Day 186

Today's Lesson:

Salvation of the world depends on me.

Here is the statement that will one day take all arrogance away from every mind. Here is the thoughts of true humility, which holds no function as our own but that which has been given us. It offers our acceptance of a part assigned to us, without insisting on another role. It does not judge our proper role. It but acknowledges the Will of God is done on earth as well as Heaven. It unites all wills on earth in Heaven's plan to save the world, restoring it to Heaven's peace.

Let us not fight our function. We did not establish it. It is not our idea. The means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. All that we are asked to do is to accept our part in genuine humility, and not deny with self-deceiving arrogance that we are worthy. What is give us to do, we have the strength to do. Our minds are suited perfectly to take the part assigned to us by One Who knows us well.

Today's idea may seem quite sobering, until we see its meaning. All it says is that our Father still remembers us, and offers us the perfect trust He holds in we who are His Sons. It does not ask that we be different in any way from what we are. What could humility request but this? And what could arrogance deny but this? Today we will not shrink from our assignment on the specious grounds that modesty is outraged. It is pride that would deny the Call for God Himself.

All false humility we lay aside today, that we may listen to God's Voice reveal to us what He would have us do. We do not doubt our adequacy for the function He will offer us. We will be certain only that He knows our strengths, our wisdom and our holiness. And if He deems us worthy, so we are. It is but arrogance that judges otherwise.

There is one way, and only one, to be released from the imprisonment our plan to prove the false is true has brought to us. Accept the plan we did not make instead. Judge not our value to it. If God's Voice assures us that salvation needs our part, and that the whole depends on us, be sure that it is so. The arrogant must cling to words, afraid to go beyond them to experience which might affront their stance. Yet are the humble free to hear the Voice which tells them what they are, and what to do.

Arrogance makes an image of ourselves that is not real. It is this image which quails and retreats in terror, as the Voice for God assures us that we have the strength, the wisdom and the holiness to go beyond all images. We are not weak, as is the image of ourselves. We are not ignorant and helpless. Sin can not tarnish the truth in us, and misery can come not near the holy home of God.

All this the Voice for God relates to us. And as He speaks, the image trembles and seeks to attack the threat it does not know, sensing its basis crumble. Let it go. Salvation of the world depends on each of us, and not upon this little pile of dust. What can it tell the holy Son of God? Why need he be concerned with it at all?

As so we find our peace. We will accept the function God has given us, for all illusions rest upon the weird belief that we can make another for ourselves. Our self-made roles are shifting, and they seem to change from mourner to ecstatic bliss of love and loving. We can laugh or weep, and greet the day with welcome or with tears. Our very being seems to change as we experience a thousand shifts in mood, and our emotions raise us high indeed, or dash us to the ground in hopelessness.

Is this the Son of God? Could He create such instability and call it Son? He Who is changeless shares His attributes with His creation. All the images His Son appears to make have no effect on what he is. They blow across his mind like wind-swept leaves that form a patterning an instant, break apart to group again, and scamper off. Or like mirages seen above a desert, rising from the dust.

These unsubstantial images will go, and leave our minds unclouded and serene, when we accept the function given us. The images we make give rise to but conflicting goals, impermanent and vague, uncertain and ambiguous. Who could be constant in his efforts, or direct his energies and concentrated drive toward goals like these? The functions which the world esteems are so uncertain that they change ten times an hour at their most secure. What hope of gain can rest on goals like this?

In lovely contrast, certain as the sun's return each morning to dispel the night, our truly given function stands our clear and wholly unambiguous. There is no doubt of its validity. It comes from One Who knows no error, and His Voice is certain of Its messages. They will not change, nor be in conflict. All of them point to one goal, and one we can attain. Our plan may be impossible, but God's can never fail because He is its Source.

Do as God's Voice directs. And if It asks a thing of us which seems impossible, remember Who it is that asks, and who would make denial. Then consider this; which is more likely to be right? The Voice that speaks for the Creator of all things, Who knows all things exactly as they are, or a distorted image of ourselves, confused, bewildered, inconsistent and unsure of everything? Let not its voice direct us. Hear instead a certain Voice, which tells us of a function given us by our Creator Who remembers us, and urges that we now remember Him.

His gentle Voice is calling from the known to the unknowing. He would comfort us, although He knows no sorrow. He would make a restitution, though He is complete; a gift to us, although He knows that we have everything already. He has Thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives, although He sees them not. For Love must give, and what is given in His Name takes on the form most useful in a world of form.

These are the forms which never can deceive, because they come from Formlessness Itself. Forgiveness is an earthly form of love, which as it is in Heaven has no form. Yet what is needed here is given here as it is needed. In this form we can fulfill our function even here, although what love will mean to us when formlessness has been restored to us is greater still. Salvation of the world depends on us who can forgive. Such is our function here.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I finished a book yesterday called Cinderella on the Couch, which was written by Chris Linnares, who is one of my fellow Course members here in Fargo. It's a whole lot of wisdom disguised as a cute novel. One of the lines I remember because it was repeated several times in the story was forgiveness is not about forgetting. It is about creating the opportunity to write a new story. I really like that. My old version of forgiveness, and the one that the dictionary uses, is about excusing a mistake or offense. There is judgment involved. It implies that if I forgive someone - including myself - that means that I had to judge that some wrong was committed, and there is usually guilt involved.

Today's lesson says the salvation of the world depends on us who can forgive. That means forgive ourselves as well. Forgive ourselves for what we have done and what we haven't done. It's simply a chance to write a new story - to start over fresh. To get beyond our own arrogance that would tell us we're not worthy (that's my old story).

Dick Richards was here in Fargo last week and helped us name our individual geniuses. We did a guided meditation which allowed us to connect with that genius and find out that name. What I got from that exercise was similar to what I've gotten in two other guided meditation exercises I've done in the past year. It was simply "I am." I am worthy. I am enough. I am and that's all I need to be.

Who am I to doubt what God has created me to be? As I get clearer on my genius and my purpose, it becomes more comfortable to step into that power and be who I was created to be.

My next goal is to write out my goal - and be very clear about what I want to accomplish. With that I am - I am unstoppable!