The obstacles to Peace.

(From Chapter 19.IV of A Course in Miracles)

There are four obstacles but today I only want to talk about :

Obstacle 1: The desire to get rid of peace

This first obstacle isn’t loud or dangerous.

It’s actually… painfully familiar.

It’s the part of us that, deep down, doesn’t really want peace.

A lot of us would say: What?? Who wouldn’t want peace?

Well… apparently, we don’t. At least not all the time.

Have you ever had one of those calm mornings, where everything flowed gently, your heart was still, and the air felt soft… and then suddenly, you picked a fight?

Started overthinking something small?

Remembered an old grudge (’wrok ‘ in dutch) just to stir it up again?

That’s the ego.

It can’t survive stillness. It needs a storyline. A tension. A villain.

And if there’s no one else around, it’ll make you the guilty one.

“This is too peaceful,” the ego says.

“I need a problem. I need someone to blame.”

Now imagine that same impulse,

multiplied by millions of minds, tangled in fear and pride and

history and pain.

Is it really so surprising that nations go to war?

What happens between countries is just a blown-up version of

what happens in our own hearts…when we’d rather be right than be

kind…when we’d rather win than understand…when we’d rather hold a grudge than feel the ache of letting go.

The Course says something wild:

“If you want to keep peace, you have to share it.”

You can’t lock it up and keep it for yourself.

You can’t hide it from that one person you still quietly blame.

You can’t say, “I want peace…but not if it means forgiving them.”

And so peace stands there…..not far away, but right outside the door

you keep shutting. The first step isn’t out there. It’s right here..inside of us,

World peace won’t come from better speeches or stronger armies.

It begins the moment we stop making enemies in our own minds.

The Course isn’t scolding you. It’s not saying “bad student.”

It’s just gently asking:

Are you sure you don’t want peace?

Because it’s already here if you want…but you can’t keep it if you won’t give it.

Maybe today,

you can let that wall soften, just a little.

Lay down your defence, even if it’s only the one in your thoughts.

And let the light back in.

The second obstacle to peace: the belief the body is valuable for what it offers (C.19.IV.B)

The second obstacle is a rough one. Let’s be honest. The Course doesn’t just poke at the ego here, it throws the curtain wide open. And behind that curtain? Not the powerful self we thought we were, but… a confused identification with a body.

Yes, that’s right. The Course dares to say what most of us don’t even question: that our sense of “I” is entirely wrapped up in this body,

in what it looks like, what it does, what it gives, and how it performs. And when that belief is challenged, it can feel like someone just cut the legs out from under you.

I almost hear you say: What? If I’m not this body…how do I even walk?

Let’s slow down. This isn’t about denying the body, or pretending it doesn’t exist. The Course isn’t asking you to throw away your shoes, your mirror, or your candies. It’s simply asking a deeper question:

What do you believe the body is for?

Because here’s the point: if you believe the body is valuable for what it offers : comfort, pleasure, safety, validation, power….

then you’ve placed your peace in something that will always shift, age, break, and disappoint.

And that belief becomes an obstacle. Not because the body is bad, but because you’ve given it a job it can’t fulfill.

The Course calls this a form of sacrifice. Not because you gave up chocolate or a good massage, but because you traded eternal peace for something temporary. That’s the only real “sacrifice”….and it happens every time we forget who we are.

But don’t worry. This isn’t a lecture. Let’s look at an example.

Imagine someone who has had ten cosmetic surgeries, owns 136 pairs of shoes, and plans their week around workouts, body scans, and selfies.

Is that evil? No. Is that wrong? Not at all. It’s just… a little exhausting. Because the underlying belief is: “If I just get this body perfect, I will be enough.”

But the body cannot carry the weight of that question.

It was never meant to.

The Course invites us gently…and sometimes with a bit of divine sarcasm…

to stop asking the body to be our source of happiness. It can’t. It doesn’t know how. But it can become a means for something higher. A way to smile, to touch, to communicate light. A way to share the peace that already lives in the mind.

Even discomfort, illness, or emotional pain…the body can whisper :

“Something in the mind is calling for healing.”

In this way, the body becomes a message, not a problem.

And yes, we still walk. We still dance, eat, hug, cry. The body doesn’t vanish. It just steps off the throne. It stops being the idol and starts being the servant of something far greater.

So no, the Course doesn’t ask you to hate the body. It simply asks you to stop worshipping it. Peace is not in the form. Peace comes when you remember: You are not a body. You are free. You are still as God created you.

And with that shift, the obstacle dissolves. The legs you thought were cut from under you? They’re still there. But now, they walk in Light.

The Drama of the Ego:

The third obstacle to peace: the attraction of death (C.19.IV.C)

This one takes us deeper. The first obstacle was about the wish to get rid of peace. The second about making the body our idol. And now we come to the third:

The attraction of death.

Attraction to death? Yes, and that’s exactly what makes this so difficult to look at. It’s not death in the physical sense that the Course is talking about, not the moment the heart stops. What it’s pointing to is the ego’s secret love affair with non-life. With endings. With decay. With drama, destruction, conflict, sabotage, and suffering ….both subtle and loud.

The Course calls this ‘strange’ devotion.

Why strange? Because on the surface, no one walks around saying: “I love death!”

But… we do love judgment.

We feed on drama.

We cling to grievances.

We glorify suffering, sacrifice, victimhood, and heroic defeat.

We worship the cross instead of the resurrection.

And slowly, slowly, our inner light grows dim behind a veil of shadows.

This is what the Course means by “death.”

Again…not biology, but the mind’s dedication to everything opposite of life, joy, connection and truth.

To fear instead of love. To guilt instead of innocence.

To control instead of trust. To separation instead of unity.

The ego tells us: “Guilt is power. Suffering is noble. Loss is inevitable. Life will hurt you….prepare for it.”

And if we believe that voice long enough, we end up building our identity around a shadow.

But here’s the good news:

The shadow has no power. It can’t kill the light. It can’t touch what’s real.

“And yet a shadow cannot kill. What is a shadow to the living?” (T-19.IV.C.2)

When we see through the illusion, when we recognize that the attraction to death is simply our fear of truly living, of shining, of being fully present, then we can make a new choice. We don’t have to kill off joy to feel safe. We don’t have to sabotage our own peace to stay in control.

This third obstacle is not an accusation. It’s an invitation.

An invitation to look with love at all the places where we’ve turned away from life and to remember we can turn back.

We can say: “Holy Spirit, I must have decided wrongly. I want another way to see this.”

And life rushes in again. Not the life of the body, but the living presence of love.

So if you find yourself stuck in despair, self-judgment, drama, sabotage, or even boredom, don’t be afraid. You’re not being punished. You’re simply brushing up against an old thought system that doesn’t believe in life.

And guess what?

You don’t have to believe it anymore.

The Final Barrier:

The fourth obstacle to peace: the fear of God C.19.IV.D

Let’s take a breath, we’ve made it to the final one !

Not just another obstacle, but the deepest one. The one that hides beneath all others like the still eye in a storm.

The fear of God.

It sounds absurd… until it doesn’t.

Because this isn’t about fearing a wrathful bearded man in the sky. This isn’t religion’s version of punishment.

This is something far more subtle, and far more universal.

It’s the hidden fear that if you truly let go of the ego, of control, of being right, of being you….that what you’ll meet in the silence… will undo you.

Not hurt you. Not condemn you.

But undo you.

Why? Because Love, real, all-encompassing Love, dissolves the “you”

you’ve spent lifetimes defending.

And the ego calls that death.

The Course says:

“You will not realize that the fear of God is really the fear of loss of self.”

And that’s it.

This final obstacle is not about a distant God on a throne.

It’s about our resistance to remembering who we truly are.

Because if God is Light, and you walk into that Light, what happens to your shadows? …….They disappear.

They disappear along with all your self-made stories, along with every role, mask, identity, grievance, self-concept, and personal badge of “me.”

And yet… isn’t that exactly what we’re asking for?

Peace.

Freedom.

Home.

Remembering.

This final obstacle stands only as long as we believe we are something separate. The ego doesn’t fear punishment….it fears irrelevance. It fears disappearing into the Light of what’s real.

But you, dear friend, are not the ego.

You are the Light.

That’s why, as the Course says, “every obstacle that peace must flow across is surmounted just the same way: the fear is gone.”

Not fought. Not wrestled.

Gone.

Because in the presence of true Love, fear cannot survive.

And when you approach God not as judge but as Source, not as master but as Father, not as other but as Self…..there is nothing left to fear.

The veil lifts.

The homecoming begins.

So if you feel resistance to going deeper, if you feel the tremble of something ancient that says “Don’t go there…”

Smile gently.

That voice isn’t you.

It’s just the ego standing in front of the gates of Heaven saying,

“If you enter… I’m done.”

And you, in the quiet of your heart, finally answer:

“Then I guess you’re done.”

With love and light,

G.