OrEd-T-19.5-Obstacles to Peace.1
a.The First Obstacle.1
The Desire to get Rid of It
40. The first obstacle that peace must flow across is our desire to get rid of it. For it cannot extend unless we keep it. We are the center from which peace radiates outward to call the others in. We are its home, its tranquil dwelling-place from which it gently reaches out, never leaving us. We must keep peace so it can abide within the Son of God. Peace must begin with us, spread across the whole creation, and from us reach to everyone who calls, and by joining us bring him rest.
41. What do I think peace must dispossess to dwell with me? What seems to be the cost I am so unwilling to pay? I would not reinforce the little barrier of sand that still stands between us. We are not asked to let it go for ourselves alone. Christ asks it of us for Himself. He would bring peace to everyone, and how can He do this except through us? Would we let a little bank of sand, a wall of dust, a tiny seeming barrier, stand between our brothers and salvation? And yet it is this little remnant of attack we still cherish against each other, that is the first obstacle the peace in us encounters in its going forth. This little wall of hatred would still oppose the Will of God and keep it limited.
42. The Holy Spirit's purpose rests in peace within us. Yet we are still unwilling to let His purpose join us wholly. We still oppose the Will of God, just by a little. And that little is a limit we would place upon the whole. God's Will is One, not many. It has no opposition, for there is none beside it. What we would contain behind our little barrier, and keep separate from each other, seems mightier than the universe, for it would hold back the universe and its Creator. This little wall would hide Heaven's purpose, and keep Heaven's purpose away from Heaven.
43. We would thrust salvation away from the Giver of salvation. This is what we have become. Yet peace cannot depart from us, nor from God. We do not fear this little obstacle, for it does not contain the Will of God. Peace will flow across it and join us without hindrance. Salvation cannot be withheld from us. It is our purpose, and there is no will apart from God's. We have no purpose apart from each other, nor apart from the purpose we asked the Holy Spirit to share with us. The little wall of dust falls away so quietly beneath the wings of peace! And peace will send its messengers from us to all the world. And barriers will fall away before them, as easily as those were surmounted that we interposed.
44. For peace to overcome the world is no more difficult than to surmount our little wall. For in the miracle of our relationship, without this barrier, is every miracle contained. There is no order of difficulty in miracles, for they are all the same. Each is a gentle winning over from the appeal of guilt to the appeal of love. How can this fail to be accomplished, wherever it is undertaken? Guilt can raise no real barriers against it. And all that seems to stand between us must fall away because of the call we answered. He whose call we answered calls back to us. Our holy relationship is His home. We let Him quietly extend the miracle of our relationship to everyone contained in it, as it was given.
45. There is a hush in Heaven, a little pause of gladness in acknowledgment of the journey's end. For Heaven knows us well, as we know Heaven. No illusions stand between us now. We do not look at the little wall of shadows. The sun has risen over it. A shadow cannot keep us from the sun. Every miracle is the end of an illusion. Such is the journey and its ending. All illusions must end in the goal of truth.
46. The little insane wish to get rid of the Holy Spirit must produce conflict. As we look upon the world, this little wish, uprooted and floating aimlessly, can land and settle briefly upon anything, for it has no purpose now. Before, it seemed to have a mighty purpose. Now it is aimless, wandering pointlessly, causing no more than tiny interruptions in love's appeal.
47. This feather of a wish, this tiny illusion, this microscopic remnant of the belief in sin, is all that remains of what seemed to be the world. No longer an unrelenting barrier to peace, its pointless wandering makes its results appear to be more erratic and unpredictable than ever. Its seeming stability is its weakness, extending to everything.
48. A little feather cannot oppose the great wings of truth, nor interfere with the effects of summer's sun upon a garden covered by the snow. It is easily lifted up and carried away, never to return. And we are glad, for it is nothing, and stood for nothing. We would rather greet the summer sun than fix our gaze upon a disappearing snowflake and shiver in remembrance of the winter's cold.
