Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now
Lesson 73 I Will There Be Light
- Today we are considering the will you share with God. This is not the same as the ego’s idle wishes, out of which darkness and nothingness arise. The will you share with God has all the power of creation in it. The ego’s idle wishes are unshared, and therefore have no power at all. Its wishes are not idle in the sense that they can make a world of illusions in which your belief can be very strong. But they are idle indeed in terms of creation. They make nothing that is real.
- Idle wishes and grievances are partners or co-makers in picturing the world you see. The wishes of the ego gave rise to it, and the ego’s need for grievances, which are necessary to maintain it, peoples it with figures that seem to attack you and call for “righteous” judgment. These figures become the middlemen the ego employs to traffic in grievances. They stand between your awareness and your brothers’ reality. Beholding them, you do not know your brothers or your Self.
- Your will is lost to you in this strange bartering, in which guilt is traded back and forth, and grievances increase with each exchange. Can such a world have been created by the Will the Son of God shares with his Father? Did God create disaster for His Son? Creation is the Will of Both together. Would God create a world that kills Himself?
- Today we will try once more to reach the world that is in accordance with your will. The light is in it because it does not oppose the Will of God. It is not Heaven, but the light of Heaven shines on it. Darkness has vanished. The ego’s idle wishes have been withdrawn. Yet the light that shines upon this world reflects your will, and so it must be in you that we will look for it.
- Your picture of the world can only mirror what is within. The source of neither light nor darkness can be found without. Grievances darken your mind, and you look out on a darkened world. Forgiveness lifts the darkness, reasserts your will, and lets you look upon a world of light. We have repeatedly emphasized that the barrier of grievances is easily passed and cannot stand between you and your salvation. The reason is very simple. Do you really want to be in hell? Do you really want to weep and suffer and die?
- Forget the egos arguments which seek to prove all this is really Heaven. You know it is not so. You cannot want this for yourself. There is a point beyond which illusions cannot go. Suffering is not happiness, and it is happiness you really want. Such is your will in truth. And so salvation is your will as well. You want to succeed in what we are trying to do today. We undertake it with your blessing and your glad accord.
- We will succeed today if you remember that you want salvation for yourself. You want to accept God’s plan because you share in it. You have no will that can really oppose it, and you do not want to do so. Salvation is for you. Above all else, you want the freedom to remember who you really are. Today it is the ego that stands powerless before your will. Your will is free, and nothing can prevail against it.
- Therefore, we undertake the exercises for today in happy confidence, certain that we will find what it is your will to find and remember what it is your will to remember. No idle wishes can detain us, nor deceive us with an illusion of strength. Today let your will be done and end forever the insane belief that it is hell in place of Heaven that you choose.
- We will begin our longer practice periods with the recognition that God’s plan for salvation, and only His, is wholly in accord with your will. It is not the purpose of an alien power, thrust upon you unwillingly. It is the one purpose here on which you and your Father are in perfect accord. You will succeed today, the time appointed for the release of the Son of God from hell and from all idle wishes. His will is now restored to his awareness. He is willing this very day to look upon the light in him and be saved.
- After reminding yourself of this, and determining to keep your will clearly in mind, tell yourself with gentle firmness and quiet certainty: “I will there be light. Let me behold the light that reflects God’s will and mine.” Then let your will assert itself, joined with the power of God and united with your Self. Put the rest of the practice period under Their guidance. Join with Them as They lead the way.
- In the shorter practice periods, again make a declaration of what you really want. Say: “I will there be light. Darkness is not my will.” This should be repeated several times an hour. It is most important, however, to apply today’s idea in this form immediately when you are tempted to hold a grievance of any kind. This will help you let your grievances go, instead of cherishing them and hiding them in darkness.[1]
Notes and Personal Application (2020): Yesterday morning when we had this devotional, both of us were astounded by its message. It was no surprise to either of us why I had not written any personal notes last year. The day’s lesson says it all. When we are faced with darkness – whether it is our own or seems to be that of another – we no longer engage in cherishing, harboring, or trafficking grievances. We will there be light. We stand with God. We are the light of the world.
This morning I had a terrible nightmare. I woke up around 2:00 a.m. unable to go back to sleep. The nightmare continued to haunt me – and I felt that old, familiar despair over the world. My mind seemed full of the ways in which we prey upon one another. I got up and left our granddog out to pee. I took a pee. I washed my face with warm water. I drank a glass of water. I went back to bed. I kept thinking about the nightmare where young boys were being harshly used and abused instead of loved and cherished. They were telling their stories and while they told their stories, the scenes had seemed to come to life inside of me, making their suffering my suffering – as if all they were recalling was happening to me and through me. My mind drifted to victims of child sexual abuse, pornography, human trafficking and neglect. Darkness seemed to fill my mind. And then I remembered! I will there be light. I will not that my will be lost to me in this strange bartering, in which guilt is traded back and forth and grievances increase with each exchange. I will there be light. I am the light of the world. I stand with God. When I forgive the darkness it is lifted, my will of light is reasserted, and the world is full of light because with God, I am the light of the world.
When we stand with God, we bring light to the world. Instead of cherishing thoughts of wickedness, despair, vengeance, and ill will, we let them go with forgiveness. We will there be light. We use our holy minds to bring light because darkness is not our will with God.
The nightmare that troubled my sleep and drove me from my bed can only be a light to me when I forgive it. When I forgive the nightmare, I say, The things that happen here cannot stand between me and my salvation. The nightmare I had makes this very simple. I do not want to be in hell. I don’t want our boys and girls to be in hell. I do not want to see anyone weep and suffer and die. I want nothing to do with darkness. I will there be light. God did not create this nightmare world where we prey upon one another and tear each other’s flesh. Today, our lesson states in paragraph 9, sentence 4, is the time appointed for the Son of God to be released from hell and all idle wishes!
When troubled thoughts and anguished terrors would prey upon our minds, it is the ego trying to convince us that there is no hope, that we are in a pit of despair and this is our only lot. We are called to transform these troubles into light by making strong declarations about what we really want. We can say: “I will there be light. Darkness is not my will.” Whatever we do, we must let all cause for grievances go. Jesus tells us not to cherish our grievances by mulling over them in our mind, trying to figure out where they came from, how to seek justice, or fall into despair. Jesus also tells us not to hide them in darkness. We kid nobody when we claim that we have no grievances – as long as we are in a body, we are bound by the ego. We will have all kinds of grievances. We call them out by saying, “I will there be light. Darkness is not my will.” To my old nightmare of despair and sorrow, I say, “I will there be light. Let me behold the light that reflects God’s Will and mine. This world of violence and abuse is a miscreation that will not obstruct the light of God within me. I join with my true and everlasting Self who joins with God and I will let Them lead the way.”
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 73 I will there…Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). pp. 127-129.
the friar patch 