Let me reintroduce myself

I Am a Student of the Course

There. I said it.

I am a student of A Course in Miracles. I believe wholeheartedly that this is the way back to my Father. Wholeheartedly. And so I follow.

But here is the one thing the Course itself teaches, right up front: this is not everyone's path. The Course is not everyone's path. It will make the way home shorter — but it is not the only way. Some people will find their way back in this lifetime through other roads, and that is their path too. I'm not here to tell you the Course is the way. I'm here to tell you it's my way, and I want to tell you why.

The One Mad Idea

The Course tells us a few things that shook me to my core when I first understood them.

This is a dream. We are all the one Son of God — each and every one of us. Jesus was simply the first to fully awaken to his divinity in God. And we are here, in this reality, because of one crazy idea. One mad thought. A what if.

Because of how powerful we are as the Son — because we carry the Father's creativity within us — that "what if" was almost like the spark of the Big Bang. One thought, and time, space, and everything we know as this universe of universes began to unfold.

I have to be honest with you: that was a shock to me. I was raised to believe the world was created by God directly, that He made it the way you'd make something with your hands. And here comes the Course telling me the Son of God had a crazy thought — and that one thought is what became everything we now call the universe, time, everything that there is.

Because that's the thing the Course teaches about how our Father creates. God doesn't make. God extends. Our Father creates by extending Himself. He created the Son — the one Son of God — by extending Himself, and when He extends, everything He is goes into that new extension.

Now, I wasn't there in eternity. I don't pretend to fully grasp the metaphysics of it — and honestly, I don't think the human mind is fully equipped to grasp it yet. We are an extension of everything that is. That's the plain truth of it, even when I can't hold the whole shape of it in my mind.

Why Jesus Spoke the Way He Spoke

I believe Jesus knew this truth while he walked the earth. He was awakening to it in real time. But he had to speak it in a way the people of his time could receive. They didn't have the language for atoms, for photons, for a universe bigger than their village. We do now. And because we do, we can finally begin to understand creation differently than they could.

So — what if what if? What if I were separate from my Father? That was the question. That was the mad idea. And it's the idea that led us here.

But listen — the Son of God never actually left God. It was as if the thought happened, the Son projected this whole world outward from it, and in that same instant, the Holy Spirit corrected it. The whole of creation, everything we are experiencing as history, as time, as life — is one instant in Heaven that was corrected almost as soon as it was formed. That is how powerful the one Son of God is. That is how powerful our Father is.

The Course doesn't just make you understand how big God is. It makes you understand how loving God is. And it makes you understand something about yourself: you, me, we — we are still as God made us. We are still in Heaven, dreaming this reality that was already corrected the instant it was thought. But because we experience it inside of time, it feels linear. It feels like we are walking, step by step, through a story.

We're not lost, though. We are all finding our way back to God. That is the journey every single one of us is on. All of creation is moving home.

"No One Comes to the Father Except Through the Son"

I'll leave the rest of the metaphysics for another day, but I want to say this part clearly, because it's the part that used to trip me up before I understood it.

A lot of Christians, when I tell them we are all sons of God, will quote back to me: "No one comes to the Father except through the Son." And for a long time I didn't know what to do with that verse next to what the Course was teaching me.

But now that I understand the metaphysics, I understand — the Son is us. So to get back to our Father, we have to get back to the Son. And who is the Son? We are perfect creations of God. Perfect extensions of God. We are love, embodied. Joy. Peace. That is who we actually are underneath the dream. This life is the process of getting back to that truth, and getting back to that truth is the getting back to God.

So when Jesus said no one comes to the Father except through the Son — I believe he knew exactly who he was. He remembered he was a Son of God. And the Course is calling every one of us walking this earth to remember the same thing about ourselves. We are sons of God. That is the way back to the Father.

Radical Forgiveness

Our brother — our Self — Jesus has shown us the way back. And the way is radical forgiveness.

When Jesus hung on the cross and said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," most people hear that as: they didn't realize they were crucifying the Son of God. That's what I used to think it meant too. But that's not it.

First — he was demonstrating radical forgiveness itself. That is the way back to the Son of God. Forgive. Forgive. Forgive. Forgive.

But when he said they know not what they do — it's because if they were truly living from who they actually are, they never would have done it. They had forgotten. They needed to remember. And if they remembered — my God — everything would be so different.

Just a Movie, While We're In It

The Course tells us this reality is a dream. The only truth is God. The only truth is the Kingdom. So the way back to the Father is to know — even while we're still moving through the story — that this is all a movie playing out inside a dream. It's not ultimately what's real.

But it matters. It's going to help us get back to our Father.

It sounds crazy. I know it sounds crazy. But it is so true.