And one would have to be certain there is no distortion in his perception, so that his judgment would be wholly fair to everyone on whom it rests