God did not create a meaningless world.

This lesson can be difficult to read when life contains real pain.

It does not mean that illness, abuse, loss, disaster, or injustice are unimportant. It does not mean that a person caused a painful event by thinking the wrong thought. And it does not ask anyone to pretend that suffering feels unreal.

The lesson points to a difference between what God creates and what fear shows me. God creates love, life, wholeness, and connection. Fear shows me a world where harm has the power to decide who I am and where loss can separate me from love forever.

When something frightening happens, my mind quickly gives it a larger meaning. A setback becomes proof that I am not safe. Someone’s cruelty becomes proof that I have no worth. A loss becomes proof that love is gone.

Those meanings can feel as solid as the event itself, but they are not the same thing.

I can face the facts, get help, grieve, protect myself, or take action. At the same time, I can question the belief that fear has told me the whole truth.

God did not create the fearful meaning that says I am abandoned, ruined, or beyond peace. That meaning came from a frightened mind trying to explain what hurts.

This lesson gives me permission to stop calling fear’s picture God’s plan.

I may not yet know how to see the situation with love. I can begin by admitting that pain does not have the final word about me, another person, or what God created.