PART II. SECTION 4: WHAT IS SIN?
Lesson 256 God Is The Only Goal I Have Today
- The way to God is through forgiveness here. There is no other way. If sin had not been cherished by the mind, what need would there have been to find the way to where you are? Who would still be uncertain? Who could be unsure of who he is? And who would yet remain asleep, in heavy clouds of doubt about the holiness of him whom God created sinless? Here we can but dream. But we can dream we have forgiven him in whom all sin remains impossible, and it is this we choose to dream today. God is our goal; forgiveness is the means by which our minds return to Him at last.
- And so, our Father, would we come to You in Your appointed way. We have no goal except to hear Your Voice and find the way Your sacred Word has pointed out to us.[1]
Notes and Personal Application: Forgiveness means we put this whole human experience in its proper perspective. We realize it is a dream of sin and shame. We forgive all the participants in its unworthy version of Creation. We no longer cherish our wounds and sustain ourselves on the blood and flesh of Creation. We no longer doubt our holiness and our worthiness in God.
Jesus tells us today that all we can do in this realm is dream, and yet we choose our dreams. We forgive our fellow creatures for their part in the dream which separates us from our reality in God. We forgive those who taught us to find our identity in our bodies, in our gender, in our intellect, and in our preferences. We forgive those who lied to us and taught us to fear God instead of love Him. We forgive those who wrote words of hatred and favoritism and called them holy. We forgive our neighbor for not sharing our political and religious beliefs, we forgive our fellows for corrupting themselves and others with unwholesome practices. We forgive God for He seems to have abandoned us in this god-forsaken territory.
We choose to dream of forgiveness because we choose to see this illusion for what it is – a counter creation, a twisted version, a stolen, turned upside down and inside out copy of all that is real, alive, and awake.
To make God our goal, we must choose forgiveness. This is our way to Him. We must have no other goal before us; we must choose no other god to take His place. We must take Him at His Word.
Dear God: Today we soften our minds and thoughts with forgiveness. Today our minds and hearts reflect Your love. Laying down our dreams of sin, shame, and separation, we dream of forgiveness because we are as You created us, sinless – without the mark of beastliness, depravity, and death. Our only aim is to find our way to You, and it is with forgiveness we walk the path to make our way home. Make this real in our minds and hearts today. Let us not be deceived by the world. Let not temptation keep us from our journey another day. In the name of Jesus, with Whom we are one, Amen.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 256. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
Audio credit: the friar patch @ http://www.eckiefriar.com
the friar patch 