Day 155

Today's Lesson:

I will step back and let Him lead the way.

There is a way of living in the world that is not here, although it seems to be. you do not change appearance, though you smile more frequently. Your forehead is serene; your eyes are quiet.
And the ones who walk the world as you do recognize their own. yet those who have not yet perceived the way will recognize you also, and believe that you are like them, as you were before.

The world is an illusion. Those who choose to come to it are seeking for a place where they can be illusions, and avoid their own reality. Yet when they find their own reality is even here, then they step back and let it lead the way. What other choice is really theirs to make? To let illusions walk ahead of truth is madness. But to let illusion sink behind the truth and let the truth stand forth as what it is, is merely sanity.

This is the simple choice we make today. The mad illusion will remain awhile in evidence, for those to look upon who chose to come, and have not yet rejoiced to find they were mistaken in their choice. They cannot learn directly from the truth, because they have denied that it is so. And so they need a Teacher Who perceives their madness, but Who still can look beyond illusion to the simple truth in them.

Although there may seem to be other roads, all roads will lead past illusion to the truth. For sacrifice and deprivation are paths that lead nowhere, choices for defeat, and aims that will remain impossible. All this steps back as truth comes forth in you, to lead your brothers from the ways of death, and set them on the way to happiness. Their suffering is but illusion. Yet they need a guide to lead them out of it, for they mistake illusion for the truth.

Truth will light up the path of ransom from illusion. There is no cost, but only gain. Illusion can but seem to hold in chains the holy Son of God. It is but from illusions he is saved.

Walk safely now, yet carefully, because this path is new to you. And you may find that you are tempted still to walk ahead of truth, and let illusions be your guide. Your holy brothers have been given you, to follow in your footsteps as you walk with certainty of purpose to the truth. It goes before you now, that they may see something with which they can identify; something they understand to lead the way.

Our feet are safely set upon the road that leads the world to God. Look not to ways that seem to lead us elsewhere. His trust has made our pathway certain and our goal secure. We will not fail our brothers nor our Selves.

And now He asks but that we think of Him a while each day, that He may speak to us and tell us of His Love, reminding us how great His trust; how limitless His Love. In our Name and His Own, which are the same, we practice gladly with this thought today:

I will step back and let Him lead the way,
For I would walk along the road to Him.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I'm thinking today of a situation I encountered earlier this week regarding my radio show. Each week I plan a theme, and find music to support that theme. Usually I do a keyword search using Rhapsody, and I buy whatever music fits the theme of the week. Since I play 10-11 songs each week and usually end up buying 5 of those song, each week the cost is around $5. Not a big deal, but it can add up after a while.

Since we are a volunteer organization (it's a campus radio station) and we actually pay a monthly fee to be able to have the weekly show, it turns out that the investment is around $40/month.

One of the station managers mentioned in an e-mail that he would like to show me some of the music that they have in studio (it's mostly new and local artists you will never hear on any other local station). He said that while he respects our choice of music, a lot of it can be or has been heard on other stations and he would like to introduce new music into our shows as well.

Well, I had all kinds of reasons why I shouldn't have to do that. I don't hear any of my music on local stations - probably because I haven't listened to any local stations since I got my XM radio. I suppose my music isn't new - some of it has been around since the '40s - but it's new to many people.

Anyway, it occurred to me that the reason I struggled with this more than usual is because it is forcing me to take a stand. Usually I walk a fine line between "sides" and really am pretty open to new ideas and new suggestions, sometimes at the expense of my own ideas. On this issue, however, I'm pretty firm. And, in thinking this over, I decided that it's OK to have my own ideas. That doesn't mean I reject anyone else for having ideas, it just means that sometimes I have to really decide what I stand for.

So for me that was a great reminder that just because I choose something doesn't mean I am rejecting the other thing for someone else. Today's text talks about the decision for guiltlessness. Just because I choose guiltlessness doesn't have to mean that I make people wrong who choose guilt.

The text says that no penalty is ever asked of God's Son except by himself and of himself. Every chance given him to heal is another opportunity to replace darkness with light and fear with love. If he refuses it he binds himself to darkness, because he did not choose to free his brother and enter light with him. By giving power to nothing, he throws away the joyous opportunity to learn that nothing has no power.

The text says that guiltlessness is invulnerability. Therefore, make your invulnerability manifest to everyone. Teach him that, whatever he may try to do to you, your perfect freedom from the belief that you can be harmed shows him that he is guiltless. He can do nothing that can hurt you, and by refusing to allow him to think he can, you teach him that the Atonement, which you have accepted for yourself, is also his. There is nothing to forgive. No one can hurt the Son of God. His guilt is wholly without cause, and being without cause, cannot exist.

We are all Sons of God, whether we know it or choose it or not. So our outcome is secure. Choosing love over fear and the Atonement over guilt is surely a miracle and the radio story showed me that I can choose love over resentment (it wasn't a big enough deal to get upset about anyway! :) )