Dave v. God (The ultimate smackdown)

The problem with Dave (insert your name here) is that he thinks today’s post title has meaning.

We all do. Dave’s will and God’s will are definitely not the same. We have all identified with the effect of a thought system based on specialness, individuality, separation, etc. instead of the cause. This seeming effect (the world, the body, etc.) is at odds (read: in competition) with a thought system based on wholeness, oneness, unity, etc. We choose between two mutually exclusive interpretations of the world. Separation can’t exist with wholeness. The purpose of this world, and therefore Dave, is as defense against (in competition with) wholeness (God). Note: Substitute whatever word works for you when I reference God: Source, Love, Heaven, Reality, etc.

So, that being said, I was reminded by a friend’s recent post that everything here reflects this tiny mad idea of competition described above – even single parents compete. Of course they do. Everything here does, because here is the result of competition! Remember the fulcrum of judgment? Judgment demands competition.

Think about your day. Is there anything in your experience that isn’t competing with something? We compete for jobs. We compete for love. Competition drives the price we pay at the pump, at the grocery, on the battle field. Survival of the fittest decides which species persists, which team wins, and the temperature in the car on a road trip with your spouse. Today competes with tomorrow. Here competes with there. Even your body competes with the empty space that it displaces. Nothing is immune. As we discussed in the last post, even Oprah competes with her own weight as she passionately exclaims that she doesn’t want to let the fat win!

Like everything else in our experience, the appropriate question to ask is, “What is this for?” In this world, competition witnesses our differences and reinforces our judgment, plain and simple. ACIM explains that we’ve chosen grandiosity (the result of competition) over grandeur (our inheritance). Unsatisfied with wholeness (grandeur), we’ve identified with (read: substituted) separateness (grandiosity). Grandiosity is our attempt to counteract our littleness (read: not wholeness) based on the belief that the littleness (Dave, you, etc.) is real. Does this mean we shouldn’t compete? No, not at all. Again, we can’t be here and not be in competition with something. Our goal is a changed purpose for the competition.

Quick note on “grandiosity”: Grandiosity comes in all forms. When we typically think of “grandiosity”, we think of an over-the-top expression of success, wealth, health, etc. We usually imagine a person living in the mansion on the hill and driving the bright red Ferrari. Don’t stop there. Everything here is grandiose. I could be the poorest person, the sickest person, or the biggest loser. I could be the most balanced person, most normal person, or the most non-grandiose person. The point is that we stand apart from the rest. Doesn’t matter where we fall on the grandiosity continuum (see-saw of judgment), it’s still grandiosity. It is still the result of competition and a belief in (a need for) separate interests.

So, where does that leave us? Well, the good news is that every second and every minute of every day gives us the opportunity to choose again, to choose against grandiosity and remember our grandeur, to use competition as the reminder of where the real competition is. The real competition is for our interpretation of the world. Salvation is the recognition of the choice. Which thought system do we choose? Do we reinforce and justify the grandiosity of our perceived separation or do we use the differences to reflect the sameness of shifted purpose?

PS - Recognizing our grandeur - our unity with God, Love, Source, each other - doesn’t mean that we are God (much to the dismay of many ACIM critics). To the contrary, it means that we are no longer willing to usurp his role by identifying with what we are not.