Chapter 26 – 6. The Appointed Friend
Anything in this world that you believe is good and valuable and worth
striving for can hurt you, and will do so. Not because it has the power to
hurt, but just because you have denied it is but an illusion, and made it real.
And it is real to you. It is not nothing. And through its perceived reality has
entered all the world of sick illusions. All belief in sin, in power of attack,
in hurt and harm, in sacrifice and death, has come to you. For no one can
make one illusion real, and still escape the rest. For who can choose to keep
the ones that he prefers, and find the safety that the truth alone can give?
Who can believe illusions are the same, and still maintain that even one is
best?
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Lead not your little life in solitude, with one illusion as your only friend.
This is no friendship worthy of God’s Son, nor one with which he could
remain content. Yet God has given him a better Friend, in Whom all power
in earth and Heaven rests. The one illusion that you think is friend obscures
His grace and majesty from you, and keeps His friendship and forgiveness
from your welcoming embrace. Without Him you are friendless. Seek not
another friend to take His place. There is no other friend. What God
appointed has no substitute, for what illusion can replace the truth?
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Who dwells with shadows is alone indeed, and loneliness is not the Will of
God. Would you allow one shadow to usurp the throne that God appointed
for your Friend, if you but realized its emptiness has left yours empty and
unoccupied? Make no illusion friend, for if you do, it can but take the place
of Him Whom God has called your Friend. And it is He Who is your only
Friend in truth. He brings you gifts that are not of this world, and only He to
Whom they have been given can make sure that you receive them. He will
place them on your throne, when you make room for Him on His.
Anything in this world that you believe is good and valuable and worth
striving for can hurt you, and will do so. Not because it has the power to
hurt, but just because you have denied it is but an illusion, and made it real.
And it is real to you. It is not nothing. And through its perceived reality has
entered all the world of sick illusions. All belief in sin, in power of attack,
in hurt and harm, in sacrifice and death, has come to you. For no one can
make one illusion real, and still escape the rest. For who can choose to keep
the ones that he prefers, and find the safety that the truth alone can give?
Who can believe illusions are the same, and still maintain that even one is
best?
Â
Lead not your little life in solitude, with one illusion as your only friend.
This is no friendship worthy of God’s Son, nor one with which he could
remain content. Yet God has given him a better Friend, in Whom all power
in earth and Heaven rests. The one illusion that you think is friend obscures
His grace and majesty from you, and keeps His friendship and forgiveness
from your welcoming embrace. Without Him you are friendless. Seek not
another friend to take His place. There is no other friend. What God
appointed has no substitute, for what illusion can replace the truth?
Â
Who dwells with shadows is alone indeed, and loneliness is not the Will of
God. Would you allow one shadow to usurp the throne that God appointed
for your Friend, if you but realized its emptiness has left yours empty and
unoccupied? Make no illusion friend, for if you do, it can but take the place
of Him Whom God has called your Friend. And it is He Who is your only
Friend in truth. He brings you gifts that are not of this world, and only He to
Whom they have been given can make sure that you receive them. He will
place them on your throne, when you make room for Him on His.