Introduction

Chapter 23 – 1. Introduction

Do you not see the opposite of frailty and weakness is sinlessness?
Innocence is strength, and nothing else is strong. The sinless cannot fear, for
sin of any kind is weakness. The show of strength attack would use to cover
frailty conceals it not, for how can the unreal be hidden? No one is strong
who has an enemy, and no one can attack unless he thinks he has. Belief in
enemies is therefore the belief in weakness, and what is weak is not the Will
of God. Being opposed to it, it is God’s “enemy.” And God is feared as an
opposing will.
 
How strange indeed becomes this war against yourself! You will believe
that everything you use for sin can hurt you and become your enemy. And
you will fight against it, and try to weaken it because of this; and you will
think that you succeeded, and attack again. It is as certain you will fear what
you attack as it is sure that you will love what you perceive as sinless. He
walks in peace who travels sinlessly along the way love shows him. For
love walks with him there, protecting him from fear. And he will see only
the sinless, who can not attack.
 
Walk you in glory, with your head held high, and fear no evil. The innocent
are safe because they share their innocence. Nothing they see is harmful, for
their awareness of the truth releases everything from the illusion of
harmfulness. And what seemed harmful now stands shining in their
innocence, released from sin and fear and happily returned to love. They
share the strength of love because they looked on innocence. And every
error disappeared because they saw it not. Who looks for glory finds it
where it is. Where could it be but in the innocent?
 
Let not the little interferers pull you to littleness. There can be no attraction
of guilt in innocence. Think what a happy world you walk, with truth beside
you! Do not give up this world of freedom for a little sigh of seeming sin,
nor for a tiny stirring of guilt’s attraction. Would you, for all these
meaningless distractions, lay Heaven aside? Your destiny and purpose are
far beyond them, in the clean place where littleness does not exist. Your
purpose is at variance with littleness of any kind. And so it is at variance
with sin.
 
Let us not let littleness lead God’s Son into temptation. His glory is beyond
it, measureless and timeless as eternity. Do not let time intrude upon your
sight of him. Leave him not frightened and alone in his temptation, but help
him rise above it and perceive the light of which he is a part. Your
innocence will light the way to his, and so is yours protected and kept in
your awareness. For who can know his glory, and perceive the little and the
weak about him? Who can walk trembling in a fearful world, and realize
that Heaven’s glory shines on him?
 
Nothing around you but is part of you. Look on it lovingly, and see the light
of Heaven in it. So will you come to understand all that is given you. In
kind forgiveness will the world sparkle and shine, and everything you once
thought sinful now will be reinterpreted as part of Heaven. How beautiful it
is to walk, clean and redeemed and happy, through a world in bitter need of
the redemption that your innocence bestows upon it! What can you value
more than this? For here is your salvation and your freedom. And it must be
complete if you would recognize it.