72 You believe that "being afraid" is involuntary, something beyond your control. Yet I have told you several times that only
constructive acts should be involuntary. We have said that Christ-control can take over everything that does
not matter, while Christ-guidance can direct everything that
does if you so choose. Fear cannot be Christ-controlled, but it
can be self-controlled. It
prevents me from controlling it. The correction is therefore a matter of
your will because its presence shows that you have raised the
unimportant to a higher level than it warrants. You have thus brought it under
your will, where it does not belong. This means that
you feel responsible for it. The level confusion here is obvious.
73 The reason I cannot control fear for you is that you are attempting to raise to the mind level the proper content of lower-order reality. I do not foster level confusion, but
you can choose to correct it. You would not tolerate insane
behavior on your part and would hardly advance the excuse that you could not help it. Why should you tolerate insane
thinking? There is a confusion here which you would do well to look at clearly.
You believe that you are responsible for what you
do but
not for what you
think. The truth is that you
are responsible for what you think because it is only at this level that you
can exercise choice.
74 What you do
comes from what you think. You cannot separate yourself from the truth by "giving" autonomy to behavior. This is controlled by me automatically as soon as you place what you think under my guidance. Whenever you are afraid, it is a sure sign that you have allowed your mind to miscreate or have
not allowed me to guide it. It is pointless to believe that controlling the
outcome of mis-thought can result in healing. When you are fearful you have willed wrongly. This is why you feel responsible for it. You must change your
mind, not your behavior, and this
is a matter of will.
75 You do not need guidance
except at the mind level. Correction belongs
only at the level where creation is possible. The term does not mean anything at the symptom level, where it cannot work. The correction of fear
is your responsibility. When you ask for release from fear, you are implying that it is not. You should ask instead for help in the conditions which have brought the fear about. These conditions
always entail a separated mind willingness. At that level, you
can help it. You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, thus passively condoning its miscreations. The particular result does not matter, but the fundamental error
does. The correction is always the same. Before you will to do anything, ask me if your will is in accord with mine. If you are sure that it is, there will
be no fear.
76 Fear is always a sign of strain, which arises whenever the
will to do conflicts with
what you do. This situation arises in two ways:
77 First, you can will to do conflicting things, either simultaneously or successively. This produces conflicted behavior, which is intolerable to yourself because the part of the will that wants to do something
else is outraged.
78 Second, you can
behave as you think you should but without entirely
willing to do so. This produces consistent behavior but entails great strain
within the self.
79 In both cases, the will and the behavior are out of accord, resulting in a situation in which you are doing what you do
not will. This arouses a sense of coercion, which usually produces rage. The rage then invades the mind and projection in the wrong sense is likely to follow. Depression or anxiety is virtually certain.
80 Remember that whenever there is fear, it is because you have not made up your mind. Your will is split, and your behavior inevitably becomes erratic. Correcting at the behavioral level can shift the error from the first to the second type of strain described above but will not obliterate the fear. It is possible to reach a state in which you bring your will under my guidance without much conscious effort, but this implies habit patterns which you have not developed dependably as yet. God cannot ask more than you will. The strength to do comes from your own undivided will to do. There is no strain in doing God's Will as soon as you recognize that it is also your own.
81 The lesson here is quite simple but particularly apt to be overlooked. I will therefore repeat it, urging you to listen. Only your
mind can produce fear. It does so whenever it is conflicted in what it wills, thus producing inevitable strain because willing and doing become discordant. This cannot be corrected by better
doing, but it
can be corrected by higher
willing.