LESSON 182 I will be still an instant and go home.

1. 1This world you seem to live in is not home to you. 2And some­where in your mind you know that this is true. 3A memory of home keeps haunting you, as if there were a place that called you to return, although you do not recognize the voice, nor what it is the voice reminds you of. 4Yet still you feel an alien here, from somewhere all unknown. 5Nothing so definite that you could say with certainty you are an exile here. 6Just a persistent feeling, sometimes not more than a tiny throb, at other times hardly re­membered, actively dismissed, but surely to return to mind again.

2. 1No one but knows whereof we speak. 2Yet some try to put by their suffering in games they play to occupy their time, and keep their sadness from them. 3Others will deny that they are sad, and do not recognize their tears at all. 4Still others will maintain that what we speak of is illusion, not to be considered more than but a dream. 5Yet who, in simple honesty, without defensiveness and self-deception, would deny he understands the words we speak?

3. 1We speak today for everyone who walks this world, for he is not at home. 2He goes uncertainly about in endless search, seek­ing in darkness what he cannot find; not recognizing what it is he seeks. 3A thousand homes he makes, yet none contents his restless mind. 4He does not understand he builds in vain. 5The home he seeks can not be made by him. 6There is no substitute for Heaven. 7All he ever made was hell.

4. 1Perhaps you think it is your childhood home that you would find again. 2The childhood of your body, and its place of shelter, are a memory now so distorted that you merely hold a picture of a past that never happened. 3Yet there is a Child in you Who seeks His Father’s house, and knows that He is alien here. 4This childhood is eternal, with an innocence that will endure forever. 5Where this Child shall go is holy ground. 6It is His Holiness that lights up Heaven, and that brings to earth the pure reflection of the light above, wherein are earth and Heaven joined as one.

5. 1It is this Child in you your Father knows as His Own Son. 2It is this Child Who knows His Father. 3He desires to go home so deeply, so unceasingly, His voice cries unto you to let Him rest a while. 4He does not ask for more than just a few instants of respite; just an interval in which He can return to breathe again the holy air that fills His Father’s house. 5You are His home as well. 6He will return. 7But give Him just a little time to be Himself, within the peace that is His home, resting in silence and in peace and love.

6. 1This Child needs your protection. 2He is far from home. 3He is so little that He seems so easily shut out, His tiny voice so readily obscured, His call for help almost unheard amid the grating sounds and harsh and rasping noises of the world. 4Yet does He know that in you still abides His sure protection. 5You will fail Him not. 6He will go home, and you along with Him.

7. 1This Child is your defenselessness; your strength. 2He trusts in you. 3He came because He knew you would not fail. 4He whispers of His home unceasingly to you. 5For He would bring you back with Him, that He Himself might stay, and not return again where He does not belong, and where He lives an outcast in a world of alien thoughts. 6His patience has no limits. 7He will wait until you hear His gentle Voice within you, calling you to let Him go in peace, along with you, to where He is at home and you with Him.

8. 1When you are still an instant, when the world recedes from you, when valueless ideas cease to have value in your restless mind, then will you hear His Voice. 2So poignantly He calls to you that you will not resist Him longer. 3In that instant He will take you to His home, and you will stay with Him in perfect stillness, silent and at peace, beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt, sublimely certain that you are at home.

9. 1Rest with Him frequently today. 2For He was willing to be­come a little Child that you might learn of Him how strong is he who comes without defenses, offering only love’s messages to those who think he is their enemy. 3He holds the might of Heaven in His hand and calls them friend, and gives His strength to them, that they may see He would be Friend to them. 4He asks that they protect Him, for His home is far away, and He will not return to it alone.

10. 1Christ is reborn as but a little Child each time a wanderer would leave his home. 2For he must learn that what he would protect is but this Child, Who comes defenseless and Who is protected by defenselessness. 3Go home with Him from time to time today. 4You are as much an alien here as He.

11. 1Take time today to lay aside your shield which profits nothing, and lay down the spear and sword you raised against an enemy without existence. 2Christ has called you friend and brother. 3He has even come to ask your help in letting Him go home today, completed and completely. 4He has come as does a little child, who must beseech his father for protection and for love. 5He rules the universe, and yet He asks unceasingly that you return with Him, and take illusions as your gods no more.

12. 1You have not lost your innocence. 2It is for this you yearn. 3This is your heart’s desire. 4This is the voice you hear, and this the call which cannot be denied. 5The holy Child remains with you. 6His home is yours. 7Today He gives you His defenselessness, and you accept it in exchange for all the toys of battle you have made. 8And now the way is open, and the journey has an end in sight at last. 9Be still an instant and go home with Him, and be at peace a while.