Lesson 109
- I Rest in God
- We ask for rest today, and quietness
- unshaken by the world’s appearances.
- We ask for peace and stillness, in the midst
- of all the turmoil born of clashing dreams.
- We ask for safety and for happiness,
- although we seem to look on
- danger and on sorrow.
- And we have the thought
- that will answer our asking
- with what we request:
- I rest in god.
- This thought will bring to you
- the rest and quiet, peace
- and stillness, and the safety
- and the happiness you seek.
- I rest in god.
- This thought has power to wake
- the sleeping truth in you, whose
- vision sees beyond appearances
- to that same truth in everyone
- and everything there is.
- Here is the end of suffering
- for all the world, and everyone
- who ever came and yet will come
- to linger for awhile.
- Here is the thought in which
- the son of god is born again,
- to recognize himself.
- I rest in god.
- Completely undismayed,
- this thought will carry you
- through storms and strife,
- past misery and pain,
- past loss and death,
- and onward to
- the certainty of god.
- There is no suffering it cannot heal.
- There is no problem that it cannot solve.
- And no appearance but will turn to truth
- before the eyes of you who rest in god.
- This is the day of peace.
- You rest in god, and while the world
- is torn by winds of hate
- your rest remains completely undisturbed.
- Yours is the rest of truth. Appearances
- cannot intrude on you. You call to all
- to join you in your rest, and they will hear
- another voice than yours because you gave
- your voice to god.
- And now you rest in him and let him speak
- through you. In him you have
- no cares and no concerns,
- no burdens, no anxiety, no pain,
- no fear of future and no past regrets.
- In timelessness you rest, while time goes by
- without its touch upon you, for your rest
- can never change in any way at all.
- You rest today, and as you close your eyes,
- sink into stillness. Let these periods
- of rest and respite reassure your mind
- that all its frantic fantasies were but
- the dreams of fever that has passed away.
- Let it be still and thankfully accept
- its healing. No more fearful dreams will come,
- now that you rest in god. Take time today
- to slip away from dreams and into peace.
- Each hour that you take your rest today,
- a tired mind is suddenly made glad,
- a bird with broken wings begins to sing,
- a stream long dry begins to flow again.
- The world is born again each time you rest,
- and hourly remember that you came
- to bring the peace of god into the world,
- that it might take its rest along with you.
- With each five minutes that you rest today,
- the world is nearer waking, and the time
- when rest will be the only thing there is
- comes closer to all worn and tired minds,
- too weary now to go their way alone.
- And they will hear the bird begin to sing
- and see the stream begin to flow again,
- with hope reborn and energy restored
- to walk with lightened steps along the road
- that suddenly seems easy as they go.
- You rest within the peace of god today,
- and call upon your brothers from your rest
- to draw them to their rest, along with you.
- You will be faithful to your trust today,
- forgetting no one, bringing everyone
- into the boundless circle of your peace,
- the holy sanctuary where you rest.
- Open the temple doors and let them come
- from far across the world, and near as well;
- your distant brothers and your closest friends;
- bid them all enter here and rest with you.
- You rest within the peace of god today,
- quiet and unafraid. Each brother comes
- to take his rest and offer it to you.
- We rest together here, for thus our rest
- is made complete, and what we give today
- we have received already. Time is not
- the guardian of what we give today.
- We give to those unborn and those passed by,
- to every thought of god, and to the mind
- in which these thought were born and where they rest.
- And we remind them of their resting place
- each time we tell ourselves, I rest in god.
