Day 193

Today's Lesson:

All things are lessons God would have me learn.

God does not know of learning. Yet His Will extends to what He does not understand, in that He wills the happiness His Son inherited of Him be undisturbed; eternal and forever gaining scope, eternally expanding in the joy of full creation, and eternally open and wholly limitless in Him. That is His Will. And thus His Will provides the means to guarantee that it is done.

God sees no contradictions. Yet His Son believes he sees them. Thus he has a need for One Who can correct his erring sight, and give him vision that will lead him back to where perception ceases. God does not perceive at all. Yet it is He Who gives the means by which perception is made true and beautiful enough to let the light of Heaven shine upon it. It is He Who answers what His Son would contradict, and keeps his sinlessness forever safe.

These are the lessons God would have us learn. His Will reflects them all, and they reflect His loving kindness to the Son He loves. Each lesson has a central thought, the same in all of them. The form alone is changed, with different circumstances and events; with different characters and different themes, apparent but not real. They are the same in fundamental content. It is this:

Forgive, and you will see this differently.

Certain it is that all distress does not appear to be but unforgiveness. Yet that is the content underneath the form. It is this sameness which makes learning sure, because the lesson is so simple that it cannot be rejected in the end. No one can hide forever from a truth so very obvious that it appears in countless forms, and yet is recognized as easily in all of them, if one but wants to see the simple lesson there.

Forgive, and you will see this differently.

These are the words the Holy Spirit speaks in all our tribulations, all our pain, all suffering regardless of its form. These are the words with which temptation ends, and guilt, abandoned, is revered no more. These are the words which end the dream of sin, and rid the mind of fear. These are the words by which salvation comes to all the world.

Shall we not learn to say these words when we are tempted to believe that pain is real, and death becomes our choice instead of life? Shall we not learn to say these words when we have understood their power to release all minds from bondage? These are words which give us power over all events that seem to have been given power over us. We see them rightly when we hold these words in full awareness, and do not forget these words apply to everything we see or any brother looks upon amiss.

How can we tell when we are seeing wrong, or someone else is failing to perceive the lesson he should learn? Does pain seem real in the perception? If it does, be sure the lesson is not learned. And there remains an unforgiveness hiding in the mind that sees the pain through eyes the mind directs.

God would not have us suffer thus. He would help us forgive ourselves. His Son does not remember who he is. And God would have him not forget His Love, and all the gifts His Love brings with it. Would we now renounce our own salvation? Would we fail to learn the simple lessons Heaven's Teacher sets before us, that all pain may disappear and God may be remembered by His Son?

All things are lessons God would have us learn. He would not leave an unforgiving thought without correction, nor one thorn or nail to hurt His holy Son in any way. He would ensure his holy rest remain untroubled and serene, without a care, in an eternal home which cares for him. And He would have all tears be wiped away, with none remaining yet unshed, and none but waiting their appointed time to fall. For God has willed that laughter should replace each one, and that His Son be free again.

We will attempt today to overcome a thousand seeming obstacles to peace in just one day. Let mercy come to us more quickly. Do not try to hold it off another day, another minute or another instant. Time was made for this. Use it today for what its purpose is. Morning and night, devote what time we can to serve its proper aim, and do not let the time be less than meets our deepest need.

Give all we can, and give a little more. For now we would arise in haste and go unto our Father's house. We have been gone too long, and we would linger here no more. And as we practice, let us think about all things we saved to settle by ourselves, and kept apart from healing. Let us give them all to Him Who knows the way to look upon them so that they will disappear. Truth is His message; truth His teaching is. His are the lessons God would have us learn.

Each hour, spend a little time today, and in the days to come, in practicing the lesson in forgiveness in the form established for the day. And try to give it application to the happenings the hour brought, so that the next one is free of the one before. The chains of time are easily unloosened in this way. Let no one hour cast its shadow on the one that follows, and when that one goes, let everything that happened in its course go with it. Thus will we remain unbound, in peace eternal in the world of time.

This is the lesson God would have us learn: There is a way to look on everything that lets it be to us another step to Him, and to salvation of the world. To all that speaks of terror, answer thus:

I will forgive, and this will disappear.

To every apprehension, every care and every form of suffering, repeat these selfsame words. And then we hold the key that opens Heaven's gate, and brings the Love of God the Father down to earth at last, to raise it up to Heaven. God will take this final step Himself. Do not deny the little steps He asks us take to Him.

Miracles I'm noticing:

This is such a little request God has of us! All we need to do is to let go of the past - let go of whatever we're worrying about or fretting over and let Him do the part he has guaranteed us He will do. Why is it that we insist on worrying and stressing and obsessing about things that have already happened or haven't yet happened (and most likely won't happen, at least in the way or to the degree our minds make up that they will)?

I spent the entire month of June without taking in any income (and I spent plenty on training and certification and Bock's Office-sponsored events). It would be really easy for me to worry about that lack of income and stress and obsess (and, I must admit, I have had my moments). But all that does is 1) prevent me from being in the moment and being the most effective I can be in the moment and 2) tie me to my ego at the expense of my Spirit.

All we're asked to do in today's lesson is forgive - "give before" - or say "thank you FOR GIVING this to me so that I might learn something." I am here on this earth at this time and place simply to learn. I teach what I most need to learn. Everything is about learning and preparing and evolving and moving beyond and letting go and being awake and expanding capacity. That's very exciting to me. If I were stressed about the past or worried about the future, I could never be my most effective self in the present. Forgive and I will see this differently. That's it!

The deep breath I just took and the cleansing I just felt are truly the only miracle I need today. (I'll remember this as I'm sitting in the dentist's chair today for 3 hours getting two new crowns!)