Day 99

Today's Lesson:

Salvation is my only function here.

Today's idea reminds us that our illusions that something is wrong and needs to be corrected are not real. This produces a conflict within us between what is (we are perfect and have no need for correction) and what could never be (we are "sinful and unclean").

The mind that sees illusions thinks them real. They have existence in that they are thoughts. And yet they are not real, because the mind that thinks these thoughts is separate from God.

The Holy Spirit holds the plan of God exactly as it was received of Him within the Mind of God and in our own. It is apart from time in that its Source is timeless. But it operates in time because we believe time is real. No matter what we think, the Holy Spirit knows that God is Love, and our unreal thoughts are not His Will.

Salvation and forgiveness are our function, with the One to Whom the plan was given. As we repeat today's lesson to ourselves, we are to try to perceive the strength in what we say, for these are words in which our freedom lies. The world of pain is not God's Will. We need only forgive ourselves and remember that the Holy Spirit will replace all our mistaken thoughts. Forgive any thoughts which oppose the truth of our completion, unity and peace. We have no function that is not of God.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I'm reminded today of a class I attended last fall where the topic was the Law of Attraction. We were talking about how you attract into your space everything that seems to happen "to" you by the energy of your thoughts. It might not be the exact outcome you are thinking of, but the energy of your thoughts will match the energy of the outcome.

One young woman had recently suffered the murder of one of her friends. She was struggling with how she had attracted that to her. The teacher was very clear to distinguish for this woman that it was not her fault that her friend had been killed. She did not attract that specific incident in any way. Her belief system was such that she believed that there were some things in the world that were "bad" and "bad" things happen to people. The teacher said that she may have attracted into her space people to whom "bad" things had to happen, but she in no way "caused" that tragedy.

What I remember most about this incident was how comforting it was to that woman to realize that she need only understand that nothing is "good" or "bad" - it is our judgment that says one thing or the other. Today we learn that salvation and forgiveness are the same - they both imply that something has gone wrong or something needs to be saved from, forgiven for; something amiss that need correction; something apart from the Will of God. They seem to say that we believe something could be "bad" in the world and need to forgive.

What if there were no "right" or "wrong," "good" or "bad," there was just what works and what doesn't? How might we get back to remembering that all is well and nothing needs forgiving because it just is?

It reminds me of a song one of the quartets in our region sings called "It Is Well With My Soul." This quartet sang this song at our chorus show a couple of weeks ago. If you're not familiar with it, it is an old hymn written by Horatio Spafford in the 1800s. Here are some of the words:

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to know,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

This hymn was writ­ten af­ter two ma­jor trau­mas in Spaf­ford’s life. The first was the great Chi­ca­go Fire of Oc­to­ber 1871, which ru­ined him fi­nan­cial­ly (he had been a weal­thy bus­i­ness­man). Short­ly af­ter, while cross­ing the At­lan­tic, all four of Spaf­ford’s daugh­ters died in a col­li­sion with an­o­ther ship. Spaf­ford’s wife Anna sur­vived and sent him the now fa­mous tel­e­gram, “Saved alone.” Sev­er­al weeks lat­er, as Spaf­ford’s own ship passed near the spot where his daugh­ters died, the Ho­ly Spir­it in­spired these words. They speak to the eter­nal hope that all be­liev­ers have, no mat­ter what pain and grief be­fall them on earth (From answers.com).

This reminds me that no matter what happens in the time and space and illusion that is this world, salvation or forgiveness is my only function here. It is not for me to correct or to complain or to bemoan my fate. It is only to forgive - myself and others - for my perception of "right" and "wrong." What a great place to be!