T. 17. IV. 4 – 6. Jesus: “In a sense, the special relationship was the ego’s answer to the Holy Spirit, who was and is God’s Answer to the separation. For although the ego did not understand what had been created, it was aware of threat. The whole defense system the ego evolved to protect the separation from the Holy Spirit was in response to this Gift with which God blessed the mind, and by His blessing enabled it to be healed.
This blessing holds within itself the truth of everything. And the truth is that the Holy Spirit is in a real relationship with you, because in Him is your relationship with God restored to you. The relationship with Him has never been broken, because the Holy Spirit has not been separate from anyone since the separation. And through Him have all your holy relationships been carefully preserved, to serve God’s purpose for you.
The ego is always alert to threat, and the part of your mind into which the ego thought system was accepted is very anxious to preserve its distorted reasoning, just as it sees it. It does not realize that it is totally insane. And you must realize just what this means if you would be restored to sanity. The insane protect their thought systems, but they do so insanely. And all their defenses are as insane as what they are supposed to protect.
The mindset of separation has nothing in it, no part, no ‘reason,’ and no attribute that is not insane. And its ‘protection’ is part of it, as insane as the whole. The special relationship, which is its chief defense, must therefore be insane! By now you have but little remaining difficulty in realizing that the thought system the special relationship protects is an elaborate system of delusions. You also recognize, at least in general terms, that the ego is insane. But the special relationship still seems to you to be ‘somehow different.’
Yet we have looked at it far closer than we have at many other aspects of the ego’s thought system that you have been more willing to let go. While this one remains, you will not really let the others go! For this one is not different. Retain this one, and you have retained the whole of separation in your mind.”
>>> During the holidays we have many opportunities to revisit relationships we have seen as special and from which we may have expected to get our needs fulfilled. Each one becomes a real and holy relationship as I pause for a holy instant in each one and just “let the Holy Spirit be in charge.”