Lesson
304 Let Not My World Obscure The Sight Of Christ
I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon
it. Nor can I behold the holy sights
Christ looks upon, unless it is His vision that I use. Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind,
reflected outward. I would bless the
world by looking on it through the eyes of Christ. And I will look upon the certain signs that
all my sins have been forgiven me.
You lead me from the darkness to the light, from sin
to holiness. Let me forgive, and thus
receive salvation for the world. It is
Your gift, my Father, given me to offer to Your holy Son, that he may find
again the memory of You, and of Your Son as You created him.[1]
Yesterday we discussed the holy Christ being born within us and how we make a time and place to nurture the little Christ within. As He grows with our daily practice and devotion, He becomes us as we become Him. For many of us, we grasped more completely the concept of Salvation and the symbolism of the Nativity. We embraced the process of Salvation, letting go of the impatience and judgment that would otherwise impede us when we don’t get it all at the same time. Christ grows within us as we nurture Him and make room in our stable for Him to live. Eventually, our stable will be made, by our mutual becoming, into a celestial home, but in the meantime, patience and forgiveness!
Today our lesson focuses on not allowing our separate
worlds to conceal the sight of Christ. The world we made is fraught with
difficulties in relationships, trials and tribulations, naughty desires, health
issues, condemnation, neediness, and despair. This world does its best to
intrude upon the holy sights of Christ.
Perception, Jesus teaches, is a mirror, not a fact. When we perceive someone as unfriendly, unworthy, and dishonest, we are only reflecting judgments we cast upon ourselves. Let us bring good cheer to the world by seeing it through the eyes of Love! When we see the world through the eyes of Christ, we can do nothing but forgive and let go of grudges. We forgive our mutual humanity, our separateness, our call for sacrifice and revenge! We are set free.
In today’s prayer, we pray:
You lead us, Father, through the darkness to Light,
from the stable to a celestial home, from thoughts of sin and grubbiness to
purity and sanity. Teach us to forgive, so we can receive Salvation from the
separate, lonely ego-worlds we made. Forgiveness is the gift You give us, Father.
We offer it to Your Sonship – that we may find again the memory of You and our
Selves as You created us – unified and whole in You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
[1] A Course
In Miracles, Workbook for Students, 304. Let not my world obscure…Foundation
for Inner Peace, Second Edition, p. 451
Watch with me, angels, watch with me today. Let all God’s holy Thoughts surround me and
be still with me while Heaven’s Son is born.
Let earthly sounds be quiet, and the sights to which I am accustomed
disappear. Let Christ be welcomed where
He is at home. And let Him hear the
sounds He understands and see but sights that show His Father’s Love. Let Him no longer be a stranger here, for He
is born again in me today.
Your Son is welcome, Father. He has come to save me from the evil self I
made. He is the Self That You have given
me. He is but what I really am in
truth. He is the Son You love above all
things. He is my Self as You created
me. It is not Christ That can be
crucified. Safe in Your Arms let me
receive Your Son.[1]
Angels watch with us today! Today’s illustration was inspired from Tara C.’s post on Facebook last night. There is nothing like a host of angels to capture our imaginations and send them soaring to heavenly heights. The course refers to angels as God’s Holy Thoughts, and these Thoughts surround us and are still while Heaven’s Son is reborn in us. Our lesson today exhorts to let all earthly sounds go mute as we close our eyes to the things we usually look at, for we are welcoming Christ today. This is how He becomes us, and we become Him.
I like to think of the word become in both of its meanings. Christ becomes us. The very idea of Christ makes us beautiful, enhances us, benefits us, becomes us. Where we were dark and sullen, we are now bright and cheery. Where once we despaired of flesh and bone, blood and cartilage; now we have taken heart and filled with hope in the incorruptible. Where once we were full of anger, resentment, and spite, now we are joyful, forgiving, and kind. Where once we could do nothing but meddle, putting our noses where they did not belong, now we can mind our business, releasing our slights and wrongdoings to Holy Spirit. Christ becomes us!
And we become Christ as He becomes us. He becomes us as we make a place for him. Angels watch with us as we prepare a quiet and safe place for Him to abide and grow in us. We nurture His tender and quiet spirit by damping the jarring music of this world and letting our little Christ within hear the exquisite sounds He understands, the songs of love and adoration; the lullabies of peace and joy; the hymns of praise and gratitude for Creation. Just as loving parents of a newborn child, we care for the Jesus within by not partaking of the things that would call us away or distract us from the awesome responsibility that has blessed and fulfilled our deepest longing and given our life a holy purpose. We harbor the Second Coming within us, my brothers.
Let Him be no stranger here!
He has returned within us, born again in me and you. Let us not malnourish Him with the paltry junk
food of this world. Let not our egos
torment Him by mocking His holiness or denying Him His rightful place within
our minds. Let us not amuse ourselves at
His expense. Let us not use Him as a
weapon for defense and attack. Instead, let us cherish our Prince of Peace, and
play the happy games of God, inspiring Creation with love, peace, and joy. For Christ has returned. He is born in us today.
[1] A Course
In Miracles, Workbook for Students, 303. The holy Christ is born…Foundation for
Inner Peace, Second Edition, p. 451
Lesson
302. Where Darkness Was I Look Upon The
Light
Father, our eyes are opening at last. Your holy word awaits us, as our sight is
finally restored, and we can see. We
thought we suffered. But we had forgot
the Son whom You created. Now we see
that darkness is our own imagining, and light is there for us to look
upon. Christ’s vision changes darkness
into light, for fear must disappear when love has come. Let me forgive Your holy world today, that I
may look upon its holiness and understand it but reflects my own.
Our Love awaits us as we go to Him and walks beside us
showing us the way. He fails in
nothing. He the end we seek, and He the
means by which we go to Him.[1]
The goal of A Course in Miracles is to change the way we
look at the world. Where we see a cause
for hatred or revenge, we now maintain our focus on the call for love which is
behind it. When our brother does
something to hurt us, instead of sulking or calling people on the phone to spread
the ill will, we take this as a quiet opportunity to bless and not curse. When the mistakes of our past come up and disturb
our sleep, plaguing us with guilt and shame, we now can look at them as personalized
object lessons designed for our accelerated learning. This is not magic. It is a curriculum, it is a devotion, a
discipline, a practice. It takes time
and effort and dedication. For we have
contented and entertained ourselves with darkness, and now we are looking
beyond the dark shadows to the light. It
does not feel natural or easy.
This world gives us many opportunities to see darkness. We can see the estrangement of a friend or a
family member as depressing, or we can choose to see the break in the
relationship as a time of releasing the special relationship to Holy Spirit for
healing and renewal. We can see the loss
of a treasured material object as an excuse to go on a manhunt for the guilty
culprit, or we can choose to give it up to whomever helped themselves to it and
bless them, trusting God because our true treasure is not in the material
world. We can wallow in post-traumatic
stress syndrome and blame our present and base our future on the things that
happened in the distant past, or we can step with confidence in our present and
see how adversity has made us strong and in place to help others.
This is not a practice for the faint of heart. There are days when the Second Coming seems a
fantasy. We are tempted to forget it, it
requires too much time, energy, faith, trust.
We are not holy and not willing to kid ourselves or each other into believing
we are! Dark is dark and the world is
dark. The news informs of us this every
single day. The vision of Christ seems
out of reach. We must forgive the holy
world in order to see it and understand it reflects our own invisible holiness,
when all we really want to do is squeeze all the enjoyment and pleasure we can
get from this one!
Holy Spirit asks us to take every disturbing instance and use
it to practice looking on the light. It
is so much easier to play tit-for-tat, to murmur and complain, to throw darts, and
to begrudge social slights, but we are asked to forgive it all, look upon the light,
and give every instance to our Teacher, Holy Spirit, to use as learning tools.
It is not impossible! We have Love walking beside us, leading the way, and waiting at the end of our journey. We have each other and the joy of fellowship as we practice seeing through the eyes of Christ. His Love sustains us on our journey and gives us the strength to withstand the temptation to delay ourselves and thus delay the Second Coming. For He will come when we are ready, fully welcoming, and have had our fill of the ego-world.
Let us welcome Him with wide-flung arms and warm
embrace. Let us laugh and dance and sing
for where we stumbled about in confusion and darkness, we now have light.
[1] A Course
In Miracles, Workbook for Students, 302. Where darkness was…Foundation for
Inner Peace, Second Edition, p. 450
Lesson
301. And God Himself Shall Wipe Away All
Tears.
Father, unless I judge I cannot weep. Nor can I suffer pain, or feel I am abandoned
or unneeded in the world. This is my
home because I judge it not and therefore is it only what You will. Let me today behold it uncondemned, through
happy eyes forgiveness has released from all distortion. Let me see Your world instead of mine. And all the tears I shed will be forgotten,
for their source is gone. Father, I will
not judge Your world today.
God’s world is happy.
Those who look on it can only add their joy to it and bless it as a
cause of further joy in them. We wept
because we did not understand. But we
have learned the world we saw was false, and we will look upon God’s world
today.[1]
The less enmeshed we become in this world, the less we feel
the pain of neglect, misunderstanding, and downright spite! Refraining from judgment of ourselves and
others, we can live in a state of happy forgiveness which releases the world
from condemnation. When we pray God’s
Kingdom come, we are asking for God’s everlasting and joyful world instead of
this one. All the ways in which we failed
and the world failed us will hurt us no more as we experience the Second Coming.
When we begin to see this world as false, there is only the Real
World, God’s Kingdom, to embrace. No
longer content with ego world, the Real World comes into view – once only a
hope, now it becomes a reality. Christ
born in us and living through us, makes us one.
Imagine! No more
hidden agendas. No more projecting our
own darkness onto others. No more hurt
feelings, spite, and jealousy. No more
war, violence, disease, and death. We
have nothing to gripe or gossip about! We
bond through our shared joy and add to our joy by blessing instead of cursing,
by loving instead of hating, by giving to receive and receiving to give. Let’s welcome the Second Coming and open our
hearts for His return.
Only misinterpreting the Second Coming, only misunderstanding
God’s Kingdom would have us shrink and cry out in terror, afraid we have not
done enough, afraid we will not make it through, afraid we will be left behind.
Let us forgive this world, and God
Himself shall wipe all tears from our eyes!
[1] A Course
In Miracles, Workbook for Students, 301. And God Himself shall…Foundation for
Inner Peace, Second Edition, p. 450
Christ’s Second Coming, which is as sure as God, is
merely the correction of mistakes, and the return of sanity. It is a part of the condition that restores
the never lost and re-establishes what is forever and forever true. It is the invitation to God’s Word to take
illusion’s place, the willingness to let forgiveness rest upon all things
without exception and without reserve.
It is the all-inclusive nature of Christ’s Second
Coming that permits it to embrace the world and hold you safe within its gentle
advent, which encompasses all living things with you. There is no end to the release the Second
Coming brings, as God’s creation must be limitless. Forgiveness lights the Second Coming’s way
because it shines on everything as one.
And thus is oneness recognized at last.
The Second Coming ends the lessons that the Holy Spirit
teaches, making way for the Last Judgment, in which learning ends in one last
summary that will extend beyond itself, and reaches up to God. The Second Coming is the time in which all
minds are given to the hands of Christ, to be returned to spirit in the name of
true creation and the Will of God.
The Second Coming is the one event in time which time
itself can not affect. For every one who
ever came to die, or yet will come or who is present now, is equally released
from what he made. In this equality is
Christ restored as one Identity, in which the Sons of God acknowledge that they
all are one. And God the Father smiles
upon His Son, His one creation and His only joy.
Pray that the Second Coming will be soon, but do not
rest with that. It needs your eyes and
ears and hands and feet. It needs your
voice. And most of all, it needs your
willingness. Let us rejoice that we can
do God’s Will and join together in its holy light. Behold, the Son of God is one in us, and we
can reach our Father’s Love through Him.[1]
Photo credit: heavenquestions.com
Growing up Pentecostal, the Second Coming of Christ was only a joyous event for the elect of God. As a child I would fearfully study this picture which hung in our living room, identifying more with the poor folks who got left behind than the ones in the spotless robes. One moment they would be grinding flour at the mill, washing dishes at the sink, snapping peas open on the porch and the next off they would go floating up toward Jesus while the sinners who didn’t believe in Christ would be left behind wondering what in the world happened to them.
My beloved mother warned me repeatedly that if I ever came home from school and didn’t find her, she had probably gone up in the Rapture. If I didn’t join her, I had nobody to blame but myself. Hence my panic when I came home from school one day, and she was not there. There was no note explaining her absence, although her station wagon was parked in its usual spot in the driveway. There was her pocketbook beside the bed. There was her mug of tea with the used tea bag perched on the little saucer underneath. There I was, left behind at the mercy of the Antichrist! I would have to find a cave to live in and subsist on wild berries and dandelion leaves, hoping that the Beast didn’t come after me and tattoo the dreaded 666 on my forehead or hand.
My worries were put to rest when she and her friend Lois came breezing in about a half-hour later, clucking over my angst.
Today’s lesson informs us that the Second Coming of Christ is a happy event for all. Merely correction of mistakes and return to sanity, the Second Coming is the willingness to forgive without exception and reserve. No more hard spots toward this one or that one, old crooks and cruel dictators, disloyal friends and dishonest relatives, all mistakes – yours, mine, and ours – all forgiven without reserve. There is no end to the release this forgiveness brings – God’s creation has no limits, there are no barriers, and we are one.
There is no more need for Holy Spirit’s direction because in
one final sweep, we who thought we knew it all, actually do know it all – for
our minds are given to Christ and returned to spirit. Can you imagine? No more guessing, theorizing,
hypothesizing. We know it all.
Time cannot affect the Second Coming. It is going to happen to everyone who came
here to die – whether it was past, present, or future. We are all released from what was made here
to our true Identity, where we recognize that we are one with all of God’s
creation. Dare we believe what our
lesson tells us? We are God’s only joy!
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer – Our Father, Who is in Heaven, Holy is your name. Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven… we are praying the Second Coming. Section Nine urges us to give our eyes and ears, our hands, feet, and voice to the Second Coming, the Kingdom come. But most of all, God’s Kingdom needs our willingness. Let us be happy to do God’s Will, to unite in the light of God’s Kingdom come.
Dear Heavenly Father, We can only give You our
willingness. We offer our eyes and ears,
our hands and feet and voice to You. We pray
for the Second Coming because this world is not and never was our home. We were born homesick for a place and an
Order that does not exist here. Our bodies
have not been and never will be particularly holy, blessed, or divinely
inspired. All we have is our faith in the
Son of God, God’s only joy. He is one in
us, and it is through Him that we reach our Father’s Love. And so we pray God’s Will be done on earth as
it is in Heaven, in time as it is in eternity, in our mortal bodies as it is in
our immortal spirits. In Jesus’
name. Amen.
[1] A Course
In Miracles, Workbook for Students, 9. What is the Second…Foundation for Inner
Peace, Second Edition, p. 449
Lesson
300. Only An Instant Does This World
Endure.
This is the thought which can be used to say that death
and sorrow are the certain lot of all who come here, for their joys are gone
before they are possessed, or even grasped.
Yet this is also the idea that lets no false perception keep us in its
hold, nor represent more than a passing cloud upon a sky eternally serene. And it is this serenity we seek, unclouded,
obvious and sure, today.
We seek Your holy world today. For we, Your loving Sons, have lost our way a
while. But we have listened to Your
Voice and learned exactly what to do to be restored to Heaven and our true Identity. And we give thanks today the world endures
but for an instant. We would go beyond
that tiny instant to eternity.[1]
We have learned in these past ten lessons about the Real World. We know exactly what to do to have Heaven and our true Identity restored to us. Yes, we go through the valley of the shadow of death, but we have no fear for we know it lasts but for an instant. That tiny instant may stretch out for us in time as if it lasted several lifetimes, but our hope is in God’s holy world today.
We are seeking the Voice for God. We are reading our lessons and applying them the best we can to our lives. We are refraining from judging our lapses and the ways in which we cherish unforgiveness in our hearts, and yet we are asking for peace that passes understanding, the love that forgives and overlooks all that it is not.
Today marks 300 days into the year of this Course study. The ideas in the workbook have been hard to believe, but we were not required to believe. Our unbelief is not held against us. Truth is truth and so if the ideas are true, they will work in application; if they are not true, they will not work. Nobody threatens our eternal security by threats of everlasting torment when we find things hard to believe! If there is a Real World where peace and joy and love unite us into the perfect holy Sons of God, then we have decided to go there, to seek it out, to do whatever it takes to go there. When we resist the exercises and find fault with the ideas, we are only required to do one thing – apply the ideas and honestly share with each other our resistance and dismay. There is no Big Cheese who leads us, has all the answers, and commands us to obey. We are on a path of discovery and remembrance. It is a journey without cost and sacrifice, which promises nothing but to show us the way to forgiveness, love, and the everlasting Kingdom of God.
[1] A Course
In Miracles, Workbook for Students, 300. Only an instant does…Foundation for
Inner Peace, Second Edition, p. 448
My holiness is far beyond my own ability to understand
or know. Yet God, my Father, Who created
it, acknowledges my holiness as His. Our
Will, together, understands it. And our
Will, together, knows that it is so.
Father, my holiness is not of me. It is not mine to be destroyed by sin. It is not mine to suffer from attack. Illusions can obscure it, but can not put out
its radiance, nor dim its light. It
stands forever perfect and untouched. In
it are all things healed, for they remain as You created them. And I can know my holiness. For Holiness Itself created me, and I can
know my Source because it is Your Will that You be known.[1]
A word to the wise: When we experience the eternal holiness that abides in us, recognize immediately that there is no fault at all in our inability to understand it or know much about it. It is perfectly fine to just acknowledge it quietly without broadcasting to others who share our human journey.
It is there simply because God is there. We each have a holy spirit because God
created our spirits whole and holy. It
is His Will for our spirit to be holy, and it is our will for our spirits to be
holy. There it is inside of us; we know
that it is so. However, that does not
mean that everybody else knows that this is so.
It is not the nature of this world to grant that what we carry around on
the inside, invisible to everybody else, is our reality. Especially since there is little to no
difference in our outward appearance, manners, or prior experiences to back up
our claims of godliness!
The Bible is full of the most beautiful stories, myths, and parables. I am so grateful for the opportunity to study it, read it, and meditate upon its many lessons.
We discussed Joseph from the book of Genesis this week during our Course study. Although I find the story of Joseph a thrilling one, he could have saved himself a lot of hardship by merely not being a blabbermouth. Life was hard; we will presume that none of the other sons wore fancy threads and swaggered about, spouting forth their dreams, and playing snitch for dad. This had been going on since the boy was a little guy, I imagine. Born in Jacob’s older years, he probably played games with Joseph that he had never had time or inclination to do with the older sons. And the brothers’ dark jealousy, envy, and murderous rage probably stemmed from the likelihood that Joseph would inherit all of their father’s riches, after years of their own hard work and going without. While Joseph naturally enjoyed being the apple of his father’s eyes, did he necessarily have to run and tell dad when the sons of the lesser wives and concubines got into a little mischief? Was it any wonder they plotted to kill him when the young braggart indicated that he that they were all going to bow down to him one day? No matter that one day Joseph would save all their lives and livelihoods; no question that he was destined by God to be an important man that would save Israel, it may have happened in much less torturous paths for all involved if he only could have kept his greatness where it belonged!
Growing up, I was intimately acquainted with someone who
could not keep their holiness where it belonged. Holiness abode in them, placed by God, but it
was not that apparent from the outside.
Instead, we saw boasting and postulating. Holiness was an outward posture that had to
do with appearances and denial of the flesh. It was only natural that others took offense
at attacks on their lack of holiness, and began to find fault, gleefully pointing
out discrepancies between claims of holiness and areas in need of improvement!
I learned such a valuable lesson from this otherwise wise and kind teacher – some things are between you and God. If you are showing off your inner holiness through your body by wearing a particular style of clothing or hairstyle, quoting scripture at people, or reminding others of some great work that God has called you to do – you are going to have a tough row to hoe. If you boast about your godliness on Facebook or use God and His Son as a weapon to remind others of your holiness versus their own spiritual needs, you won’t lose your holiness – it is invulnerable, but you will be despised, and you will have brought this on your self.
Let it be known that any holiness I claim today is not of
me! And that is a good thing because if
it were of me, I would have ruined it by now.
Nobody can attack my holiness because it is not mine. It is God’s holiness, and it is inside of me
and inside of you, whether you want to own it or not. Today’s prayer says that illusions can hide
it, but that nothing can put out or dim its brightness. The holiness that God puts in us stands
forever perfect and invulnerable. All
things are healed because the holiness in me is as God created me. I can know that it is there only because
I trust that God Who is Holiness created me and put it there, and it is His
Will that I know Him and who I really am!
[1] A Course
In Miracles, Workbook for Students, 299. Eternal holiness abides…Foundation for
Inner Peace, Second Edition, p. 448
Lesson
298. I Love You, Father, and I Love Your
Son.
My gratitude permits my love to be accepted without
fear. And thus am I restored to my
Reality at last. All that intruded on my
holy sight, forgiveness takes away. And
I draw near the end of senseless journeys, mad careers, and artificial
values. I accept instead what God
establishes as mine, sure that in that alone, I will be saved; sure that I go
through fear to meet my Love.
Father, I come to You today, because I would not
follow any way but Yours. You are beside
me. Certain is Your way. And I am grateful for Your holy gifts of
certain sanctuary and escape from everything that would obscure my love for
God, my Father, and His holy Son.[1]
Today’s lesson reminds me of Psalm 23: The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…I love You, Father, and I love Your Son. The same cadence and intonation, it brings a peaceful sense of wellbeing to my soul this morning. For I am grateful, and I trust that my love is accepted without a trace of fear. When we come to know God as cherished children who take their parents’ love as their right and privilege, our real Selves are restored to us. There is no fear! We no longer believe the lies of this world, which would lead us to believe that God is a bad-tempered deity who would turn His back upon creation and demand blood and sacrifices to appease Him.
When we forgive the illusions of this world, the walk
through the valley of the shadow of death in which we must travel to reunite
with our Father becomes less hurtful and more joyful. He takes our meaningless journeys, insane
professions, and unhappy relationships we develop for people and things, and
gives us something new, which has been ours from before time began. We put down the separation, and we pick up
the Sonship of God. We content ourselves
no longer with substitutes; we must have the real deal! Nothing will tempt us to delay ourselves, for
we only seek escape from all that would hinder our love and devotion to our
Father and His Son.
The other day I shared with our study group how, for several years, I tried to be an atheist or at least an agnostic. All I knew is that I no longer wanted to spend my life seeking God or trying to please a deity that played hide and seek and other iffy games from me. The God I had learned about in the bible and in the church was not a God that I could love or respect. Streets of gold and gates of pearl did not seem like a good tradeoff for being expected to sing praises to a maker who would blame his creations for their faults, while those who were not among the elect would burn, forever, in a lake of fire. It did not add up! I was no longer willing to support institutions which taught this view. I stopped praying. I stopped reading the bible. I stopped singing hymns. And I stopped pretending that I felt otherwise. But here is the thing. I could not stop loving God! I could not stop loving Jesus. I could not follow any way but God’s because I am His and He is mine.
If you are like me, you, too, have prayed this prayer: “I
cannot find you God in church! I cannot
find you God in the bible. I cannot find
you, God, in my relationships or in my profession. I cannot find You in this doctrine or
that. But here You are inside of me. Loving me and accepting my love. Holding nothing against me because there is
nothing I could ever do or say or become that would change the fact that I am
Yours and You are mine. I love You,
Father, and I love Jesus. I do not know
how to stop loving You. I do not know
how to stop loving Jesus. And for this,
I am grateful now and forever.
Amen.”
[1] A Course
In Miracles, Workbook for Students, 298. I love you Father…Foundation for Inner
Peace, Second Edition, p. 447
Forgiveness is the only gift I give because it is the
only gift I want. And everything I give
I give myself. This is salvation’s
simple formula. And I, who would be
saved, would make it mine, to be the way I live within a world that needs
salvation, and that will be saved as I accept Atonement for myself.
Father, how certain are Your ways; how sure their
final outcome, and how faithfully is every step in my salvation set already and
accomplished by Your grace. Thanks be to
You for Your eternal gifts, and thanks to You for my Identity.[1]
There are times I get a bit peeved with A Course in Miracles – repeating the same lessons, changing the wording a bit here and there, but still the same thing. This morning I caught myself thinking, Boy, am I glad the year in the Course is going to be over soon!Here we go again, another lesson on forgiveness.
While some people find repetition reassuring and calming, I get bored and cranky with it. Tell me something new! Can we go beyond forgiveness, please? But this is mind-training, Holy Spirit reminds me. Any great athlete, writer, scientist, any professional in any kind of field at all, realizes that repetition, practice, and becoming one with the chosen goal is the only way to accomplishment. Of course, I said. Of course. Forgive my ignorance, my arrogance.
I realize that forgiveness is indeed the only gift I give to
receive. Beyond my basic human ego
needs, which are wearyingly multitudinous, forgiveness is all I crave and the
only thing I give to receive. For
example, when I give my brother a few dollars, he is a few dollars richer, and
I have a few dollars less. But when I wrap
up forgiveness and tie it with a pretty bow and offer it to my brother, not
because he is especially evil, but simply because he is in a separated state
from God, I forgive myself for being in the same state. I cannot accept that beautiful package of
forgiveness until I give it to my brother. It is the most loving gift we can offer one
another here in the illusion because it establishes our mutual and true
Identity in God.
As long as I dwell upon the lies, spite, greed, mockery,
inhospitality, meanness, crude unmannerly ways, and general lack of goodness in
my fellow human beings, I am not only denying their Sonship, but refusing to
recognize my Self as the Son of God I was created to be. Whether the brother I offer forgiveness to
accepts it or not, when I give it to him, it is mine! He cannot snatch it out of my hand and refuse
to reciprocate. He cannot refuse to
acknowledge it and toss it aside. When I
recognize him as a Son of God and forgive the role that he plays in the ego in
this realm, we are both forgiven. For
him to keep it, he offers it as well.
In today’s lesson, we learn how to live in a world that
needs salvation. Silver and gold do not
compare, roses and diamonds are not going to cut it – forgiveness is the only
gift we give. Within my circle of holy
relationships, a brother is despised by his family for past wrongdoings. Nothing he does to make up for those
unfortunate events changes their attitude toward him. Holy Spirit asks us to release this kind of
relationship to Him. This is not a
sacrifice, for our Heavenly Father seeks not to be appeased. We simply recognize the true nature of the
special relationship, which withholds forgiveness and cherishes grudges. We cannot heal them, but Holy Spirit promises
to do just that when we give the gift of forgiveness and move on!
Dear Heavenly Father: Let me not grow tired of my lessons
in forgiveness, for they teach me how to live in this world that needs
salvation. Let my heart and mind learn
that Love seeks Love – Love does not seek spite and grudges and
resentments. Love seeks Love – Love does
not exist in the vacuum of ego alliances that would use the past to project
unto the present and future. Love seeks
Love – Love does not exist in the dishonesty of building cases against another
and forming sides. Love creates union,
love overlooks, love understands. Let forgiveness
shine out through me and give itself to all, for mercy is the closest that we
come to love in this ego world. In
Jesus’ name. Amen.
[1] A Course
In Miracles, Workbook for Students, 297. Forgiveness is the only…Foundation for
Inner Peace, Second Edition, p. 447
Lesson
296. The Holy Spirit Speaks Through Me
Today
The Holy Spirit needs my voice today that all the
world may listen to Your Voice, and hear Your Word through me. I am resolved to let You speak through me,
for I would use no words but Yours, and have no thoughts which are apart from
Yours, for only Yours are true. I would
be savior to the world I made. For
having damned it, I would set it free, that I may find escape, and hear the
Word Your holy Voice will speak to me today.
We teach today what we would learn, and that
alone. And so our learning goal becomes
an unconflicted one, and possible of easy reach and quick accomplishment. How gladly does the Holy Spirit come to
rescue us from hell, when we allow His teaching to persuade the world through
us to seek and find the easy path to God.[1]
It is a privilege and pleasure to give my voice to Holy Spirit today and share our lesson today so that others may hear God’s Word through me. I have determined in my heart that the Voice of Love will speak through me because I do not want any other words but those that come from God. Just as our lesson today reads, I want no thoughts but the thoughts of God because the thoughts of God are the only thoughts that are true and everlasting! I will do my part in the salvation of the world I made up, the stories that I told myself about this world, the world that I see through ego’s eyes, which would curse the world and give it up as hopeless cause. I would rather set the world free so that I can escape and hear God’s Voice today.
Our lesson stresses that we teach today, what we would
learn, and only that. This morning as I
opened up mind and heart to the leading of Holy Spirit, I found myself
strangely resistant to the conversational tone which Holy Spirit was using with
me. He was talking to me as a friend, telling
me about my body – what foods were best for my body, how and when I should
exercise, and what amount of time and effort to put into it. I felt puzzled and a bit bewildered by this
interest in my physical form. Still, Holy Spirit assured me that though I
certainly am not my body, my body does have specific requirements, and it would
be a shame and bring me sorrow and unnecessary pain to avoid taking care of it
in simple yet specific ways. I caught
myself avoiding the holy advice, distracting myself, shaking it off until I
realized the enormity of what was happening.
Holy Spirit was giving me insider information. He was telling me how to be healthy. I did not have to make an appointment with a
health professional, buy a subscription to Prevention magazine, or visit www.medhealth.com. Holy Spirit, who knows me better than I know
myself was telling me, in a friendly, familiar, and calm Voice how to be my
best form here in the world. It wasn’t
some pie in the sky advice for my eternal spirit, but highly personalized intelligence
for the here and now. And so I listened,
and I made a point to write it down and plan to follow it. Holy Spirit showed me that planning with Him
is not the waste of time that other plans typically end of being given the contrariness
of the ego and world.
When we plan with Holy Spirit, we are committing ourselves
to our holy function. Fulfilling our
spiritual service gives our earthly existence depth and meaning that are
otherwise lost to us as we live dishonest, showcase lives clamoring for the
world’s approval. Holy Spirit is only
too happy to save us from this hellish state, when we listen to His Voice and
share His Message, helping others to find our way home to God.
[1] A Course
In Miracles, Workbook for Students, 295. The Holy Spirit looks…Foundation for
Inner Peace, Second Edition, p. 446
