by Beverly Hutchinson McNeff

During the pandemic, many people turned to baking. In an article that explored this blast of baking, the common explanation for the trend was: “If I am capable of baking something, I am not powerless!”

What a wonderful awareness! In the midst of a global pandemic, people were using the tools before them to take back their power. So let’s take that impetus one step further.

When you think about the basics of baking, you have to have the necessary ingredients, or you can’t bake anything. Let’s say you want to bake a yummy chocolate cake. You then need to collect the flour, sugar, eggs, milk, cocoa, and all the ingredients to make a chocolate cake (the yummy will come later). You then put them together, fold them into a pan, pop them into the oven, and when your delicious concoction comes out, it is a yummy chocolate cake! You would not expect a tuna casserole (even though it is delicious) to come out of the oven if you put in makings for a chocolate cake. If you use the ingredients for a chocolate cake (and a yummy one at that), you would, of course, expect a chocolate cake.

Well, the same is true for what you are. God has created a masterpiece in you. “You are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased.” (T-4.I.8) All the ingredients that He has placed in you cannot then be changed into something else. He has placed in you light and joy and peace. This truth has been baked into your reality and nothing can make it into something it is not.

As we approach the second week of our Lessons in Light, we are going to focus on our truth, “Light and joy and peace abide in me.” (W-93) It is often hard for us to believe this lesson is really talking about us. Do those ingredients really abide in us? Often our experiences in this world make us feel diminished, lost, and useless.

We look to the world to support our value, but in looking there we will always fall short, because from the worldly perspective we will never be enough. We will feel lacking, and as this lesson says, we will be “deceived, deceiving, and afraid of foolish fantasies and savage dreams.” We will make idols out of the things of the world and look to them for our value. All of these things that we feel about ourselves may seem true from our current perspective, but these thoughts are not the truth about us according to God’s Will. Our value and worth have been baked into us, and no matter what we think or say or do in this world, that will never change.

Let’s go back to our yummy chocolate cake. Its truth has been baked into it. You put in the ingredients to make it and now that is what you have. You can deny it, ignore it, or call it a tuna casserole, but it will always be a chocolate cake – and it is yummy! The same is true for you. Light and joy and peace abide in you. Those are your ingredients and nothing you do can change it.

“The self you made is not the Son of God. Therefore, this self does not exist at all.”

This bold statement from Lesson 93, is a simple statement of the truth. What is eternal are not all our mistakes or seemingly sinful thoughts, but our truth. The images we have made about ourselves “cannot withstand the Will of God.” When reality finally dawns on our minds that what has been baked into us can never be changed by wishful or hateful thinking, we will begin to live our yummy truth.

“Light and joy and peace abide in you. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.” It is time that we put away the “foolish self-images” we have made about ourselves and focus on what God has given us—our eternal ingredients. His Will is our truth and our salvation, and here is how we can claim it…

“Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought; — you are as God created you, not what you made of yourself. Whatever evil you may think you did, you are as God created you. Whatever mistakes you made, the truth about you is unchanged. Creation is eternal and unalterable. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. You are and will forever be exactly as you were created. Light and joy and peace abide in you because God put them there.”

This lesson asks us to remember, for the first five minutes of every hour, who we have forever been created to be:

“Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.”

It then asks us to affirm this truth in any situation that disturbs us, causes us fear, or tempts us to become angry with someone or something else. We are to silently say to ourselves…

“Light and joy and peace abide in you.
Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.”

The same light and joy and peace that are your ingredients are the other person’s ingredients as well. As we realize our common truth and value, we begin to realize our dominion over the illusions of the world. Our acceptance of our ingredients can help others realize their ingredients, which can thereby help them to awaken to their yummy truth. We can “do much for the world’s salvation” as we lift our vision out of separation to unity, out of darkness to light.

Today we take a stand to remember the truth and not get lost in the lies of the ego. Let us affirm…

“Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.”

Feel the power of this thought, and do not look to the world to agree or disagree with it. The world cannot take away the truth and empowerment of what God has eternally baked into your reality unless you choose to let it. Again, you are a holy child of God, entitled to the Kingdom.

So, let’s rejoice in the ingredients God has assembled to represent us: light and joy and peace. This can never change. Whatever occurs in the world today, affirm…

“Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.”

Yummy you can handle anything!

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