by Beverly McNeff

One need only look around this world to feel a sense of worry, helplessness, suffering, and fear. But those fears and feelings have been here since time began! Just the other day, I was looking at something I wrote in 1999 about the Y2K worry. Remember that? It was the catastrophe that was speculated to happen when the computers we had come to depend on for everything couldn’t recognize the date change that would occur in the year 2000. Those who were “doom and gloomers” — they are always around — said that this event would be cataclysmic. I remember when the new year of 2000 came and went, and we’re still here!

I don’t have to tell you about “cataclysmic” things today. You know them because you see them each day in your newsfeeds. Or how about issues closer to home: challenging health issues for you or others, failed relationships or no relationship, limited finances, or any other seemingly uncontrollable situations that might confront us. It seems there is always some calamity brewing in this pot called life — no wonder we feel hopeless, afraid, abandoned, and depressed.

So, how can A Course in Miracles have the audacity to say, “You can indeed afford to laugh at fear thoughts, remembering that God goes with you wherever you go”? Well, it can be said because it is the truth. There is never a time, place, or situation where God is not. He is the cure to the problems of the world because He shows us that our problems do not have power over the Son of God.

In lesson 41 from the Workbook for A Course in Miracles, we are told that God goes with us wherever we go. This lesson also quickly tells us that we don’t believe this thought to be true. “How could you,” it says, “when the truth is hidden deep within [you], under a heavy cloud of insane thoughts, dense and obscuring, yet representing all you see?”

The problem is that we are caught in a fog of illusions and believe a lie: that we are alone, separate — separate from each other and most certainly from God. And the more we have chosen not to look at the problem (the thought that we are separate) and just deal with the effect of the problem (our feelings of fear, loss, suffering, etc.), the more lost and helpless we become.

“Depression is an inevitable consequence of separation. So are anxiety, worry, a deep sense of helplessness, misery, suffering and intense fear of loss.”

The world’s answer to all the maladies of life is varied: Prozac or St. John’s Wort for depression, breathe into a paper bag to get rid of anxiety, a relationship so we won’t be lonely, or maybe a hot fudge sundae will make the misery go down a little easier. As this lesson tells us…

“The separated ones have invented many ‘cures’ for what they believe to be the ‘ills of the world.’ But the one thing they do not do is to question the reality of the problem. Yet its effects cannot be cured because the problem is not real.”

The problem that is not real is not the effects we see ourselves and the world going through, but the thought that we can be separate from God. The effects of our illusory beliefs can seem quite real in their effect on us, just as the nightmares we dream at night can seem quite real in their effects. But when we wake from our nightmares, we put them into perspective and see them for the dreams they are. We can learn from the dreams and move on. And that is what we can do with the effects of this world. This lesson is trying to help us see that if we can bring a new perspective to the “ills of our world,” if we can begin to reintroduce the truth in our minds, we can give God the room He needs to show us that He goes with us wherever we go.

Back in 1998, a movie called The Truman Show came out, offering an interesting take on lies and reality. It was about a man named Truman whose whole life, unbeknownst to him, was played out on television. From his earliest days, he was led to believe that the fantasy world he lived in was real. His parents were actors, his wife was an actress, and even his best friend was only playing a part. Everything in his life was an illusion, a lie, but he believed the lie, so it was his reality. It was only when he began to doubt the effects of his world and ended up quite literally facing the storms of his life that he finally triumphed over the illusion and found the truth.

Just like Truman, our problems seem very real to us. We have lived with them all our lives, and we have a sick loyalty to our pain. But just like the “heavy cloud of insane thoughts” that seems to obscure the truth, they have no real substance or power to stop us from triumphing over our illusions and finding the truth, finding God. We may have to face the “storms of life,” but we won’t do it alone.

“Deep within you is everything that is perfect, ready to radiate through you and out into the world. It will cure all sorrow and pain and fear and loss because it will heal the mind that thought these things were real, and suffered out of its allegiance to them.

“You can never be deprived of your perfect holiness because its Source goes with you wherever you go. You can never suffer because the Source of all joy goes with you wherever you go. You can never be alone because the Source of all life goes with you wherever you go. Nothing can destroy your peace of mind because God goes with you wherever you go.”

But how do we truly feel this Help in our times of need? Well, since we are told that God’s help seems to us to be buried under a dense cloud of illusions that we believe are real, we need to continually practice turning inward, away from the world and its appearances, and reminding ourselves of our constant Source and Companion that lies within. It is time to remind ourselves that God truly goes with us wherever we go, for God is always with us in our minds. We can be deprived of nothing, nor suffer, be alone, or lose our peace of mind, for God’s holiness, joy, companionship, and love can never be destroyed by a cloud of illusions.

This type of quiet meditation, turning inward and remembering God’s presence, is critical to our awakening. We need to spend time in renewal and communion with the truth of our spirit before we face the illusions of this world that seem so real to us. It is from these moments of respite that we return to the world with a new perspective, a perspective where we feel, however dimly, that God (the power of Love) truly does go with us wherever we go.

If our awareness of God’s presence in our lives is dim, how do we deepen it when we face a world that seems to show just the opposite? This lesson offers us help by reminding us that if separation is the source of our problem in this world, then joining and unity are the answers.

I am always so inspired when I read or hear stories of those who helped others during the horrendous events of World War II. I remember watching a documentary about those who helped Jewish people escape Hitler’s wrath. One particular woman was Irene Gut-Updyke, who lived in Poland during the war.

As a young Catholic girl of 19, she saved the lives of 12 Jews by hiding them in the home of a Nazi general where she worked. It took great courage to perform such a feat under the nose of this general, but as she said, her courage came “as a whisper from above.” Something greater was with her: the power of God (Love), carrying her through the event. And as she recounted the story in this documentary, you could see that as she helped these people, she was helped, and it reinforced in her that it was not her strength but the strength of God that did this feat through her. God went with her wherever she went.

Another story was about how the people of Denmark saved their Jewish population during the war by helping them to escape to Sweden. While their Jewish neighbors were away, the Danes watched their homes, tended their gardens and pets, and cared for their businesses. So that when their neighbors returned home after the war, everything was the same for them. When asked why they did this for them, the Danes were surprised that such a question would even be asked. They answered that these people were their neighbors, their friends, and that is just what people do for each other.

During this awful time in the life of their Jewish neighbors, the Danes showed the kind of compassion that is natural to those who realize that we are not separate from each other. And, in that realization, God went with them wherever they went.

The ability to reach out with unconditional help and support to another seems to tap into the strength and love within us that might otherwise seem impossible from our limited perception of ourselves. But we are not that limited perception when we join with another — for in that joining we find that God is there with us, helping us, supporting us, uplifting us. God goes with us wherever we go, and we become fully aware of that in our relationships with each other.

I find such inspiration in nature, and as I look all around me and up into the sky, I feel a sense of empowerment and connection. Years back, I was sent a wonderful story about geese. It is such a perfect reminder and outward expression of how natural it is to help one another. Let me share it with you…

The Goose Story
by Marilyn Guille

“If we have the sense of a goose, we will stand by each other like that.”

Geese have an innate sense of working together and supporting each other. That same innate truth is within every living thing, so we can do it too! Our greatest strength and help come when we break down the walls that seem to separate us and join together. Why? Because in that moment, we experience who we truly are: Not the limited, fearful, and depressed image the world wants us to believe that we are, but the powerful, limitless, joyful child of a loving God.

“Our function is to work together, because apart from each other we cannot function at all. The whole power of God’s Son lies in all of us, but not in any of us alone.” (T-8.VI.8)

“God goes with me wherever I go.” Let us embrace this truth in quiet within our minds, realizing that this is where the awareness abides. Then, let us look at the “heavy cloud of insane thoughts” that have held us back for so long and realize that we no longer want to live in a fog of lies when our healing is so near. Let us move past the fog of fear that we are separate from each other and access the real power that remains within us when we know we are joined together.

“God goes with me wherever I go.” Let us look at the seeming catastrophes of life and remember, we can “indeed afford to laugh at fear thoughts, remembering that God goes with [us] wherever [we] go.”

NOTE: All quotes, unless otherwise noted, are from A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 41.

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